Hil, make sure that you season it first (coat with a light film of high temp oil, then bake at low heat for 15 minutes) Also, don't use soap on it, and season it every time you use it.

Hil, make sure that you season it first (coat with a light film of high temp oil, then bake at low heat for 15 minutes) Also, don't use soap on it, and season it every time you use it.

Agreed. That's how mine are cared for.

Every time? No way I could keep up with that.

It's not that hard. You rinse it out after you're done, rub some oil in it, then put it in the oven to dry while you do the rest of the clean up.

I ruined somebody's cast iron pan one time. We were volunteering and we'd ended up with kitchen cleanup. I scrubbed that sucker down. Thought I was doing such a good job. Whoops!

I didn't know. But I do now!

you can't ruin cast iron. You just have to reseason it. My Mom washes hers with soap all the time.

My great-aunt left me a stack of graduated iron skillets that hadn't been washed in...ever. There was a lot of yeck fired hard onto the outside on the bottoms. We used to burn paper trash in a barrel before our neighborhood was annexed by the city, and my dad rigged up a spit over the burning barrel and let the skillets hang *in* the fire for an hour or two. Burned every single thing away, right down to bare cast iron. We seasoned them well, made sure to care for them properly, and we're still using them. They're probably close to 100 years old now.

You can "ruin" cast iron cookware by leaving it to soak so long it rusts, but if you scour the rust away and season the pan properly, it will continue to serve. Hard to kill them.

you can't ruin cast iron. You just have to reseason it.

I have my grandmother's cast iron skillet. It survived a house fire at my parents' when I was in college. The fire started in the kitchen (bad wiring in the wall oven). But my folks had the skillet sandblasted and gave it to me when I got married. I love it and use it quite a bit. Sometimes I wash it--it depends on what I cook in it. Sometimes, I just wipe it out and give it another coat of oil and a few minutes in the oven.

Caught up. whew. Got home super late last night.

Much ~ma to thems that need it. I'm firmly in the camp of FUCK CANCER.

Today, my day off, I got to sleep in. Woot. Answer work e-mails. Woot. Drop off a non-functioning mic for work. Woot. And finally picked up (drum roll please) my order of 500 condoms!!! (for work). Plus I did a lil grocery shopping, a ton of laundry, and catching up on TiVo. On the whole, not a bad day.

But the bestest of news. I think I'm officially out of my summer funk that I was woefully eyebrow deep in just a short time ago. YAY! Thanks to those that gave some wonderful thoughts and advice.

Now I just gotta get in bed early enough to wake up and drive to work before 8am... did I mention I am a night person??

Oh, well good. I mildly inconvenienced someone's pan, then.