Why I don’t wash the non-stick with metal

After supper a crust sits on the non-stick — the hand reaches for the iron scrubber “to scrape it to a mirror”. Easy: the coating comes off in silver lines, and tomorrow the egg already sticks. I wet a soft sponge, tip a drop of soap, and go without metal and without a toothed spatula — the layer lives longer than one week.

Why I don’t wash the non-stick with metal. Heating the empty base before the oil is about heat order; greasy plates washed at once is about time at the sink; the board after beetroot is about stain. Here it is only the coating: sponge instead of scrubber — not a speech about cast iron and not about “forever” sets from the aisle.

If I already went over it with metal — from now only the sponge and a wooden scoop, I won’t scrape food with metal. I’m not choosing a new pan “with stronger Teflon” in this note — only the one already hanging at ours.

I don’t need a shine at the cost of a dead coating. I need a layer from which food still slides off. In your kitchen is non-stick washed with a soft sponge — or already scraped with an iron pad “until it squeaks”?