Why, that's easy, Chubby. Home-made lye soap, of course. That way, as the skin peels off my fingertips, I'd be forcibly reminded to.....

Never, ever, allow soap to touch cast iron cookware!!!

I myself just use canola oil on it. It has kept my skillet seasoned, slippery, and rust free for quite some time.

The reason I heat the skillet after cleaning it is two fold. One, the heat will kill any remaining bacteria for the most part, second, it helps keep the pan in its seasoned state (when I add the drop of oil)..

Well that makes sense then, considering lye soap is made from animal fat- I see... I see...... wash and season in one fell swoop!

I have 2 sets of 3 different size cast iron skillets and 1 large skillet my little sis gave me they got at a yard sale. I have 2 cast iron dutch ovens. One 5qt and one 7qt.

One of the two sets was my Moms and her Moms before that. After Mom died my brother was using them til I went to his house and found them sitting on his porch dirty and full of water. I got all three and took them home with me. Moms skillets had just started to rust but luckily with some good hot water and scrubbing I got them cleaned up and after a couple re-seasonings they are fine. The other 3 piece set is one I got myself from JCPenneys. I always keep a small tub of lard to season my cast iron. I also save bacon grease to season cast iron with.

Jafo,

Heating a pan to dry it and help reseason it are not the same things as pouring cold water into it.

As noted, I don't think liquid oils are the best seasoning media for cast iron. So we do things differently. For instance, for the final drying, I merely warm the pan over low heat to evaporate any remaining moisture (after I've towel-wiped it). Then I rub the still-warm pan with additional shortening, to replace any of the cure that may have leached out.

While we like to say we are preventing rusting with the application of new grease/oil, that's not really true. There is no way that a properly cured cast iron piece will rust unless kept in contact with liquid water for a long period.

The operative words there are "properly cured."

Did I ever mention that soap and cast iron don't mix?