How do you clean your cast iron? I have loved my cast iron, but it has very rarely been truly non stick. The Emeril skillet has been with me for 10 years and the lodge griddle is only a week old. I typically clean with just water and a brush. I have heard of cleaning with salt, but have tried and not felt like it was doing anything. What is your experience?
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
I use soap and water, and a scrubby pad. It’s fine. Obviously I don’t use any elbow grease. I dry it completely, reapply a little dab of oil and wipe it around, then let it heat on low for 10 minutes. It cools down and gets put away.
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this is how I clean my CIs, some may say I shouldn’t do it this way, but it works for me. I use hot water and try to do it when the pan is still pretty hot. That helps get some of the stuff off. If needed, I’ll use a chain scrubber, lightly rubbing and that usually gets everything for me. At times, I use a dobbie pad as well, maybe a little sud on it. But that is it. From there a dry and go back to heat and a dimes worth of oil.
My main CI is a Pioneer Woman skillet that I took a sander too 5 or so years ago. It works great, is my favorite CI. I also have an Emeril skillet and that one seems to be a little harder to get non-stick with. It works, but I won’t cook a lot with it, it’s mostly my oven skillet. But the smaller Lodge skillets I have are non-stick and I treat those the same as the PW skillet.
just keep cooking with the Lodge griddle, I bet it gets to be a great skillet for you. I have two of those and they work pretty good as well!
I'll go ahead and use dish soap and water to get ours clean when necessary, I just be sure to dry it absolutely thoroughly immediately after and then apply a coating of high smoke-point oil and rub that in real well. I love our Lodge CI, it's a splendid pan, beautifully seasoned. Cleaning it this way doesn't appear to have any effect on its seasoning.
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Water. No soap. Lightly scrub with a Lodge CI brush, scrape any heavy deposits with a plastic widget prior to using the brush. Wipe dry and place upside down over one of the stove burners on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes to thoroughly dry and wipe with a little oil before putting away.
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Current cookers Weber Spirit 3 burner with a full insert griddle added. A 22" Kettle with vortex, SnS and a Smokey Joe. The most recent addition is a Pit Barrel Jr with bird hanger, 4 hooks and cover. ThermoWorks Smoke 2 probe, DOT, 2 ThermoPops and a Thermapen MK4. A Thermoworks RFX Gateway 2 probe meat thermometer.
I use this brush, but have considered getting a bamboo brush because I have seen a lot of Chinese cooks using them on youtube. I don't use soap but I do heat and re oil the wok.
Water or not isn't the question. I don't see how no water would work. I have a fair amount of cast iron, some relatively new and some much older than I. I do them all the same way. Rinse after use, with a scrubby, and only use a few drops of dish soap if a lot of stuff to scrub off. Dry and set on the stove, or the grill if it's hot, to heat the pan but also dry it out. When hot, a bit of oil or grease in it, and I use a silicone brush to brush all over the inside. Let cool, wipe off the excess, and store. It takes only a minute each step.
I try to give it a rinse with hot water while the pan is still hot so it steams some of the crud off. Then I will use a drop of dawn with a nylon brush. If really stubborn I will use a chain mail scrubber. Rinse and dry with a cloth, then heat and a touch of oil. Let cool and put away.
Thank you everyone! It sounds like my cleaning process lines up with what most of you use. My main issue may just be a cheap pan. Like I’ve said, I really like the way it cooks, but it is not as non sick as I would like. Just using the lodge griddle a few times has been a way better experience than my Emeril one. Probably time to switch to a Lodge pan or find an antique one!
Take a sander to the Emeril pan. Start heavy grit then get down to fine. You will have an amazing pan once you clean and reseason. It’s what I did to my PW skillet, I should just do it to the Emeril and have two 12” skillets that cook equally as good.
Just be happy and follow barelfly 's advice. Get the smoothest surface you can and season however you like. I follow the light coat of oils folk, but nothing wrong with just frying a bunch of corn tortillas in a quarter to half inch of oil. I do the same for my carbon-steel pans and get them as black as a coal miner's toes.
I had a CI dutch oven as a scoutmaster that we only cleaned with dirt! Yep, we'd scrape out the big stuff and use dirt like some people would use salt. Then wipe it out with a heavily oiled rag and stick it back on the coals for a seasoning whack before putting it away. We even did this with wet dirt (mud) and it always shocks the newbies that you can clean a well seasoned pan with dirt. At home I use soap and water.
Welp, I didn’t see bmillin’s post before I went and got it. It was perfectly timed because I dropped my daughter at a birthday party on the south side, then drive to the north side to get it and made it back almost perfectly on time to pick her up!
She’s not in too bad shape! I grabbed some scouring pads because Jewel didn’t have steel wool. Those should get that tiny amount of surface rust off.
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