Cast Iron Skillet Advice

I'm wanting to buy a couple and want to know what is the best bang for the buck. Also any special tips.

Unless you find some really good old ones you can't beat Lodge preseasoned cast iron products.

Are you planning on deep frying alot of fish ? Mine holds a gallon of oil and plenty of room to spare. But if your pan frying a shallow skillet is better and like sawman53 said. Lodge are good unless you can find an old one at a yard sale.

I have a couple of the Lodge skillets. There not bad. I have to tell you though. I inherted my Great Grandmothers set when she passed. She passed 2 days shy of her 105 birthday. The amazing thing to me was. Up till the day she died. She lived on her Own.:eek: I remember her 100 birthday, I asked her. What is the secret to living to be 100 years old. She told me her secret was to not take naps and be in bed by 8:00pm:D She used these cast iron skillets almost daily for if I had to guess..70 years. They say Wagner on the bottom of the skillets. They are seasoned like no cast iron skillet I have ever seen. You can almost see your reflection in these. I got 7 skillets in about 5 different sizes. I was told by a friend of mines father. That I could easly get $500 or more for the set. He said there is quite the market for old cast iron cookware. That has been takin care of. I would sell my lodge skillets but, I think I will hold on to these and pass them along to my kids. I still use them to cook fish,chicken,hamburgers,bacon. You can't beat chicken in a cast iron skillet. Anyway, I would check Ebay for some older ones that have already been seasoned well.

If you are looking for something to cook in, its hard to beat a Lodge. They are easy to season and easy to keep seasoned but they are heavy and don't overlook Birmingham Stove and Range. They were Lodges main competitor before they went under in 1993. I prefer the old Lodges circa 1920-1930, and old Erie skillets which are pre Griswold..they are much lighter than todays Lodges. Of course, I use a lot of different ones but I have settled on a small logo Griswold size 9 for my everyday skillet. I use a old 1920-1930 Lodge one notch chicken fryer for fried chicken, nothing beats it for fried chicken. And I use a Lodge dutch oven for beans, chicken stew and bigger meals. I buy and restore old cast iron...not bragging but there is not much about cast iron cookware that would fool me. When I have time I restore the cast iron and resell certain ones to finance my search for more cast iron. The last pictures shows just a few of my one notch Lodges circa 1920-1930 that I have restored. I have several hundred pieces of cast iron including quite a few of the old "Wagner" that PININTHEPIGPEN is speaking.

Poppop you don't have an iron skillet do you ? lol

Those are just about a third of what I have....but I am always looking for more Flyroblures...

Gee wiz thats a lot of iron !

Dang man,you own an iron mine or what!!!!

poppop, got anything to cook cornbread in....lol
Super collection.

WOW!!! What an outstanding collection of ironware poppop. I'm glad Dongotto ask the question about cast iron skillets...
so that you would have a chance to share that fine collection with us. I am totally amazed at your awesome collection.
If frying is bad for you... and I'm sure it is... I would bet that collection of old cookware is responsible for more deaths than
the entire civil war.
I would also agree with the majority... Lodge iron skillets including the Dutch oven is the best and most practical to me... but runs
second to the old well-seasoned stuff... and there is definitely an art to maintaining the right seasoning and of care of any iron
cookware. I'll bet poppop could share a whole lot on that subject too.

I'm hoping he never ticks off his significant other!! Too much ammo there! ;)

I clean my cast iron in an electrolysis I built. A piece of cast iron can stay in the electro from 30 minutes to 2 days depending on how bad it’s crudded up. When it comes out it’s down to the bare cast iron. I then wash in cold water with blue Dawn dish detergent. I scrub with stainless steel brushes...and stainless steel pot scrubbers. Don't use brass as it leaves a residue on the cast iron that won't come off. AND NEVER CLEAN ONE IN A FIRE....you might get by a few times but eventually the fire will crack it, warp it and leave a scaly residue on it that won't take seasoning.

Okay after I wash the cast iron it goes in clean water to rinse. I then take the cast iron out...dry it as quickly as possible...with paper towels. Then it goes in the oven..I start in a cold oven and heat to 250 degrees. Then it goes up 50 degrees until I get it to 450 degrees. (Lodges will take 500 degrees easily). Once it gets to 450F I take them out with a old steel hay hook. I place them face up on a stainless steel mesh screen I have.

I then take solid Crisco (and Pam seasoning on muffin pans and waffle irons) , and put a dob in the first skillet (I only work two pieces of cast iron at a time, the rest is left in the oven to keep hot). I take a paper towel crumpled up...and coat the entire pan with the melted Crisco. Then I flip it over on its face to keep the heat inside as much as possible. Then when the cast iron is cooled enough to where you can touch it with a bare hand..but still too hot to hold I wipe the melted Crisco off as much as possible.

Then I place them back in the oven which will still be on 450 degrees. After a couple of minutes..I jerk them back out, and wipe them real good with clean paper towels. If you don't the seasoning will tiger strip and streak and it looks awful. Then they are ready for the final seasoning. I leave them in the 450F oven until they quit smoking...the seasoning will polymerize into a hard outer layer.

Then I let them cool in the oven overnight or until they are cool. Lodges and Birmingham Stove and Range cast iron will almost always come out black and shiny the first time. The older ones, like Wagner and some of the older Griswold can take up to three or four times to get the black slick look I want. It’s not as hard as it appears once you get the hang of it. My skillets I use at home, will slide an egg out without sticking everytime.

There is something about holding a hundred year old piece of cast iron in your hand and wondering about the thousands of meals it had cooked, wondered who owned it, and just the history behind it.

Lodge for me.Made in good old USA! Would not trust China made pots.What could be released when hot,could be bad!

poppop how is your electrolysis bath set up ? will try it .have had a couple crack it the fire.
thanks

poppop How is your electrolysis bath setup would like to try it. have had a couple crack in the fire. thanks

55 gallon plastic barrel....line the inside with a stainless steel sheet. Fill with water...and put two handfuls of ARMS AND HAMMER WASHING SODA or PH PLUS. I take a board...bore some holes...and put a threaded rod through the hole so it hangs in the water.

I then take my cast iron....and hang it with a piece of #8 solid copper wire from the threaded rod.

I then take a battery charger...and hook the positive to the stainless steel...and the negative to the wire with the cast iron which is submerged in the water, making sure the cast iron is all the way in the water and there is at least two inches of water of watering covering the cast iron completely.

You should have an amp guage on the battery charger. Turn it on...and you will see it small bubbles rising to the top. After the water warms up....you should get some suds and the amps guage should be no more than 20 amps. Anything over 20 amps is wasting electricity. Depending on the severity of the rust...from 30 minutes to 2 days on some of the worse ones.

Just remember 20 amps is all you need..you can hang multiple pieces of cast iron in the barrel...but keep a check on it...if you overclean it..especially if your stainless steel is getting dirty will use one of your skillets being cleaned as the donor piece and it will eat pits in it. If you have multiple pieces of cast iron in there and you are getting over 20 amps..just remove some pieces until you get it back down there to 20 amps.

Every 30 hours...I take an old skillet that is busted, I hook it to the thread rod...and I connect the POSITIVE to this skillet. Then connect your NEGATIVE to the stainless steel..you are reversing the electrolysis process and you are cleaning the stainless steel lining using a skillet that is already broke.

Thanks poppop,will give it a try

Just remember after you wash the skillet, be sure to rub it down with cooking oil or it will rust...!:eek: Always leave a film of oil when you will be storing it for awhile!

Wife and I have a good collection of cast iron that we use all the time. Nothing like poppop's . Some came from my family and some from her's. It is the only thing we use and no one wanted it. Now everyone is asking if we still have it and are using it. Our answer is yes we still have it and its the only thing we use. It seems like everyone wants it now.

Poppop Thank you for sharing that with us on how to care and feed our cast Iron. Have been doing it right for years now. BTW I like the Butter Crisco to use on them. We feel that it adds more flavor to what ever we cook in the cast iron.


Redman

I only use my cast iron skillets for cooking cornbread.

Buy the best used on take it home and wash good with soap and water Yes with soap and water. Rinse very good heat oven to highest temp 500 let oven heat up. Wipe with oil inside and out. Turn upside down or up on a piece of heavy duty foil or pan below rack allow cast iron to cook at high temp for 4 hours then let cool in oven for 4 hours. You will have a glazed cured ready to cook Cast
Iron Pot or Skillet that will last you a life time. Even if you buy a new one If you follow this procedure you will pass on to next generation. Some Old timers would build a hot fire with wood and place pot on coals and fill up with oil and let burn.

To clean after using if frying Bacon etc just wipe out if you decide to clean can use a light soapy water rinse good then put on stove burner on low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. then wipe lightly with oil . the more you do this the more glaze you will have. I ave on from grandparents and is well over 100 years old. Looks like a well cured cast iron pot. I use for frying fish in or Black Pot Chicken or what ever. It sits on display in out kitchen. If you cure your self and do it right you will never be disappointed and can use and will enjoy.
There will be smoke at first for a while but pick a day open your windows, I put a little Rosemary and Thyme in mine when I do this it has a pleasant smell

lester is giving good advice. Most of the time people in the know about cast iron will recommend you never use soap on a well seasoned piece. Soap and water is fine..to do a quick wash...as long as you reseason it like Lester is telling you. Remember also, that unless something is stuck, you can just wipe it out and store it in your oven. Nothing is going to be in the pan to hurt you...with the tempetures you use to cook with anyways.

I have a little different method of seasoning..but both works. I don't run them in for 4 hours. Once the cast iron quits smoking in the oven, you pretty much have everything burnt off and cured. Its important to let the piece cool in the oven. Remember seasoning cast iron is like painting a board. Each time you use cast iron, its like putting another coat of paint on the board, it only gets smoother and better.

The only thing that I do recommend is you don't cook anything containing tomatos in the pot or skillet until you have at least 8 seasoning sessions behind you. The acid will eat the seasoning up.

Poppop that is starting to make sense. My wife makes buffalo chile in one of our cast iron pan. It comes out real bad the pan not the chile. Now I understand that it is the acid that makes the cast iron hard to clean and reseason. Guess we wil have to find another pot for chile.

Thank for the advice.

Redman

Redman...if you use the pan for frying 7 or 8 times, or another good way is to make a few pones of corn bread in it first...either one before you make the chili and it will be okay...never let a tomato based meal sit in the cast iron for more than a few minutes. If you can't get the cast iron back the way it should be...send it to me....and I will fix it for you.

My mother had some Wagner Electric Skillets and Bean Pot that I could not find a cord for. They were primo units. They went to salvage, found no source of power on the web,