PSA: My sister-in-law tried to wash my skillet with soap and I almost lost it

This happened at a family cookout in Omaha last summer. I was finishing up some burgers on my 12-inch Lodge, and she offered to clean up. I turned around for maybe two minutes and she had it in the sink, full of hot water and a big squirt of blue Dawn. I had to stop myself from yelling. I calmly told her that's a big no-no for cast iron, and she just shrugged and said, 'It's just a pan, it'll be fine.' I had to explain that soap strips the seasoning you work so hard to build, and that you should just scrub it with hot water and a brush. She looked at me like I had three heads. It really stuck with me how some people just don't get it. What's the most clueless thing someone has tried to do to your cast iron?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_piper2mo ago

My cousin once put my skillet in the dishwasher, which is a whole other level of bad.

uma3062mo ago

Feel your pain, @the_piper. That's basically a war crime in my kitchen. I had a roommate who did that to my good pan, and it came out all cloudy and weird. The seasoning was totally gone, like it was stripped bare. Took me months of cooking bacon to get it back to normal. Some people just don't get that cast iron needs special care.

robin8361mo ago

Wait, the dishwasher? That's not just bad, that's like trying to wash a pet cat in the washing machine. The heat and soap in there would absolutely wreck the pan. I can't even imagine opening it up and seeing a skillet in there. That's a full-on kitchen nightmare. It would strip every bit of seasoning off in one cycle. You'd basically have to start over from scratch like it was brand new.