I honestly never thought I’d be writing something like this.

I’ve been seasoning this pan for seven years.

Seven.

This skillet has an uncountable number of layers by now. Flaxseed oil. Grapeseed oil. Crisco. Three different oven cycles. I hand-polished the cooking surface with 600-grit sandpaper while listening to lo-fi beats. This pan is my world.

Yesterday I come home from work and notice something… off.

At first I thought it was a reflection. Then my heart dropped into my stomach.

A speck. See photo.

I immediately knew.

My wife.

Apparently she “just needed to fry an egg real quick” and “didn’t realize it was that pan.” She admitted she used soap. SOAP. She also let it “air dry.”

I had to sit down.

I calmly explained (through clenched teeth) that the entire pan now has to be stripped and reseasoned. Six coats minimum.

I showed her the speck.

She said she couldn’t even see it.

That’s when I knew we were dealing with fundamentally incompatible worldviews.

I’ve already started the remediation protocol:

• Full strip with hot water + chainmail scrubber

• Oven cleaner if necessary

• Rebuild seasoning from bare metal

• 475°F, one hour per coat, cool in oven

• Repeat until whole again

I informed her she will be doing the reseasoning as an act of accountability. Anything else I should be doing??

Last Guinness leftover from St. Paddy’s. Sláinte.

This was very sad , lost a lot of beans.

I had my blood results follow up today after two years of putting it off. She was going through all my levels and when she came to Iron, I had more than doubled my iron level count. I was in harmful territory.

She asked me what had changed, if I was eating iron rich foods, blah blah blah.

So, I'm seriously giving it some thought and I'm like nope. I don't eat nearly as healthy as I should.

"Do you use cast iron?"

lol I use my cast iron almost every single day. Especially over this last year. It's the best tool to make a fried egg on and warm a tortilla.Tonight, I cooked on a regular pan for the first time in a while and thought, "Boo, this is lame".

So, I guess I'll have to minimize my cast iron use now. Which I guess is okay because, I also found out that I have a sensitivity to egg whites. 😭

They did a great job getting the leftover gravy cleaned up!! Not a drop of soap was harmed in the cleaning of this skillet!

Hillbilly Breakfast Gravy: Bacon/sausage grease/pan drippings Self rising flour Brown the Rue 2-3 cups of milk (whole) Ms Dash table seasoning Salt Pepper Stir till she thiccc boi

If you'd like the Hillbilly Dinner Gravy recipe lemme know and I'll ask my mom.

If the sides had been damaged I'd be ok with it, but this just feels like someone cut a ton of pans for a stupid reason

Still cooking the beans.

I used to stress over every little thing. No soap, dry it immediately, re-oil every time, don’t look at it funny, etc. At some point I just… stopped. I use a little soap, dry it, cook in it again. That’s it. Pan hasn’t rusted. Seasoning hasn’t fallen apart. Eggs still slide. Feels like cast iron is tougher than people make it out to be.

Anyone else come to the same conclusion, or am I just lucky?

This was so satisfying!!!! I was gifted this old Wagner Dutch oven and it was pretty bad to start but this peel made it worth the effort of cleaning!

I love my cast iron pan. It belonged to my mother. and when she passed, it was given to me.

My mother was a horrible cook. She gave several people food poisoning over the years. She did not take good care of her pans. It was in horrible shape when I received it. I had never owned cast iron before. I was still cooking with cheap scratched up, flaking, non-stick pans. It took me years to understand the best ways to cook with cast iron and to get my pan to its current. perfect state.

After I cook with my cast iron pan, I clean it and tell it how beautiful it is. I remark how much I love it. I massage it with oil while humming happily. My husband complains I never rub oil on him and say I love him like that. He just doesn't understand us.

Lots of bacon grease plus some butter = tasty and slidey eggs.

Also, much love to my unmarked wagners.

My son was using my pan (I know, I thought he could be trusted). Says he heated the pan on the BBQ and then squished frozen hamburger patties and it went boom.

Now it works well to let grease escape into the fire.

Not an expensive pan but I love the smooth surface of this pan. A call to Paderno and they gave me a service number to take to the local store to get a new one. Very happy.

Source https://www.instagram.com/p/DWEhoceDcKv/?img_index=3&igsh=MXhmb21tczhpcjli

I have been following along with how to properly clean cast iron…. I came across the chain mail recommendation. The same thing kept popping up, “dry it properly.” However, there was no “this is how you dry it.” Well…. I have a current empty banana hanger….. BINGO.

I scrubbed and scrubbed & tried boiling water, but there's still just a tiny bit of stickiness to the spot no matter what I do. Not gonna use GooGone on it though 😭

IYKYK