/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>14006992
From my experience, use soap when you have to, but you don't have to often. I've had one of my cast iron for about seven years now. My method is to scrub with a scrub brush that I only use for my cast irons then heat them up to extremely high temps. It's my understanding that cast iron is quite porous. The more you cook, the more flavor gets absorbed in the iron. Heating up after using water keeps the flavor, but kills any bacteria.
A few years ago a mouse got in our house. There were mouse droppings and piss all over my counters and of course, in my cast iron that was on the stove. I had no choice but to use soap on it. There was a slight difference in flavor. Enough to piss me off, but not enough for anyone but me to notice.