It’s old wisdom from way back when soap was made from lye.
That kind of soap is much harsher and can dissolve the seasoning, which is just a bunch of layers of polymerized oil that protects the metal from rust and gives it a glossy, almost non-stick coating.
Modern dish soap is nowhere near that harsh and is completely safe to use on a seasoned cast iron pan. It’s just that your grandparents and great grandparents beat that lesson into their kids and it stuck.
Cast iron is fine to cook on, but I much prefer stainless steel. It’s a bit harder to get the results you want, but it’s way easier to maintain.
This but also stop trying to unstick stuff when its not finished cooking yet.
That was one thing i had to learn when moving to stainless, you need to wait for the protein to unstick itself. Which when you’re so used to cooking on non-stick seems insane and risky.
stainless steel has pores that close at the right temp so food wont stick.
you need to practice it on your cooktop yourself to find out what setting. after its heated, drip a big drop of water on it and it should dance around and sizzle. too hot or too cold it will stay where it is in the pan. theres prob a video you can watch to see what the drop of water should look like
It takes practice and making sure it’s at the correct temperature. If I can fry eggs in stainless steel without sticking you can too friend. Follow the instructions on this page to get you started:
Heat up the pan on medium setting and then apply oil, if it smokes it is too hot. And don’t use olive oil, use an oil with a reasonably high smoke point. And you need to use more oil/fat than you’d normally do on other (non-stick) pans.
There’s a good chance the dry detergent for a dishwasher can still strip the seasoning off cast iron. Especially generic brands. They’re supposed to have buffers in them to prevent it, but every additive, and mixing time, adds cost.
Your typical hand dish soap is probably safe as long as you’re not scrubbing with steel wool.
IIRC, powdered dish washing detergent is mildly abrasive, and it gets jetted around at relatively high speeds (compared to hand washing). That’s also why it’s bad for knives.
…why are you not cleaning your cast iron pan?
It’s old wisdom from way back when soap was made from lye.
That kind of soap is much harsher and can dissolve the seasoning, which is just a bunch of layers of polymerized oil that protects the metal from rust and gives it a glossy, almost non-stick coating.
Modern dish soap is nowhere near that harsh and is completely safe to use on a seasoned cast iron pan. It’s just that your grandparents and great grandparents beat that lesson into their kids and it stuck.
Cast iron is fine to cook on, but I much prefer stainless steel. It’s a bit harder to get the results you want, but it’s way easier to maintain.
They say high temp stainless basically becomes non stick. I just get stuff sticking then immediately burning and smoking out my kitchen.
Lower your temps. Stainless only sticks like that if you get it too hot.
This but also stop trying to unstick stuff when its not finished cooking yet.
That was one thing i had to learn when moving to stainless, you need to wait for the protein to unstick itself. Which when you’re so used to cooking on non-stick seems insane and risky.
Oh yeah good call good call. I’m so used to doing that with cast iron I didn’t even think about that. But yeah it’s harder with stainless for sure.
no, medium-ish temp.
stainless steel has pores that close at the right temp so food wont stick.
you need to practice it on your cooktop yourself to find out what setting. after its heated, drip a big drop of water on it and it should dance around and sizzle. too hot or too cold it will stay where it is in the pan. theres prob a video you can watch to see what the drop of water should look like
It takes practice and making sure it’s at the correct temperature. If I can fry eggs in stainless steel without sticking you can too friend. Follow the instructions on this page to get you started:
https://theskillfulcook.com/how-to-know-when-stainless-steel-pan-is-ready/
Heat up the pan on medium setting and then apply oil, if it smokes it is too hot. And don’t use olive oil, use an oil with a reasonably high smoke point. And you need to use more oil/fat than you’d normally do on other (non-stick) pans.
Don’t use extra virgin / virgin olive oil.* Regular olive oil has a higher smoke point.
There’s a good chance the dry detergent for a dishwasher can still strip the seasoning off cast iron. Especially generic brands. They’re supposed to have buffers in them to prevent it, but every additive, and mixing time, adds cost.
Your typical hand dish soap is probably safe as long as you’re not scrubbing with steel wool.
IIRC, powdered dish washing detergent is mildly abrasive, and it gets jetted around at relatively high speeds (compared to hand washing). That’s also why it’s bad for knives.
Thats interesting, I heard it was a smear campaign by marketing companies to sell Teflon pans.
Godort’s grandma probably: come here Godort. Grandpa’s gotta beat you again for using soap on the cast iron pan
at least Godort didn’t use The Good Scissors
AHHHHH NOT THE GOOD SCISSORS
sEaSoNinG