Taking care of cast iron cookware is as easy as 1 – 2 – 3. Rinse your warm, but not hot, cast iron pan in an empty sink under hot running water using a clean cloth or brush to remove any traces of food. If there are stuck on or burned on foods, use coarse salt as an abrasive.
Cleaning cast iron when it is still warm will reduce the time and difficulty of cleaning your pan and help prevent food from sticking.
While the pan is still hot, use a spatula to remove as much of any stuck-on bits of food as possible. Then add about 1/2 cup of hot or boiling water to the pan. It's important to use hot water, since cold water going into a hot pan could cause it to warp or even crack.
Water boils at 212º and cast iron pans without an enamel coating can withstand up to 1500°F. So boiling a little water won't damage your pan. If you don't season your pan well, rust can form in no time, though. If you boil water for too long, you risk wearing down the layer of seasoning.
First, it's important to always heat up the pan prior to adding any oil, butter, or fat. When cooking on cast iron, when it comes to fat, less is not always more. It's better to err on the side of too much fat, and then simply drain any excess after cooking.
The thick gauge of the cast iron takes some time to heat thoroughly and will retain its heat for a long time. Before you start cooking, make sure to preheat your cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Any higher and you risk shocking the metal and burning the food. Any lower, and you'll be waiting around forever.
A cast-iron skillet can withstand heats of up to 1500°F, which is much hotter than your oven could ever be. The seasoning will only burn off at about 800°F, so don't worry that you will damage your pan by cooking with high heat. Cast iron can, however, easily get too hot for the dish that you're trying to cook.
Acidic foods (unless you make it snappy)
Acidic foods (like tomato sauce, wine-braised meats, etc.) enter the red zone when they spend too much time cooking in the skillet. It's particularly important to not marinate anything in a cast-iron pan, as many marinades are quite acidic in order to tenderize the meat.
Why can't you boil water in cast iron? When you have water at a constant boil in seasoned cast iron, the boiling causes the seasoning to release. This can leave patchy seasoning or an uneven layer of seasoning left on your cast iron.
All cooking oils and fats can be used for seasoning cast iron, but based on availability, affordability, effectiveness, and having a high smoke point, Lodge recommends vegetable oil, melted shortening, or canola oil, like our Seasoning Spray.
Heat the Pan Before Cooking in It
Because cast iron is an excellent conductor of heat, your pan will remain hot for a long time and that heat will transfer to the recipe well. While you can cook on a cold cast iron pan, the food will likely stick and the recipe may not cook as evenly.
If cast iron is left in the sink to soak, put in the dishwasher, or allowed to air dry, it will rust. It can also happen when you store your cookware in moisture-prone environments, such as a cabinet near a dishwasher, an open cabinet in a humid location, or stored outside.
Start the process soon after cooking to prevent any food remnants from getting stuck as the pan cools. While your pan is still warm, take it to the sink and wash it with a drop of dish soap. (Yes, despite popular belief, a little soap is fine if you remember to re-season your cast-iron skillet as needed.
To clean, just use mild dish soap (that's right, it's okay to use a little soap!) and a scouring pad or a cast iron pan cleaning brush. Wash it, scrub it, rinse it, then wipe it out well and season it with a few drops of oil and store with a paper towel covering the cooking surface.
Simply put, cast iron can rust if you leave water on it for too long. You can absolutely still use water (and soap!) to cook in or clean your cast iron, but you don't want to let water just sit on your pan for an extended period of time.
Cooks for generations didn't use soap on cast iron pans because the soaps were made with lye and vinegar, two ingredients that will absolutely strip seasoning and can even damange the pan's iron. Today's aerosol oven cleaners are often made with lye, or sodium hydroxide.
Cast iron pans can leach a sizeable amount of iron into your food, exceeding dietary intake in some cases. Acidic foods will contribute to much more leaching while an old, heavily-seasoned pan will leach much less iron than a newer one.
In short, it's best to apply a very light coating of oil to clean, dry cast iron cookware after each use. The oil protects the iron from moisture and oxidation, which helps prevent rust. Apply cooking oil with a clean, lint-free cloth, then thoroughly wipe down all surfaces of the pan to remove excess oil.
In addition, by using cast iron with your everyday cooking, you are not only getting more iron and fewer chemicals in your diet, but you're also learning how to cook with time-tested cooking gear.
Sticking your skillet into a roaring fire might seem like a good way to heat it up in a hurry, but overheating or uneven heating can cause your skillet to take on a permanent warp, or even crack. Same goes for pouring cold water into a red-hot pan. Don't do it.
If you accidentally leave your cast iron cookware on any heat source for too long, food, marinades, and sauces can burn and get stuck to the surface.
Cast iron is one of the only pieces of cookware that you can easily take from kitchen to campfire. And that's a big part of why we love it! Because it can withstand high temperatures (up to 650˚ F, in fact!), it's a great option for almost any heat source.