Cast iron pan
The pan with the most confident folklore attached to it, and the manufacturer contradicts the most famous rule in it.
Start here
What this is, what goes wrong with it, and where CleaningHQ can help.
Made from
What tends to go wrong
Food heated until it carbonised and bonded to the surface. Time and softening do the work; scouring powder does the damage.
Why it is difficult: Contact time, Carbonisation, Adhesion and cohesion, Why old stains are harder
Hydrated iron oxide from corroding iron or steel. Distinguish a surface deposit, which cleans off, from active corrosion of the item itself, which does not.
Why it is difficult: Corrosion and passivation, Why old stains are harder, Adhesion and cohesion
Fats and oils, which water alone cannot lift. Removed by surfactants, by heat, by solvents, or by alkalis that convert the fat into soap.
Why it is difficult: Why oil resists water, Emulsification
The science behind this: Corrosion and passivation
In detail
A cast iron pan is bare iron carrying a seasoning layer — polymerised oil bonded to the metal by heat — which provides the release surface and the corrosion protection at once. Everything about its care follows from protecting that layer while accepting that it is renewable. The rule everybody has heard is that soap must never touch cast iron, and the manufacturer's own care guidance says otherwise: washing with a small amount of washing-up liquid is fine, and the rule outlived the soap it was written about, which was a lye-based product that genuinely did strip a seasoning. What the manufacturer does insist on is drying immediately and thoroughly, because the real enemy is water rather than detergent, and a light coat of oil afterwards. Three things do damage a seasoning: a long soak, the dishwasher, and prolonged contact with anything acidic, which is why a tomato sauce left standing dulls the surface and can lift patches. Rust on a cast iron pan is not the end of it — the layer is meant to be rebuilt, and scouring back to bare metal and re-seasoning is maintenance rather than repair.
Related
- Cast iron pan is made from Seasoned cast iron
- Cast iron pan is commonly affected by Burnt-on food and carbon deposits
- Cast iron pan is commonly affected by Rust
- Cast iron pan is commonly affected by Grease
Sources for this page
Sources
How to Clean seasoned cast iron
Lodge Cast Iron (Lodge Manufacturing Company) · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That the manufacturer permits washing with a small amount of washing-up liquid, and directs drying immediately and thoroughly and applying a light coat of oil afterwards. (states this directly)
Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.
Read on — The three-step cleaning method, the soap statement, and the rust guidance. Supports a wider statement — our claim was widened. Created the cast iron record and overturned the most widely repeated rule about it: CleaningHQ would otherwise have carried the folk prohibition on soap, and the manufacturer states the opposite with the reason. SPRINT 32 READ THE FAQ BLOCK AND IT ADDED ALMOST NOTHING — soap, soaking, steel wool and the dishwasher again, in question form. The three cast-iron rows it unblocked were unblocked by re-reading OUR OWN STALE NOTES, not by reading more of this source.
Last reviewed by a person on .