My neighbor’s 30-second tip changed how I use my cast iron skillet

Last Tuesday, my neighbor Carol caught me scrubbing my skillet with soap and told me to just wipe it with salt and oil after cooking, and now my eggs slide right off. Does anyone else have a quick trick like that for busy weeknight dinners?

3 comments

3 Comments

thea_chen24d ago

Wait, you were using soap on a cast iron skillet? Like, for real, soap? I thought that was the cardinal sin of cast iron care, right up there with leaving it in the sink to rust. I've got a few skillets that are older than me and I've never touched them with soap, just hot water and a stiff brush, then dry it on the stove. The salt and oil trick is solid though, I do that for stuck on bits and it works way better than any scouring pad. Also, if your eggs are sliding, that means your seasoning is on point, so keep doing what Carol said.

willow24424d ago

Yeah, so actually modern dish soaps are totally fine on cast iron. The whole "never use soap" rule is leftover from the days when soap had lye in it. Your seasoning won't strip from a little Dawn, I promise.

victor_butler20d ago

That whole lye thing is interesting because my grandma had this old Griswold skillet from the 1940s that she swore by. I remember her telling me about how her mom used lye soap on it once back in the day and it stripped the seasoning clean off, so she never did it again. But Willow244 is right, I've been using regular Dawn on my modern Lodge skillet for like three years now and the seasoning is actually better than ever. The key is just not to let it soak or scrub it like crazy, just a quick wash and dry it right away.