Thread: cast iron pans

the reason i like giswold is the the lightest cast iron you can get, use to be hard to find but ebay has a bunch of them. i use the all the time. best way to keep the seasoed is do not use dish washing soap on them. clean with hot water. if you burn food in them boil water in them. then dry with paper towel. put them back on the oven and get it real hot then wipe on crisco the solid stuff on. another way is to fry a bunch of fatty bacon.
i also use dutch ovens. man they make some great food.
if you got one that needs a good clean buy a can of redevil lye. mix in 5 gallons of water in a plastic storage bin and soak the pan for a couple weeks. it will come out looking like new. then coat with crisco and cook in the oven for an hour. after you take it out of the lye scrub real good with dawn dish washing soap.
i have some walpak. love the indian head one.

I collect Griswold (especially skillet lids) and use them exclusively for all my cooking. I could not find a rack to hold my skillets, so I made the one in the photographs. It holds #3 thru #12 and only takes up 20 inches of counter space. If and when I ever get a camera, I will post a picture of my walls, where I hang my corn bread , muffin pans etc. Love my waffle irons too! I am thinking about making more of these stands, so if anyone is interested in one, please let me know.
Best regards, Bob

real nice colection. an original griswold stand is worth a few hundred bucks. i may want one of your stands. i don`t cook much with the one`s on my wall. i also have a set of the small block griswolds i cook with. but you really can`t hurt them. get them seasoed right and its the best non stick pan you can get. you also get iron rich blood. lol. nice stand and pans dave

Hi Dave, the original Griswold stands were made from wire & I think they are kinda flimsy, as these pans are heavy. Now that I have figured out the geometry, I will work on the styling, giving it flowing, curving lines and making a more attractive product. I have made a few of these already, and everyone has been pleased with how they work. I plan on having them powder coated so you will have a choice of colors. I can also adjust the number of pans they hold (#2 thru 14) or any combination you want. The slant logo is a little different than the large/small block logo so i would need your model #s to ensure the pans to fit properly in the rack. I have complete sets of each logo & some earlier Erie pans so I don't need your pans to make the racks. Let me know if you are in need of a particular pan to complete a set (sorry, no spare #13) and we might work out a trade. Thanks, Bob

To Isaacrn...The reason you don't have that slick look might be the iron you have.Older cast iron was smooth to begin with.The more modern stuff has a sort of pittier texture and never truly gets bbs so to speak. I have two cast iron pans and a dutch oven.One of the pans is from taiwan of all places.The other is unknown but definetly old school.I love both.The dutch oven is the pittier modern stuff,but thats okay for cookin stews,braising and baking as the surface texture isn't as important.What's sad is the fact that more and more modern manufacturers are switching over to that pre-seasoned junk uggghh ! It's blasphemy I tell ya. Love lookin at all the CI collections you guys got by the by. Quality all the way !!

I used to have two cast iron pans back in Australia. They weren't old collectables, just modern cast iron pans. When I eventually get my own house away from the in-laws I will get some more. Best pans I have ever cooked in. Those teflon coated aluminum pans are like the M3 of pans.

Originally Posted by Nightblade

To Isaacrn...The reason you don't have that slick look might be the iron you have.Older cast iron was smooth to begin with.The more modern stuff has a sort of pittier texture and never truly gets bbs so to speak. I have two cast iron pans and a dutch oven.One of the pans is from taiwan of all places.The other is unknown but definetly old school.I love both.The dutch oven is the pittier modern stuff,but thats okay for cookin stews,braising and baking as the surface texture isn't as important.What's sad is the fact that more and more modern manufacturers are switching over to that pre-seasoned junk uggghh ! It's blasphemy I tell ya. Love lookin at all the CI collections you guys got by the by. Quality all the way !!

Thanks for the tip. Thats exactly right. The new stuff is pitted. I have a Lodge wear that is black as black can be, but its still not smooth. I thought it was normal for the pans to be like that throughout time, but I suppose your correct.

Very nice collection of Griswold's.
My wife would never use cast iron, finally I told her I would not buy any more teflon coated stuff. She finally burned up her last pancake skillit so I drug out my Griswold #9 griddel. She tried that for pancakes and will use nothing else now.

I ran into something I found very interesting in the North Ga mountains at an antique store. The guy had a huge collection of pans and a short set of instuctions for seasoning. He used mineral oil to season instead of crisco. He said it would not turn rancid after siting around.
I am going to try that next time I season a pan as I loved the way the ones he had felt.

For those of you having trouble seasoning your cast Iron. If it is old with a heavy build up of grease I set it in the charcoal grill on the coals and let it all burn off.Clean it then season.
If new I check the cooking surface if I is rough and bumpy I sand it to take out most of the rough. You want to leave some roughness to give the grease something to bond to.
I then scub them clean in hot soapy water dry and coat them with a (light) coat of crisco. I put it an oven with the cooking side down temp at 375f and leave it for 60 to 90 minutes. I have a camp stove set up outside. I take the cast iron pan and put it on the burner set to med to med - hi. I have a paper towel with more crisco on it. I let the pan heat until it starts smoking and wipe another thin coat of crisco on the cooking surface let it smoke and recoat again. I keep doning this until I have a very nice smooth surface. It will by now be turning black move the pan around the burner until the whole bottom is black. Then turn the heat off and let it cool down. You don't want it to over heat and burn off the surface you are putting on it.
When this thing cools down it will look like it has been used for years. Water will bead up and run off it like it is waxed.

I put about 10 coats of grease on it during the heating process.

I have been cooking with cast iron for 43 years. I developed this seasoning process because the insturction that came with new cast iron just did not cut it. I wanted pans that were like Mama's, smooth as glass and black as coal.


Silver2

Originally Posted by IsaacRN

Thanks for the tip. Thats exactly right. The new stuff is pitted. I have a Lodge wear that is black as black can be, but its still not smooth. I thought it was normal for the pans to be like that throughout time, but I suppose your correct.

Lodge is not the best cast iron.

That said, I own a fair bit of it because it is available, cheap, and still works better than aluminum/steel/teflon crap!

For those who haven't seen one, here is a pic of the Wapak Indian head on the bottom of the Wagner pan.