How to Clean Cast Iron Cookware

Cast iron pans are the healthiest way to cook. Yet many people refuse them because they fear food will stick to the pan and it will be a pain to clean. While some may disagree, even saying cast iron is "natural nonstick," I'm here to tell you that some food will indeed stick to the inside of the pan and there's not much you can do to avoid that. So, let's take a look at some helpful cleaning tips for cast iron pans.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cooking oil
• Steel wire brush
• Dishwashing liquid

1. Don't forget to lightly spray or coat the pan with cooking oil before you cook in it. This creates a mostly nonstick cooking surface. If you skip this step, you will most certainly get some major sticking and your food won't taste so great as a result.

2. Watch what you cook in cast iron pans. If you're cooking a recipe that calls for the carmelization of sugar, for example, you'll probably want to use a nonstick pan. But if you're just cooking a couple burgers, a cast iron skillet is fine. Basically, anything especially sticky or fragile (such as fish) may not be good for cast iron. Even on those Saturday morning PBS foodie shows, expert chefs use nonstick cookware for such applications.

3. After cooking, fill the pan with water, place back on the stove, and boil for thirty seconds or so. This is probably the most useful bit of information you'll read today. Watch as those stubborn food bits stuck to the bottom of the pan boil up to the surface. This one step has saved me much heartache and scrubbing.

4. Buy a wire brush. Though boiling water in the pan does save you some elbow grease, no doubt you'll still have to scrub a little every now and then. Purchase a steel wire brush; they work great.

5. Use your normal dishwashing detergent to wash the pans. When you're done rinsing the pan, immediately wipe it out with a clean dishtowel until fully dry. This will avoid rust.

6. Re-oil the pan for your next meal.

Tips & Warnings

• Many manufacturers now offer pre-seasoned cast iron pans. These pans are ready to cook in.
• If you purchase cast iron pans that have not been pre-seasoned, you will have to oil the pans then "cook" them in your oven for about one hour according to the manufacturer's instructions.
• Remember to add water to the pan and boil after cooking to remove food that has stuck to the bottom of the pan. After the water cools, you can easily scrape or brush off remaining food.
• Never wash cast iron pans in your dishwasher.
• Always coat pan with cooking oil before cooking.
• Always fully dry cast iron pans with a dish towel immediately after rinsing.

Resources

• What's Cooking America

[floydbogart]

on 11/29/2008 Love it!
And my cast iron skillet is my favorite piece of cookware as well. My go to pan!

[smilesatme1]

on 11/10/2008 I don't clean my cook ware really..lol Thanks for the tips!