Pro tip: stop washing your cast iron with soap and thinking it's fine

I grill up bacon almost every Sunday and I see people online bragging about using dish soap on their cast iron. The thing is, I've been using the same 12-inch skillet for 8 years now and I only scrub with salt and a paper towel. Two months ago my buddy in Denver tried the soap method on his Lodge and now his eggs stick like crazy. If you stripped the seasoning with soap, you have to re-season it in the oven at 350 for an hour. Has anyone else noticed their pans getting worse after using detergent?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_thomas2mo ago

Hold up, I'm gonna be the contrarian here. Modern dish soap is actually totally fine on cast iron if you're not scrubbing like a maniac. Your buddy in Denver probably just nuked his pan with high heat and a wire brush, not the soap. I've been using Dawn on my Field skillet for 3 years now and my seasoning is still solid. The whole "soap strips seasoning" thing is a myth from back when soap had lye in it.

hannahm392mo ago

Honestly, the part about "stripped the seasoning with soap" hits home because I had a roommate who tried that on my pan once and it was a disaster. Tbh, I remember she used Dawn on my skillet I'd had for like 5 years and the next time I cooked eggs they stuck so bad I had to scrape them off with a metal spatula. Ngl, I ended up having to re-season it three times before it felt right again. She kept saying "but the Internet says modern soap is fine" and I was like, look at the pan, it's literally grey and dull now. So I feel you on that.

grace_wright1mo ago

Three years ago my cousin borrowed my 10 inch Lodge and scrubbed it with a brillo pad and dish soap. Took me a solid month of cooking bacon and cornbread in it almost every day to get the nonstick back. What finally worked for me was doing a thin layer of crisco and baking it upside down at 450 for an hour, then repeating that like twice more. After that I just started cooking fatty stuff in it for a week straight. Now it's better than it was before.