I’m guessing the finish chipped from the store cleaning the pan aggressively, but poorly, given the recent sticker date. Is that unusual? Gonna refinish it myself this week, as long as this isn’t setting off anyone’s alarm bells.
Edit: gonna head to the hardware store for a lead test kit and magnets this weekend, unless someone can think of a better process. Thanks for the advice, all!
Just run that thing through the oven on self clean mode and then do the standard reseasoning process a million YouTube videos show you how to do.
It’s just a piece of metal that gets hot real slow and unevenly and stays hot long.
It’s not the “hack” to real cooking, “good” cooking or “healthy” cooking. Cast iron is just a really hearty piece of cooking utensil that can be beat to shit and still be great to cook on. It does not need to be babied. Treat it like an outdoor grill.
For really easy everyday stuff, get a cheap, uncoated stainless steel pan. It’s the same maintenance as cast iron, just doesn’t weigh as much and doesn’t retain as much heat once it’s off the burner (and you can’t put them in the oven if you have a handle that has some kind of heat resistant filler) but they do offer all the same bullshit benefits of a cast iron (no nonstick chemicals, no… uh… non stick chemicals…)
Really unless you need heat retention or being able to put a skillet into a fire directly, every-day use cast iron cookware is pretty pointless.
I just like a pan I can beat up remorselessly, and which aids my anemia when I do. I’ve reseasoned another pan already, but I’ve never thrifted before so confirming that no one has been melting soda cans, or something, into this thing felt like a reasonable question.
Cast iron is the most versatile, and it is really cheap. If you are dirt poor it is the best. I use mine all the time, but I fully agree, it is just a cooking pan, not a religion, nobody is going to hell for not using cast iron.