Can you use soap on a cast-iron pan?

Question

My mom washed a cast-iron pan we just got with soap and water. The next morning there was this funky orange residue left on the bottom of the pan. What is the proper way to wash a pan? And is it okay to use soap in the future, since not using it grosses me out? :D thanks

Answer 1

You don't really want to use soap in cast iron. This may sound gross but they are not really meant to be thoroughly cleaned. Put some water in it and boil it on the stove to remove anything baked on. You really should keep the pan coated with oil and it will last forever. i have a couple I have used for years. If you use the soap, coat the pan with oil or you will ruin it.

Answer 2

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RE:
Can you use soap on a cast-iron pan?
My mom washed a cast-iron pan we just got with soap and water. The next morning there was this funky orange residue left on the bottom of the pan. What is the proper way to wash a pan? And is it okay to use soap in the future, since not using it grosses me out? :D thanks

Answer 3

cast iron is porus. You don't wash it soap. Anything that is cooked in it, the germs get burned off by the heat so there is no fear of disease or anything like that.

Just rinse it out and maybe use a sponge to get of the chunks. When you clean your oven you can put it in there to clean it completely.

Your pan will get ugly looking over time but that is good not bad. The more you cook in your pan the more "seasoned" it will be and the better your pan will cook and the food you prepare in it will taste.

all stone pans also like from pamper chef or any stone pan is the same also.

Answer 4

A brand new cast iron pan is covered with rust proofing coating. You have to use soap and scrub very well with abrasive pads to get them off.

Once that is done, you have to season it with oil and heat.

Once seasoned, you DO NOT use soap as it will remove the oil that migrated into the material acting as non-stick surface. You can use hot water and a scrubber to clearn. The best scrubber I found so far is a bunched up bamboos available at some Asian stores.

If you are the type of person who has to wash everything with soap and very well, cast iron is not for you. Doing so will require to season it after every wash.

Answer 5

If I have heavy cacked on stuff on the bottome of the pan, I add some water, bring to a boil and scrape it off with a spatula. Then I just let it sit to cool completely. (Cast iron will crack if you rapidly move it from hot to cold or vise versa) Then I just take a little soap and wash it quickly and then dry completely, immediately. That orange gunk is from not drying it. (It's the iron from the pan somehow reacting with the water)
You're not supposed to use soap on cast iron though. They say it "unseasons" it. I do it anyway. They say that when you're done using it, you're supposed to just wipe it with a paper towel to keep it seasoned. I think that's not very sanitary.
(Whenever I use my pan, I spray a little non-stick spray in to help with the non-sticking)
Hope that answers your question.

Answer 6

Soap is fine if you have some really greasy stuff in your CI. It won't take off the seasoning unless it is Lye based soap. We use Lye to strip the seasoning off to restore CI. Your CI didn't get dry and it rusted, no big deal, just scrub it out and season it again.

Answer 7

Sure you can use soap! However, when you use soap, you clean out all the litle pores in the cast iron. It is no longer "seasoned." Re-seasoning isn't hard to do- follow the link I have at the bottom of this answer and you'll have a clean cast iron pan ready for use.

Good luck!

Answer 8

I only cook in cast iron pans. That orange stuff is rust, You need to get a Brillo pad or fine wool pad to scrub it off. You can wash it with soap. In fact, when you first get the pan, you are supposed to wash it with a soapy Brillo Pad to remove the excess loose iron particles from it. After you wash it, you put it on your stove top and dry it over medium heat. Once dried, remove from burner and just wipe some vegetable shortening all over the inside and once cooled, store it in a dry place. Don't cook anything acidic (tomato products) in it though or you will rust it and wear off the black coating you are trying to form on it.

Answer 9

That's called rust. Get it? Iron-rust?
No?
They used cast iron skillets before Teflon came along.
..
. It's alright to wash a newly acquired iron pan with soap and water. Just rinse it well. The rust is natural, but the best thing to do is to wipe it out while it's freshly washed out and wipe a layer of Crisco on it. Then heat it up to a pretty high temperature. When it cools down wipe it out. When your done cooking you can rinse it out with a trickle of warm water and NO SOAP. If you have a paper towel wipe it out and if you are person who cleans their pans as they go then that burner it was on is still hot enough to reheat that surface oil that didn't get washed away with the typical blast of city water.
So 3 things made this a practical cooking pan.
1-it was heavy and cooked food evenly
2- it wash cleanable without tons of water like we waste today!
3- food didn't stick BECAUSE of the oil layer adhered to the iron. That's called seasoning the pan when oil is baked on. Don't worry, the germs get burned to death!
Good cooks only use pans like that. Tell that to your "ooh gross" girlfriends. ( just kidding-they probably already know)...hmm...

Answer 10

fruit grows on forest or vines and fresh vegetables grow in the land.