Bought a new pre-seasoned cast iron and not sure if seasoning is good
Noob on cast iron skillets here.
I've been in love with this type of cooking for a while and just bought yesterday on amazon my first skillet.
It's not a Lodge but a Utopian Kitchen (Chinese manufacturer).
I've used it yesterday for the first time and since it's pre-seasoned I didn't do anything before usage, just a quick wash with cold water.
I've noticed that on the first heating a circle in the skillet appeared. And it's still visible today after cooking some meat yesterday.
I'm not sure if the "circle" means that the pre-seasoning is not "well-done". By looking at other questions here, a common practice is to season again the skillet.
Is it what I should do in my case? What are the parameters to evaluate if a seasoning is good or bad?
Best Answer
I've seen similar things on a couple of pre-seasoned pans (one of them a Lodge). My suspicion is that the uneven heating of the pan leads the seasoning in one area to burn, while the other area completes the polymerization that began during pre-seasoning.
The number one thing that people do wrong with cast iron is worrying too much about the seasoning. Seasoning will basically just happen eventually; manually seasoning the pan is just an optional means to shortcut a longer period of natural seasoning through cooking; actual problems with the surface (rust, caked-on carbon, and... I think that's it) are thoroughly obvious.
Seasoning is as seasoning does. A cast-iron pan will never be as non-stick as a teflon-coated pan, but it should display superior food release compared to a bare steel pan. So just... cook with the thing. Differences in shininess should be ignored; differences in stickiness should not be.
Pictures about "Bought a new pre-seasoned cast iron and not sure if seasoning is good"
How do I season a brand new pre-seasoned cast iron skillet?
How to Season a New Cast Iron PanHow do I know if my cast iron is properly seasoned?
An easy way to test a skillet's seasoning is to fry an egg (heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes, then add egg). If your pan is well-seasoned, you should not experience any major sticking.Can I use a pre-seasoned cast iron right away?
Buy pre-seasoned, but don't cook with it right away. Druckman says: \u201cYou still want to give it a little bit of care when it first comes out of the box. You can just rinse it and dry it, but it's nice to give it a few coatings of a quick seasoning before you use it to build up a nice little base.What To Do With New Cast Iron Pans? (and info about them)
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Caleb Oquendo, Mikhail Nilov, Teona Swift, Pixabay