Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation cast iron cookware

I have seen a few threads on cast iron as I was searching/exploring the food forum (some very impressive cullinary types in this section fo sho!!). I collect cast iron and use cast iron exclusively to cook with. Who else uses cast iron regularly and what are some your favorite makers/pieces?

I started out with alot of my grand mothers pieces, Most are un signed with gate marks. Then I got into collecting stuff (it can be addictive ).

There were lots of iron foundrys around my area of E TN in the early days and many marked or signed thier pieces. Then I moved into the griswold as well as other less noteable makers. I really like the waterman foundry muffin and bread pans.

richard....

I started obsessively collection mostly old cast iron when I lived in Mountain City, TN and was reenacting with the Over Mountain Men at Ft. Watauga. I have more Dutch ovens and skillets than I can could (and just as importantly the iron lids to use with them all)as well as camp cauldrons ranging from "cup-o-soup" size to big enough to stew stray children. We had some good blacksmiths in the unit who liked barter so I have lots of fire irons like tripods and grills too.

If any of mine are name brands of any importance I haven not noticed. Most were found a little rough but I have gotten half way good at stripping and reseasoning.

There is a constant battle of wills in the house over what cookware to use. My lovely wife, a NC girl no less, hates cast iron skillets mostly because she refuses to clean them. She doesn't like to admit that she uses cast iron Dutch ovens for about everything now. She has gotten extremely good at baking bread in a very large footed Dutch oven I found her. Her favorite bread is a basket weave Savoyard oat bread.

One of the few new cast iron pots that I ever bought is a big jambalaya pot. It is a pain to get heavy cast iron shipped here since we have no roads into Juneau and I do not enjoy stripping and seasoning new iron much but it has been worth the effort. At about 2 1/2+ gallons it is a good size for large events while the 15(?) gallon cauldron is often just too much and the 2 gallon just a bit too small. It has a bail for hanging over a fire and a flat bottom for stove top. The flat lid and a large trivet will even turn it into a good oven. They also seem to always be on sale somewhere. http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-7419-Cast-Iron-Jambalaya/dp/B0000BXHL5

i have probably 40 peices of Griswold cast iron cookware. no longer made, but very well cast and finished.

I'm in the middle Tennessee area and have several old pieces of cast that aren't marked except with the size...no manufacturer. One piece does have a maker "Martin"...ever heard of that company? It's a large (14") round skillet. Also, have a "spider" with lid that I picked up in Louisiana years ago that isn't marked but it's a great cooker.

Elwood

I have to jump in here and comment on the jambalaya pot. I lusted for one of those for some time as a chili pot and lucked out when Target had them for $40 with free shipping. (As an aside, it shipped from a location about 10-12 miles from me but they didn't have a will call window or I'd have picked it up.) It works absolutely as I wanted it to. It takes a bit to get it fired up but once done, it will simmer on about the lowest heat I can manage on my gas cooktop.

For anyone who might think this is some flimsy Chinese cast iron, it is Chinese but it ain' flimsy. Total weight is 32 lbs. as I recall. I think the pot weighs 24 lbs. and the lid 8 so it is well and truly a bear to pick up from counter top high when it is full of chili. I only use it once or twice a year but when I need it, it is indeed the ticket.

I have quite a few pieces of cast iron cookware, but my favorite is a skillet made by Wagner Ware. My mom gave it to me out of my grandma's house after she went into a home. It is a 10" skillet with no sides, it just curves up slightly like a plate around the edge. I use it for cooking eggs and omelettes for breakfast as the seasoning on it is so good, I have never had an egg or omelette stick on it. When done, just paper towel clean and back in storage.

Sort of like this?



It would be nice to have a skillet with lower sides so that I could get a better angle on the spatula and not tear up pancakes and omelettes .

Some of the more recognised foundrys that are not being made anymore were griswold(which include the "erie" trade mark), martin, wagner,victor,favorite. These made some of the better cookware that was available during the day. Often as these foundry disappeared they were merged with other foundrys.

Contrary to popular beleif heavier is not always better when it comes to cast iron. I prefer the lighter smoother castings to cook with. Here are a few from my collection, I probibly have over 200 peices in all...

This a griswold #11 large block logo with a smoke ring. The smoke ring was for use on wood stoves before they lost the ring and went to the smooth bottoms to use on electric stoves.



These are some signed peices( foundry names cast into them) of the local foundrys that were in knoxville where I live. Just the lids alone on some of these are going for several hundred dollars to the serious collectors of local and signed iron.




These are a few of the waterman peices I have. They are great for everything fron individual cornbread to salmon patties and fried pies.


and these hammered peices are from the chicago foundry. They are my favorite to cook with. I use them more than any others besides a griswold#11 skillet.


I also collect stoves, I have 13 pot bellies. I have three in my living room, two of them are being used as end tables....


I just like collectin stuff i reckon!

and if I can go off topic on my own thread just a bit ,
I make a living self employed as a welder/metal fabrication worker.I also do art/sculpture work with old iron...here is couple of things I made....
A blue herring made from a buck board wagon spring and coal tongs and an assortment of old plow parts. It stands about 4 1/2 ft.
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e324/rd1amherstweld/566250569_l.jpg[/img]
Here is a couple of other things, a sun flower and a rooster both made from old plow and mower parts...the sun flower is about 6' tall...you may have to look close to see some of the stuff...There are silver plate long stem roses that I made out of old spoons that you can see in front of the banjo head thats signed by DR. Ralph Stanley!(just had to throw that in there! )
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e324/rd1amherstweld/036-1.jpg[/img]
a horse I made using a linemans belt vice for the head...
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e324/rd1amherstweld/022.jpg[/img]

and the night stands in my bedroom made from scalloped disc harrow discs, corn planter and horse drawn mowing machine parts..
[img]http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e324/rd1amherstweld/P1010018.jpg[/img]

any way, I think I'm gonna enjoy this cooking forum!
...thanks for your time, I didn't mean to drag on....

Thanks for sharing those treasures with us. Bob

Wow! I have never seen hammered cast iron cookware. Thanks for sharing. Love my cast iron.

Arbalester. The pan I use is just like the one in this picture posted by tndrbstr. It is the picture of the hammered cast iron. it is the flat skillet that has another smaller skillet on it. The low sides let you get your spatula right underneath the omelette and eggs. The only difference is my pan is not hammered so does not have the marks on it.


Tndrbstr. thanks for posting the pics, nice to see all the different cast iron.

I'm sure I have posted this pic before, but I might as well do it again as it is relevant to the thread. The bottom DO will hold a 10 lb bag of potatoes. I will have to take a pic. of my stovetop cast iron later.

Wow...! Great stuff. I wonder how much the entire collection weighs...

I agree great stuff! I love cooking with my cast iron. Only thing I have that is "old" is from my Mom. I almost cried when I found out my Grandmothers cast iron was sold at her estate sale. I wasn't close enough to attend

I have a set I bought at Herter's when I was a teenager, a few pans from my Mom and other than that some current Lodge stuff. I avoid the Chinese made stuff like the plague.

Neat to see stuff made at a local foundry!

Here is the rest of the cast iron cooking pieces I have. There is some lodge, Wagner old and new, and some chinese. normally the chinese stuff has been gifts. The one in the center is the one I use for eggs and omelettes and has never had an egg stick on it.

tndrbstr - that is a wonderful collection! I feel like an underachiever now. I at least have to take pictures of mine when the snow melts a little and the sun stays up longer.

Robster - I only have three of those footed Dutch ovens so far. I have to keep a look out for a low sided skillet now. I have a little oval fajitas skillet(?) but that is just not the same. My wife picked a cast iron bead/meatloaf pan but has not tried it yet.

You all might like this cooking forum: http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/forums.html

First off I have a ton (likely 100 pieces) of CI that I'll post up when I get back to SC.

However, for now Arbalester please tell me about Mountain City, TN. I'm giving serious thought to either moving there or buying a deer camp in that vicinity. PM if you'd like.

Sorry to the OP for the OT post.

David

David..I can help a little with Mountain City. Nice little, very remote, mountain town. Have to be going there to get there, won't pass through going somewhere else. Only one good road from the TN side going in...the other one that goes through Happy Valley is too crooked and up and down the mountains. Pure mountain folk...salt of the earth. Not sure what else to say except you need to travel there and look around some before moving for good. Remote and hard to get to is an understatement. Of course not too far to some bigger towns...Elizabethton, Johnson City, etc. Good area of the state.

Elwood

What is the technique you use to accomplish that? If I could figure it out, I'd cook more eggs in mine.

I cleaned it real good with a green scrubby, seasoned it with crisco two times and have not had a problem since. One thing I will say, the reason I use this one is because the eggs don't stick like they do in the others. The reason I believe is that the surface is very smooth, almost like it was milled not cast(if that makes sense). once the coating is on it, I never wash it. I spray cooking oil on it, cook the eggs, and wipe well with a paper towel when done. I spray and heat up (I suppose to kill germs) before I crack eggs on it and never let it get too hot without something on it so I dont overheat and burn off the coating. I never cook anything else on it like ham when making ham and eggs so it doesn't get the salts on it. I do not know why it all works, but it works for me.

Robster thats a good looking selection of ovens
...that is good advice on the way to treat a and keep a good skillet.
The round flat skillet you are talking about in the pic does it any numbers on the bottom of it. The hammered one I have like that has 3 numbers, 999 cast into the bottom of it. It looks to be the same mnfgr(identical handles)...The surface is in fact either machined or a ground finished in some fashion.

sse, The surfaces vary greatly on cast iron cooking surfaces, they should have a very smooth look and feel. If they look porous and rough don't waste your time with it. Cooking corn bread in a skillet is one of the best ways to season one that I have found. As robster said care must be taken to keep the seasoning in the iron once its right. Never use soap on them. When I do get something that sticks in my cooker I just let water set in over night and heat it up to near boil the next day and it wipes right out.

I cook all kinds of stuff in my CI skillets, corn bread being one of them, none of which require an extremely smooth surface. I have picked up several, though, having impeccably smooth surfaces, just haven't used them.

It says Wagner Ware. Wagner is top word, and Ware is bottom word and they share the W. Underneath it says Sidney. below that it says -0- at the bottom are the numbers 1109

Tndrbstr, I really like the hammered look as something different. Dont remember seeing it before. And yes, they do look very similar.

Like you, when something sticks in anyone of my stovetop skillets, I put water in them, and boil for a while then try to scrape the stuck or burned food with a plastic spatula or bamboo/wood utensil.

SSE, give the smooth surfaced ones a shot, they might be just what you are looking for!!

Usually, I use those old fashion plastic mesh pot scrubbers, after simmering a bit of water. I have also used the green dupont scrubbers, but those may be a bit too aggressive.

The one thing I wish I paid more attention to is the outside of the skillet, get's a little caked on there.

sse, if you or anyone decideds to strip the cooking crud off of any cast iron, oven cleaner works great. spray the oven cleaner liberaly on the skllet or pan and put inside of a black plastic garbage bag out in the sun....wear gloves and eye protection and be careful not breath it tho. For really though build up you mave have to repeat a couple of times. It does a great job but you will have to re-season the peice after that.
For rust your better of burning the peice in a fire, you have to be careful with that tho. Get it to hot or to cool to fast and it can crack it.

Burning off the case iron was always part of our hog killing. When we built a fire to cook off the lard, the cast iron got a yearly cleaning as well. Came out good as new and ready for another year of heavy use.

Elwood

My Dutch Oven is hammered. Handed down from my Mother. Not sure where she got it from. Maybe her mother. It's a #8 Griswold.

taconic11,..I have several #8 ovens in the griswold but none of them are hammered. The hammered griswolds are not near as common as the smooth ones. They will usually sell for quit abit more.

Thanks

As I was making soup this afternoon, I pulled out a cast iron pan that has become one of my favorites. I'm curious as to the maker and since you cast iron gurus are online here, I wondered if someone might be able to ID it.

At the confluence of the handle and pan, it is stamped 2 QT reading outward, and the lettering is almost as wide as the handle. The handle is shaped like a wide exclamation point, or a elongated teardrop, and has has a slot of the same shape in the outer half of the handle.

The only other mark on the pan is a capitol A on the bottom. Looking at the bottom, the A is in line with the handle with the point of the A toward the center of the pan. The pan has a small ridge around the bottom and the A is just inside it. The lid has a 3 on one side of the handle and a 4 on the other side but I take that to be sizing information.

Anyone have a clue???

I just made out like a fat rat at the local Salvation Army. You all have made me aware that few of my many cast iron pieces say anything but the occasional "China" on the back. I just found several Griswald pieces (LARGE skillet, dutch oven, and lidded chicken fryer) and a "Wagner drip drop No.8" roaster dutch oven like: http://www.wrinkledwillytreasures.c...ster-Dutch-Oven-Free-Shipping_p_976.html (I don't believe the prices on this site.) I did not fully grasp what the term "self basting lid" meant before seeing this one. They were all between $10.00 and $15.00 which is not bad for Alaska. I want to draft some techy to help me take pictures soon.

BTW - when my lovely but well heeled, teflon loving, wife asked why I bought all of this cast iron (she is in Anchorage this week) I am blaming tndrbstr completely.


Almost exactly like this picture.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000BXHL5/ref=dra_a_cs_mr_fd_it_P1400_1000?tag=dradis-20

Now on sale for $64.59.

Just recently got into cast iron myself, I had a newer lodge pan that was nice but nothing like this old one my dad gave me at Christmas. He didn't remember where he got it, and I haven't had much luck with an ID. Any of the expects here know anything about it? I'm thinking it might be an unmarked lodge from the 70's? [img:left]http://flic.kr/p/btkY9M[/img]

Not sure why the pic won't show up?

That particular cooker would likely sell in excess of $100 on e-bay. If you got it for $10-15 then you made out like a rock star!

Nice snag!!

I would like one of these $24.95 cast iron 14 quart cauldrons but the shipping to Juneau ($155.+ when I checked!) is way too much. http://www.readydepot.com/servlet/the-74/Rusty-Goat-14-Quart/Detail This just seems like a good size and shape.

for used cast iron, i put it in a self cleaning oven and run the self cleaning cycle. getting hot on a fire outside will acomplish the same thing. gotta burn the crap off of it.
then wash it and immediatly heat it so it won't rust. while warm, wipe it with a light layer of Crisco and bake it @ 450*-475* for an hour. if the Crisco is absorbed into the iron on the inside of the pan, repeat the thin layer of Crisco and bake some more.

that will leave a baked on, non-stick seasoning.

I used to use the self-cleaning oven, then switched over to my old gas grill, which was about the only thing I used it for before I got rid of it. Both the self-clean and baking the new seasoning on is way too smoky to do in the house.

have quite a bit of cast iron from my grandparents. skillets, dutch ovens, tea kettle, cornpone pans, cornbread pans. flat griddles. when we go camping i mainly cook everything over the fire in a big lodge skillet.