What I know about cleaning and seasoning cast-iron skillets

4. Use less oil when you do touch-ups. A half teaspoon for a 12-inch skillet, max. You never want the surface to be glossy and oily; if you can see oily traces on a finger swiped over the interior, there’s too much—wipe it again. As you heat the pan to bond the oil to the surface, wipe it yet again to remove any oil that beads up. It might smoke a little, and that’s fine. When it’s finished bonding, the pan should look deep, solid, and matte black—not shiny.

5. Can you use soap to clean the pan? Yes, a little. It’s not going to be the end of the world. But you really don’t have to. Rinse and scrub the pan with steamy hot tap water and the oil will mostly dissolve away, leaving the merest trace. Wipe it dry. Then heat it and let that trace of oil bond to the surface.

6. A rough-surfaced pan is fine. It will eventually gain seasoning as you use it, though it may take a couple extra months to be as slick as a pan with a smoother interior. You really don’t need to consider power sanding or other extreme measures.

That’s because the main benefit of cast-iron cookware is its thick, heat-retaining material, not its slickness or lack thereof. You will always need to use a little fat (butter, oil, etc.) in your pan to get food to release well. It’s not a Teflon pan. So stop worrying about slickness. Take advantage of the heat retention to sear meats and vegetables; shallow-fry chicken, french fries, or doughnuts (your pan keeps the oil at a steady temperature); and bake or roast cornbread or chicken until golden brown. When you do all these things in cast iron, the pan’s surface slickness will automatically build and improve. All you need to do is enjoy delicious food.

from Hacker News https://ift.tt/2TFiqvQ