Can someone explain this concept to me? Is it even a real thing? I think I sort of get it, but sort of don't. On the one hand, I don't see the necessity of scrubbing a pan til kingdom come - (as my mother in law does with our pans ...man, she'll go to town on one of them for ten minutes, but if she's washing our dishes I'm just gonna shut up :) ) ..if I cooked something with a little butter, olive oil, garlic, etc,. I can rinse, maybe give it a swipe with a sponge, and dry with a paper towel and put away and I think that's plenty. On the other hand, I do wash out my pan a little more on a camping trip as I don't necessarily want my morning omelette to taste like last night's fish. And with a brand new pan, I just rinse it once and use it ..there's certainly no "first unseasoned use" unpleasantry or inferior result. So, what's the deal with a pan being "seasoned"?

The only time I care about seasoning is on cast iron, and that's because the seasoning is essentially multiple thin layers of dried oil which have become adhered to the iron. This seasoning layer protects against rust and gives cast iron it's lovely nonstick surface. I will occasionally clean my cast iron in hot soapy water but that's for really stuck on stuff. Not using soap on cast iron is something carried over from when "soap" contained lye, and lye would actively attack the seasoning layer. Modern dish soaps do not contain lye and are more like detergents, and do not attack the seasoning as much. Any kind of extended scrubbing, especially with abrasives, will eventually remove the seasoning from a spot no different than scrubbing a teflon pan in the same spot will eventually wear through the coating.

The majority of the time I clean my cast iron by wiping it out really well with a paper towel while it's still hot from use. Often the first wipe around the pan will absorb much of the excess oil and trap particles of food, so I'll refold the paper towel to a clean spot and wipe around again.

Everything else gets washed/wiped until it's clean. I'm also not a fan of today's breakfast having flavoring notes from yesterday's dinner or lunch.

What mirth said.

As Mirth wrote, more specifically.
Seasoning cast iron and carbon steel result in a polymerization of the oil or fat used to season and creates a hard smoother surface preventing rust and being slicker add to the pans non-stick properties. This polymerization does not work as well with aluminum, stainless, or titanium.
A well seasoned pan can be scrubbed to a degree and soap will not penetrate any pores. Making cast or carbon pans much more care free and rust-proof.
Seasonig cast iron.

butthead

HowardSprague: "Can someone explain this concept to me? Is it even a real thing? I think I sort of get it, but sort of don't. On the one hand, I don't see the necessity of scrubbing a pan til kingdom come - (as my mother in law does with our pans ...man, she'll go to town on one of them for ten minutes, but if she's washing our dishes I'm just gonna shut up :) ) ..if I cooked something with a little butter, olive oil, garlic, etc,. I can rinse, maybe give it a swipe with a sponge, and dry with a paper towel and put away and I think that's plenty. On the other hand, I do wash out my pan a little more on a camping trip as I don't necessarily want my morning omelette to taste like last night's fish. And with a brand new pan, I just rinse it once and use it ..there's certainly no "first unseasoned use" unpleasantry or inferior result. So, what's the deal with a pan being "seasoned"? "

As everyone has said that appiles mostly to cast iron and carbon steel pans.
With mine a handful of earth will clean up just about any mess and a quick wipe down leaves it ready for the next meal

Mirth said it very well. One thing I'll add is this: if a non-stick pan gets scratched the surface will start to fail and it's done. With a seasoned cast iron or high-carbon pan, if the seasoned surface is damages in some way, you can strip if off and start over - the pan underneath is still like new. A while back I got a couple cast iron pans that had been my grandmothers with all sorts of crud from years of beacon and ham frying. With oven cleaner I was able to strip the 50+ year old pans to like new condition and re-seasoned them. They have many decades of use left in them.

Thanks guys, very informative answers. I guess with my BWJ cast aluminum pan, it really doesn't matter. My M-I-L scrubbing the heck out of our nonstick pans,.. another matter :)

Glad I asked, muchas gracias!