Washing Cast Iron With Soap
I guess that I’m the odd one out. We have a mix of Lodge and No-name cast iron skillets that we use every day. I guess my wife and I (and my forefathers that we got some of our cast iron skillets from) have just been lucky for some odd reason because we’ve all washed our cast iron in mild (Dawn) Dish Washing Liquid and warm water after every use. Same with our Dutch Ovens that we use outside in an open fire. They were dried with a cloth dish towel and put away, until a couple of years ago when we finally went “automatic” with a portable “Dish Rinser” (they call it a Dish Washer, but I haven’t seen one yet that actually gets things clean without knocking the chunks off first), we then stand them on end in the now unused dish drainer next to the sink to drip dry.
Now with that said, we do re-season them about once every two or three years, or if we start seeing little signs of rust, or whenever we pick up another piece in a yardsale or auction. Some of my oldest skillets must be 75 years old or better by now and they don’t seem to need re-seasoned as much as the newer ones. They belonged to family before I was born, so they may even be over 100. We don’t have a sticking problem with any of them except a little 8-inch No-name skillet that we picked up at a yardsale last year. We’ve seasoned it three times now, and even boiled water will stick in it. I’m not sure why it’s different. And another thing....
We intentionally cook tomato dishes in our cast iron skillets. The “old-timers” did that to get extra iron in their diets, and we still do it.
CD in Oklahoma