Cast Iron Cooking

[Boyscout]

I read that smooth cast iron was to be avoided. The rough surface helps the seasoning (carbon) adhere to the skillet better. I have always left mine rough. We have started using the skillets to bake dishes in and serve them at the table right out of the skillet. The handle gets in the way but it looks really good. I always use cast iron when I want a good sear or browned bits to use in gravy or sauces.

[gbrown]

At the house, I have a Griswold 10 (Mom's), a Wagner 10, ours, a Lodge 8 (got it off the curb), a 5, and a Wagner 10 Griddle. Plus a 4 qt Griswold Chicken Fryer and a Martin Stove & Range #10 pot--either 6 or 8 quart, can't remember. The Griddle was $0.50 at a garage sale. (Lady said it wouldn't season correctly, that was 20 years ago--how many pancakes and quesadillas have we made on that?) The 5, 8, and Martin were reclaim jobs that were going to the dump or scrap yard. All rusty and messed up, took a lot of elbow grease (do what ya gotta do) to restore. At storage, I have all number of pots, skillets and dutch ovens, ready to use. Do I love cast iron or what? There is no favorite, all have purpose. The 5--quick fried "hard" egg for a breakfast sandwich of Toast, ham, cheese and egg. 8?--Small batch of cornbread. 10s? Chili, spaghetti sauce, smothered cabbage or greens, etc. Chicken fryer--also works for stews/soups. Martin--how about a pot roast or, maybe I want to render out some tallow. Learn to season/clean them and it is better than Teflon. Scrambled eggs? Cooking and cleaning is like falling off a log.

[s mac]

They also make a fine lead pot.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Griswold and Wagner were the major manufacturers of cast iron in the USA from before 1900 to around 1960. They produced huge and countless numbers of cookware/bakeware items and other utensils and their wares are considered highly collectable. Many items are rare and values for some of them run into the $thousands. Other foundries existed and also produced high quality cookware items, but nothing on the scale of G and W. You can check E-Bay which runs auctions on both with hundreds of items daily. With rare items the bidding gets crazy, but many of the more common items are usually reasonable. Many book sources are available usually in antique shops which provide information and pictures on what is what, with "pattern numbers" and often values as well. The only remaining cast iron manufacturer in the USA today is Lodge and they produce many good items, but as already mentioned it is not "polished cookware. It is not as smooth as the old stuff, but it can be effectively seasoned or users can smooth it with fine grit abrasives applied to the cooking surface. Cast iron has always been a source of iron nutritionally, especially the skillets and the dutch ovens. Of course some of it can be used to produce ingots when smelting, but I (as a collector of CI) encourage owners/users to look and read the markings on the back of any piece and check on what you have as it may be worth more than you paid or think. Even a piece, if crudded up or used for smelting; can be safely cleaned by several methods that make it safe and usable again. CI doesn't wear out and generations have been using it to cook and bake super good chow. None of the previous posts have mentioned CI waffle-irons made by both C & W. There were many models and when you get the knack of using them well, you'll never use an electric waffle iron again. Anyway get yourself a CI piece or two and enjoy some good cooking. LLS

[MaryB]

Cast got to heavy for my torn up shoulders, but I did keep my Lodge ceramic coated dutch oven. My favorite soup and stew pot.

[Duckiller]

Will ask sons tomorrow (12/18) how they polish their pans and post.

[DRNurse1]

Grandma passed in 1994, cooking in her kitchen with the last cast iron pan she could lift, a 6 inch fry pan. It is still in the family, still in use, as is the rest of her cast iron. Now that we have lots of similar pieces, it is neat to compare different manufacturers and to rotate the pans so we do not 'wear them out,' although it sounds like we may never do that.

[RED333]

We have so many pots and pans of cast I lost count.
Even have the 2 of old waffle makers, ya have to flip them on the stove.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

I didn't know about the waffle irons. I will have to keep an eye open for one of those.

[toddrod]

what did yall polish it with? i love cast iron but all mine is only 5 or 6 years old. it gets used a lot so its seasoned pretty good but id like to try smoothing some out.

I used a sanding disk on my 4 inch grinder.

[toddrod]

My 10 galloon jambalaya pot is the best cooking pot I have followed by my 16 qt Dutch oven

[KCSO]

Deep fat fried chicken cooked in home rendered lard over an open fire in cast iron last night, a real old fashioed treat. Been using cast iron all my life and will never change.

[sbeatty1983]

I love my cast iron skillet. Mom gave it to me for Christmas a few years ago. My wife only likes the Teflon stuff and doesn't know how to care for Cast iron. A couple years ago she used it for gravy then stuck it in the dish washer. The skillet came out nearly in the white. After a good scolding and several seasonings with bacon grease its back cooking great food

[jakec]

I used a sanding disk on my 4 inch grinder.

thank you sir. i know what ill be doing tonight.

[762 shooter]

Check this out. works like a champ. Brought several back from the dead with this method.

http://www.wag-society.org/Electrolysis/electros.php

Then this.

http://www.wag-society.org/Electrolysis/seasoning.php

762

[Iowa Fox]

After you have been cooking with them regular how are you guys washing them up to keep them clean? We use a gentle washing of hot soapy water as that's the way my mom and grandmother did it.

[Zymurgy50]

Scrub it up in the soapy water, rinse well, then put it back on a burner to heat it up and dry it. a coating of oil and store it in the oven.

[Charlie Two Tracks]

No soap ever. wash with warm water when skillet is not reall hot. Return to the heat source and warm the skillet till all the water is for sure gone, wipe with some bacon grease or vegetable oil and put away until next time.

[Duckiller]

The Lowry Boys method of polishing cast iron skillets. First thing is to remove all wax and seasoning manufacturer put on pan. Same method if pan has been used. Get liquid oven cleaner and pour into pan. Heat up per instructions for oven cleaner. This is to remove everything but iron from the pan. Next starting with 40-60 grit sandpaper and an angle grinder start polishing working your way up to a 200+ grit sandpaper. Clean out grit and season pan. #1 son states eggs slide out of the pan. Good cooking to all.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

No soap ever. wash with warm water when skillet is not reall hot. Return to the heat source and warm the skillet till all the water is for sure gone, wipe with some bacon grease or vegetable oil and put away until next time.

what he said


if you can't cook an egg decent with a new lodge , fry somthing , then fry something else and quit washing the pan then it fry eggs


i thought about sanding one smooth many times , but if you burn off an old wagner you will find it really isn't that smooth , the smooth comes from being well used


hot water and a stiff brush only


this may turn some people off but there are plenty of times when i fried some bacon I just set the pan in the oven , when i need it again that night I pull it out , heat it up and do vegetables or other things , why waste that good grease , I do the same if I cook burgers for lunch and we are having something else I will be cooking in the same skillet that night or even the next day , oil brought back up to 350 degrees before use isn't going to hurt anything

as for a dedicated egg pan , that's not a bad Idea if you do eggs regular I will get on an egg kick and have some for breakfast and lunch some days , I just turn the flame off and let the pan sit on the burner , when i am ready for eggs again fire it back up while i go get the eggs from the fridge , then crack them and let them sizzle once you have a pan cooking eggs real nice i can see not wanting to mess with it just wipe it out with a paper towel and put it away

but once you get a really good season , it won't matter you can be back to frying eggs in a few minutes with a bit of olive oil , lard or beef fat