In rec.food.cooking, hob > wrote:

> > wrote in message
> ...
> > In rec.food.cooking, hob > wrote:
> >
> > > And if the pan is not hot
> > > enough, the food will not release easily from the iron oxide and the
> method
> > > will appear to not be working well.
> >
> > The food will not release from the iron oxide? What the heck is iron
> > oxide doing in your pan?

> the black on a cast iron pan is iron oxide.

> red rust is also iron oxide.

> --one is ferric oxide, and the other is ferrous oxide.

> red rust will not form where black oxide is formed, if the black is
> sufficiently thick and complete.


I always took the coating on a cast iron pan to be polymerized oil. If it
is really iron oxide, then why is it necessary to coat the pan with oil to
season it? Wouldn't the oil seal away the pan from atmosphereic oxygen,
preventng oxidation?


--
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
--Edward R. Murrow