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Thread: Best cast iron pan I have found

  1. #1
    Boolit Master
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    Best cast iron pan I have found

    https://stargazercastiron.com It costs more than the other stuff but it sits on my stove used almost daily. It will provide excellent service for generations. Who thought some Americans would come together and make something better than wonderful vintage cast iron? Been collecting cast iron for maybe 30 years and never seen anything as good as this for cooking.

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    There are a growing number of very high quality modern cast iron skillets on the market.

    I have a ton of 100+yr old iron and the one I seem to use the most for large dishes? A modern Lodge #10 from Wallyworld. If something sticks in it I can use stainless spatula and I can scrape it hard as I want to, deglaze it with broth from whatever is cooking, deglazing a vintage smooth, well seasoned skillet enough times will eventually take the seasoning off. The Lodge just takes whatever comes it's way and keeps on keeping on.

    A vintage Griswold 3 or 4 sits on the stove 24/7 for sausage, a vintage 9 griddle sits 24/7 also.

    Here's a good hint.. And I buy up stainless lids at yard sales just for this purpose... I use a stainless lid over my cast iron to hold in heat and accelerate cooking, they heat up rapidly and don't attract condensation. Thicker lids are cold, steam and moisture condenses on the underside and drips onto the food making things rather soggy.

    Reheating pizza on a cast iron griddle with a stainless lid is the PERFECT way to do this. The crust gets crispy, the cheese melts, nothing else works nearly as good.
    Got a .22 .30 .32 .357 .38 .40 .41 .44 .45 .480 or .500 S&W cylinder that needs throats honed? 9mm, 10mm/40S&W, 45 ACP pistol barrel that won't "plunk" your handloads? 480 Ruger or 475 Linebaugh cylinder that needs the "step" reamed to 6° 30min chamfer? Click here to send me a PM You can also find me on Facebook Click Here.

  3. #3
    Boolit Master
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    Doug,

    I use an old stainless lids since as I have bunch of them (old gifts?) and they work well. The reheat pizza idea excellent and makes me want pizza more for experiencing the reheating then eating it. My days of not counting calories long gone. My griddle is a fairly newly manufactured piece. It does what is needed and sits on a shelf. A smaller 3 or 4 pan would be a good acquisition if not already in my storage. After collecting cooking equipment for so long I am not sure what I have. Probably like you lots of what I have was acquired because old interesting cast iron calls out to me.

    Vintage pieces call out with their history appealing to me to enjoy and take care of them for the next party who gets to eventually enjoy them. I would be grateful for the names of other current producers of great quality cast iron. I don't need more stuff, but things of unique quality still make me consider acquisition.

    The Stargazer displaced a Erie from the stove top. The Erie has history, but the Stargazer cooks far better.

  4. #4
    Boolit Grand Master Tatume's Avatar
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    Those look like really nice pans. Personally, I like cast iron and laminated stainless steel. These

    https://madeincookware.com/

    have a layer of aluminum clad between an inner and outer layer of stainless steel. Mine is wonderful.

  5. #5
    Boolit Master
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    Those look like excellent equipment. Maybe 30 years ago a firm, Cop-R Chief, made a three layer pan. Copper on the outside, stainless on the inside and aluminum for the middle layer. They were very affordable on eBay until a year or two ago. I like them a lot. When they were being made they changed the handle material and I caught a store selling out their existing inventory on sale to bring in the new product line which was not as good. I think the cost of manufacture eventually got too high to continue to make them. Last I saw they were making a two layer pan, but have not see that for a while.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by PB234 View Post
    Doug,

    I would be grateful for the names of other current producers of great quality cast iron. I don't need more stuff, but things of unique quality still make me consider acquisition.

    The Stargazer displaced a Erie from the stove top. The Erie has history, but the Stargazer cooks far better.
    Finex Cast Iron Skillets
    The Field Company
    Smithey Ironware Company
    Marquette Castings
    Ooni
    Aus-ion
    Lodge (Blacklock)

    Lodge is making a vintage styled line of skillets, a little more expensive than their standard wallyworld fare, they have a couple they call "blacklock" named after the original forge that later became Lodge 100+yrs ago.

    There are a good number of what I call "cowboy" skillets, which are high quality carbon steel sheet steel hammered onto or pressed into a form with handles welded or riveted on, these were made inexpensively when they were mass produced 70-90 years ago but the ones made now are high end and expensive. They season just like cast iron and cook pretty close to cast iron. Very much for the artsy fartsy crowd.

    Japanese cast iron is VERY good quality, priced accordingly.
    Got a .22 .30 .32 .357 .38 .40 .41 .44 .45 .480 or .500 S&W cylinder that needs throats honed? 9mm, 10mm/40S&W, 45 ACP pistol barrel that won't "plunk" your handloads? 480 Ruger or 475 Linebaugh cylinder that needs the "step" reamed to 6° 30min chamfer? Click here to send me a PM You can also find me on Facebook Click Here.

  7. #7
    Boolit Master
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    Doug,

    I just received a Victoria pan made in Columbia from Amazon. I had not used it yet but it appears very nice, was inexpensive and made in Colombia. It is a 13 inch skillet / paella pan which should come in useful. They seem a glass top for it which I have not purchased. The top also looks very good but I can get along without it and hesitate to buy more stuff I can get easily along without.

    Thanks for the places to look into. I have a one burner induction cook top that makes me wish I had an induction range. In a perfect world I would have a half gas and half induction cook top set up. While I sit at home hiding from the virus watching cooking videos on YouTube considering possibilities with what is in my pantry today a Italian Pine Nut Cake was made. I had wondered what I was going to do with the pine guys acquired for a lamb/rosemary/pine nut sausage that left me with left over pine nuts. The sausage was good but the left over pine nuts an expensive waste until used today.

    Pine nits used to come from Italy and now only Chinese seem to be on the shelves where I shop.

  8. #8
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    I didn't like the look of it at first, but after staring at it, I can see
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  9. #9
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    If I didn't already own 50 pieces of cast iron cookware, I'd probably be interested. Nice looking cookware. I got Lodge, BSR, Wagner, Griswold and a Taiwanese piece. The last is an 8. It makes the finest cornbread of all the CI I have. Sometimes you just get lucky, I guess.
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  10. #10
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by gbrown View Post
    If I didn't already own 50 pieces of cast iron cookware, I'd probably be interested. Nice looking cookware. I got Lodge, BSR, Wagner, Griswold and a Taiwanese piece. The last is an 8. It makes the finest cornbread of all the CI I have. Sometimes you just get lucky, I guess.
    Makes me wonder if I have a Jiffy Corn Bread Mix box in the pantry. Jiffy makes about the best cornbread for the amount of effort to make it. Hope I have a box!

  11. #11
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    Other than surface finish and thickness what makes one cast iron pan cook better than another?

    Different grade of cast?

    For those that have machined, sanded or polished something like your basic Lodge how much difference did it make?
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  12. #12
    Boolit Master
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    I have both my cherished Erie (maybe 120 or 130 years old) and my new Stargazer in front of me. The Erie has a long history and the Karma of generations using this excellent pan. I probably bought it for $20 a few decades ago at a flea market. The Stargazer is newly made and about $100/$120 which is about $20 or $40 or less than an old Erie in excellent shape would now probably cost. A new pan to be sanded and polished then seasoned would now cost maybe $35 and involve considerable labor to get up to smooth finished performance like the old ones or even some new inexpensive ones. Lacking the labor, equipment and experience to grind anything it is not an option for me to consider.

    I still have not used the Victoria pan inexpensively acquired from Amazon, but it does not need to be ground down & polished and feels heavy enough to conduct and retain heat well. At its price point it is worth considering. When this virus lock down ends and we are out of the woods the Victoria pan will be great for making large meals for many people to enjoy. It comes preseason and is smooth enough to use, but my plan is to season it a few times building up a very smooth cooking surface. I think I can get it too perfect. Maybe it will never be as nice as a Stargazer, but it cost less appears very good. If I were not so cheap I would buy the glass cover for the pan also made by Victoria.

    Lodge and similar should serve you well. Even more so if you have the expertise and tools to smooth it out. I have not used the newly produced Lodge, etc. as my old pans from flea market buys decades ago have my bases mostly covered.

    My Erie is not as beautifully designed and has a smaller handle and no handle on the other side of the pan. The metal is thinner; the shaping less perfect. It is a less refined pan beautiful in its own way. The Stargazer cooks better. I use it almost every day. Everything comes out better.

    The Erie has pour spouts on each side of the pan. The Starglazer has a rolled lip allowing liquids to pour neatly out of the pan at any point. Maybe does not matter, but is nice. The handle is larger and better shaped on the Stargaze.

    All of these pans deserve to be handed down to the next generation. A good new Lodge pan will be capable of cooking for future generations. If you can return goods to Amazon for free in your area I really suggest taking a look at Victoria products. Tonight cheeseburgers will come off my Stargazer. I expect the surface of the meat to cook beautifully as will the interior. The onions should brown perfectly and the buns toast nicely.

    I cook daily appreciating the pleasures of good equipment. I also suggest looking for vintage Old Hickory knives on eBay. Back it the day they were sharpened. Now maybe not so much as deleivered. The steel is good carbon steel easy to make very sharp. Cheap enough ($10 or $15 ) to thrown into the diswasher. The handles are a bit small but workable especially since you can get them so sharp they can cut effortlessly. Lots of experienced people also like Victronix (if I spelled that wrong it is the Swiss Army knife people) knives sold on Amazon for 15 or 20 dollars. I used one of their knives for boning and another to filet fish. They also go into the dishwasher.

    Enjoy the cast iron. If I had the skill set to smooth out a currently produced Lodge or similar I would do so just for the experience of doing so. Lot easier to buy the Victoria.
    Last edited by PB234; 04-02-2020 at 02:47 PM.

  13. #13
    Boolit Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by M-Tecs View Post

    For those that have machined, sanded or polished something like your basic Lodge how much difference did it make?
    I mainly wanted to see if it could be done. I bought one of the cheap 12" cast iron fry pans from the camping section at Walmart. It was about as rough as a rasp when I started. I didn't try to use it before, so I don't have a before and after report. I ground it smooth inside and out with a angle grinder and flap disk. I think the flap disk I was using was 100 grit, but it was well used when I started so it came out fairly smooth. I didn't try to go any finer with anything else. I seasoned it with some Camp Chef cast iron conditioner. It is heavy and looks like a cheap pan still but cooks great. Eggs, bacon and pancakes come out great. I smoked some steak on the pellet grill and seared them in the skillet a couple days ago. Best steak ever.

    I ground for about 10 seconds before I headed back to the store for a dust mask. Still had iron buggers for a couple days. Get a mask before you start.

  14. #14
    Boolit Master
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    I too would really like to make a pan smooth but lack the experience or tools to give it a try. Never thought about smoking a steak and then finishing it on a cast iron skillet. Must be terrific and will put it on my to do list. Mostly I like hamburgers better than steaks. Been working on cheeseburgers recently where grilled onion is placed between the meat and the cheese. Toast the buns and maybe place some bacon or mushrooms too. In Wisconsin some add butter between the burger and the bun for a Butter Burger.

    Instead of one large patty two thinner patties stacked deliver more crisp surfaces. If you can freshly grind the beef the quality goes up. Your cast iron pan will excel cooking them.

    Just looking at a pan I finished it would make me feel good.
    Last edited by PB234; 04-08-2020 at 11:29 AM.

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