New lodge cast iron pan brown colour

Question

I recently got the 18cm lodge cast iron pan that comes pre-seasoned. I wanted to take the pre-seasoning off using a scourer and baking soda. I then dried it and put canola oil onto it and rubbed off the excess and put it in an oven preheated at around 410F/210C for an hour and let it cool in the oven. The pan ended up looking weird like in the photos I've attached. All photos are of the same pan under different lighting-the first is in natural room lighting, the second directly under sunlight and the last one is under my yellow cooking light. Is it rust? I'm concerned about any potential health risks if I cook with it like this.
 
Click for full size

Tetsujin · Answer

Your seasoning is uneven. Possibly because of the very pitted rough-cast nature of modern cast iron pans. It looks like your oil has been more attracted to itself than the pan surface.
DIY seasoning isn't evenly black to start with. It's brown. The black comes with time & repeated re-heats.
You could see if several repeated coats will eventually smooth out - seasoning is not done in one go, it's done over several repetitions using the absolute minimum of oil each time.
I'm at a loss as to why you considered it necessary to remove the professional quality seasoning provided by the manufacturer to save you have to go through this yourself. It does fortunately look like you weren't totally successful in removing all the existing seasoning, or your first DIY coat would have been spotted brown over silver-grey.

New lodge cast iron pan brown colour

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question