How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet
Learn to properly wash, dry, and lightly oil a cast iron pan right after cooking to preserve its seasoning and prevent rust without damaging the surface.
- Read the tools, materials, safety notes, and steps below for free.
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🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ Stiff-bristle dish brush or chainmail scrubber
- ✓ Wooden spatula or flat pan scraper
- ✓ Lint-free microfiber cloth or paper towels
- ✓ Stovetop burner
- ✓ Silicone handle cover or heat-resistant oven mitt
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Hot running water
- ✓ Coarse kosher salt
- ✓ High smoke-point cooking oil (canola, grapeseed, or vegetable oil)
- ✓ Mild dish soap (optional)
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Never submerge a piping hot pan into cold water to prevent thermal shock and metal cracking.
- • Always use an oven mitt when handling the pan during and after stovetop drying.
- • Do not leave cooking oil unattended over an active flame or heat element.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (5 Steps)
Cool Pan and Scrape Loose Food
Allow the pan to cool until warm to the touch before washing. Use a flat wooden spatula to scrape away large stuck-on food bits while the skillet is still dry.
- • Pan surface is free of thick charred chunks
- • Scraped food remnants collected in trash or center pile
- • Plunging a smoking hot pan straight under cold running water
- • Using sharp metal knives or forks to pry off food
Scrub with Hot Water and Salt
Place the warm pan in the sink under hot running water. Scrub the surface vigorously using a stiff-bristle brush, chainmail scrubber, or a paste made from coarse salt and a splash of water.
- • No textured crust or food residue remaining on the cooking surface
- • Water running off smoothly across the black patina
- • Soaking the pan in water in the sink
- • Using harsh chemical oven cleaners or aggressive steel wool pads
Rinse and Towel Dry
Rinse the pan thoroughly with clean hot water until all food debris and salt granules wash away. Wipe all surfaces, including the bottom and handle, with a clean lint-free cloth or paper towel.
- • Rinse water drains clear without grit
- • No standing liquid droplets visible inside or outside the pan
- • Using regular terrycloth towels that shed lint into the textured iron
- • Leaving the pan wet in a dish drying rack
Heat-Dry on the Stovetop
Set the skillet on a stovetop burner over low-medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Allow all residual micro-moisture trapped in the iron pores to completely evaporate.
- • Complete matte appearance across the entire pan with zero dark moisture spots
- • Gentle dry warmth radiating from the metal
- • Turning burner to high heat and walking away
- • Assuming towel drying removed 100% of water
Apply and Buff Oil Layer
Add a dime-sized drop of neutral oil into the warm pan. Use a folded paper towel to spread it evenly across the cooking surface, sides, and base, then use a clean section of towel to vigorously buff out all excess oil until the pan looks dry and semi-matte.
- • Satin-sheen finish with no pooling drops, streaks, or liquid puddles
- • Surface looks dry and not greasy to the touch once cooled
- • Leaving a thick, wet layer of oil inside the pan
- • Using low smoke-point oils like unrefined extra virgin olive oil or butter
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by NOT ANOTHER COOKING SHOW — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No Chainmail scrubber? Coarse kosher salt scrubbed with a folded paper towel
- No Grapeseed oil? Canola oil, vegetable oil, or Crisco shortening
- No Wooden spatula? Flat plastic dish scraper or silicone bench scraper