TIL I was ruining my cast iron seasoning with soap for 2 years until a neighbor stopped me at the block party

I had this old Lodge skillet, probably my grandma's from the 70s. Every time I cooked eggs they stuck like crazy. I thought I was doing everything right, scrubbing it down with Dawn after each use. Then my neighbor Bob, he's like 70, saw me washing it on my porch last Sunday. He just laughed and said 'you're washing off the seasoning.' That whole time I thought soap was fine cause all the blogs said modern soap is safe. But he showed me his skillet, black as night and slick as glass. He only uses hot water and a stiff brush. I tried it for a week now and my fried eggs slide right off. Has anyone else gotten bad info from online forums about cast iron care?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_bennett1mo agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Dave ruined a $200 finex skillet doing the same thing, scrubbed it with soap for months until it was basically bare metal. He was ready to throw it out until his grandma told him to just cook bacon in it every weekend for a month to fix it.

the_terry1mo ago

Bob's not wrong about the method but modern soap is actually fine. The key is not letting it soak or scrubbing hard with soap every single time. A quick wash with mild soap won't strip seasoning that's been built up right. The bigger issue is people scrubbing too aggressively or using too much soap. Your grandma's skillet just needs a couple rounds of bacon or cornbread to get that slick surface back.

bennett.harper1mo ago

Bob, did he say how long it takes to build seasoning back from scratch with just bacon?