Update: I called B.S. on that 'no soap on cast iron' rule for 10 years, and a $3 yard sale pan proved me wrong
I always thought the whole no soap on cast iron thing was just old folks being stubborn. My grandma kept yelling at me about it and I kept scrubbing my pans with Dawn anyway. Then I picked up a rusty old skillet at a yard sale in Boise for 3 bucks last spring. I figured hey, free experiment, if I ruin it who cares. I scrubbed it with soap for a solid month and the seasoning came off in patches, food started sticking bad, and the pan got this weird gray look. So I stripped it down to bare metal and started over with just hot water and a plastic scraper. Six weeks later that pan is slick as glass and eggs slide right out. I hate admitting my grandma was right but here we are. So what's the real deal, is it the soap itself or the scrubbing that kills the seasoning? Because I keep hearing both and I want the honest answer.