what's the best material for wiping out a cast iron skillet?

I print some of the endless online discussions about cast iron care. The paper, the ink and the opinions make for an excellent mild abrasive that doesn't permeate the pores or excessively damage the seasoning patina

Make sure to use food grade ink

I wipe any fat or oil with a paper towel into the trash. then I rinse it with soap and water and I have a regular plastic brush I use to wash it.

After I dry it off with a paper towel and heat it up and add some avocado oil then wipe the excess all around

Yeah this person knows what's up. Don't fall into the cast iron cleaning cult bs

Soap and water. It’s cast iron, not silk.

Try not to use soap if possible, it can get into the iron since it’s porous and become a part of the “seasoning”. Same goes for mortar and pestle care
- This is not the case for modern detergents, but is held over from when soaps were all made from lye. The polymerized layers of oil that you have will stay mostly in tact with some dish detergent and a light scrub sponge. After washing and drying mine off with a towel, I apply some oil and heat it on the stove for a few minutes to maintain the seasoning.
  But absolutely mortar and pestle should never ever get soap, particularly something like a molcajete made from volcanic rock. I just wipe mine really thoroughly with a clean, damp cloth.
  Edit: SMFH don't mass down vote someone for having inaccurate information. Had they not commented, they wouldn't have opened themselves up to the opportunity to learn something.
- victoria (cast iron maker that's a above lodge but below others,) recommends using a little dish soap.
  even if the soaps do remove some seasoning, you should have enough on there, and cooking with enough oil that it regenerates. That's the secret to cast iron's longevity, in point of fact. Every time you cook with it, you add some more to the seasoning. (it also can develop some marvelous flavors if you're intentional in how you cook with it.)

The amount of energy spent online about cleaning cast iron skillets blows my mind.

They are just slabs of iron.

i don't ask LLMs anything ever and sticky iron is annoying

Wiping out? Like, entirely? Well, personal physical assault isn't wise, so let's take that off the table first. I wouldn't suggest basic firearms, either: they'd likely just dent it or fly off and hurt something else.

Running it over isn't likely to damage it too badly, and trying to drown it just leads to rust. I think it'd be hard to get an "accidental" fire to have a high-enough heat sustained for a long enough to kill it. Dropping it from a height might bend or dent it.

Honestly, I think your best chance would be some kind of high explosive. Not a dinky thing like a hand grenade - aside from being under-powered, there's the extra shrapnel to worry about. Maybe some dynamite or C4, with a long enough detcord so you're not near the explosion. Of course, that'll likely just launch it upwards a bit, so you'd want to enclose it in something that ensures most of the damage is directed to the pan and not dispersed around the edges.

Maybe ask the police to do a demolition demonstration with their little self-contained units that they blow things up in, would that be feasible? How much do you hate this pan, anyway?

I'd suggest a furnace

People are so weird with their cast iron care.... I scrub it with hot water, a brush, and maybe some soap depending on how dirty it is. Then I dry it off LIKE A NORMAL PAN and heat a little oil in it again to keep it from rusting. The only thing you need to do different than a normal pan is get some oil on it and heat it up after washing. It's a ferrous metal so it'll rust if it isn't protected.

Edit: for wiping out I just use a paper towel with a little oil on it

Probably a second cast iron skillet

I turn up the heat then throw water. It boils and cleanup with paper towel. Use tongs.

Modern soaps lack the phosphates that really mess with cast iron. I typically do this.

Little bit of water, heat on high until it boils most things off the pan.

Scrape with metal spatula and stick items.

Hit it lightly with soap and sponge.

Dry with paper towel.

Spray with oil.

Wipe oil all sides.

Only missing putting it back on heat after drying with a paper towel to boil off any residual water

I'm convinced there's no right answer to this. Whatever works for you. The internet will never agree no matter what you do. Hell, put it in the dishwasher and (optional) re-apply the seasoning if you want to.

Personally I put it on the stove just to heat it up slightly, and them I rinse it under hot water while scrubbing with a light plastic brush just to get and chunks and gunks out. Once done I put it on the stove to burn/polymerize any leftover grease and add to the seasoning.

Sometimes I use some mild dish soap if I suspect that any flavor might carry over.

I've found brushes with natural bristles (not sure of the material but the handle is made out of wood) to hit the sweet spot between abrasive and gentil on the coating.

We have a plastic scraper that gets anything off with a bit of water. Then I hit it with a rough sponge and water, towel dry, then stovetop dry. While still hot, I like to put a thin layer of Crisco on all surfaces with a paper towel and wipe any excess off. Having a well seasoned pan, warming up before cooking, and using enough fat or oil makes cleaning and maintaining a lot easier.

Scraping with plastic is a good way to create microplastics. Better to use a wood or metal tool
- scraping with wood is a grate way to get, uh, sawdust.

Paper towel. Don't overthink it.

I've gone paper towel free in my house. Every need for a paper towel has been replaced in my home care, except for this one purpose.
I use a coffee filter.

Stiff wooden brush, oil and salt

I could probably learn a lot from the thread. If I don't clean it while it's still warm, I tend to resort to coarse salt, a bit of oil, and a scrubby sponge. Either way, it's not easy for me to clean, especially after eggs.

If eggs don't release well, it's not seasoned well, most of mine are pretty nonstick but I struggle with the biggest one, the surface is not as good.
I would say baby that one. Clean it immediately then dry, wipe some oil in, almost none, and heat it while wiping it. Or make pancakes, that seems to rehab them. Long slow cooking with fat in there and something that doesn't want to stick, getting scraped often.

I use this kind of metal rag/ sponge?

it's between a sponge and a rag and it's metal rings

Chain mail scrubber. That's my go to as well
Sounds like chainmail
steel wool? or is it something fancier
- no not steel wool

I just put mine in the dishwasher. Generic soap. High heat, full cycle. Let it drip dry. No wiping out needed.

Immediately after you're done using it: rinse and scrub it like anything else. Let it dry, then apply oil to it.

Cast irons do really poorly if you don't clean them out immediately but I just use a normal sink scrub brush for cleaning.

generally speaking, it shouldn't be too difficult to get stuff off. I generally use blue scotchbrite scrubbie pads. They're non-abbrassive and have no metal or cleanser in them; but they're scratchy while being soft enough.

Other things that gets recommended is "washcloths" made of maille links (for example.)

The next stuff is some generic recommendations that you may or may not find useful (or have already heard.), but they're key steps in getting that truly nonstick surface... and it starts with how you maintain and cook with it.

Cast iron needs to be maintained- it was the original non-stick pan, mind you, but that nonstick surface needs maintenance. I typically season mine with avacodo oil applied in very light coatings and kept in a 350f oven. it's best to stay below the smoke point of whatever oil you're using; so check that and go 50-100 degrees under. The oil is polymerized when it's no longer tacky; and I tend to apply about a teaspoon at a time using an old microfiber cloth. (Less is best. I place the cloth on the top of the oil bottle and give it a quick flip-and-down. that's enough. for a full 12" pan, and probably enough for 16" if you have one.)

once its seasoned well, you can maintain it by occasionally putting a light coating of oil after use, cleaning and drying.

Also, it's important to remember that you need some kind of oil in the pan for it to be truly non-stick. I use avocado oil as my go to; it has no real flavor and it doesn't smoke like olive oil does. If you want to use butter, you can also get cute and add both avacado and butter and avoid burning the butter that way. It doesn't take a lot- a tablespoon is frequently enough. for something like bacon, I put a light "seasoning" coat on before cooking- you don't really want animal fats to season, it'll burn and turn bitter.

Finally, you want to preheat the pan slow-ish. it's not an aluminum nonstick; it takes time, let it get up to temp.

Everyone has a different 8 step program to cleaning cast irons. I just scrape the fuck out of it with a chainmail "sponge" and water, maybe some coarse salt or s pinch of soap if it's nasty. I dry it with a towel. I've had mine for yeaaaaars and it looks just fine.

If it needs reasoning, I use that as an excuse to buy a slab of bacon

Wipe most of the grease out with paper towels. Then I use hot water and a chainmail scrubber. After that I dry it with paper towels again and then on the stove.

Umm, a towel?

I use a lot salt + paper towel. I never wash mine with water.

Your prom dress

I've been doing my best to follow cowboy kent's method where if you can, while the pan is still hot, run it under hot water and scrape away with a wooden spatula or other flat tool. I've had great success with most cleanings and anything stuck on I just do as the other user said and scrub with a abrasive sponge and a little soap and warm water until I'm happy.

This is what I started doing a few months ago and it works great.
This is what I do too. If there is something really stuck on then you can put it back on the stove and add a little water which will sizzle and lift the rest up with minimal scraping.
yeah this is like running a flat grill in a restaurant

When I bought my house I discovered a treasure trove of old cast iron pans in the (very modern) oven. They all looked like this and smelled like rancid oil. It was not fun to deal with lol
- Sounds terrible but also awesome if they were good enough to be used after cleaning. I know that smell though....... terrible.
that precisely decribes my scenario yes
- I'm yet to decide if that gut biome is a nerf or a buff.

If I am babying them, kosher salt and oil once it's cool enough, then rinse & dry. Otherwise I scrape at it with the metal spatula then wash with soap and a scratchy sponge, it's fine as long as you don't soak them, and do dry them well after.

We do have a chainmail scrubber - my husband was soaking the skillets and killing the finish, he likes the chainmail scrubber.

haha tell him to stay over there with the washer machine

I use chain mail.

I had to scroll way too far to find this. Chainmail, salt, water, wooden utensils, and whatever you season with (I use Crisco).
Reading comments in this thread reminds me why I don't let anyone use my cast iron.
if you want to destroy the pan, yes
- To be fair, that could just be how they interpreted the phrase "wiping out"