I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I've just never taken to cast iron pans...

I've had it happen--some well-intentioned but not smart in the ways of cast iron person carefully and thoroughly scraped every bit of hard-earned seasoning off my skillet. Love 'em anyway and start over to season the pan. And when you finish cookin with it in the future, wipe it out yourself and hide it before anybody can get to it. Heartfelt sympathies--but a dumplin is even rarer than a well-seasoned pan, and can't be salvaged. Be sweet to him.

I recently rehabilitated some abused cast iron (full of rust, kept in a garage for about 20 years). Advice above is good, only bacon is not required! The skillet came back easily. I clean by running under water, scraping off food bits with a curly metal kitchen cleaner, no soap. Less is best! Another point is that they need lower cooking heat than a similar stainless skillet because they retain heat so well. That also helps keep the seasoning layer intact, and keeps the stove cleaner too.

The way I have found to most effectively season cast iron is in the oven. I usually rub a very thin layer of shortening all over the pan and put it into a 350 deg F oven for about and hour, then I will clean it with hot water and reapply a thin layer of shortening all over the pan and re bake it in the oven for another hour. It makes the seasoning really stick if you do it twice. Also frying a lot onions would not hurt.

But I do give you major points for such a fine boyfriend!

If you happen to have a fireplace or wood stove, rub that baby down with bacon grease and just set it on top of the logs and go away. Come back when the fire's burned out and it's cooled down. It'll also do away with the rough deposits that seem to form on the outside. Ours got this treatment in the wood stove twice a year when I was a kid, once when we first fired it up for the winter, and once when it was coming on spring and we were about to retire it for the warm weather. And I always store mine after washing and drying with a thin film of bacon grease wiped on them.

Nothing wrong with using a bit of dish soap, but you have to persuade Mr. B Friend that it's okay to scrub but not scour. Personally I don't buy into the notion that you just wipe it out with salt. That's a good first step, but after that I wash my seasoned cast iron in the sink with a scrubber, rinse and burn 'em dry on the stove top. But to reseason? Cook bacon, a lot of bacon. And then fry some chicken.

@mklug, I love my seasoned cast iron. Tiger Bee's technique will work well. I use it. Then after the next several washings ( and I am sinful as I do use a bit of dish detergent with my water), dry the cast iron over my open gas flame. When dry, I turn the burner off and wipe the skillet with a paper towel that is saturated with a liquid fat. I try to get just a light film of new oil on the pan. I put the pan back on the warm burner (just the residual warmth from the previous burner use, don't turn the burn on again). I let it sit a while. The lower level of heat seems to smooth the fats out and you get a layered lacquered finish over time. You will eventually create a really nice not stick finish. When I reach that point, I stop with the wiping of oil until the skillet begins to stick again.

A brillo-pad? Good lord!! ; )

CaryNC--it's worse than just that. It was a whole brillo-pad, scubbing situation. I almost died. Thanks to you and TiggyBee for helping me a) fix it, and b) prevent it from happening again!

And tell your "dumplin" not to use dish soap when he washes them. Just some hot water, then wipe them out and dry on the stove or in the oven. At least that's how I do it ;-)

Heat the oven to 300 f and coat the pans with bacon grease or lard and place them upside down in the oven. Place a cookie sheet underneath them to catch the drippings and bake for 90 minutes or so. Let them cool before removing them.