Thread: cast iron pans

I have 2 i picked up for $10 that were in pretty bad shape. I used a wire wheel on my drill to clean them up.

Btw, It was a nasty nasty job. Who knows how many years of grease and rust combined together....

Originally Posted by AnarchoPhil

I may be wrong but it seems to me that cast iron is cast iron unless its new. All of the new pans that I have seen have an orange peel surface. You want the stuff that has a slick surface.

It really doesn't matter what kind of condition its in either (unless its real, real bad). My wife's aunt picked out a couple of old no name cast iron skillets she had found at a flea market or something. One had been through a house fire and the other was rusted like an old car. The next morning, you would have thought they were new. I scrubbed those pans with steel wool until I had muscle failure in my shoulders.

I put a nice coat of fat on them and put them in a preheated oven for an hour. I cut the oven off and fried eggs and bacon in them the next morning. That one that was in the house fire I'm going to go over again with a steel brush and a drill. It has a lot of some kind of build up on the outside. I'm not sure what it is but I'm guessing its rust though it is black.

let me first start this post by saying, this. BARNFARLE, your collection of griswolds in that earlier post makes me very very jelous. well, now to the next part, all the earlier christmas baking and cooking forced me to run out of propane to early this week, so i have had to take to cooking on my woodstove, (thank god its been cold outside) so i have been using my cast quite a bit, and i find that on the wood stove, cast makes all things feel right in the world, lololl.

Originally Posted by wvloony

and i find that on the wood stove, cast makes all things feel right in the world, lololl.

Couldn't say it better myself

Originally Posted by Silver2

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

I have a cousin in Baton Rouge who put me onto the mineral oil idea. A few years back we were down there and you will not believe the variety of "black iron" pots available there. Common Lodge dutch ovens and skillets, plus all kind of pots form little 1 gal up to some that run 40-50 gal, huge. We saw a lot made in china but can still get better grades made in USA.

I picked up a 5 gal round bottom with legs and lid in a little hardware store in a small town called Piere Part, somewhere between $50-60. We have been using it about 5 years now making some fantastic soups, gumbos and chile. The first time I used it everything stuck, but I scrubbed it clean with a nylon scrubber, no soap. and started treating with cooking oil and quickly found that no more often than we used it that the oil was oxidizing and getting sticky and hard, requiring a cleaning and re oil before use. That's when I learned about wiping down with mineral after cleaning, inside and out and no more sitckey problems. I just wipe it out before use and after use turn it on its side and spray clean with water hose, maybe a quick wipe with a nylon scrubber or rag, but never any soap or detergent. Nothing ever sticks now. It's my favorite pot, the only problem is that I can only use it outdoors, we have a glasstop stove and the wife refuses to use cast iron on it being afraid it will scratch her stovetop.. That one is too large for an interior stove anyway so I have a banjo type propane burner for it and a diskus.

I also have quite a bit of other cast iron, dutch ovens, skillets that I occasionally use outdoors for smaller cook jobs.

For some top notch new manufacture Dutch Ovens, try this site: MACA Supply Deep Dutch Ovens
I dont have any yet but want the big one 22"! You can also get them personalized. I have about 9 DO's, six skillets and a griddle. Nothing collectable.
Baked Strawberry, cream cheese french toast

Mountain man breakfast (pre cooked some taters on the bottom)

Finished with homemade strawberry syrup

So I'm looking for a dutch oven with NO LEGS,4-5 quart,UNSEASONED,with lid NOT ON E-BAY but an outlet somewhere that ships. I hate that preseasoned stuff(abomination) . Oh...and not something that costs a kings ransom.Yeah...I know I'm asking for the world here. Stupid modern world and it's pre-seasoned ways

Originally Posted by Nightblade

So I'm looking for a dutch oven with NO LEGS,4-5 quart,UNSEASONED,with lid NOT ON E-BAY but an outlet somewhere that ships. I hate that preseasoned stuff(abomination) . Oh...and not something that costs a kings ransom.Yeah...I know I'm asking for the world here. Stupid modern world and it's pre-seasoned ways

Go to Lehmans.com

and look under cookware. Mine is called a sugaring pot, 6 gal but has legs. They have a large selection of cast iron as well as Lodge.

All Lehmans sells is the pre seasoned stuff.and I need no legs.thanks though.And Lodge only makes pre seasoned anymore now as well.

Even the import stuff is showing up pre seasoned these days. I thought I saw that lodge did a line up unseasoned, have you contacted them?

Originally Posted by Nightblade

So I'm looking for a dutch oven with NO LEGS,4-5 quart,UNSEASONED,with lid NOT ON E-BAY but an outlet somewhere that ships. I hate that preseasoned stuff(abomination) . Oh...and not something that costs a kings ransom.Yeah...I know I'm asking for the world here. Stupid modern world and it's pre-seasoned ways

This is the wrong time of year to want this, the reason I say that is the Flea market would be a good place to start. I dont remember what antique stores are in the Denver area and yard sales can sometimes turn these up. Would not hurt to do a craigslist search. You might be able to get some more info on the IDOS site (international dutch oven society) They may have a local chapter: IDOS Home