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Cast iron does have a couple rules that are exceptions in the modern kitchen. You can’t leave them soaking in the sink or run them through the dishwasher witho

Cast iron does have a couple rules that are exceptions in the modern kitchen. You can’t leave them soaking in the sink or run them through the dishwasher without creating a bunch of maintenance work to remove the rust you just created but this is usually less work, just different. Instead of soaking in the sink I tend to just boil a cup of water in the pan and it loosens up anything stuck. You also shouldn’t cook high acid foods like a slow simmering pasta sauce in cast iron since it can have unwanted taste effects. But otherwise, anything you read about seasoning with flaxseed oil and building up layers is a waste of your time, just use it. I can also sympathize with anyone who is of below average strength (children, injured or disabled, advanced age) not choosing cast iron, they are heavy compared to a Teflon pan.

jokethrowaway 4y ago
It's not a waste of time. Sometimes the pan will get sticky. Coating it with oil and putting it in the oven at high temperature will make it as good as new. It's just not as common as people think when they hear about it.
- stouset 4y ago
  The pan getting sticky is with overwhelming probability because people have a weird belief that you shouldn’t wash with soap or use the scrubby side of the sponge. This causes a buildup of half-polymerized oils which are sticky and/or rough. The reason reseasoning “works” is simply because you’re finishing the polymerization process. But it’s completely unnecessary. The real solution isn’t to reseason. It’s to just wash the damn thing. Soap, water, and whatever scrub brush does the job. Nothing you do short of steel wool is going to make a dent in the seasoning. Not washing with soap is one of those widespread myths that actively makes your cast iron perform worse. I struggled with this problem constantly until I stopped babying my cast iron and I’ve never had a problem since. What totally changed my perspective was trying to get the black stuff off an aluminum sheet pan. It’s a slightly different bond than the seasoning on a cast iron pan but functionally they’re both the same thing. Getting that off a sheet pan required meticulously scrubbing with steel wool and a lot of elbow grease. It clicked for me that if it’s that hard to get it off a sheet pan, it’s not coming off my cast iron because I used a little Dawn.

jokethrowaway 4y ago

It's not a waste of time. Sometimes the pan will get sticky. Coating it with oil and putting it in the oven at high temperature will make it as good as new. It's just not as common as people think when they hear about it.

stouset 4y ago
The pan getting sticky is with overwhelming probability because people have a weird belief that you shouldn’t wash with soap or use the scrubby side of the sponge. This causes a buildup of half-polymerized oils which are sticky and/or rough. The reason reseasoning “works” is simply because you’re finishing the polymerization process. But it’s completely unnecessary. The real solution isn’t to reseason. It’s to just wash the damn thing. Soap, water, and whatever scrub brush does the job. Nothing you do short of steel wool is going to make a dent in the seasoning. Not washing with soap is one of those widespread myths that actively makes your cast iron perform worse. I struggled with this problem constantly until I stopped babying my cast iron and I’ve never had a problem since. What totally changed my perspective was trying to get the black stuff off an aluminum sheet pan. It’s a slightly different bond than the seasoning on a cast iron pan but functionally they’re both the same thing. Getting that off a sheet pan required meticulously scrubbing with steel wool and a lot of elbow grease. It clicked for me that if it’s that hard to get it off a sheet pan, it’s not coming off my cast iron because I used a little Dawn.