I hate cast iron so I am in favour of this.

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First, everyone (not you because you don't like it) should buy their cast iron at the hardware store, should be ~ $30. It'll last pretty much forever so that $30 over a lifetime is not much.

If you don't cook a starch or aromatic in it, just wipe it out and let it get super hot.

If you do cook starch in it, hand wash it with soap, just let it get over 212 degrees on the stove to dry it.

If you want to throw it in the dishwasher, just pull it out at the end of the cycle and throw it on the stove > 212 degrees to dry. A well seasoned pan is generally so easy to clean, this would be a waste of your time, but it won't kill anyone.

If you want to subscribe to the no soap, scrub off the cooked starches with water and a non scratch scouring pad, re-coat in a fine layer of oil and let it smoke off under high heat. I really don't bother and just use whatever it takes to get it clean easily.

If the seasoning polymer you get from burning off oil gets cruddy after 6-8 months, re-season.

If you accidentally get a little rust on it, soak it in vinegar until the rust dissapears, scrub the spot with a 3m pad until the spot is clean and re-season.

You can get a rusty ass pan from a yard sale, soak it in vinegar for a day, scrub it down and re-season it. It'll come out like new.

If over the years, the seasoned surface starts to look super cruddy, soak it in sodium hydroxide until the polymer disolves, then reseason.

Yeah, they're harder than throwing it in the dishwasher, But they're wasteless, cheap, pleasant to cook on and give great results.

I keep a teflon pan and a couple different cast iron around. Even found a glass top lid that fits.

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Yeah I got one for free because a family member saw rust and wanted to throw it out.

Scrub, oil, and we're good to go.

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Condescending and a pity party. Really a wonder why people aren't flocking to upvote.

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Lol if you didn't care you wouldn't be constantly complaining about it

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Lol this response proves OP's point. "Bro it's so easy bro just soak in hydrogen peroxide and fill your house with smoking oil it's easy dude just measure how much starch is in ur meal dude lol ez"

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Teflon also should not go in the dishwasher. Anything with exposed aluminum should not go in the dishwasher. Even stainless steel cookware recommends against dishwasher

Buglefingers

Rust (clean) is actually perfectly safe to eat! And can add extra iron content to your diet if necessary!
https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/12540

Is Using Rusty Cookware Really That Big Of A Deal?

Does some of your cookware or baking pans have rust on them? We ask experts if it's a safety hazard.

Prevention (www.prevention.com)

(Most sources assume tainted rust, or large quantities, but small amounts of "clean" rust are fine, just don't over eat iron quantities)

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LOL at cherrypicking something I said to do instead of throwing the pan away

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I don't have a horse in this race but everything is carcinogenic to some degree, burnt toast isn't going to make any real difference. And why would cast iron have a polymer coating? Unless I'm missing something wasn't the whole point to avoid that?

snooggums

So another way of saying reseasoning.

I haven't had to do that since I switched to a less abrasive sponge. The green Scotch brand ones tended to take off some of the seasoning but the blue ones only take off the food.

Victor

I don't like using it because of the maintenance and manual cleaning, but I do use it because of the iron rich food it makes, and the longevity of the cookware.

Also I heard Teflon is literally freaking poison for you, like one of the worst things to consume. And pots and pans always tend to flake Teflon after a while, from general use. So we got rid of everything Teflon.

I don't know how true it is but it feels good. Doing some manual labor isn't a bad thing either.

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I do nothing to my cast iron, it's rusty and shit, it's fine.

hypnotoad

I also try not to use much if any soap there too, because, porous wood

To each their own my friend, you do you. Not trying to get into a fued over soap preferences lol

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I'm English, don't forget to downvote me!

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Well that's blatantly what they're doing, isn't it. Must have found a shitty pan or something.

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What do you think carbon steel is made from?

Cast iron and steel are largely similar materials, cast iron just has the carbon precipitated out of solution instead of trapped in a crystalline structure

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Bukowski

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These are instructions for those who are picky about stuff.

Just cook in it. After cooking, wipe it out. If its bad, when pre-heating I pull it off to put some water and rub with a pad with minimal soap, rinse that off, and back on the hob. Wow 15s of work before cooking. The horror.

The instructions rumba gave were "if you absolutely fuck up, here are easy ways to fix that so you don't have to buy a new one"

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Detergents are basic because that works wonders on greasy stuff. When oil polymerises it won't be susceptible to basic substances anymore but will react to acids. (Unlike acid and oils which don't really react with each other – think vinaigrette separating in the fridge.)

Washing a cast iron pan with detergent will clean it from unpolymerised oil.

Cooking e.g. tomato based sauces in your cast iron pan will strip it of the polymerised coating (might impart flavour too).

Cleaning kitchen tiles near your stove is sometimes easier with acidic cleaning solutions as well. Just be careful with the caulking which will brittle over time from using acids.

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You have those prices reversed though. My cast iron collection, as noted further down, cost less in total than my one really good stainless steel pan, and guess where some of that cast iron was purchased? For $10 at Walmart, LOL. And at thrift stores and Target.