When your wife gets ahold of your cast iron skillet...

[JohnnyChance]

I use hot hot water and dish soap with either a scrubby sponge, stainless steel scrubby or piece of chainmail to clean my carbon steel pans (and cast irons but hardly use them anymore). Any coating that comes off is generally just a superficial layer of burnt oil and not actually properly adhered seasoning. Might take a bit longer to develop a full jet black coating but I think it makes for a much more durable coating in the long run. I decided to strip and re-season one recently and it took a ton of elbow grease and solvents (like BKF) to get it all off. Carbon steel pans are also (generally) much smoother than cast iron and require a much thinner seasoning layer than cast iron. A fresh carbon steel pan is ready to fry eggs after a couple quick layers of seasoning.

Also, not all carbon steel pans have rivets! Fresh Darto I just got, coated in beeswax, yet to season.

 

[KnightKnightForever]

wow!
She can turn cast iron into carbon steel?

Can she turn lead into gold? Or water into wine?

She can turn money into air, too

 

[phoosty]

Easiest and fastest way to reset (strip) a carbon pan back to zero is with a woven plastic stripping disc on an angle grinder and you're down to fresh bright metal in under 5 minutes.

Then it's back to one of the "how to season/maintain a carbon pan" threads....

 

[Bensbites]

I find cast iron easier to season than carbon steel. My latest method will make some people laugh, but I challenge you to try it. Spray a thin coat of canola oil on the bottom of the pan. Heat it up. Cook pancakes. I think the pancakes must remove the right amount of excess oil.

 

[gentiscid]

I decided to strip and re-season one recently and it took a ton of elbow grease and solvents (like BKF) to get it all off.

Also, not all carbon steel pans have rivets! Fresh Darto I just got, coated in beeswax, yet to season.

Next time you decide to strip it, use Easy Off yellow cap oven cleaner spray. Effortless!

Yes not all carbon steel skillets have rivets, my Ballarini is welded!

 

[gentiscid]

Here its a combo

 

[petrel]

My wife and 4 children all love to cook. Unfortunately, I like to cook AND like to have nice kitchen gear too. In spite of quite a few “kitchen educational seminars” in the past, there have still been some kitchen equipment casualties along the way. I wouldn’t consider that a casualty, but rather a teaching opportunity instead.

Best of luck with the restoration/re-seasoning, and the education.

 

[Bensbites]

Cheap nonstick pan for everyone else. It gets destroyed after a couple years anyway.

 

[Jeff]

Like any other woman, she might not be able to turn water into wine, but she'll have you drinking copious amounts of wine in no time at all.

 

[wcothran]

Good luck getting family to pay attention at the "kitchen educational seminars" lol! I've tried and failed. Many times!

 

[JohnnyChance]

Next time you decide to strip it, use Easy Off yellow cap oven cleaner spray. Effortless!

Yes not all carbon steel skillets have rivets, my Ballarini is welded!

I used some EasyOff. Still required multiple applications and scrubbing.

 

[KnightKnightForever]

Luckily I'm pretty tall, so anything I really don't want the family to use, I keep up high.

 

[MarcelNL]

Luckily I'm pretty tall, so anything I really don't want the family to use, I keep up high.

that and a clear message veto-ing 'public'use

 

[Chicagohawkie]

The reason I asked is because I wasn't sure about whether or not soap would affect the seasoning of the pan. Thanks.

Every time I’ve placed dawn into my cast iron pans, I have to reseason it. Dawn dishwashing soap will eat that right off. I just use warm water to clean, all ya need in a properly seasoned pan.

 

[rickbern]

I think every so often my steel pans need a facial so I heat a fair bit of oil and make a slurry with a tablespoon or two of kosher salt and I scrub off some of the crud with a wadded up paper towel

Back to the wife issue though, I think any attempt to try to clean up after me should be be celebrated, even if it is a spectacular fail. Kudos to her!

 

[boomchakabowwow]

Nice pan. Scrub and start it over. Laugh at wife and ask her to get you a beer.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

i had a moment so i could read some more responses.

i dawn soap my carbon and cast iron all the time. no issues. i think back in the day, lye-based soaps were a no-no. now it is not that big a deal. i know dawn suds dont strip my pans. sometimes, i wish i would.

AND. i think my wife out ranks all my belonging by a mile. i am not that terratorial of my stuff. if i was, i wouldnt get married. she cannot destroy a cast iron pan. take it back a few steps? yea. nothing i cannot reverse and laugh about.

 

[GQsm]

I used some EasyOff. Still required multiple applications and scrubbing.

I strip my carbon steel De Buyer back every few years, I use an angle grinder with a wire cup brush, it's not a 2 minutes job, but you are in no doubt that the old coating is gone. Maybe I will try some of the half way house methods mentioned to clean it up a bit without fully stripping the seasoning.