eli5 how does a cast iron pan get clean?

Question

without touching soap and water 🤔

In: 72

Answer 1

The simplest way is to use scalding hot water, steel wool, some paper towels, and a bit of either cooked bacon grease or cooking oil (I prefer Avocado Oil).

Get water scalding hot, put on rubber dish cleaning gloves, wash pan using only the scalding water and steel wool to remove any stuck on food. NO SOAP IS TO BE USED AT ALL. Once all food particles have been removed and the pan looks clean you then dry the pan off using paper towels, and finally you “re season” the pan by using a single paper towel that has some of the cooked bacon grease on it or the oil (I prefer avocado oil due to its very high smoke point of 500F) and you wipe down the inside of the pan with the oil giving it a light coating.

Here is where some people soak the paper towels in the oil and leave it on the pan, others do what I do and give it light coating. Either way at the end you place the pan back into the oven (with the oven OFF) and that is where it sits until you are ready to use it again.

Edit: Instead of using scalding water from the sink you can opt to boil water in the pan, then use hot water from the sink but you do run the risk of burning yourself if you are not careful.

List version:

1. Use extremely hot water (scalding levels), while wearing kitchen dish gloves. Use CAUTION when doing this to prevent burns.
2. Under that extremely hot water you scrub cast iron pan with steel wool to remove all food particles. DO NOT USE SOAP OF ANY KIND.
3. Once food particles are removed you dry the pan with paper towels
4. Once dried you can use cooked bacon grease or a cooking oil of choice, I recommend Avocado Oil due to its 500F smoke point and health benefits.
5. Apply either the cooked bacon grease or avocado oil to the inside of the pan by either soaking the paper towels in the grease/oil or by giving it a light coating. If soaking the paper towels they stay in the pan, if coating its just a coating and then trash the paper towels.
6. Place pan into oven with the oven OFF for storage until ready to use again.

This is how my family has done it for generations, I still have my grandmothers cast iron pan from the 1920’s and its still as good today as it was back then using this exact method. So keep downvoting, lets fucking go.