Your seasoning is burnt if you see black flakes

Yes – black flakes on your pan, your food, or your paper towel are the dead giveaway.

When you overheat a cast iron pan past the smoke point of the seasoning oil, the polymerized layer doesn’t just degrade – it carbonizes. That carbon becomes brittle and starts flaking off like old paint. You’ll see:

• Actual black specks on your paper towel after wiping, or worse, on your eggs. That’s not “seasoning coming off” in a helpful way – that’s burnt carbon debris.
• A patchy, dull, almost scaly appearance on the cooking surface. Good seasoning looks dark and smooth, like worn leather. Burnt seasoning looks dry and flaky, like asphalt cracks.
• Rough, raised spots you can feel with your finger. If it feels bumpy instead of slick, the oil burned into hard carbon crystals instead of polymerizing into a non-stick layer.
• A burnt, acrid smell when you heat the pan – that’s carbonized oil off-gassing. Not good.

One caveat: some flaking can happen from old seasoning layers separating, not necessarily overheating. But if you got the pan screaming hot (like searing a steak on high for too long, or preheating empty for 20 minutes), that’s almost certainly the cause.

You don’t need to toss the pan. Just scrub it down with steel wool and reseason. Future you will thank you.