I finally figured out my cast iron was sticky because of one dumb mistake at a campsite in Sedona

Rose Anderson · 2026-10-12T18:25:04.900039+00:00

Last spring I took my 12 inch Lodge camping near Sedona and cooked bacon and eggs over the fire pit every morning for 4 days straight. On the last day the pan felt tacky and gross, so I scrubbed it with dish soap and a steel wool pad right there at the campsite sink. Big mistake. The seasoning was gone in patches and the next batch of eggs stuck so bad I nearly threw the pan in the creek. A guy two sites over saw me fighting with it and showed me his pan, which was slick and black after 9 years. He said soap is fine but steel wool strips everything, and I should have just scraped it with a plastic scraper and re-oiled it. I stripped it down at home, did 3 rounds of flax oil at 450 for an hour each, and it's been perfect since. So what do you all use when your pan gets sticky on a trip, do you just live with it until you get home?

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I finally figured out my cast iron was sticky because of one dumb mistake at a campsite in Sedona | Cast Iron Comrades - The Community Guide