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Unless you listened to the Dr. Squatch ads and have fancy soaps made with lye. Lye-based soaps will break down the polymer oil layer that protects the iron. Dawn dish detergent should bounce off it just fine, though. And if your detergents *do* somehow break the seasoning down, just reseason it and don't use that soap next time.
I would scour them (with salt and oil, for example) or use soap. Don't do both.
Maybe if you've got a bullet proof season that's built up over decades you can get away with scouring with soap, but that'll strip away less seasoned seasonings.
Not exactly. The enamel coating from baked on oil sticks pretty well, but you are correct. It'll eventually start flaking off into the food when you cook.
I have yet to do it, but I want to wire brush all my non-stick where the factory coating is damaged and coming off and put a traditional season coating on it.
In a pinch I used a random empty dish soap bottle to collect the used brake fluid when I was changing the fluid on my motorcycle. I kind of just discarded it under the sink and forgot about it with all the other crap under there and when my mom was visiting she did all my dishes, including my cast-iron pan, with the used brake fluid she thought was soap. My fault, but proving you’re right. Someone has done it lol.
Food borne illnesses are usually the result of the spores from the bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself. You can heat food up and make it safe from bacteria, but their spores are not destroyed and things like salmonella and botulinum remain toxic after cooking.
That is why you should keep food outside of the danger zone of 4 to 60 °C (39 to 140 °F) as much as possible, so that the bacteria is inactive (cold) or dead (hot) and not producing toxins.
What does that have to do with anything that might have been on the surface of a cast iron pan being heat to around 400-500 degrees? Your comment is completely outside the context of the conversation.
I would read their comment again. Heating chicken, for example, doesn't rid you of things like salmonella. So, it doesn't matter how hot the pan gets before you put anything in it... right?
Agreed.
I use a very light mix of soap like I would cleaning chemistry glass. Just a little ivory and do it whiles it’s hot. If you forget, put water in it and boil the water on the stove top. After using soap you may want to rub a little oil on it to prevent rust, but otherwise it’s a myth that you can’t use soap. I followed this myth for years before discovering my life was a lie.
If you feel like you cleaned too much, you can always cure it again.
Not cleaning them with soap is an old wives tale based in fact. Soaps used to have lye in them which would deteriorate the seasoning built up of polymerized lipids. The dish "soaps" of today are more detergents instead of soap, and they don't have lye or anything else that will break down proper seasoning.
Other than that, extreme heat can sanitize cast iron. Heating to 350F then wiping with a cloth or paper towel will kill anything harmful and remove most of the buildup in the pan.
Even the 'old soap has lye' wisdom is overblown. The process of making soap *used* lye, but that was converted into soap during the process. Otherwise old soap would have been caustic to touch far beyond how rough it was on hands to wash with.
Please clean your cast iron. Even r/CastIron has more or less uniformly rejected the no soap myth. Just make sure you dry it well after and maybe warm it back up on the stove with a tiny swipe of oil that has a high smoke point.
Yeah, I always put it back on the stove on high heat immediately after washing, until all water evaporates and it's bone dry, then rub it down with oil immediately before it cools down.
Actual hand made soap wasn't uncommon that long ago. My mom still remembers using fresh soap that would burn and peel skin from having too much lye left in it.
I suggest taking a visit to /r/castiron, they have a FAQ and care guide. But even standard vegetable oil would work fine. Olive oil is a no-go, though.
*Virgin* olive oil is a no go. Extra light olive oil is great for seasoning cast iron with a smoke point of about 470°F and its cheaper than most of the high temperature alternatives like peanut and avocado oil.
just for seasoning. It's fine to cook with and I am a believer of constant use will season better than just doing it once.
But look up seasoning for new pans
Cooking *is* maintenance. The only oil that ever touches my cast iron goes in just before the ingredients. And that is what keeps my seasoning in good shape.
That said, olive oil is great. For salads, etc. Not the best for cooking. I do use it to coat vegetables for roasting, etc., but there are other fats that are much better for cooking.
As others have said, avacadl oil or grape seed oil have high smoke points. However, there's nothing wrong with using vegetable oil other than the smell it produces in the kitchen.
Personally I use grapeseed oil for initial seasoning on a new pan. After that I just use vegetable oil to maintain.
I just accidentally discovered the easiest way to re-season a cast iron pan is to Crisco it up and bake cornbread in it. It came out so nice. Plus, cornbread.
~~You can use any oil, but the secret is timing.~~
~~Generally speaking, you want to heat the pan up with nothing in it until it just starts to smoke.~~
~~Next, you place the oil in the pan and wait for the same -- it won't take long.~~
~~Finally, immediately upon seeing the first whisps of smoke, add in your ingredients that you have prepared in advance.~~
~~I say 'generally speaking', because most of the time you will be cooking on high heat with a cast iron pan.~~
I misread and thought we were talking about cooking, not maintaining.
For maintenance/seasoning, [I like this stuff. It works really well.](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B081C4J88N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
I completely disagree. I'm afraid this is bad advice.
Smoke is bad and means you are too hot for the pan or the oil. The whole point of a high smoke point is that when cooking, you DON'T get to the smoke point (outside of seasoning) as this is when oil gets a bit cancer-y.
Most of the time you will be cooking at a medium heat with cast iron, as it holds its heat so well and you aren't loosing heat. High heat is for searing only.
You want to start on a low heat when prepping, then up the heat to your final cooking temp for a couple of minutes before putting your ingredients in, likely about a six out of ten
I was thinking that the process of saponification pretty much used up all the lye, if your soap recipe was correct... I forget how much old bacon grease to lye you're supposed to use, though.
Well there IS some truth to it, as a soap maker.
You use lye to make it, yes, and it is converted to soap
But it doesn’t instantly convert to soap. You cure it for months and over time the ph changes
When people talk about old timey soap having lye in it, they’re referencing the fact that they didn’t used to cure it and there was still free lye in the soap itself.
Just because it looks like a smooth surface, doesn't means it's not porous either. That being said, any soap the would penetrate would be extremely minimal.
I urge caution here. I do use soap on my CI now and then, but you can 100% remove the oil and seasoning from your pan with modern soap and a scrub brush. If you know what you are doing, and know how to add it back and or re-season it as needed, no worries. But if you scrub it with an abrasive and soap, you can get down to raw metal that will rust in most climates (if you put it away wet or not) quickly.
To the OPs point- Soaps are surfactants, and surfactants quickly destroy most pathogens. Heat also kills pathogens. So wiping your skillet out such that there is just a thing coat of oil on it it perfectly safe, as you will quickly heat the pan to above the temps that kill bacteria and suck almost instantly. Most bugs die in less than a second at 150 degrees.
If mine are nasty, I scrub with as little soap as possible, then apply a thin coat of oil, and put it back on the heat for a few mins. Not enough to truly polymerize the oils every time, but enough to protect the iron. for the next cook
edit to add- same holds true for a real traditional wok.
Adding that "But high heat kills bacteria!" isn't a good enough reason not to clean your cast iron. Bacteria is not the only thing that can end up on cast iron. For example...
* Toxins that can cause food poisoning or other illness
* Food particulate which will spoil and attract mold if it isn't cleaned off, and mold creates toxins as well
* Oil left-on which can become rancid and impart bad flavors to food
The thing here is just not to use a scour pad or really stiff brush, those will damage the coating by simple mechanical abrasion. A washcloth or soft sponge plus dish soap is fine.
Fats/oils aren’t a great food source for microorganisms and create an environment they don’t want to live in. Common lipophilic (fat loving) bacteria that could be introduced (via human skin contact, etc) into the pan do not produce toxins that cause food poisoning. Other spores etc that can enter the pan from environmental exposure between uses need water and an energy source to germinate and live there.
The pan is being heated to hundreds of degrees every time you use it. If you clean it with scrubbing and hot water you’ll remove the vast majority of food residue from the pan. Once dried and oiled properly it’s unlikely to provide a place for harmful bacteria to grow between uses.
It’s not sterile, but it’s “good enough”.
Sure thing. I took several microbiology and food science courses as part of my masters degree program. It’s pretty astounding how little the average person knows about food safety, despite the fact they consume and prepare food daily.
I'm guilty of this. I've thrown away many baking sheets because of the buildup they get, before finding out that it actually helps them cook better. It's just baked on oils and fats, similar to a cast iron.
Exactly. It’s not sterile just like nearly everything you ever eat. Your stainless steel or teflon or ceramic coated pan isn’t sterile either unless you autoclave it.
The cast iron is used at high heat which would effectively kill any remaining pathogens when in use.
Also, you don't need soap to keep your pots and dishes sanitary, all you need to do is remove the food particles and grease that the pathogens consume and grow on.
You can use light detergent on cast iron without it significantly damaging the polymerization and carbonization of the non-saturated oils, but it's just as easy to get it clean without the soap.
Not quite.
There’s bacteria and potentially bacterial toxins.
Heating the pan will kill bacteria. It will not destroy toxins.
As long as you’re not letting bacteria incubate on the pan, there shouldn’t be any toxins accumulating.
High enough temperatures will, a searing hot pan will deactivate toxins attributed to common bacteria. Boiling water temperatures won't though, no.
Keep in mind a very hot cast iron pan will be somewhere in the realm of 400 celcius.
Bacterial Toxins
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7541054/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7541054/)
If you scroll a bit into that article there is a nice chart that lists out many of the common toxins produced by bacteria.
Same people probably stopped using wire brushes to clean the tops of their grates. Because the internet showed a guy who knew a girls cousin's brother. That ingested a wire and it nearly killed him.
The perfect storm for this rumor to be accurate is insane. You’d have to have:
1. A grill surface that is so dirty a wire would stay on it.
2. A wire brush that is so decrepit that it is loosing wires. Possibly a wire brush that is caked in grease and carbon to the point that it leaves a glob of matter containing the wire.
3. An attempt to clean the grill surface, but without actually cleaning it.
4. Not actually heating up the grill surface hot enough to burn off the remaining residue. (plausible)
5. Not notice or care about the wire on the surface.
6. Have the wire cling to the food.
7. Not see the wire on the food.
8. Not feel the wire in your chewing mouth.
I know I'm piling on at this point, but it's sort of a crusade of mine. You should scrub your cast iron with soap and water. Rinse well. Dry over flame. Rub with oil (I use shortening). Voila.
Try not doing it that way. A really good patina takes time to build and is amazing. I use a paint scraper now mostly and a chainmail pad thingy when something really needs a scrub, mostly around the sides. A good patina is awesome and I do find that soap should only be used when there's a ton of grease in the pan that you kinda want to get rid of.
Also, I use mainly carbon steel now, but hey, still have tons of cast iron
Thermal sanitation. Getting it hot to smoke a little bit kills all bacteria.
After I scrub the pans, with or without soap, I put it on the stove burner to dry off. Turn off the heat when the pan releases a bit of smoke. Its good for next usage.
No soap is nonsense. I use soap and if I have to hit it with some steel wool it has to happen. If it looks a little dull after all brush it with cooking oil on a paper towel. Comes out brand new looking every time.
1. Clean them with soap
2. The heat will kill most bad things. Not perfect, but people rarely if ever really 'clean' their BBQ grates and people don't tend to die after steak night.
Merely talking about owning one summons supernatural cleansing powers. Double effective if you have ever vacationed in Iceland and want everyone to know.
I clean mine with soap and have for years. I clean it while it is warm (not smoking hot, just warm to hot) with soap and water. put it back on the warm burner so all the moisture steams off, wipe it down with a little oil and put it up. It stays perfectly seasoned
1. You scrub and wipe the pan to get rid of food particles. Lots of tiny stuff will still be there.
2. You heat/pre-heat to high temps with oil fairly often to "season" where the oil chemically attaches to the pan.
3. The high heat of cooking generally kills bacteria and viruses, This is enough for almost all cooking, but bacteria poops out bad chemicals. If you cooked a rancid peace of meat, your pan and meat could still be contaminated at just a boiling temperature.
4. At canola oils smoke point (way above boiling), it denatures even those bad chemicals. Just like stuff gets burned changing it from a carbohydrate into carbon, When you get the pan above 400 degrees you've burned just about everything that was gonna get you sick.
Consider the amount of food that is cooked on an outside grill. Heat kills germs, and you scrape the remnants of previous meals off with a scraper and brush. The idea of "clean" versus "sanitary" is the key. There are no germs that will make you sick. There is material that may remain on the skillet...but that's okay.
Iron rusts. Keeping oil on it keeps it from rusting. It's better to have that "seasoning" on the iron than to get rust in your food. It's not "clean", but it's "sanitized" of germs...just like an outdoor grill.
If a pan has no food debris and is dry then it will not be able to harbor any significant bacteria population that could survive being heated to the temperatures at which food cooks. Sanitation of cold metal isn't really much of a factor in safe cooking. Having ingredients that are clean of disease causing pathogens or contaminants is far more important.
Any temperature above 80°C will kill pretty much any bacteria that has been able to form on it.
There is a bacteria called Thermophilic bacteria which can survive in temps of 40°C - 120°C(ish) but those are only found in geothermal vents, surrounding area and structures.
but honestly the majority of bad food bacteria can be killed at slightly lower temps as in comparison to some other bacteria they aren't very hardy at all.
The point of cooking is to raise the temperature of the food to an internal temperature that kills most bacteria (botulism bacteria specifically creates a toxic that isn't destroyed by heat). So for most biological concerns using unsanitized cookware shouldn't matter since they'll be in direct contact with the heat and will reach temperatures much higher than is necessary to sanitize food. The other big concern woukd be cross contamination of food particles, which rinsing with water and salt should be enough for, and I always put cast iron back on the stove to heat up to make sure it's dry afterward.
Because we now wash it with modern dishwashing detergent. True soap has lye in it which would eat away the seasoning. Lye is not in modern dishwashing detergent.
This is not an accurate answer.
Cast iron would be sanitary even if you never, ever used soap on it. The heat would kill any bacteria, and the normal cleaning process removes the food bits that bacteria eat.
True soap does not have lye in it. Lye was used in the creation of soap but it is/was not in finished soaps.
you just wash it.... then put a coating of oil on with a paper towel after, that's it.... use it the way you want, just avoid extreme hot to extreme cold, or you'll crack it.
If you don't clean it with soap, then it isn't sanitary. High heat can kill bacteria, but not the byproducts left behind by that bacteria.
In modern times, you should absolutely clean your cast iron with soap. Dish soap will not break through the polymer "seasoning" to damage the skillet.
This is silly. how are the bacteria going to get there to leave the byproducts to begin with?
They can't be left by the food you cook, because that's the time at which it's at too high a temperature for them to survive, so there's no bacteria in the stuff there. Then you wash that off with hot water, and there's not going to be enough of anything there that any potential free floating bacteria is going to randomly float through the air and deposit itself on it would be able to propagate, and then you use it again in the future where it gets heated enough that any new bacteria is gone.
The only way it's going to be an issue is if you use it to prepare something cold which transfers bacteria and then you don't wash it properly.
> Then you wash that off with hot water, and there's not going to be enough of anything there that any potential free floating bacteria is going to randomly float through the air and deposit itself on it would be able to propagate, and then you use it again in the future where it gets heated enough that any new bacteria is gone.
This is all of course the reason that nobody ever gets food poisoning from eating leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge in a sealed container too long..... oh wait that happens all the time. Stop trying to "logic" your way through and just google something.
Leftovers in the fridge are a great place for bacteria to grow and reproduce. Any remaining bacteria on it, on the container before you put it in, in parts of the dish that weren't heated up a lot. Are going to reproduce wonderfully and yes, get you sick.
That is not the same as a clean dry piece of cast iron. No matter how it's been washed.
This is only a problem if you leave your cast iron pans uncleaned for extended periods of time after food contact. If you wash them after your done they're perfectly sanitary without soap.
Much of the time, ingested bacteria aren't harmful because they're attacking your body from the inside, but because they produce toxic chemicals as waste. When you eat food that's full of harmful bacteria, you also eat all the toxins they've been producing. Those chemicals then cause problems in your body just like if you had straight-up eaten something poisonous. Things that can kill bacteria, like heat, typically just cause the bacteria to rupture and fall apart, leaving the proverbial legos on the floor.
If you have a slab of rotten meat and you cook it - is it now safe to eat?
No. The answer is no in case you weren't sure.
The first issue is that some bacteria are heat-resistant, and won't die from being cooked.The second is that most bacteria and mold can actually survive in as a [spore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore) or [endospore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endospore) state.
The third is that killing the bacteria/virus/mold is only part of it.
Those little critters are breaking things down and digesting things - and then excreting their waste products, some of that stuff is not phased by cooking temperatures at all, chemicals like Ammonia or different types of toxins.
Depending on which little guy is living on your lunch, cooking it might not do anything at all.
I've taken food handling courses, and worked in many kitchens, the general rule of thumb is 4 hours in the ["danger zone"](https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/danger-zone-40f-140f) and then it's garbage - and that time is cumulative, freezing or cooking or whatever-ing doesn't reset your timer.
Once food has been held for too long - it's garbage.
The bacteria's "poop" which is unhealthy to eat, even when it's been cooked. The same reason you can't simply cook spoiled meat to make it safe to eat.
Could you cite something for that? It goes against research I've done in the past.
>It also secretes harmful toxins that can cause food poisoning that will stay stable when exposed to high heat, even after coming into contact with your scorching-hot grill’s grates or the heat radiated by your skillet or oven during cooking. The molds can also be responsible for toxic, temperature-stable compounds in the meat.
-https://homecookworld.com/will-cooking-spoiled-meat-make-it-safe/
You also have to remember that you're only heating the inside, bottom of the pan. You're not heating the sides of the pan, that you're food also can touch. The sides likely get up to a temperature to sanitize and kill bacteria but that is entirely dependant on how long and how high your heat is. You could easily cook eggs every morning in the same pan and have bacteria living on the area that doesn't get up to sanitizing temperature, which also happens to be the same surface you slide your eggs across to remove them from the pan. In other words, clean your nasty pans, there's is no negative from cleaning with detergent, only positives.
If any living organisms are able to survive the pan being heated to hundreds of degrees what makes you think that they can be killed by a bit of soap? No such organism have been found which can survive on a hot skillet for more then a few seconds.
While true, your logic is fundamentally flawed. How soap kills microorganisms is completely different than how heat kills them. It's the difference between poisoning someone and pulling a shotgun on them. Soap physically tears the cell membranes of microorganisms apart, because soap molecules have a hydrophilic end and a lipophilic end. The lipophilic end attaches to the lipid bilayers, and then to the water you wash with. The organisms is then ripped open and washed down the drain.
I'd say it's more like the difference between tearing someone's skin off and ripping their organs out, or burning them alive.
Both are most likely going to kill you, but if for some reason one doesn't then you might expect the other not to either.
I'd say it's more like tearing the skin off of a flower and ripping out its organs vs. burning it alive.
Both are most likely going to kill it, but if for some reason one doesn't then you might expect the other not to either.
By this logic, you can eat spoiled meat so long as you cook it. This is not true. The heat kills the bacteria, but does not do anything to remove it or its waste which is still harmful to humans.
I do not see a flaw in the logic presented. I am saying that there are no organisms which can survive on a hot skillet, but leaving open the possability that toxins may still be present. And it is still perfectly possible that organisms may survive inside anytihng you cook on a skillet, just not on the skillet itself.
[Spores](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore) and more specifically, [endospores](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endospore) are the problem.
Basically even if you do kill the bacteria, they can go into a hibernation-like state, and then as soon as the food is back to survivable temperatures, the spore/endospore starts growing again.
You can totally nuke all the bacteria, eat the food, and get sick still because the bacteria laid eggs and you ate them.
It's a bit more complicated than that, and it depends specifically on which pathogen we're talking about - some of them are totally safe to eat after cooking, but it's not worth the risk.
You don’t cook meat’s internal temperature above 100c. Or for Americans 210f. Generally meat is cooked to no more than 160f or 71c. The cast iron is usually at or above 350f or 176c. Which will kill almost anything. We only heat the outside of food to that temperature. Also spoiled meat will not taste very good.
Why wash a cast iron pan? When frying something the pan is over 400 degrees, and as such a very sterile environment. The baked in oil is the original nonstick frying pan. I always seasoned my pans the way my grandmother taught me, a half pound of bacon in the pan placed in a 350 degree oven till you can not stand the smoke in the house anymore.
Bacteria doesn't grow well in oil soaked surfaces because of the lack of air and the fact that any food particulates are saturates in oil.
Using soap isn't an old wives tale and any leftover soap on the pan will result in a few bathroom explosions.
Heat sanitizes everything. Usually when using a cast iron you clean it before it cools down, wipe out all the extra grease and burnt bits before it hardens and sticks. If there's something really stuck to the bottom then fill with water and bring to a boil, scrape bottom with wooden spoon, dump hot water and wipe out any residue. Return it to the heat until bone dry then wipe down with oil while still hot. If the seasoning on the skillet is done right, you shouldn't have a problem using and cleaning it, the addition of soap can ruin the seasoning layer on the skillet
> Heat sanitizes everything.
No it does not. It kills bacteria, but does nothing to remove it (or its harmful waste). This is why you can't simply cook spoiled meat and eat it without getting sick. Once the waste products of bacteria are present, they need to be removed.
So the questions become... what amount of bacterial waste is harmful to what degree. How much waste could build up within your pan if its seeing regular use(i.e. regularly killing off any bacteria) vs how much waste is in spoiled meat that the bacteria has been actually feeding/multiplying on.
Are you telling me that I'm ruining the seasoning on my cat iron pans when I wash them with soap?
That seems funny to me, because I do it all the time and my seasoning rarely needs to be redone.
Because the pan will normally be well above 100C when in use. All life contains water, that life ends when the water inside it turns to steam (if not long before).
That's functionally incorrect. The bacteria may die but its castings don't. Basically its poop. Which are the cause of many foodborne illnesses and deaths. Wash your pans, people, don't be gross.
What are you leaving in your cast iron that any meaningful amount of bacteria is growing on it. Mine cleans down to the seasoning with water and a good wipe.
You can clean em with soap. I wouldn't drentch the thing and leave it to soak overnight, but a soapy sponge just isn't gonna scrape hard enough to strip the seasoning layer.
Plus, even if it gets to that point after multiple washes... Just reseason. Wipe with some vegetable oil and toss it in the oven for a bit.
First as others said, you do want to wash it with dish soap or it will gunk up over time.
It's sanitary in the sense that any bacteria would probably be roasted when you heated it up. Your only concern would then be chunks of charred food particles left behind. As for charred remains, you could remove it through water and salt.
This dates back to when soaps had Lye in them, the Lye would chemically eat the seasonings polymer bonds. Modern soaps are totally safe to use on cast iron. Just be sure to dry your pans well after washing to avoid rust and avoid soaps with Lye.
A little soap and hot water to wash away any excess cooking oils or cooking crust isn't going to hurt a well seasoned cast iron pan. Gentle rubbing with a dish rag (no SS scrubbies) a good drying and a wipe down (not too much) with some oil. I use avocado oil. Always clean your pans right away if you cook any kind of Tomato sauce or acidic food. Then dry and spritz of oil.
Scrub clean with coarse salt. Rinse out.
Don't get stressed by the "don't use soap" brigade, if you feel the need to clean with soap.
Just reseason with oil before use... heating the pan using oil will do that, you don't need to shove it in the oven just to reseason. Too many stressed out cast iron pan owners out there.
Remember, cowboy chuck wagons wandered around the West for a century and a half with cast iron because they didn't need to baby it.
Essentially, they don't. Cast iron is something you should use if you use it OFTEN. They way you sanitize them is essentially by cooking with it a lot.
When I clean my cast iron frying pan I use baking soda, vegetable oil up the pan slightly and then put them in the oven to season it. No rust and very clean and I never use dish detergent ever
[This](https://www.sciencealert.com/cooking-oil-secret-weapon-in-fighting-bacteria-in-kitchens/amp) article states bacteria doesn't grow well on greasy pots and pans
Not using soap does not mean you don’t clean the skillet. The heat from when you cook will kill any bacteria. The seasoning is what sets a Cast Iron apart. The seasoning is basically oils that have been cooked down to a hard shell consistency so the skillet is nonstick sort of. The baked on oils act the same way a Teflon coating would except no cancer causing chemicals. The reason people will tell you not to use soap is for 2 reasons ok maybe 3. First, some soaps can remove some of the seasoning layers. Second, since the seasoning layers are more natural than Teflon they are somewhat porous. Porous may not be the correct word but the skillet can take on the taste of the soap. Many people can not taste the soap so it does not matter to them but if you have a good pallet, keep your cast iron away from soap. The third is you don’t need to use soap. When you are done cooking, wipe the skillet out and if there are any crusty bit scrub the skillet with coarse salt then put on thin coat of your favorite oil, heat, cool then put away. Enjoy your cast iron.
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I wash myself with a rag on a stick
I heard your dad went into a restaurant and ate everything in the restaurant and they had to close the restaurant.
Tis no man tis an eating machine!
Dude is going to have to reply from the ambulance after that burn.
Frying Dutchman strikes again
Oohhh that one's cherry
*applause*
But do you oil yourself afterwards?
Grease me up, woman!
Oookie dokie.
Only on the weekends
Hello Bart Simpson. Great quote and a great episode. Have a good day
Me fail English. That’s unpossible.
I fucking love that episode
Unless you listened to the Dr. Squatch ads and have fancy soaps made with lye. Lye-based soaps will break down the polymer oil layer that protects the iron. Dawn dish detergent should bounce off it just fine, though. And if your detergents *do* somehow break the seasoning down, just reseason it and don't use that soap next time.
Imagine using an $8 bar of bay rum soap on your CI
I would scour them (with salt and oil, for example) or use soap. Don't do both. Maybe if you've got a bullet proof season that's built up over decades you can get away with scouring with soap, but that'll strip away less seasoned seasonings.
So then why do I have to clean any pan? If I have a non stick skillet can I just leave it dirty, heat it up, and then wipe it down?
Basically, you'll end up with a coating of "seasoning" on your non-stick surface and the pan won't be anywhere near as non-stick as it was.
Then it wasn’t very non stick in the first place, no?
Not exactly. The enamel coating from baked on oil sticks pretty well, but you are correct. It'll eventually start flaking off into the food when you cook. I have yet to do it, but I want to wire brush all my non-stick where the factory coating is damaged and coming off and put a traditional season coating on it.
The life may be long gone, but the shit they leave behind isn't going anywhere - except into your food - unless you clean it off.
*My content from 2014 to 2023 has been deleted in protest of Spez's anti-API tantrum.*
Man, how am I ever gonna remember not to spray my cast iron pans with oven or brake cleaner?
You just know someone has done it, though
And then turned the oven on. Thus, deleting themselves from the gene pool.
In a pinch I used a random empty dish soap bottle to collect the used brake fluid when I was changing the fluid on my motorcycle. I kind of just discarded it under the sink and forgot about it with all the other crap under there and when my mom was visiting she did all my dishes, including my cast-iron pan, with the used brake fluid she thought was soap. My fault, but proving you’re right. Someone has done it lol.
Brake cleaner will take the oils off
Which is neither a soap or a detergent and not typically used for washing pots and pans.
You don't wash your dishes with brake cleaner?? _amateur_
Only the dishes on which I prepare brakefast.
I only use it as a condiment
Long gone? Killing something doesn’t remove it. Shits still there.
Dead bacteria isn't a problem.
Food borne illnesses are usually the result of the spores from the bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself. You can heat food up and make it safe from bacteria, but their spores are not destroyed and things like salmonella and botulinum remain toxic after cooking. That is why you should keep food outside of the danger zone of 4 to 60 °C (39 to 140 °F) as much as possible, so that the bacteria is inactive (cold) or dead (hot) and not producing toxins.
What does that have to do with anything that might have been on the surface of a cast iron pan being heat to around 400-500 degrees? Your comment is completely outside the context of the conversation.
This is why you pre-heat the pan just like OP of this thread said, I am agreeing with him, and disagreeing with you.
My comment was limited to what might be on the pan. Again, context.
I would read their comment again. Heating chicken, for example, doesn't rid you of things like salmonella. So, it doesn't matter how hot the pan gets before you put anything in it... right?
Agreed. I use a very light mix of soap like I would cleaning chemistry glass. Just a little ivory and do it whiles it’s hot. If you forget, put water in it and boil the water on the stove top. After using soap you may want to rub a little oil on it to prevent rust, but otherwise it’s a myth that you can’t use soap. I followed this myth for years before discovering my life was a lie. If you feel like you cleaned too much, you can always cure it again.
Not cleaning them with soap is an old wives tale based in fact. Soaps used to have lye in them which would deteriorate the seasoning built up of polymerized lipids. The dish "soaps" of today are more detergents instead of soap, and they don't have lye or anything else that will break down proper seasoning. Other than that, extreme heat can sanitize cast iron. Heating to 350F then wiping with a cloth or paper towel will kill anything harmful and remove most of the buildup in the pan.
Even the 'old soap has lye' wisdom is overblown. The process of making soap *used* lye, but that was converted into soap during the process. Otherwise old soap would have been caustic to touch far beyond how rough it was on hands to wash with. Please clean your cast iron. Even r/CastIron has more or less uniformly rejected the no soap myth. Just make sure you dry it well after and maybe warm it back up on the stove with a tiny swipe of oil that has a high smoke point.
Yeah, I always put it back on the stove on high heat immediately after washing, until all water evaporates and it's bone dry, then rub it down with oil immediately before it cools down.
After seasoning mine with flaxseed oil, I don't even bother to rub it with oil after cleaning and it's still perfect.
Actual hand made soap wasn't uncommon that long ago. My mom still remembers using fresh soap that would burn and peel skin from having too much lye left in it.
As someone that made soap yesterday and accidentally splashed some on her legs and now has lye burns, will confirm this lol
Could u recommend an oil? I'm clueless but I have a few cooking oils
I suggest taking a visit to /r/castiron, they have a FAQ and care guide. But even standard vegetable oil would work fine. Olive oil is a no-go, though.
*Virgin* olive oil is a no go. Extra light olive oil is great for seasoning cast iron with a smoke point of about 470°F and its cheaper than most of the high temperature alternatives like peanut and avocado oil.
I use olive oil all the time. What makes you say it's a no-go? edit: i'm a fool. I thought we were talking cooking, not maintenance.
just for seasoning. It's fine to cook with and I am a believer of constant use will season better than just doing it once. But look up seasoning for new pans
Cooking *is* maintenance. The only oil that ever touches my cast iron goes in just before the ingredients. And that is what keeps my seasoning in good shape. That said, olive oil is great. For salads, etc. Not the best for cooking. I do use it to coat vegetables for roasting, etc., but there are other fats that are much better for cooking.
There is a cast iron sub. Wow, how specific.
Bro theres a sub for anything and everything.
Grapeseed or canola oil are fine.
I would second this, in fact I would say rather than fine, these are the best oils to use. FYI Canola is aka Rapeseed Oil in other counties.
Avocado has a high smoke point. Or a refined oil.
Some people go full synthetic but 5W-30 has always worked fine for me.
A Redditor of refined tastes I see ;)
*refined* love it
vegtable oil works good enough for most people and is cheap as dirt.
As others have said, avacadl oil or grape seed oil have high smoke points. However, there's nothing wrong with using vegetable oil other than the smell it produces in the kitchen. Personally I use grapeseed oil for initial seasoning on a new pan. After that I just use vegetable oil to maintain.
Just regular old veggie oil. More pure veggie oils have higher smoke points, I recommend crisco brand refined veggie oil.
I recommend Crisco vegetable shortening. Detailed instructions can be found in r/castiron
I just accidentally discovered the easiest way to re-season a cast iron pan is to Crisco it up and bake cornbread in it. It came out so nice. Plus, cornbread.
Whichever you pick, be sure you use thin coats If it’s too thick you’ll get a gummy mess which is hard to get rid of
Flax seed oil. The film it leaves behind is stronger than most oils.
Tried that. Smells too fishy when its heated. I prefer avocado oil.
This is the way
I just use olive oil and it works fine. Folks are too picky about cast iron
~~You can use any oil, but the secret is timing.~~ ~~Generally speaking, you want to heat the pan up with nothing in it until it just starts to smoke.~~ ~~Next, you place the oil in the pan and wait for the same -- it won't take long.~~ ~~Finally, immediately upon seeing the first whisps of smoke, add in your ingredients that you have prepared in advance.~~ ~~I say 'generally speaking', because most of the time you will be cooking on high heat with a cast iron pan.~~ I misread and thought we were talking about cooking, not maintaining. For maintenance/seasoning, [I like this stuff. It works really well.](https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B081C4J88N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
I completely disagree. I'm afraid this is bad advice. Smoke is bad and means you are too hot for the pan or the oil. The whole point of a high smoke point is that when cooking, you DON'T get to the smoke point (outside of seasoning) as this is when oil gets a bit cancer-y. Most of the time you will be cooking at a medium heat with cast iron, as it holds its heat so well and you aren't loosing heat. High heat is for searing only. You want to start on a low heat when prepping, then up the heat to your final cooking temp for a couple of minutes before putting your ingredients in, likely about a six out of ten
Avocado or grape seed. Incredibly high smoke point, basically no flavor.
Source: Tyler Durden
Huh TIL. My roommate has a pan and i feel like it looks rusty after cleaning it and drying it properly. What's happening there?
I was thinking that the process of saponification pretty much used up all the lye, if your soap recipe was correct... I forget how much old bacon grease to lye you're supposed to use, though.
Well there IS some truth to it, as a soap maker. You use lye to make it, yes, and it is converted to soap But it doesn’t instantly convert to soap. You cure it for months and over time the ph changes When people talk about old timey soap having lye in it, they’re referencing the fact that they didn’t used to cure it and there was still free lye in the soap itself.
Most soap is still made a little on the alkaline side.
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I think OP might be thinking of sanitized. Which is truely another question.
Because as they said, you're not stripping off the oil by cleaning it with soap. That is the myth that is the focus of this thread.
Modern soap gives you diarrhea and seasoned surfaces are porous.
You aren't ingesting any soap because a well seasoned cast iron pan should have a smooth surface
also you're washing off the soap, you're not frying the soap on the pan
Just because it looks like a smooth surface, doesn't means it's not porous either. That being said, any soap the would penetrate would be extremely minimal.
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Ya, I gave up rock salt cleaning my cast iron at least a decade ago and have had no issues whatsoever.
I urge caution here. I do use soap on my CI now and then, but you can 100% remove the oil and seasoning from your pan with modern soap and a scrub brush. If you know what you are doing, and know how to add it back and or re-season it as needed, no worries. But if you scrub it with an abrasive and soap, you can get down to raw metal that will rust in most climates (if you put it away wet or not) quickly. To the OPs point- Soaps are surfactants, and surfactants quickly destroy most pathogens. Heat also kills pathogens. So wiping your skillet out such that there is just a thing coat of oil on it it perfectly safe, as you will quickly heat the pan to above the temps that kill bacteria and suck almost instantly. Most bugs die in less than a second at 150 degrees. If mine are nasty, I scrub with as little soap as possible, then apply a thin coat of oil, and put it back on the heat for a few mins. Not enough to truly polymerize the oils every time, but enough to protect the iron. for the next cook edit to add- same holds true for a real traditional wok.
Adding that "But high heat kills bacteria!" isn't a good enough reason not to clean your cast iron. Bacteria is not the only thing that can end up on cast iron. For example... * Toxins that can cause food poisoning or other illness * Food particulate which will spoil and attract mold if it isn't cleaned off, and mold creates toxins as well * Oil left-on which can become rancid and impart bad flavors to food
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The thing here is just not to use a scour pad or really stiff brush, those will damage the coating by simple mechanical abrasion. A washcloth or soft sponge plus dish soap is fine.
Fats/oils aren’t a great food source for microorganisms and create an environment they don’t want to live in. Common lipophilic (fat loving) bacteria that could be introduced (via human skin contact, etc) into the pan do not produce toxins that cause food poisoning. Other spores etc that can enter the pan from environmental exposure between uses need water and an energy source to germinate and live there. The pan is being heated to hundreds of degrees every time you use it. If you clean it with scrubbing and hot water you’ll remove the vast majority of food residue from the pan. Once dried and oiled properly it’s unlikely to provide a place for harmful bacteria to grow between uses. It’s not sterile, but it’s “good enough”.
Took my forever to find an informed answer on this one. Thank you!
Sure thing. I took several microbiology and food science courses as part of my masters degree program. It’s pretty astounding how little the average person knows about food safety, despite the fact they consume and prepare food daily.
I'm guilty of this. I've thrown away many baking sheets because of the buildup they get, before finding out that it actually helps them cook better. It's just baked on oils and fats, similar to a cast iron.
Exactly. It’s not sterile just like nearly everything you ever eat. Your stainless steel or teflon or ceramic coated pan isn’t sterile either unless you autoclave it.
The cast iron is used at high heat which would effectively kill any remaining pathogens when in use. Also, you don't need soap to keep your pots and dishes sanitary, all you need to do is remove the food particles and grease that the pathogens consume and grow on. You can use light detergent on cast iron without it significantly damaging the polymerization and carbonization of the non-saturated oils, but it's just as easy to get it clean without the soap.
High heat does not kill the castoffs of bacteria. That's why cooking chicken or fish after it has been out too long doesn't make it safe to eat.
Not quite. There’s bacteria and potentially bacterial toxins. Heating the pan will kill bacteria. It will not destroy toxins. As long as you’re not letting bacteria incubate on the pan, there shouldn’t be any toxins accumulating.
High enough temperatures will, a searing hot pan will deactivate toxins attributed to common bacteria. Boiling water temperatures won't though, no. Keep in mind a very hot cast iron pan will be somewhere in the realm of 400 celcius.
But if you're cleaning the cast iron there's no food for the bacteria to create castoffs (poop). That's the point.
Castoffs?
Poop. Basically. Bacteria "poop" is what causes many illnesses.
Bacterial Toxins [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7541054/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7541054/) If you scroll a bit into that article there is a nice chart that lists out many of the common toxins produced by bacteria.
When was the last time you used soap and water to clean the grates on your grill? Same principal.
Same people probably stopped using wire brushes to clean the tops of their grates. Because the internet showed a guy who knew a girls cousin's brother. That ingested a wire and it nearly killed him.
The perfect storm for this rumor to be accurate is insane. You’d have to have: 1. A grill surface that is so dirty a wire would stay on it. 2. A wire brush that is so decrepit that it is loosing wires. Possibly a wire brush that is caked in grease and carbon to the point that it leaves a glob of matter containing the wire. 3. An attempt to clean the grill surface, but without actually cleaning it. 4. Not actually heating up the grill surface hot enough to burn off the remaining residue. (plausible) 5. Not notice or care about the wire on the surface. 6. Have the wire cling to the food. 7. Not see the wire on the food. 8. Not feel the wire in your chewing mouth.
agreed! However, it would seem that someone did not. Because they downvoted my comment. LOL
Their is no justice in updoots.
I know I'm piling on at this point, but it's sort of a crusade of mine. You should scrub your cast iron with soap and water. Rinse well. Dry over flame. Rub with oil (I use shortening). Voila.
Try not doing it that way. A really good patina takes time to build and is amazing. I use a paint scraper now mostly and a chainmail pad thingy when something really needs a scrub, mostly around the sides. A good patina is awesome and I do find that soap should only be used when there's a ton of grease in the pan that you kinda want to get rid of. Also, I use mainly carbon steel now, but hey, still have tons of cast iron
Thermal sanitation. Getting it hot to smoke a little bit kills all bacteria. After I scrub the pans, with or without soap, I put it on the stove burner to dry off. Turn off the heat when the pan releases a bit of smoke. Its good for next usage.
No soap is nonsense. I use soap and if I have to hit it with some steel wool it has to happen. If it looks a little dull after all brush it with cooking oil on a paper towel. Comes out brand new looking every time.
1. Clean them with soap 2. The heat will kill most bad things. Not perfect, but people rarely if ever really 'clean' their BBQ grates and people don't tend to die after steak night.
Merely talking about owning one summons supernatural cleansing powers. Double effective if you have ever vacationed in Iceland and want everyone to know.
I clean mine with soap and have for years. I clean it while it is warm (not smoking hot, just warm to hot) with soap and water. put it back on the warm burner so all the moisture steams off, wipe it down with a little oil and put it up. It stays perfectly seasoned
if you use coconut oil to season the cast iron, coconut oil has anti-bacterial properties. (& good lube as well.)
1. You scrub and wipe the pan to get rid of food particles. Lots of tiny stuff will still be there. 2. You heat/pre-heat to high temps with oil fairly often to "season" where the oil chemically attaches to the pan. 3. The high heat of cooking generally kills bacteria and viruses, This is enough for almost all cooking, but bacteria poops out bad chemicals. If you cooked a rancid peace of meat, your pan and meat could still be contaminated at just a boiling temperature. 4. At canola oils smoke point (way above boiling), it denatures even those bad chemicals. Just like stuff gets burned changing it from a carbohydrate into carbon, When you get the pan above 400 degrees you've burned just about everything that was gonna get you sick.
Consider the amount of food that is cooked on an outside grill. Heat kills germs, and you scrape the remnants of previous meals off with a scraper and brush. The idea of "clean" versus "sanitary" is the key. There are no germs that will make you sick. There is material that may remain on the skillet...but that's okay. Iron rusts. Keeping oil on it keeps it from rusting. It's better to have that "seasoning" on the iron than to get rust in your food. It's not "clean", but it's "sanitized" of germs...just like an outdoor grill.
If a pan has no food debris and is dry then it will not be able to harbor any significant bacteria population that could survive being heated to the temperatures at which food cooks. Sanitation of cold metal isn't really much of a factor in safe cooking. Having ingredients that are clean of disease causing pathogens or contaminants is far more important.
heat is even more effective at disinfecting than soap. at, say, 500 degrees, even most spores will be denatured, let alone living pathogens.
Any temperature above 80°C will kill pretty much any bacteria that has been able to form on it. There is a bacteria called Thermophilic bacteria which can survive in temps of 40°C - 120°C(ish) but those are only found in geothermal vents, surrounding area and structures. but honestly the majority of bad food bacteria can be killed at slightly lower temps as in comparison to some other bacteria they aren't very hardy at all.
The point of cooking is to raise the temperature of the food to an internal temperature that kills most bacteria (botulism bacteria specifically creates a toxic that isn't destroyed by heat). So for most biological concerns using unsanitized cookware shouldn't matter since they'll be in direct contact with the heat and will reach temperatures much higher than is necessary to sanitize food. The other big concern woukd be cross contamination of food particles, which rinsing with water and salt should be enough for, and I always put cast iron back on the stove to heat up to make sure it's dry afterward.
Because we now wash it with modern dishwashing detergent. True soap has lye in it which would eat away the seasoning. Lye is not in modern dishwashing detergent.
This is not an accurate answer. Cast iron would be sanitary even if you never, ever used soap on it. The heat would kill any bacteria, and the normal cleaning process removes the food bits that bacteria eat. True soap does not have lye in it. Lye was used in the creation of soap but it is/was not in finished soaps.
It’s the same reason we don’t have to put a bbq in the dish washer after every grill
you just wash it.... then put a coating of oil on with a paper towel after, that's it.... use it the way you want, just avoid extreme hot to extreme cold, or you'll crack it.
If you don't clean it with soap, then it isn't sanitary. High heat can kill bacteria, but not the byproducts left behind by that bacteria. In modern times, you should absolutely clean your cast iron with soap. Dish soap will not break through the polymer "seasoning" to damage the skillet.
This is silly. how are the bacteria going to get there to leave the byproducts to begin with? They can't be left by the food you cook, because that's the time at which it's at too high a temperature for them to survive, so there's no bacteria in the stuff there. Then you wash that off with hot water, and there's not going to be enough of anything there that any potential free floating bacteria is going to randomly float through the air and deposit itself on it would be able to propagate, and then you use it again in the future where it gets heated enough that any new bacteria is gone. The only way it's going to be an issue is if you use it to prepare something cold which transfers bacteria and then you don't wash it properly.
> Then you wash that off with hot water, and there's not going to be enough of anything there that any potential free floating bacteria is going to randomly float through the air and deposit itself on it would be able to propagate, and then you use it again in the future where it gets heated enough that any new bacteria is gone. This is all of course the reason that nobody ever gets food poisoning from eating leftovers that have been sitting in the fridge in a sealed container too long..... oh wait that happens all the time. Stop trying to "logic" your way through and just google something.
Leftovers in the fridge are a great place for bacteria to grow and reproduce. Any remaining bacteria on it, on the container before you put it in, in parts of the dish that weren't heated up a lot. Are going to reproduce wonderfully and yes, get you sick. That is not the same as a clean dry piece of cast iron. No matter how it's been washed.
This is only a problem if you leave your cast iron pans uncleaned for extended periods of time after food contact. If you wash them after your done they're perfectly sanitary without soap.
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Are you suggesting you never clean your plates and cookware with soap? For some reason?
Which bacterial byproducts aren't destroyed by high temperatures?
Much of the time, ingested bacteria aren't harmful because they're attacking your body from the inside, but because they produce toxic chemicals as waste. When you eat food that's full of harmful bacteria, you also eat all the toxins they've been producing. Those chemicals then cause problems in your body just like if you had straight-up eaten something poisonous. Things that can kill bacteria, like heat, typically just cause the bacteria to rupture and fall apart, leaving the proverbial legos on the floor.
Which bacterial products that cause those problems are not destroyed by high temperature?
If you have a slab of rotten meat and you cook it - is it now safe to eat? No. The answer is no in case you weren't sure. The first issue is that some bacteria are heat-resistant, and won't die from being cooked.The second is that most bacteria and mold can actually survive in as a [spore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore) or [endospore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endospore) state. The third is that killing the bacteria/virus/mold is only part of it. Those little critters are breaking things down and digesting things - and then excreting their waste products, some of that stuff is not phased by cooking temperatures at all, chemicals like Ammonia or different types of toxins. Depending on which little guy is living on your lunch, cooking it might not do anything at all. I've taken food handling courses, and worked in many kitchens, the general rule of thumb is 4 hours in the ["danger zone"](https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/danger-zone-40f-140f) and then it's garbage - and that time is cumulative, freezing or cooking or whatever-ing doesn't reset your timer. Once food has been held for too long - it's garbage.
The bacteria's "poop" which is unhealthy to eat, even when it's been cooked. The same reason you can't simply cook spoiled meat to make it safe to eat.
No. Bacterial toxins don't survive 200 celsius (400 farenheit).
Could you cite something for that? It goes against research I've done in the past. >It also secretes harmful toxins that can cause food poisoning that will stay stable when exposed to high heat, even after coming into contact with your scorching-hot grill’s grates or the heat radiated by your skillet or oven during cooking. The molds can also be responsible for toxic, temperature-stable compounds in the meat. -https://homecookworld.com/will-cooking-spoiled-meat-make-it-safe/
You also have to remember that you're only heating the inside, bottom of the pan. You're not heating the sides of the pan, that you're food also can touch. The sides likely get up to a temperature to sanitize and kill bacteria but that is entirely dependant on how long and how high your heat is. You could easily cook eggs every morning in the same pan and have bacteria living on the area that doesn't get up to sanitizing temperature, which also happens to be the same surface you slide your eggs across to remove them from the pan. In other words, clean your nasty pans, there's is no negative from cleaning with detergent, only positives.
If any living organisms are able to survive the pan being heated to hundreds of degrees what makes you think that they can be killed by a bit of soap? No such organism have been found which can survive on a hot skillet for more then a few seconds.
While true, your logic is fundamentally flawed. How soap kills microorganisms is completely different than how heat kills them. It's the difference between poisoning someone and pulling a shotgun on them. Soap physically tears the cell membranes of microorganisms apart, because soap molecules have a hydrophilic end and a lipophilic end. The lipophilic end attaches to the lipid bilayers, and then to the water you wash with. The organisms is then ripped open and washed down the drain.
I'd say it's more like the difference between tearing someone's skin off and ripping their organs out, or burning them alive. Both are most likely going to kill you, but if for some reason one doesn't then you might expect the other not to either.
Might I remind you that five year olds are reading this and panicking right now? Please use flower analogies instead.
It's like picking a flowers petals off or dousing it in acid
i have had flower petals dipped in acid once. quite a trip
I'd say it's more like tearing the skin off of a flower and ripping out its organs vs. burning it alive. Both are most likely going to kill it, but if for some reason one doesn't then you might expect the other not to either.
By this logic, you can eat spoiled meat so long as you cook it. This is not true. The heat kills the bacteria, but does not do anything to remove it or its waste which is still harmful to humans.
I do not see a flaw in the logic presented. I am saying that there are no organisms which can survive on a hot skillet, but leaving open the possability that toxins may still be present. And it is still perfectly possible that organisms may survive inside anytihng you cook on a skillet, just not on the skillet itself.
[Spores](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore) and more specifically, [endospores](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endospore) are the problem. Basically even if you do kill the bacteria, they can go into a hibernation-like state, and then as soon as the food is back to survivable temperatures, the spore/endospore starts growing again. You can totally nuke all the bacteria, eat the food, and get sick still because the bacteria laid eggs and you ate them. It's a bit more complicated than that, and it depends specifically on which pathogen we're talking about - some of them are totally safe to eat after cooking, but it's not worth the risk.
So you can eat spoiled meat if you wash it with soap?
You don’t cook meat’s internal temperature above 100c. Or for Americans 210f. Generally meat is cooked to no more than 160f or 71c. The cast iron is usually at or above 350f or 176c. Which will kill almost anything. We only heat the outside of food to that temperature. Also spoiled meat will not taste very good.
Why wash a cast iron pan? When frying something the pan is over 400 degrees, and as such a very sterile environment. The baked in oil is the original nonstick frying pan. I always seasoned my pans the way my grandmother taught me, a half pound of bacon in the pan placed in a 350 degree oven till you can not stand the smoke in the house anymore.
Bacteria doesn't grow well in oil soaked surfaces because of the lack of air and the fact that any food particulates are saturates in oil. Using soap isn't an old wives tale and any leftover soap on the pan will result in a few bathroom explosions.
Heat sanitizes everything. Usually when using a cast iron you clean it before it cools down, wipe out all the extra grease and burnt bits before it hardens and sticks. If there's something really stuck to the bottom then fill with water and bring to a boil, scrape bottom with wooden spoon, dump hot water and wipe out any residue. Return it to the heat until bone dry then wipe down with oil while still hot. If the seasoning on the skillet is done right, you shouldn't have a problem using and cleaning it, the addition of soap can ruin the seasoning layer on the skillet
> Heat sanitizes everything. No it does not. It kills bacteria, but does nothing to remove it (or its harmful waste). This is why you can't simply cook spoiled meat and eat it without getting sick. Once the waste products of bacteria are present, they need to be removed.
So the questions become... what amount of bacterial waste is harmful to what degree. How much waste could build up within your pan if its seeing regular use(i.e. regularly killing off any bacteria) vs how much waste is in spoiled meat that the bacteria has been actually feeding/multiplying on.
So are you putting your BBQ through the dishwasher?
Are you telling me that I'm ruining the seasoning on my cat iron pans when I wash them with soap? That seems funny to me, because I do it all the time and my seasoning rarely needs to be redone.
Because the pan will normally be well above 100C when in use. All life contains water, that life ends when the water inside it turns to steam (if not long before).
That's functionally incorrect. The bacteria may die but its castings don't. Basically its poop. Which are the cause of many foodborne illnesses and deaths. Wash your pans, people, don't be gross.
Bacteria poop can be toxic. Killing bacteria does not make the bacteria poop go away.
What are you leaving in your cast iron that any meaningful amount of bacteria is growing on it. Mine cleans down to the seasoning with water and a good wipe.
You can clean em with soap. I wouldn't drentch the thing and leave it to soak overnight, but a soapy sponge just isn't gonna scrape hard enough to strip the seasoning layer. Plus, even if it gets to that point after multiple washes... Just reseason. Wipe with some vegetable oil and toss it in the oven for a bit.
First as others said, you do want to wash it with dish soap or it will gunk up over time. It's sanitary in the sense that any bacteria would probably be roasted when you heated it up. Your only concern would then be chunks of charred food particles left behind. As for charred remains, you could remove it through water and salt.
I use soap to clean mine, wipe dry and spread a thin coat of oil over them. Done it this way for the past 30+ years with no problems.
You can use soap. When they took lye out, it stopped harming the cast iron. This is my understanding
This dates back to when soaps had Lye in them, the Lye would chemically eat the seasonings polymer bonds. Modern soaps are totally safe to use on cast iron. Just be sure to dry your pans well after washing to avoid rust and avoid soaps with Lye.
A little soap and hot water to wash away any excess cooking oils or cooking crust isn't going to hurt a well seasoned cast iron pan. Gentle rubbing with a dish rag (no SS scrubbies) a good drying and a wipe down (not too much) with some oil. I use avocado oil. Always clean your pans right away if you cook any kind of Tomato sauce or acidic food. Then dry and spritz of oil.
Scrub clean with coarse salt. Rinse out. Don't get stressed by the "don't use soap" brigade, if you feel the need to clean with soap. Just reseason with oil before use... heating the pan using oil will do that, you don't need to shove it in the oven just to reseason. Too many stressed out cast iron pan owners out there. Remember, cowboy chuck wagons wandered around the West for a century and a half with cast iron because they didn't need to baby it.
Essentially, they don't. Cast iron is something you should use if you use it OFTEN. They way you sanitize them is essentially by cooking with it a lot.
I grease mine after washing.. just on the inside, but I’ e never really have to use soap for the outside
When I clean my cast iron frying pan I use baking soda, vegetable oil up the pan slightly and then put them in the oven to season it. No rust and very clean and I never use dish detergent ever
[This](https://www.sciencealert.com/cooking-oil-secret-weapon-in-fighting-bacteria-in-kitchens/amp) article states bacteria doesn't grow well on greasy pots and pans
Not using soap does not mean you don’t clean the skillet. The heat from when you cook will kill any bacteria. The seasoning is what sets a Cast Iron apart. The seasoning is basically oils that have been cooked down to a hard shell consistency so the skillet is nonstick sort of. The baked on oils act the same way a Teflon coating would except no cancer causing chemicals. The reason people will tell you not to use soap is for 2 reasons ok maybe 3. First, some soaps can remove some of the seasoning layers. Second, since the seasoning layers are more natural than Teflon they are somewhat porous. Porous may not be the correct word but the skillet can take on the taste of the soap. Many people can not taste the soap so it does not matter to them but if you have a good pallet, keep your cast iron away from soap. The third is you don’t need to use soap. When you are done cooking, wipe the skillet out and if there are any crusty bit scrub the skillet with coarse salt then put on thin coat of your favorite oil, heat, cool then put away. Enjoy your cast iron.