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Comment by jbotdev | Hacker News Reader

Cast iron is also very heavy, and hard to clean if you get anything stuck to it. You can’t really soak or wash it with soap/water without re-seasoning it or it’ll rust.

It has its upsides if you put in the work. I’ve given up and opted for mid-range non-stick (coated steel and/or copper, not anodized aluminum) or high end stainless.

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Not being able to use soap is a myth, and re-seasoning a pan hardly ever needs to be done unless you're seeing bare metal.

After a hard scrubbing, put it on the stovetop, drizzle a small amount of oil in there, and high heat for a minute. Push the oil around with a paper towel. Your pan won't rust.

Use a metal scrubber and you probably don't need to use soap in the first place.

The idea of maintaining a seasoning on cast iron frying pans is too much of a pain in the ass. I wash it with soap and water and use olive oil or butter whenever I need to. The cognitive load is minimal and I don't have any usability issues.

> if you get anything stuck to it

We bought these Lodge scrappers and they remove anything stuck to it.

https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/pan-scrapers?sku=SCRAP...

Hot water and this kind of brush is all you need to clean cast iron:

https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/scrub-brush?sku=SCRBRS...

Those scrapers are made of plastic. I wonder if that has some forever chemicals. lol

I bought one of these a decade ago - the price has since gone up to $4:

https://www.restaurantsupply.com/tablecraft-254-stainless-st...

It’ll likely outlive me.

I've seen those used at hibachi and waffle House which probably see a lot more traffic than our homes. Probably a great choice

Yeap, simple mature technology can be refreshing to use.

I frequently soak and wash my cast iron. It retains seasoning and won’t rust so long as I dry it after. I also will typically coat them with a very thin layer of oil, but haven’t found it to be strictly necessary.

That said, I have mostly transitioned to stainless.

Carbon steel builds the same coating but isn’t all that heavy.

> hard to clean if you get anything stuck to it

Easy fix, just don’t get anything stuck to it. If you learn how to use these correctly, this becomes essentially a non issue.

I use water and soap every day cleaning mine. If you get something really stuck you can heat the pan up, then add hot water to it. It basically boils the stuck stuff off. You just need to be careful not to crack the pan.

I barely have to clean mine anymore. When something does get a bit stuck, I just boil a bit of water in it and it comes right out with a light swipe of some chainmail.

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