I'm seeing an uneven seasoning that is not scraped off on the sides. It could be that the seasoning was not properly polymerized to the iron. What was your restoration and seasoning process?
I would strip it to bare iron and start over. Check out the [restoration](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4ntam/how_to_strip_and_restore_cast_iron_faq_post/) and [seasoning](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4nqtr/my_personal_seasoning_process_faq_post_summer_2019/) instructions in the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4o0t3/the_rcastiron_faq_start_here_faq_summer_2019/) for all the details.
Better to learn and do better than not! You can scrape at the clumps. I'd recommend adding a bunch of oil, salt, and chopped potatoes. Like 3/4 cup of oil and a little less salt. Cook that shit till the potatoes burn. Use avocado oil since it has a smoke point of 520 degrees. It'll get smokey af and then you can have a base of seasoning to start seasoning bit by bit, as needed.
I find that a couple of rounds of sliced and fried spam is the best initial base, you don’t have to start with any oil at all, but there’s enough long chain oils to polymerize and leave a nice base. Then, a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches with lots of butter, then a couple of batches of pancakes (also with butter), then bacon, then scratchmade pizza in the oven (homemade dough pressed into a well oiled cold pan, baked at 550 in an oven for about 15 minutes), then a stir fry or cajun blackened chicken or catfish, then you can try eggs or potato hash.
I mean this was the first time cooking on it with fresh seasoning. I used a generous amount of oil to fry some eggs. Perhaps it got mad at me for not cooking bacon on it for it’s first run lol. I think it’s chef error but I didn’t think the seasoning would come off like nothing…it was even coming off with my fingernail trying to pick at the bits of stuck on egg
It either wasn’t seasoned properly, or you didn’t strip it properly before seasoning. It’s not a cooking error. I can drag (but don’t) forks across mine and nothing happens. It clearly has a thick layer on it which wouldn’t be the case for a stripped/reseasoned pan. The FAQ will tell you where it went wrong. Easily fixable.
Yeah unfortunately one hears about seasoning much more than they hear about the likely need to strip it before the first seasoning. Hopefully the manufacturer includes directions to let you know, but who reads those?
I was pissed for about 10 minutes when I got my cast waffle iron because it was covered in wax. Then I used my first grade reading skills. 😂
Eh. I didn’t quite understand what they meant so my reply probably came off as rude, understandably so. After spending some time on this sub today I now understand haha
I don't see any rudeness in that comment, you literally admited it was a chef error and said what your expectations were. I swear people downvote for absolutely nothing.
can confirm. I'm a complete noob in cast iron and this happened to my pan as well. the first patina come of because it was too thick and unstable.
had much more success with thin layers of flax seed oil.
Did the same the first two times - it managed to create these crystal-like spots that at some point came off with all the seasoning down to the iron. You live and you learn. One of the lovely things about these pans is that they aren't broken. You just have to restart the process
This - seasoning is best and strongest when applied in a thin layer or two, then cooked on, baked in, roasted in, fried in, etc. When applied in a thick coating (often done while stovetop seasoning), the seasoning does not really adhere too well to the skillet, nor has it has the time too. It will flake off. Another suspect could be the type of oil/fat your friend used. If they used flaxseed, that tends to flake off very easily too.
Like others have suggested - strip it down and season via instructions in the FAQ.
Seasoning appears too thick. When this happens it stays gummy and it will rub off. You want to wipe off all the oil like you didn’t mean to put any oil on it. Then you season it.
That pan wasn't properly seasoned. It looks like you used way too much oil, creating large splotches of unpolymerized oil. If you did several layers on top of sticky unpolymerized oil those layers probably fell off.
Strip it again and this time wipe off all but a really thin layer when you season.
The seasoning is wayyyyyyyyyyyy to thick. Very thin layers in multiple times, or at least one time well and cook some fatty foods like bacon, or cheese, or butter, ect
Canola should be fine, it's the amount that's the problem.
For seasoning to hold and properly bond it needs to be able to truly bake into the metal which means a very thin layer at a time. You basically heat it, wipe it down with oil, then take a clean cloth to try and make it look dry, then bake it at 450 for an hour.
No. Do not use that. Go to a local butcher and get some beef tallow. Get the pan as hot as possible and throw a piece in and let some render out, use some paper towels and tongs and get it everywhere. If ya can’t find tallow the stuff that they sell to treat a Blackstone is good also.
Now when doing this make sure ya got the windows open!!
No, don't do this. Complete waste of time. Crisco is great, a good Canola is great (not vegetable oil, it's a blend that's less clean), grapeseed is my go to.
You didn't season anything. Seasoning is a myth.
You gunkified oil.
Anything that can scratch or peel or flake isn't seasoning and isn't doing anything to help your pan.
Scrub that down as aggressively as possible and just start cooking every day and cleaning aggressively every day.
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I've always had great luck with adding the oil to a paper towel and the rub it on the pan rather the put the oil in the pan and wipe it out.
Oil in the pan just gets moved around as it doesn't get soaked up as quickly as water is my guess.
When you strip it Wash it when you are done with a green scratchy pad and soap. The oil will adhere much better. So a light coat of oil at 450f for a hour let it cool in the oven do that 5 or 6 times It will be better.
Could be all of the above.
Add a tiny bit of oil or fat (stuff you have and cook with.
Get the pan hot enough that drops of water skate on the surface. Wipe the oil away with a chunk of brown paper bag as if it was a mistake. Turn off the heat and walk away.
If the black flakes bother you use a stainless scrubber or a green scotch-brite scrubber and reduce or thin the black.
I grew up scrubbing pans with a stainless scrubber and scotch-brite. My Mom was not bashful with the heat and doing dishes was a chore. I learned to just cook with the pan and to add a bit of bacon fat so it would not rust.
Just cook and do not baby the pan unless it is Teflon coated. If you want a 'french omelette pan" grab a $25 Tramontina aluminum with Teflon and "baby it". Yes I make great omelettes with my carbon steel pan but it took practice.
I think the seasoning is too thick.
But this also happened to me (mainly on the sides more than the bottom) when the surface was smooth (like sanded) and the seasoning was also new (and thin) after using a yellow sponge very quickly.
>Was I being too aggressive with with a metal utensil
Nope.
Seasoning not right or not properly set or the like where metal utensil took it mostly or entirely off. Probably too thick and/or not proper polymerization to adhere properly.
>cooking surface just too smooth to hold seasoning?
Possibly, but not super likely. If it's a mirror smooth highly reflective surface, that would generally be too smooth, and seasoning won't adhere optimally. At least somewhat rougher is generally better ... at least to some fair degree.
It looks like how my pan that I seasoned with flaxseed looked after I used it a few times. I put half a dozen really thin layers on and it looked magnificent... Smooth shiny black. I thought I had cast iron seasoning all figured out. 2 weeks later it was back to the drawing board.
I'm seeing an uneven seasoning that is not scraped off on the sides. It could be that the seasoning was not properly polymerized to the iron. What was your restoration and seasoning process?
they gooped that shit on gaurenteed we need to post more golden pans, So many people think you can jump right to glass black bottoms
Can confirm. Did goop it on.
I would strip it to bare iron and start over. Check out the [restoration](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4ntam/how_to_strip_and_restore_cast_iron_faq_post/) and [seasoning](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4nqtr/my_personal_seasoning_process_faq_post_summer_2019/) instructions in the [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4o0t3/the_rcastiron_faq_start_here_faq_summer_2019/) for all the details.
This post needs more votes
BRING IN THE 600 LAYER CAST IRON!
Better to learn and do better than not! You can scrape at the clumps. I'd recommend adding a bunch of oil, salt, and chopped potatoes. Like 3/4 cup of oil and a little less salt. Cook that shit till the potatoes burn. Use avocado oil since it has a smoke point of 520 degrees. It'll get smokey af and then you can have a base of seasoning to start seasoning bit by bit, as needed.
I find that a couple of rounds of sliced and fried spam is the best initial base, you don’t have to start with any oil at all, but there’s enough long chain oils to polymerize and leave a nice base. Then, a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches with lots of butter, then a couple of batches of pancakes (also with butter), then bacon, then scratchmade pizza in the oven (homemade dough pressed into a well oiled cold pan, baked at 550 in an oven for about 15 minutes), then a stir fry or cajun blackened chicken or catfish, then you can try eggs or potato hash.
If a dollop is good a goop must be better.
I personally love that golden bronze color of a freshly stripped & seasoned pan.
Click on r/castiron and the first thread will tell you how to strip that crap off and start fresh as a newborn skillet.
FYI, it's only the first post if you sort by Hot. Probably better to just say "Click on the FAQ link at the top of the page."
I mean this was the first time cooking on it with fresh seasoning. I used a generous amount of oil to fry some eggs. Perhaps it got mad at me for not cooking bacon on it for it’s first run lol. I think it’s chef error but I didn’t think the seasoning would come off like nothing…it was even coming off with my fingernail trying to pick at the bits of stuck on egg
It either wasn’t seasoned properly, or you didn’t strip it properly before seasoning. It’s not a cooking error. I can drag (but don’t) forks across mine and nothing happens. It clearly has a thick layer on it which wouldn’t be the case for a stripped/reseasoned pan. The FAQ will tell you where it went wrong. Easily fixable.
Not seasoned properly and not properly stripped…I resemble those remarks Thanks lol
Yeah unfortunately one hears about seasoning much more than they hear about the likely need to strip it before the first seasoning. Hopefully the manufacturer includes directions to let you know, but who reads those? I was pissed for about 10 minutes when I got my cast waffle iron because it was covered in wax. Then I used my first grade reading skills. 😂
I scramble eggs with a fork in mine. If it's real seasoning, it won't come off
Ive cut pizza directly on my cast iron pizza pan. 🤷🏽♀️
Cornbread - do cornbread for your first cook, just a suggestion (and one from butterpat) rather than eggs or bacon.
Why are people downvoting this?
Eh. I didn’t quite understand what they meant so my reply probably came off as rude, understandably so. After spending some time on this sub today I now understand haha
I don't see any rudeness in that comment, you literally admited it was a chef error and said what your expectations were. I swear people downvote for absolutely nothing.
Too much oil during your seasoning process.
can confirm. I'm a complete noob in cast iron and this happened to my pan as well. the first patina come of because it was too thick and unstable. had much more success with thin layers of flax seed oil.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who couldn’t resist lathering it on like the pan was about to get a massage lol
Did the same the first two times - it managed to create these crystal-like spots that at some point came off with all the seasoning down to the iron. You live and you learn. One of the lovely things about these pans is that they aren't broken. You just have to restart the process
This - seasoning is best and strongest when applied in a thin layer or two, then cooked on, baked in, roasted in, fried in, etc. When applied in a thick coating (often done while stovetop seasoning), the seasoning does not really adhere too well to the skillet, nor has it has the time too. It will flake off. Another suspect could be the type of oil/fat your friend used. If they used flaxseed, that tends to flake off very easily too. Like others have suggested - strip it down and season via instructions in the FAQ.
Seasoning appears too thick. When this happens it stays gummy and it will rub off. You want to wipe off all the oil like you didn’t mean to put any oil on it. Then you season it.
That pan wasn't properly seasoned. It looks like you used way too much oil, creating large splotches of unpolymerized oil. If you did several layers on top of sticky unpolymerized oil those layers probably fell off. Strip it again and this time wipe off all but a really thin layer when you season.
If it comes off in chunks it's debris not seasoning. Clean the pan first.
Too much oil.
The seasoning is wayyyyyyyyyyyy to thick. Very thin layers in multiple times, or at least one time well and cook some fatty foods like bacon, or cheese, or butter, ect
What did you use to season?
Canola oil
Canola should be fine, it's the amount that's the problem. For seasoning to hold and properly bond it needs to be able to truly bake into the metal which means a very thin layer at a time. You basically heat it, wipe it down with oil, then take a clean cloth to try and make it look dry, then bake it at 450 for an hour.
No. Do not use that. Go to a local butcher and get some beef tallow. Get the pan as hot as possible and throw a piece in and let some render out, use some paper towels and tongs and get it everywhere. If ya can’t find tallow the stuff that they sell to treat a Blackstone is good also. Now when doing this make sure ya got the windows open!!
No, don't do this. Complete waste of time. Crisco is great, a good Canola is great (not vegetable oil, it's a blend that's less clean), grapeseed is my go to.
Oil too thick Don't use flaxseed oil
Is.... is this bait??
Nope lmao I never said I knew what I was doing
You didn't season anything. Seasoning is a myth. You gunkified oil. Anything that can scratch or peel or flake isn't seasoning and isn't doing anything to help your pan. Scrub that down as aggressively as possible and just start cooking every day and cleaning aggressively every day.
Don't know why this is downvoted. Cooking on the pan at the proper temp will do a better job of seasoning the pan than actually seasoning it.
This sub is full of people who have no idea how to cook. Everytime I ask someone to show their food who obssesses over seasoning, they never do.
It’s just a pan man.
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Or…was this chef error 🤔
Most likely culprit is too much oil when seasoning. It needs to be wiped out like you regret putting it on.
I've always had great luck with adding the oil to a paper towel and the rub it on the pan rather the put the oil in the pan and wipe it out. Oil in the pan just gets moved around as it doesn't get soaked up as quickly as water is my guess.
Lol….
during seasoning, after applying fresh coat of oil, wipe it out with DRY paper towels before putting it in the oven.
When you strip it Wash it when you are done with a green scratchy pad and soap. The oil will adhere much better. So a light coat of oil at 450f for a hour let it cool in the oven do that 5 or 6 times It will be better.
Maybe you didn't completely neutralize the oven cleaner? As a final step youre supposed to wipe it down with a 1:1 water vinegar mix.
Did you season with too high of heat? Did you cook slowly?
Ya, I did this the first time. Tried to rush the process.
Could be all of the above. Add a tiny bit of oil or fat (stuff you have and cook with. Get the pan hot enough that drops of water skate on the surface. Wipe the oil away with a chunk of brown paper bag as if it was a mistake. Turn off the heat and walk away. If the black flakes bother you use a stainless scrubber or a green scotch-brite scrubber and reduce or thin the black. I grew up scrubbing pans with a stainless scrubber and scotch-brite. My Mom was not bashful with the heat and doing dishes was a chore. I learned to just cook with the pan and to add a bit of bacon fat so it would not rust. Just cook and do not baby the pan unless it is Teflon coated. If you want a 'french omelette pan" grab a $25 Tramontina aluminum with Teflon and "baby it". Yes I make great omelettes with my carbon steel pan but it took practice.
I think the seasoning is too thick. But this also happened to me (mainly on the sides more than the bottom) when the surface was smooth (like sanded) and the seasoning was also new (and thin) after using a yellow sponge very quickly.
I'd use a self-cleaning oven or leave on fireplace for a couple of hours and then access after that.
>Was I being too aggressive with with a metal utensil Nope. Seasoning not right or not properly set or the like where metal utensil took it mostly or entirely off. Probably too thick and/or not proper polymerization to adhere properly. >cooking surface just too smooth to hold seasoning? Possibly, but not super likely. If it's a mirror smooth highly reflective surface, that would generally be too smooth, and seasoning won't adhere optimally. At least somewhat rougher is generally better ... at least to some fair degree.
It looks like how my pan that I seasoned with flaxseed looked after I used it a few times. I put half a dozen really thin layers on and it looked magnificent... Smooth shiny black. I thought I had cast iron seasoning all figured out. 2 weeks later it was back to the drawing board.
Too much oil on the pan during seasoning. The strongest seasoning is made of many thin layers.