Scaly/ashy cast iron?
I bought my first cast iron skillet a couple of months ago (a 12" Lodge one from Amazon). Though it came pre-seasoned, I was advised to scrape it down to the base layer and re-season it. I used olive oil for the original seasoning and it looked great and shiny for a couple of uses. To clean, I use salt, hot water and a soft sponge. Then I heat it up to thoroughly dry it, add a layer of olive oil and heat it again until its smoking point (sometimes I will let it continue cooking while it's smoking -- maybe up to 5 minutes). The problem is that after this step, my cast iron often comes out looking scaly, dry or ashy, almost as if the heat has burnt the oil instead of binding it to the metal as I'm sure it should. I'm not sure if I'm using a less-than-ideal oil, or if I'm not cleaning it properly and maybe that's a layer of food being burnt? Any help is appreciated. Thank you!!
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