My experience is to just take it easy: it's okay to scrub, use soap, etc. Just don't leave it wet: always dry it thoroughly after washing, and don't use a dishwasher. I even cooked some acidic food in it and it was fine: you probably shouldn't be making tomato stew in it, though. The irony taste would ruin the dish.

I disagree with

> 6. A rough-surfaced pan is fine.

because what you're cooking is more likely to stick to a rough surface, and spatulas work best on a very smooth surface.

To deal with my wife's bacon habit and keep our cast iron skillets usable, I do the following after each time she cooks bacon or other fatty meats. It sounds like a lot written out, but it's actually pretty quick:

- Reheat the skillet and pour any remaining grease into our grease container.

- With the skillet on the stove, use a sharp-edged stainless spatula to scrape the surface of the skillet, focusing in particular on anything on it that's carbonized, until the entire surface feels very smooth, and scrape what I've scraped off into the grease container.

- While the skillet is still warm, put it in the sink, put a teaspoon or so of Dawn dishwashing liquid in the bottom, point the water from the faucet so it hits the Dawn and mixes with it, adding enough water to just fill the bottom of the skillet, then use the spatula again to scrape the bottom of the skillet in the same way I just did when the skillet was on the stove.

- Thoroughly rinse the skillet and dry it with a dishtowel.

- Put the skillet back on the stove, heat it on the biggest burner on high heat just long enough to dry any remaining water, then turn off the heat.

- Put a small amount of olive oil, less than a teaspoon for a 12" skillet, on the bottom of the skillet and use a paper towel to completely coat the surface with it.

- Move the skillet to a smaller burner, and with the heat turned all the way down leave it to season for a few minutes.

- Hang skillet on pot rack.

Our skillets have stayed smooth and non-stick this way for years.