Most of this information is presented within the Care and Maintenance section of this website – but I wanted to have a place that people could comment on this specific topic. I know that people into Cast Iron have wonderful and often loud opinions!
Would you like this information (and more) in one document. CLICK HERE for Care and Cooking Tips.
Daily care of your cast iron pan is not difficult. Just follow a few simple steps for a lifetime of use.
1. Get some water in the pan
Cover the bottom of the pan with water soon after cooking – but not right away! You do not want to put water is a searing hot pan. If the water spits, sizzles and steams – you put it in too soon. This could damage your pan so just wait 10 minutes or so. The pan will still be hot (but not too hot). Put it back on the stove until you are ready to clean it. If you cooked something particularly messy – let it soak for a good long time. Try not to leave water in the pan overnight and definitely do not immerse the pan in water.
2. Get the food off the pan
After a soak, the food in the pan should come right off. It is OK if the pan looks a bit ugly after cooking. Remember, having a great non-stick seasoning layer does not guarantee you a spot-free pan. But it does allow you to just wipe most of it away with little or no effort.
Take a look at the tools I use every day.
The white brush is all I need to clean the pan 80% of the time. If you have some persistent food then put water back in the pan for another half hour or so. After the brush has done its work, if necessary, a light scrub with the green side of the sponge usually takes care of the rest.
I only rarely need to scrape the pan – I have the black and red plastic scrapers but barely use them. The last time I used one was when I made a pan of well-done caramelized onions (oh – they were glorious). But even with a good soak there was a spotty layer of baked-on gunk. Looks like the sugars from the onions really got baked onto the pan. After a soak and a scrub with the brush, I put some water in the pan and brought it up to a boil for 5 minutes. I gently used the scraper on the rough layer of cooked-on food and that is all it took. At first, I wondered if the black flakes I saw were the onions or the seasoning layers. But it was the crusty food for sure. The seasoning layer looked to be in great shape. Then I finished up the cleaning normally.
Lastly, I have a chainmail scrubber. I think this is super cool – it causes no harm and does a really good job. But here is a small but significant point…if you follow the steps above you probably won’t need any serious scrubbing. But perhaps it could be handy if you have some serious stuck on food or you just get impatient.
3. Dry the Pan – Add a Thin Coat of Oil
After cleaning, dry the pan with a towel. You may think that you are going to heat it on the stove anyway – why dry it? Because water is pervasive and persistent. Remember, cast iron transmits heat slowly. The water will typically not have enough time to evaporate from the whole pan. The simple answer is to get most of the water off with a towel first.
After toweling the pan dry – put it on the stove for maybe 5 minutes until the pan is completely dry and hot. I usually flip the pan upside down for a few minutes during drying. Put a small amount of oil in the pan (I recommend canola oil) and spread it with a paper towel. You are just using enough to cover the bottom and sides with an oily sheen (I usually do not do the bottom of the pan during this daily maintenance). Some people would stop here – but I definitely recommend 2 more short steps.
Do not put an oily pan away because old oil will turn sticky and rancid. So once the hot pan is covered with a small amount of oil, buff it out with a cloth. Take off all the oil you put on because this is where I see many problems develop. Too much oil will leave spots or become sticky. So after buffing with a cloth put it back on the stove for a minute or two and make sure it is hot to the touch. Then turn it off and leave it out to dry. Done. Perfect.
Paper Towels and Cloth
It is very useful to use a small washcloth for buffing oil out of the pan and I have one dedicated for this purpose. It is the cotton checkered cloth in the photo above (after one wash it was pretty much lint free). Anytime I am covering the pan with a light coat of oil I am typically using a paper towel. When I am taking the oil out of the pan (either in initial seasoning or maintenance) I use the dedicated washcloth. The cloth is easier when dealing with a hot pan and paper towels can shred if things get abrasive. And why use a ton of paper towels all the time? Highly recommended!