r/whatisit • u/Traditional-Age-8549 • 1d ago
New, what is it? I accidentally left my cast iron to dry next to my bamboo chopping board - is this mould?
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u/PineConeOPinyons 1d ago
Nah, that's just iron. A common nutritional additive.
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u/Radiant_Airport7141 1d ago
It's what plants crave!
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u/Nice_Marmot_54 1d ago
No. It’s iron.
Take a dry, white paper towel and rub it on your dry cast iron. See how the paper towel is blackened? It’s iron oxide transferring off the pan and onto the paper towel. The same thing happened to the cutting board, but instead of friction being the method of transfer it was the iron oxide being carried by water
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1d ago
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u/whatisit-ModTeam 1d ago
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u/Fun_Environment3792 1d ago
You have to dry your cast iron till its bone dry otherwise it will rust. Put it back on the stove until all the moisture evaporates.
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u/Intrepid_Map6671 21h ago
Can you put some false eyelashes in the lower third of the circle in the middle? I am curious about something.
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u/Sweaty-Adeptness1541 21h ago
It's not just iron. The iron has combined with tannin in the bamboo to create an dark iron tannate stain. If it was an oak chopping board the stain would be many times worse, due to the much higher tannin levels in oak.
You could try cleaning it with Bar Keepers Friend, which has oxalic acid, commonly used as 'wood bleach'. Just rinse thourghly afterwards.
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u/Radiant_Airport7141 1d ago
It's rust.
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u/Radiant_Airport7141 1d ago
Specifically iron(II) oxide. Such a developed pattern of mold would not appear overnight. You would have to leave a dirty wet rag there for mold to form.
If your board is otherwise in healthy shape (no weird smell) the cast pan, especially a freshly washed one, won't "give" mold to the board.
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u/unsuccessfulplantmom 1d ago
as someone who has been trapped in a black mold infested apartment for a hot second, that does look exactly like mold. it could be iron but id personally get a new board.
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