Cast Iron Cleaning Mesh / Chain mail

Cast Iron pans are amazing. Cleaning them is not.

Cast iron frying pans have pretty much replaced anything else in the frying pan lineup. They are just better in most ways than even good non stick units. More even heat, better heat retention etc. Once seasoned they are pretty non stick anyway. But…they don’t clean up as easily as a non stick and food residue will stick.

There is a myth out there that you can’t or shouldn’t use dish soap on them. That’s not true and comes from the idea that seasoning is oil. Seasoning is actually not a thin layer of oil, it's a thin layer of polymerized oil. In a properly seasoned cast pan, the oil has broken down into a plastic-like substance and bonded to the metal. Dish soap should not affect it. Go ahead and soap it up and scrub it out. Try to minimize the time it takes from when you start cleaning to when you dry and re-season your pan.

Anyway, a great way to clean them is a square of metal mesh or chain mail…..like the knights in Monty Python wore :-)

Never a bad time to view this greatness

Easy to hang on a nail or screw under the sink and it makes quick work of stuck on stuff without scraping into the seasoning because of the rounded shape of the metal links.

If you have cast iron pans you need one.

$12 Bucks on Amazon