By miss_strauss - 25/01/2016 18:21 - United States - Conroe

Today, my boyfriend moved in with me. I just walked into my kitchen to find my thirty year-old, perfectly seasoned cast iron skillet completely submerged in soapy water in the sink, presumably from last night when he washed the dishes. FML
I agree, your life sucks 20 726
You deserved it 4 192

miss_strauss tells us more.

miss_strauss 5

OP here. I had cooked a dinner in a sort of celebration of our first night living together, and he offered to do the dishes afterwards. I happily agreed and asked him to leave the skillet for me because it requires extra TLC. When I woke up and found it this morning, I went to work making sure there wasn't too much damage done, and he was horrified when realized what he did. I couldn't be mad at him, because he was only trying to help. Also, for those wondering about why I've kept a skillet for this long. I'm only 23, but it was my grandmothers and then my dad inherited it when she passed away. He passed it on to me when I went to college and got my own apartment. Cast iron, if maintained and loved properly, can be the best tool of a good kitchen and can last forever. It's really not strange to small town southerners to have cast iron pans that are older than them:P

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Top comments

andits 21

Hmmmm I don't think many people would know what's wrong with that. Lol I honestly don't. But now I know not to do that.

433 22
wrongmove 11

Blasphemy, he needs an exorcism to drive out the devil that compelled him to commit this heinous act against your cooking implement.

288 10

Comments

008GGG 14

I long believed you couldn't use soap on a cast iron skillet, too. Came across this article. Take it how you like. I'll continue to not use soap in mine. http://lifehacker.com/go-ahead-and-use-soap-to-clean-your-cast-iron-pan-1658416503

6 5
quackImapenguin 16

That article says that letting it soak in soapy water will still ruin the seasoning, so it won't do much for the OP.

11 1
raz0rf0x 8

I do use a lightly soapy sponge to clean my cast iron cookware if it's getting exceptionally dirty. I just give it a little extra rub down with oil or bacon grease after thoroughly dying.

1 1
SuperMew 22

I think it might be time to go through everything and explain how its taken care of. This isn't something most people think about, but if you have other things you don't want randomly "soaped" you should speak up now.

6 6
clb2005 4

If it takes you years to perfectly season your cast iron pan. You're doing wrong.

3 31
WhatHappenedToIt 22

ugh. that is exactly why my dh is not allowed in my kitchen lol. I do the cooking and dishes or else I would never find anything and he'd end up ruining something.

6 3
Sparx1_1 16

Very few people own cast iron skillets these days and even fewer know how to season them properly and fewer still understand how to clean them properly. If you let him do the dishes without bothering to explain about your skillet then YDI.

16 12
Schmavid64 13

Well OP I guess it was a mistake on both your parts. Cast iron isn't used very often anymore and he probably didn't know that they are supposed to feel different to the touch. Hopefully he has learnt now and you didn't yell at him too much for it.

3 10
miss_strauss 5

OP here. I had cooked a dinner in a sort of celebration of our first night living together, and he offered to do the dishes afterwards. I happily agreed and asked him to leave the skillet for me because it requires extra TLC. When I woke up and found it this morning, I went to work making sure there wasn't too much damage done, and he was horrified when realized what he did. I couldn't be mad at him, because he was only trying to help. Also, for those wondering about why I've kept a skillet for this long. I'm only 23, but it was my grandmothers and then my dad inherited it when she passed away. He passed it on to me when I went to college and got my own apartment. Cast iron, if maintained and loved properly, can be the best tool of a good kitchen and can last forever. It's really not strange to small town southerners to have cast iron pans that are older than them:P

104 1
ourtneyc 14

smh I was right I knew it was passed down.

5729 16

Don't worry OP! There is a way to season the cast iron that will make it like new, just look it up online and you'll be okay :-) my dad made the same mistake when I first got him his cast iron, but when he found that he could re-season it, he continually washed it

38 2
lilbird187 9

It's not the same when you re-season the pan as when you season the first time and cool in it for years

5 28
isaak_sanchez 18

Y'all could have just washed the dishes together and then this wouldn't have happened

6 66
Mpii 11

It sucks that this happened to your skillet. But on the bright side it looks like you have a very good relationship to your boyfriend. :)

19 1
Taolan 23

Good thing he understood after an explanation - he probably thought an overnight soak would help! Being trainable puts him up above about two thirds of the male population these days. (Being male I would know).

34 9
psychopolarbear 28

I come from a small town in Alabama and I have two cast iron skillets and a mini skillet that are all easily three times my age. The thought of someone soaping them makes me cringe

11 1
madscientist_17 15

I hear ya! But the great thing about cast iron skillets is you can fix it easily. My SIL threw here out in the yard where it stayed for a good year. I finally took it when they moved. A potato and a little sea salt works wonders. Cook on it a few times and it was almost back to normal. This thing was so red from the rust!

9 0
youdontcontrolme 17

I live in small town wyoming and we have a cast iron skillet that is around 35 years old

4 1
Dashelle 25

So sorry to hear that. An acquaintance once put my brand new expensive rosewood handle knives in the bottom of the sink, where they absorbed water and were never the same since. Mine was just cosmetic damage, though.

3 0
mrsfishbait 10

I know the feeling. Me and my husband let a friend and her baby live with us for about 3 weeks and she tried to do that to my cast iron skillet. I had to explain to her salt, water, and oil only lol

3 1
TipTopCaduceus 11

That's a shame - communication failure. I can absolutely see why he interpreted "leave it for me" as "just let it soak," but you also can't be faulted because you did try to communicate that it had special needs in advance... Good that he is apologetic and you're handling it well, though. Nice to see healthy relationship dynamics on FML. =P

1 0
Emziee4039 11

This same thing happened to my brother because of his crappy roommate. He NEVER done dishes (or any cleaning, this guy was disgusting. My brother lived with him for many months and the guy didn't even change or wash his bed sheets once). But anyways, the one time he chose to do dishes, there goes my brothers cast iron pan.

1 0
Logical07 16

Did he care about this? For you to write a FML it seems the skillet has been something ******* important.

4 42
Logical07 16

Not native speaker. About the OP I've seen it later.

2 10
Logical07 16

should have been pretty clear by itself but whatever... literate people couldn't get it.

0 9
cantfixme36 28

Well... Yeah. They're expensive, and clearly it was something inherited or maybe a special gift. If someone destroyed something of yours that was expensive and came from someone special to you, you'd be upset too, no?

3 1
revolvearoundme 15

That sucks OP, this is why if you enter my kitchen you hear "Touch my wok and die!" Some people don't know good tools from common ones or how to maintain them. I also highly suggest you keep him away from your laundry, or put him on folding only duty. 98% of my clothes go in unsorted on hot/heavy duty and dried on hot/more dry. 2% of my wife's clothes would have survived that.

14 3
Colon_Man 17

When my wife first moved in she was going to throw out my cookware and replace it with hers. Mine cost over three grand. She had a fifty dollar set from Wal-Mart.

2 1
KryssLB 14

My husband decided to help out one day by doing a load of clothes without reading the tags first. Put my favourite (and only silk) shirt in the regular wash on hot. Dried it on regular hot. Now it feels like a windbreaker. I honestly think sometimes that he screws up sometimes on purpose so I don't ask him to do that chore again. You have no idea how much it pisses me off.

4 2