Cast-Iron Pans Are The Best Damn Pans… If You Treat ‘EM Right

Sure, you can use soap…

You may absolutely use dish soap to wash a cast-iron pan. If you’re a cast-iron newbie, know that there are people who will go all red in the face if you merely suggest using dish soap on a cast-iron pan, their blood pressure will rise at such heresy. It’s insane, obviously — there is truly no need in this world to get so upset over a skillet — but it should also give you, the cast-iron newbie, a sense of how good cast iron can be. People love it enough to get heart attack-level mad at the mere suggestion of maltreatment.

But you, the cast-iron newbie, should not pay them too much mind; soap is A-OK. And here’s why: the idea behind the anti-soap directive is that the soap will erode the layer of oil-based seasoning that protects the pan and gives it its nonstick property. Which makes sense! Except for the pesky fact that when the oil used to season the pan is exposed to heat for a prolonged time, its chemistry changes and, as this explainer from Serious Eats details, it becomes polymerized. That means that you can wash your well-seasoned cast iron using soap after all, oh my God!