I bought a new 24cm springform pan with two bottoms yesterday, and on
the way home read the instructions. They were in Dutch, German,
English, French, and Italian. In every language but English they said
something like 'Before first use, heat at 175C for 10 minutes.' Why
do you think that's necessary? It seems like they would have heated
it at the pan factory.

I heated it when I got home and it really stank up the kitchen--it's
a good thing I noticed that the English instructions were missing a
step, or I might have ruined my panforte.

--Rebecca

it was probably coated with something that needed to be burnt off by
heating it first. as for the instructions not being in english, it was
probably because english speaking people already know this and do not
need to be told(tongue in cheek)