You can use mild dish soap and coarse salt to clean a cast iron skillet. But to keep it seasoned and maintained, turn to other kitchen essentials. Blackstone; Lodge
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Affoumado recommended using a salve or some sort of oil-based conditioner to season your cast iron skillet. This cleaner from Blackstone, which has a 4.7-star average rating from 7,720 reviews on Amazon, is ideal for maintaining your cast iron skillet’s seasoning. Made from a mix of canola, soy, palm oils, shortening and beeswax, this conditioning salve comes in a thick paste that you spread on the surface of your skillet and heat to help maintain the seasoning. Depending on the size of the skillet, you should use around a tablespoon or two of the paste and you may have to repeat the process at least three times, according to the brand.
Instead of using a sponge or an abrasive metal-based cleaning tool such as steel wool, Affoumado recommends using a bamboo scrub brush, since it’s thorough enough to remove food debris without scrubbing away the skillet’s layers of seasoning. This one has a 4.6-star average rating from 7,483 reviews on Amazon and comes with three individual brushes. The brushes have a round ergonomic handle on top, making them easy to hold on to as you clean, and they even come with a small ceramic dish to hold it in place.
To spread the salve onto your skillet, Affoumado recommends using a lint-free cotton cloth, such as a cotton bandana. These cotton bandanas are great for distributing the conditioning oil on your skillet since they won’t leave lint behind. You can get these in a range of different colors and combinations, but either way, they’re a great item to have in your kitchen drawer or pantry, especially if you cook with your cast iron skillet often.
If you prefer to use a sprayable oil for seasoning your cast iron skillet, consider this one from the cast iron skillet brand Lodge. While it looks like a nonstick cooking spray, it’s meant for maintaining the layers of seasoning on your cast iron skillet. All you have to do is spray a thin layer of the oil on the pan and wipe away any excess oil with a lint-free cloth.
Aside from being a foundational cooking ingredient, kosher salt has a coarse texture that makes it abrasive, meaning it can remove residual food and grease from your cast iron skillet without damaging it or removing layers of seasoning, especially compared to dish soap. Plus, since it comes in such a large container, you can split this up with your cooking salt and salt meant solely for cleaning your cast iron skillet.
There are several ways to clean a cast iron skillet without ruining it. Here are a few methods our experts recommend:
Method 1: Use coarse salt and a bamboo cleaning brush
Let the pan cool completely. Remove any remaining solid bits of food from the skillet.
Add hot water to the pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Add a tablespoon or two of coarse salt, such as kosher salt, to the pan, depending on the size of the skillet.
Use a scratch-safe scrub brush, such as a bamboo cleaning brush, to clean the bottom, sides and underside of the skillet. Scrub the hot water and salt to remove food debris and excess grease.
Rinse with warm water and fully dry with a paper towel or cloth, making sure there are no water droplets on the pan.
Method 2: Use hot water, mild dish soap and a bamboo cleaning brush
Repeat step one described above, and add enough hot water to cover the bottom of the skillet.
Add a small drop of very mild dish soap to the pan and use a dish cleaning brush to scrub the bottom, sides and underside of the skillet.
Rinse thoroughly with warm water and dry completely with a paper towel or cloth.
Many people confuse seasoning and maintaining a cast iron skillet — what’s often called seasoning (adding oil or a salve to the skillet and heating it) is technically a form of maintenance, since the pan is already seasoned. While many cast iron skillets come pre-seasoned, if you get one that isn’t seasoned or if you’re trying to revive an old cast iron skillet, you should season it properly so that your pan is fine to use. Here’s how experts recommend doing it:
Method 1: Use a seasoning salve and a cotton cloth
Use a lint-free cotton cloth, such as a cotton bandana, to apply a small amount of cast iron seasoning salve (sometimes called a conditioner) to the cleaned and dried pan. A salve is a mix of oils and/or wax.
Spread the salve all over the pan thoroughly and use another clean cloth to pick up any residual oil from the pan.
Transfer the skillet to the stovetop and heat over medium heat until the pan no longer looks overly glossy, at least three minutes, according to Affoumado. Remove from the heat and let cool on the stovetop before using again.
Method 2: Use a cooking oil with a high smoke point
Instead of using a prepared salve for maintaining your cast iron skillet’s seasoning, you can use cooking oil instead, though you should only use ones that have a high smoke point (meaning they can withstand high temperature before starting to burn), such as grapeseed, avocado and sunflower oils. Do not use olive oil to season a cast iron skillet because it has a low smoke point and can make food taste rancid, according to Affoumado.
Spread a small amount of the oil all over the skillet using a cotton cloth and heat on the stovetop as described above.
Frequently asked questions
As mentioned above, cast iron skillets typically come pre-seasoned. Old cast iron skillets or ones that have been through a lot, however, require seasoning. “Seasoning is what you do when you first get a new cast iron skillet or if you’ve stripped a vintage pan back to the iron and then built up new ‘seasoning’ layers,” says Affoumado. “We use "maintenance" as the term after you’ve used your pan for years and it is properly seasoned. You’re maintaining the seasoning.”
Yes, you can technically use dish soap to clean a cast iron skillet, but it isn’t the most ideal solution, according to Affoumado. While there’s a lot of debate about whether or not soap is fine to use on a cast iron skillet, most experts will say that if you do use soap, it should be a very mild dish soap, such as one without dyes and fragrances. This is because the ingredients in soap can damage the surface of a cast iron skillet over time. In terms of getting rid of bacteria or grime, however, our experts say that any residual that could be on the surface of the skillet would be killed once it’s heated to at least 200 degrees, according to Affoumado.
The main reason you should thoroughly dry your cast iron skillet each time you use and wash it is to prevent rust and ensure it’s in good shape to use in the future, according to Lewis. “Regular use of an already seasoned iron skillet requires just rinsing and wiping it out before drying on a stove burner and re-oiling to prevent rust,” he says. While simply drying with a cloth helps, drying on the stove helps maintain the seasoning of the skillet and further dries it out.
Using a minimal amount of ingredients and products, such as coarse salt and cooking oil, is best when cleaning a cast iron skillet. To prevent ruining your cast iron skillet, you should avoid using non-mild dish soap to clean it and make sure that each time you clean it, you dry it extremely thoroughly. Plus, while using olive oil for cooking in a cast iron skillet is fine, you shouldn’ t use it to season a cast iron skillet because its smoke point is too low and it can lead to a rancid taste and smell, according to Affoumado.
Additionally, it’s best to avoid using strong cleaning products to maintain a skillet, according to Lewis. In fact, Lewis advises people to “not to use abrasive or cream cleaners” on cast iron pans, since they are partially porous and can get damaged.
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also take steps to ensure all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and without undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
Seth Affoumado is the founder of The Skillet Doctor, a cast iron cookware restoration service company. The brand also sells products for cleaning, seasoning and maintaining cast iron cookware.
I’m commerce editor at NBC Select, where I write about reviews and roundups for cookware, cleaning products and other home and kitchen topics. I spoke with a professional cast iron restorer for this story.
