That moment I realized I'd been washing cast iron all wrong for a decade

I was at a friend's cookout last Saturday watching him clean his skillet after breakfast. He just scrubbed it with salt and a paper towel, no soap no soaking. I stood there with my jaw open because I've been using soap and water on mine for 10 years and wondered why the seasoning always flaked off. Has anyone else had that embarrassing kitchen moment where you find out you've been doing a basic thing backward your whole life?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver_anderson19d ago

Wait, you can use salt instead of soap? Man I've been scrubbing my cast iron with dish soap for years and the seasoning on mine looks like a map of the moon. I just learned last month you're not supposed to put it in the dishwasher either.

theabarnes19d ago

My grandma used to say you could hear her pans screaming when she'd see me reaching for the soap... turns out she was right, learned that lesson the hard way when I stripped a skillet she'd been seasoning since the 70s.