potoooooooo ✅️She's out of town and I'm cleaning her entire collection as a surprise
brokenwingPlease someone explain!
Cast iron is “seasoned” to make it nonstick. That means many layers of oil build up as a sort of polymer. The point is to keep it “dirty” in this way. Cleaning it down to bare metal means she’d be forced to re-season it, which can take considerable time/effort depending on frequency of use.
Yes, but missing the nuance that seasoned cast iron that has been cleaned by dish soap has the black polymerized layer while a bunch of morons are opposed to actually cleaning and think burnt on food other than the polymerized oils is 'seasoning'.
My cast iron isn't anything special but it sheds more water than my non-stick ceramic when turned sideways while cleaning and wiping doesn't leave any black stains on a paper towel.
I never figured out how this is reconciled - it just sounds dirty AF (and I’m no clean freak at all!)
you’re supposed to wash cast iron with water, then soap then water again. then you dry, put it on a hot stove, and once all the water evaporates away, you rub it down with some oil on a cloth/paper towel, and get that real hot. then you can turn off the heat, and wipe off excess oil before putting it away. It’s not as straightforward as just tossing it into the dishwasher, but it’s not as complicated as some would have you believe. also, you can wash cast iron. soap doesn’t hurt it.