Seasoning modern cast iron

[JWey]

These products have a coarse cooking surface as it has not been polished.

On a new Lodge skillet, I can see where there are small smooth black spots beginning to develop, about the size of a BB.

I am assuming that more of these will develop and the cooking surface will eventually become a smooth sheet.

Is this what is supposed to happen?

John Wey

Yakima WA

 

[Doug D.]

It will take some time, but eventually, it will develop a more or less smooth seasoning layer. Even moreso than with polished iron, you can't rush it by laying on anything but very thin layers of manual seasoning. If you like bacon, it's a good way to get these pans seasoned.

 

[TyHiggins]

I have a friend who told me every six months like clockwork all the seasoning would flake off a couple of her skillets, but not her older Wagner. Baffled yet with a theory germinating I asked if they were perhaps new, she said yes they were new Lodge. My theory is that as the seasoning builds up it breaks loose from the rough bumpy surface. On the older polished surfaces, it seems to almost become part of the skillet.

I have at times been given skillets such as new Lodge, or the Cabela's brand, or similar trash. The only thing I'd ever use it for is extra weight when I'd run a load of scrap.