Seasoning cast iron.

[oldrustycars]

I guess skillets are a tool...I just got a new cast iron skillet. I seasoned it with Canola oil on a propane barbecue grill. Coated it 3 times over 5 hours, at 500 degrees. That baby looks and cooks like it was handed down 3 generations.

 

[Farmall MD nut]

Yeah, now that's good stuff. If it ain't seasoned it's just like cookin on a normal pan.
I use a bunch of different stuff. Canola, Garlic, salt, pepper, cinamon, A-1, Mustard, and Maple syrup. AWWWWWWW, the sweet taste of a good steak.
Doug

 

[MarkB_MI]

The new cast iron skillets are nice, but I haven't seen any that are a match for the older ones. I'm a fan of the Griswold cast iron frying pans; the company went out of business in 1958. The inside of a Griwold pan is polished so you can cook almost anything on it. I haven't found any new cast iron cookware that is polished like the Griswolds.

One of my hobbies is to buy old Griswold pans off eBay, clean them up with oven cleaner and season them. I then give them away to friends. Most folks have never cooked on a decent cast iron pan.

 

[Garry in OK]

We have a cast iron skillet in daily use that was a wedding present to my parents in 1935. Best pan in the house. Now if my wife would only fry okra in hog lard...

 

[Mark]

MarkB,

who was a common maker during the 60's? I had an uncle who ran a general store until the mid 90's (real common here in Ky then) and he sold all sorts of cast iron cookware. And how many Old Hickory butcher knives is beyond number. They were in business for 85 years. Things I took for granted would make folks nowadays gasp! They had a butcher block....which was made from a beech log..it was 4 feet across. It was factory made. To clean it, they had this brush thingy sorta like a wire brush, except the 'teeth' were flat spring steel. You just more or less scraped the top of the block and called it 'clean'. Never killed none of us, must have worked! People used to come in and buy a whole slab of bacon, 100 pounds of flour and meal...in printed cotton sacks of course, and the women would get matching patterns so they could make aprons and bonnets and dresses from the material. Sugar was sold in 50 and 100 pound bags and yes, a whole lot of it made liquor. Bib overalls and striped railroad caps were big sellers....the old women washed and starched those hats and stretched them over a lard can to shape them. Yeah, they sold lard in buckets from 5 pounds to 50 pounds. I can't remember how many different brands of chewing tobacco he sold, let alone smoking tobacco. On the walls were cardboard displays of corncob pipes and Big Ben pocket watches and cheap pocket knives. There was a small wooden case that held new German Boker knives..man they had great steel in them. On nails, hung new Daisy BB guns and axes and hatchets and hammers of every kind. Nails came in boxes by time I was boy on the 60's....but they were tons of them in every size. Barb wire and fence posts, shotgun and 22 shells...hi-pared ca'tridges on special order..nobody shot deer in those days...they were extinct. Cane poles and hooks... and sinkers in little green slide top tins. You could buy the basic ingredients for black powder right off the shelf.....sulfur, charcoal and salt peter. Before 1968 and the infamous Gun Control Act, they sold guns and dynamite.

But back to cast iron skillets and such.....I can't remember who the maker was..got any idea of 1960's era makers?

 

[Davis In SC]

I am a fan of old skillets, as well as anything old. I buy up old skillets, season them and resell them. As far as I know, both Griswold and the old-style Wagner skillets were not made in the 60s. Many of the old skillets I find were just marked "SK" on the bottom, no idea of the maker, but they were good skillets. Now, I guess Lodge is the only quality skillet that is widely sold. They are OK, but a bit on the thick side, and the cooking surface is not very smooth.

As far as old country stores, it sure is sad that they are almost all gone, I sure miss them.

I have an old meat block that I use for an end table. It is dished out in the center, from use. The tallow has soaked into the wood, and it now has a waxy coat on it. Being single, I am able to have all kind of old country store stuff in the house. All of my walls are covered with old signs. Kinda brings back good old memories of country stores..

 

[MarkB_MI]

Mark,

Although the Griswold company went out of business in '57 (not '58, my mistake), The Griswold trademark and patterns were purchased by the Wagner company. Wagner produced both Griswold and Wagner brand cookwear until (I think) the early '70's. So you could be thinking of either of these brands. Griswold cookwear produced by Wagner does not have the "Erie" marking on it. (The Griswold company was in Erie, PA.)

 

[Anonymous-0]

The best thing I have used is pure old fashoned hog lard. After cooking just wipe it out with a wet cloth, then wipe it with a rag with a touch of lard on it. this will keep it seasoned and from rusting. Detergent is hard on them. Never let the wife scrub them with a brillo pad or spoon. The longer you use it with proper care the better it will get. Nearly all my food is cooked in cast iron. I love anything that comes out of a cast iron Dutch oven. My MIL thinks that is why me, my wife or kids are never sick.

 

[Slowpoke]

I have a large 12" frying pan bought, I think in the late '60s. The bottom is marked in large letters "AMERICAN/COOKWARE" separated by a center picture of a side wheel riverboat. Right side up opposite the regular handle is a "tab" handle marked AB&I. Could that be American Bridge & Iron???