iron skillet page

[TaydaTot]

I have an iron skillet and cook almost every meal with it. I understand you are not supposed to use dish detergent so I have just been scraping it clean with a plastic kitchen scraper.


Is there any other way to clean an iron skillet?


Any other advice on iron skillet maintenance?

[Diana Renata]

I only cook in cast iron. You want it to be properly seasoned with fat, so it gets that nice black coating on it. To do that, you coat it in oil and heat it in the oven. You can find more detailed instructions on google.


To clean cast iron, it depends on what was cooked. Generally if it's something fried in fat, I just heat the pan slightly, and wipe it clean with a paper towel. If it was something saucy and messy I run it under hot water, wipe it with a paper towel, heat it on the stove until it begins to smoke slightly and all the water evaporates, and re-coat with fat.

[chazglen]

I also use salt as an abrasive for the more stubborn spots.

[Shazkar]

i just got mine the other day and started using it yesterday (it said it was preseasoned)


probably should have seasoned it more maybe, had some sticking, but whatever, nothing absurd


i use a steel spatula, someone told me i should


this will take some getting used to though, the whole cleaning it bit, especially after my super nonstick pan that literally nothing ever stuck to

[nina_70]

Definitely season it...I second DR's instructions. We cooked w/ an iron skillet for years and proper seasoning is critical. Clean-up was usually a paper towel while it was warm, or hot water. Same as what DR said.

[grandma]

I'm pretty rough on mine. It gets washed with soap sometimes, and scrubbed often. As long as it does back on the stove to be heated, dried and some fat applied it will be fine. Just don't put them away wet.

[62shelby]

I use baking soda, gentle but effective, doesnt mess with the seasoning.

[hakman73]

I treat mine quite rough - using steel wool if necessary, but I don't use any kind of soap or other kind of detergent on mine as it gets rid of protective fat coating.

I also don't use any cloth or paper towels for drying - just put it on a warmed up hot-plate for a minute and two and then store it away nice and dry.

If you get food sticking to it it's generally because of a poor coating of fat and you have to do "fat-burn" again. Other reason is that your skillet is not hot enough. Sometimes it also helps to let your meat sit on a skillet a bit longer before turning it - lots of things get stuck initially, but come loose again after some time.

[Baglady]

all the same as above for me except for the tough scrubbing jobs I use a "Chore Boy" scrubber. It's a copper scrubing pad works really well without a bunch of effort.

[hakman73]

I have to admit I haven't used my good old iron skillets much lately - my newfound love right now is one with ceramic (Ceratec) coating, that seems to incorporate all the good sides of both iron- and non-stick skillets.

Also differently from teflon ones it's supposed to be chemically neutral.