I'm with you, OP. I got a cask iron skillet from a shared house over 20 years ago, I have not babied it all all and it's perfect. However, if it's her skillet and she cares a lot about it, don't use soap. You can scrub it with coarse salt, works really well, and she will know that you care about her and her skillet

My dh did that a few weeks ago. I screamed "wait!!!" because I saw the soap being squeezed into the pan from across the room. Too late.
It honestly hasn't been the same since but I hope it'll recover.

The irony is that he taught me the rule initially which sounded crazy to me- no soap? What?! I was raised with nonstick.

Anyway, he immediately apologized for being distracted and washed it out. I forgave him.

Did you apologize?

You can use soap on cast iron. You hand wash it with mild soap, dry it well, and immediately re-season it over heat.

No one wants food made in a nasty cast iron skillet with rancid leftover oil on it.

My cast iron can be washed with soap. My Wok, which is also seasoned, should not be washed with soap- but I sometimes do it anyway, and it’s fine.

Your wife sounds crazy.

Op, what's your address? I'm going to send you you're very own cast iron pan that she is not allowed to touch, that's the only caveat. You can have his and her pans and she can scream at her pans all she wants, you enjoy using your kitchen items and cleaning them any f g way you want, do not let someone talk at you the way she did, for f sakes, it's a pan!

My brother used soap on my cast iron and was almost in tears because of what he thought was a huge transgression, but it's really not a big deal unless you wash it with lye.

Tell her your Dawn doesn’t have LYE in it so it will be perfectly fine. She’s a drama Queen.

I have a running Alexa list of DH’s transgressions. Using soap on my cast iron is on the list.

And before anyone says I’m toxic, it’s a running joke between us, and we often ask Alexa to read it to us so we can laugh.

Cast iron has caused so much petty bickering in our household. I refuse to attempt to clean it anymore. We have many pans that aren't cast iron but apparently that's not good enough for DH's precious fried eggs. I personally never use it.

He insists on cleaning it himself but there are always 3 or 4 dirty pans sitting around because his timeline is very....relaxed.

I use soap all the time. Nothing gets ruined. Just put some oil on it again and hear it up, and the seasoning is back on. People freaking out about cast iron are dumb.

She’s a drama queen. You can reseason.

Anonymous wrote:You ruined the seasoning, I would yell at you too!

This is overstated for sure. Doesn’t ruin the seasoning unless the soap has lye on it.

You ruined the seasoning, I would yell at you too!

The rules of the house are I cook I clean. She cooks, I clean”n.

She made cornbread in her cast iron skillet to go with our chili last night.

She came into the kitchen and screamed at me! I was using soap on her cast iron skillet.

I’ve watched 1883. These things have been banged on rocks, washed in river water and bounced across the country in a covered wagon. A lil Dawn ain’t going to kill it. Next time I am going to put on the top rack of our dishwasher!