If you’ve been cooking a lot lately, you’re not alone.
It took you so long to season it correctly, and you could never bear to part with it.
It can actually be a health and safety concern.
Test this out by setting your cast iron on a flat surface like your kitchen counter.
One factor you should never ignore is simple: Does the pan have cracks?
A cracked pan means it is completely unusable.
Eventually it will break the pan in half.
If this happens while you’re cooking, this can of course become a very hazardous situation.
Even more, cracks keep bacteria inside them, which leads to other possible issues, like food contamination.
Plus, if you use your pan often, you will continue to consume quantities of rust each time.
I’d buy new cookware."
Most discoloration is completely normal in cast iron.
Rust sometimes varies in shade, so your cast iron pan may very well be covered in corrosion.
This won’t affect its effectiveness, and it will still cook evenly.
While that choice is truly wasteful, being careful about ingesting rust makes perfect sense.
