Wonder just exactly how cast-iron cookware is made? Lodge Cookware allowed Out Here magazine to take a tour of the foundry so you could see.

Lodge cast-iron cookware starts out as a pile of pig iron.

Two tons of pig iron turns into molten metal in an electric induction furnace that reaches 2,800 degrees.

Molten metal pours from the furnace into a trolley that will transport it to the sand casts.

Liquid metal is injected into sand casts of frying pans, Dutch ovens, woks, or whatever Lodge is making on the production line that day. The amount of liquid is determined by computer.

After the iron cools, the newly made sand-covered cookware rides a vibrating conveyor belt that begins to shake the sand off. Cookware will go through three more cleaning procedures to clean away sand.

The final cleaning step is a water and river rock bath.

Fresh from its river rock bath, the cookware hangs from a conveyor to dry.

In the seasoning step, cookware enters a bay similar in appearance to an automatic car wash, where it will be sprayed with cooking oil and baked. This process turns the cookware from silver to the familiar black.

Just 90 minutes after the foundry process starts, Lodge Cookware is packaged for shipping to its retailers, including Tractor Supply Co.

Lodge’s Outlet Store, just across the street from the foundry, offers discount prices on all of its cookware.