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http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CastIronPans.htm

All new (not old cast iron cookware) cast iron pans and skillets have a protective coating on them, which must be removed.

Is this information correct? What is the point in buying a seasoned cast iron cokware if we have to remove the seasoning then?

TFD
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Aquarius_Girl
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  • I would trust a statement such as that from the manufacturer, primarily. The Lodge website only refers to the preseasoning process, there is no mention of a protective coating that must be removed. The statement from whatscookingamerica.net is unsupported. – Kristina Lopez Dec 31 '12 at 15:51
  • @KristinaLopez I live in India. No tag anywhere here. – Aquarius_Girl Dec 31 '12 at 15:55

2 Answers2

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This coating is not the same thing as a seasoning.

Iron rusts when exposed to air. For cooking purposes, you season it, and it prevents rusting. Some manufacturers sell their iron cookware pre-seasoned, but others use other types of coating to prevent rust. This other coating can consist of wax or petroleum products such as parafin. Its only purpose is to seal the pan air-tight for the time it spends in warehouses and stores. It would melt during cooking and mix with your food. Therefore, you can't use it instead of seasoning.

But you can't season a pan "on top" of the wax coating. The real seasoning would stick to the wax, and when the wax melts, the seasoning will come off. Therefore, you have to remove the wax coating before making a normal seasoning from polymerized oil.

If you bought a pan which was seasoned instead of wax-coated, you can start using it without any removing and re-seasoning.

rumtscho
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    what is the way to know if it is real coating or wax? – Aquarius_Girl Dec 31 '12 at 15:25
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    @AnishaKaul real seasoning is a dark reddish brown, almost black. The other coatings can't be described in one sentence, as there are different options, but the most common ones are transparent, so the pan has a dull grey color and feels like a candle to the touch. Generally, if the manufacturer has not written "preseasoned" on the packaging, I would assume that it is *not* seasoned and that whatever coating is in place has to be removed. – rumtscho Dec 31 '12 at 16:54
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    @rumtscho, your last comment sums it up very nicely - maybe you can add that to your answer. :-) – Kristina Lopez Dec 31 '12 at 17:18
  • okay, so today I scrubbed the wok with steel wool, and later on when it dried I rubbed my finger on it and found some blackish powder sticking to my fingers. Does that indicate anything? – Aquarius_Girl Dec 31 '12 at 17:28
  • Deary me, the second and third sentences here are **wrong** and coming from a moderator too, who should know better. Firstly, iron doesn't rust when just exposed to air, it needs an electrolyte to move the electrons to form iron oxide and that electrolyte is water. For rust to form on iron *water* and *air* are required. Secondly, seasoning isn't to prevent rusting, it's to provide a non-stick coating formed from polymerized fat and oil. Tut tut, poor and factually incorrect information. – spiceyokooko Jan 01 '13 at 01:31
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    @spiceyokooko The humidity in ambient air is enough for iron and some types of steel to rust. (The reason stainless steel is called *stainless* is that it doesn't rust, unlike e.g. blue steel). So yes, manufacturers do coat the newly-cast pans in wax, because the pans would sell on their way from the plant to the customer. Second, seasoning has many reasons, and one of them is exactly that an unseasoned pan will rust after some time sitting undisturbed in a kitchen cabinet. The non-stick surface is a nice side effect of seasoning, making it a second reason, but not the only one. – rumtscho Jan 02 '13 at 17:26
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I got this set few days ago, and it has protective coating, so I suppose answer is yes

Terry
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    It may be the case for *some* pans, but it isn't the case for *all* pans. The key is to understand what you've purchased and whether or not it has any required first-use instructions. – STW Mar 20 '13 at 14:16