Stop scrubbing your cast iron with soap every time you cook

I see way too many people in cooking groups online reaching for the dawn soap after every single meal. Youre stripping all that careful seasoning off for nothing. Unless you cooked something super greasy or burnt, just use hot water and a stiff brush then dry it on the stove for a minute. Has anyone else noticed how much better their pan gets when they lay off the soap?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_shah1mo agoMost Upvoted

You mentioned "stripping all that careful seasoning off for nothing" and that's the part I gotta push back on a little. A lot of the modern liquid soaps, like Dawn, are actually pretty mild and won't strip seasoning unless you're scrubbing hard with a green pad or soaking the pan for a long time. I've been using a tiny bit of soap on my pans after cooking bacon or fish for years and my seasoning is still solid and black. The real issue is people scrubbing with steel wool or those abrasive scrubbers every time, not the soap itself. Hot water and a brush is fine for most stuff, but a little soap won't ruin your pan if you use it right.

jana_davis901mo ago

Yeah, I get what you're saying about modern soap being way milder than the old lye based stuff. But man, @kevin_bailey calling you out on bacon makes me laugh because I'm the same way. I mean, I'm so paranoid about ruining my pans that I probably treat them like a newborn baby. I once accidentally left a pan on the stove too long and burned off a patch of seasoning, and I felt like I'd personally offended my grandmother's ghost. So I get where Kevin is coming from with the skepticism. Still, I think you're right that a tiny drop of Dawn isn't going to wreck years of work, unless you're out there scrubbing like you're trying to get a stain out of concrete. Maybe I'm just a little clumsy, but I've definitely over-soaped a pan before and had to reseason it.

kevin_bailey1mo ago

Wait, hold up. You said you use soap after cooking bacon and fish? Like, every single time? Bro, bacon leaves so much grease that's like liquid gold for seasoning. I never use soap after bacon, just a scrape and a wipe. You're telling me your seasoning holds up through that? I gotta call bull on that one, sorry. I tried using a tiny drop of soap on my pan once after some scrambled eggs and the next batch stuck like crazy. Maybe your stove runs different or you got some magic pan.