That was not cast iron, was it?
That is what cast iron looks like if you strip it down to the bare metal. It’s not actually ruined, but it will be unusable until someone goes through the process of re-seasoning it
Not me thinking that “seasoning” meant to let stuff stick to it for the flavor. 💀
I had a roommate who thought this, and therefore never washed or rinsed their cast iron. They refused to believe otherwise.
Which is a bit time consuming and takes a little practice, but is a pretty great feature for getting a pan back into working condition in situations where a steel or aluminum pan might be ruined.
I had a few imperfections on a lodge that were catching the spatula, but too big to just knock off with said spatula. After a light 5 minute sanding with an orbital sander, a wash, and a couple hours for the new seasoning to bake on it was back in business.
Now it is my favorite cast iron pan!
(I cook most things on ceramic non-stick though)
You can season aluminum and I think steel (although I don’t see the benefit of steel)
Wouldn’t even call it unusable as is.
I am pretty sure you could cook bacon or similarly fatty stuff in there right away.
Then again there are people that see cooking bacon as a legitimate form of seasoning a pan.
If my cooking senses are right, it would be like cooking bacon in a stainless steel pan, which is sticky and burny but not impossible
