Cast iron cooking was once a lost art form but a renewed interest is growing in the old ways cooking and cast iron is slowly coming back in vogue. Prior to the invention of the Teflon skillet/cookware most lay-people cooked in/on iron, aluminum or stainless steel cookware. Aluminum and steel were difficult to fry in because practically everything stuck and most-of-the-time these metals did not distribute the heat evenly and food burned quickly or was undercooked most of the time. Cast iron was better at distributing the heat more evenly and is very non-stick if seasoned properly. The draw back for the modern cook was that cast iron was heavy and couldn’t be tossed into the dishwasher. Cast iron also required a small amount of maintenance and a little know-how to use them properly. Baby-Boomers wanted nothing to do with the past shunning their parents ways and grabbed onto the new at least for a little while.
The fantastic cooking results in cast iron were quickly forgotten. Diet and health books and so-called experts shunned cast iron cooking because “everything is fried in lard and bad for you.” Cast iron enthusiasts know that couldn’t be further from the truth; cast iron cooking can be quite healthy and much safer than cooking in toxic Teflon cookware. Cast iron can be used for almost any cooking application frying, baking, broiling, grilling, sautéing, boiling almost anything you can think of. You could take all my cookware and leave me with just my number 8 Griswold Skillet and I’d be fine and happy. There isn’t anything I can’t make in it from fried chicken to cake to broiled fish or baked steak and a million things in between.
When I was younger and did not know how to properly use cast iron I admittedly didn’t like it much, I have since become a convert. It seemed like everything did stick (my pans were the modern Lodge and I will get to that later) and they required hand washing and a coat oil after drying. Seemed like a big hassle. I would buy myself expensive Teflon pans and back then my teenage son had a knack for finding my best and newest pans/skillets and burning them up. I’d tell him each time “do not use this skillet ever” and in a week he’d ruin my new skillet. Cast iron is very difficult to “ruin” and can last for centuries if properly cared for. If he’d burned up an iron skillet trying to cook something a quick scrub or even a stripping and re-seasoning would have fixed it. There is no fixing Teflon once it’s compromised it is garbage.
When starting out try to find “vintage” pans, skillets and such at thrift stores, antique stores (research before paying high prices), yard sales and relatives “junk” before buying more modern items. Lots of times older people “down-sizing” will have a treasure trove of cast iron they will sell or give to you for practically nothing. Those skillets and pans are the ones you really want.
Dealers are going to know the “big names” like Griswold and Wagner but they aren’t going to realize some of the “un-named” stuff was made by those same companies as “store brands” or generic cookware. Same skillets just un-marked so it pays to do some homework. A word of warning don’t pay hundreds of dollars for a vintage cast iron vessel no matter the name or condition until you are familiar with vintage pieces; why? My mother would say if you don’t know what you are doing it is like buying “a pig in a poke” or if you like in Latin “Caveat Emptor” buyer beware. Some sellers know what they have and try to pass it off as something it is not or as more valuable than it really is. Lastly just about all sellers’ think anything cast iron is invaluable. Some pieces are not valuable at all especially those from Asia. A decent number 8 skillet (vintage from the USA) can be had for less than 25 bucks if you look around.
I have been following a gentleman by the name of Bodey Pennington he has a website called “Educating the Modern” (www.educatingthemodern.com) he discusses many topics relating to education of modern people on the ways or our ancestors. I believe he is located in Georgia currently, but I read he was from Greenup, Kentucky where my grandmother was from so that gives him credibility in my mind (well kind of). He gives advice on cast iron cooking, canning, animal husbandry and so much more. I can only speak for the cast iron cooking and care of it; and he is spot on in my book with good sound advice.
One of the things Mr. Pennington does is for a very nominal fee will grind and polish the surface of modern Lodge Cast Iron Cookware and re-season it and sell it through his website. I haven’t purchased any but intend to in the near future. This is a highly desirable thing to have done to your cast iron cookware in my opinion and please let me explain:
“Vintage cast iron cookware in seasoned properly will have an almost glass-like texture when touched. The vintage cast iron maker milled or sanded the surfaces smooth and sealed them with wax or grease when new to prevent rusting while on the merchant’s shelf. The consumer knew to take it home wash it thoroughly in hot water and soap (to remove the wax or grease) and to apply lard to season it in their own hot ovens. With several seasonings and frequent proper use these skillets/pans became non-stick and a dream to use. However when cast iron fell out of fashion people forgot how to season or even knowing the reason for it.
At that time Lodge was one of the few companies that still produced cast iron cookware someone on the Lodge team decided if their cookware came to the consumer “pre-seasoned” it would sell better by eliminating that step of seasoning. They were in their minds making the Cookware ready to go once purchased. While that might be great in theory for the novice cook, an experienced cook will know it takes several times of seasoning to be ready to use with skillet or pan. It also requires a complete cool down between each seasoning session of course this would take Lodge’s profit margin down and slow their productivity.The seasoning does stick better to the rough “pebbly” surface. Also Lodge can get by with the one pass spray with their seasoning process by leaving their cooking surfaces rough and bumpy. Yes over time these skillets improve a little with usage but, they will always in my opinion be inferior to the older skillets that were smooth from the factory.
Mr. Pennington shows you how to grind the modern Lodge cookware to a smooth glass-like finish thus making them similar to the vintage cookware. If you are not mechanically inclined or just don’t have the ways or means of grinding your own he can hook you up. If you go to the “Shop” section of his website Pennington also sells new Lodge cookware that he has ground down and seasoned at very little markup (actually, I am impressed with his prices due to all the work he would put in each such piece) and again visit his website for details.”
I think I will leave you with this bit of Cast Iron information today, I hope to in the coming days tell you about cleaning, seasoning care and restoration. With that may your days be blessed with cast ironing cooking and staying healthy.
CIMM (Cast Iron Maiden Mama)
** I am not here to win any prizes on perfect grammar/punctuation and I am terrible at proof-reading my own work; my apologies in advance.
The Cast Iron Maidens 