Lophosaurus said:

It doesn't need soap. Just wipe it out, oil if needed, and put it away. The thing with cast iron is that it holds heat really well so next time you cook you let the pan get hot and that kills anything that could still be living on the pan, which is nothing. Using soap is just being wasteful and I think it gets absorbed into the pan and then gets back into  your food. Does your food ever have a soapy taste?

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Lophosaurus said:

It doesn't need soap. Just wipe it out, oil if needed, and put it away. The thing with cast iron is that it holds heat really well so next time you cook you let the pan get hot and that kills anything that could still be living on the pan, which is nothing. Using soap is just being wasteful and I think it gets absorbed into the pan and then gets back into  your food. Does your food ever have a soapy taste?

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pineninja said:

The Theory: Seasoning is a thin layer of oil that coats the inside of your skillet. Soap is designed to remove oil, therefore soap will damage your seasoning.

The Reality: Seasoning is actually nota thin layer of oil, it's a thin layer of polymerized oil, a key distinction. In a properly seasoned cast iron pan, one that has been rubbed with oil and heated repeatedly, the oil has already broken down into a plastic-like substance that has bonded to the surface of the metal. This is what gives well-seasoned cast iron its non-stick properties, and as the material is no longer actually an oil, the surfactants in dish soap should not affect it. Go ahead and soap it up and scrub it out.

The one thing you shouldn't do? Let it soak in the sink. Try to minimize the time it takes from when you start cleaning to when you dry and re-season your pan. If that means letting it sit on the stovetop until dinner is done, so be it.

Source.
Googles first answer.

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Quote:

Removing Burnt-On Oil
We tested four methods for removing burnt-on oil to see if we could really do it without resorting to harsh chemicals.

In the test kitchen, our stainless pots and pans get a daily workout in many high-heat applications. Over time, a layer of baked-on oil and grease often develops that is difficult to remove without the aid of harsh, toxic cleansers. This scorched residue is the result of heating oil or other fats to high temperatures. When oil or other fats are heated to or above their smoke point, their triglycerides break down into free fatty acids, which then polymerize to a resin that is insoluble in water.

Is there a way to remove this residue without resorting to caustic chemical cleansers? To find out, we abused four stainless steel skillets by slicking them with several tablespoons of oil and heating them until it smoked and burned onto their surfaces. To further solder this resin to the pans, we then baked the skillets in a 500-degree oven for a few hours.

To rehab them, we let the cooled pans sit overnight with the following treatments: one coated with a thick paste of baking soda and water, one filled with straight vinegar, one soaked in a 20 percent vinegar solution, and one soaked in hot, soapy water. (Baking soda, vinegar, and soap all contain compounds that help to dissolve the fatty-acid resins and help them release from the metal surface.) None of these treatments was 100 percent effective; we still needed scouring powder and a metal scrubbing pad to remove the most tenaciously burnt-on bits of oil. But somewhat surprisingly, the hot, soapy water was the best treatment of the bunch, loosening the residue enough so that it required the least amount of elbow grease and a minimum of scratching of the pan’s finish to fully release.

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tyrannicalrex said:

...and all this is the reasons why I use stainless and ceramic,lol.

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