I've used a Lodge 10" skillet for years with wonderfull results, since reading the posts on this thread, I now have an antique Griswold #3 on the way. I don't know if I should thank you people or damn you for giving me another AD.
Cast Iron Pan
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I, too, am a devotee of cast iron. I have a few Lodge (great stuff), Wagner, and Griswold pieces. I have always entertained the polishing of my Lodge pans, but being a professional procrastinator, they remain bumpy. Collecting will be my downfall, I swear. One of the items I collect is Visions (TM) cookware. The plain brown finish, sans Teflon (TM). I am certain I can taste the difference when food is cooked in the Visions (TM) pans. Another collection is vintage Pyrex (TM). I have many patterns on display. But the overwhelming collection is Fiestaware (TM). The house is decorated with it. Square, round, new, vintage, it is everywhere!
...and shaving brushes and mugs. Music. I want to build a single speed bicycle. I want to... ad infinitum...EOM.
Another cast iron fan here. Many pieces of Lodge and Le Creuset.
One caveat I haven't seen mentioned but is worth noting. With the recent resurgence in cast iron cookware, you will find some cheap "knock off" brands. Typically these are made in China and many have tested positive for lead.
You won't have this problem with Lodge (USA made) straight cast iron but they are making their enamel coated pieces in China, so...... If you want enameled I would go with French or German made (LE Creuset, Staub) though I've found a couple Chinese made offering from them as well. You just need to read the label on everything now
As to seasoning, pretty much any oil or fat will do but remember, cooking something acidic can damage it and may require reseasoning. I regularly make chili in mine but you can readily see the effect. No biggie, just a heads up.
Ken
One caveat I haven't seen mentioned but is worth noting. With the recent resurgence in cast iron cookware, you will find some cheap "knock off" brands. Typically these are made in China and many have tested positive for lead.
You won't have this problem with Lodge (USA made) straight cast iron but they are making their enamel coated pieces in China, so...... If you want enameled I would go with French or German made (LE Creuset, Staub) though I've found a couple Chinese made offering from them as well. You just need to read the label on everything now
As to seasoning, pretty much any oil or fat will do but remember, cooking something acidic can damage it and may require reseasoning. I regularly make chili in mine but you can readily see the effect. No biggie, just a heads up.
Ken
Do you have a source for this information? I'd like to read it.
Wish I did. It was a couple years ago. It may have been true then and not now. Dunno.
I haven't bought any new pieces in many years but if today I was looking at a pan my great great great grandkids could inherit, the difference between a $6 and a $30 piece is just not worth the risk, regardless.
Just to be balanced, I have also read the counter argument(s) - some making more sense that others - explaining why you will never find lead in any cast iron, regardless of country of origin.
The best centered on the competitive melting points, saying any lead present would vaporize when the CI was melted (but ignoring that all this supposed vaporized lead could eventually land on the finished products
)The worst cited lead being more expensive than CI so if it was really there, they'd extract it and sell it (seriously?)
I read this remembering a few years prior, a few of the higher end tea producers could no longer keep up with the huge demand for their excellent teas. They decided to dry the tea faster by exposing it to auto exhaust! (they still use leaded gas). Point was, they didn't intentionally add lead to their tea, but much like this country 40 years ago, lead is in everything and you just can't say it won't show up through some random interaction.
Like all things, you pay your money and you take your chances.
Ken
Cooks illustrated had an article this past issue on using flax seed oil as a seasoning agent.
They highly recommended it.
They highly recommended it.
Really? Interesting. Don't see why not. I used to use Crisco but for the last several years I've just been using olive oil. I tend to wipe it down with olive oil after use anyway so if I'm "seasoning" I just pop them in the oven after that. Works great.
Any specific benefits they cited for flax seed oil?
Ken
One more Lodge fan here- can't beat them for browning meats or cooking up some killer bacon on a Sunday morning. They'll last several generations if cared for properly.
I do all that but my all time favorite use of cast iron is to throw some chicken, turkey or bison in with a bunch of veggies, carrots, mushrooms, cabbage, whatever, some herbs (currently on a Herbs de Provence kick) and a cup of chicken broth. Cover and put it in the oven at 250 for 5-6 hours. Everything is tender and delicious! Great way to make dinner when we're out. You get home and dinner is all ready to go. It's one reason I insisted on getting the lids for all pieces we own.
Oh, and thanks for the link, Mark. I'll have to get it a go! Olive oil is pretty high in omega3 too which may explain why I've been having such excellent results with it.
Ken
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You can season them with lard, other kinds of oil or EVO!
I love my Great Grandmother 100 year old wedding present cast iron and my 96 year old Grandma's 50-70 year old cast iron.
Lodge is the best buy new you can get today.
I love my Great Grandmother 100 year old wedding present cast iron and my 96 year old Grandma's 50-70 year old cast iron.
Lodge is the best buy new you can get today.
Care must be taken with flax seed oil as this is also known as linseed oil. A very very useful product but one which is prone to spontaneous combustion of the paper towel, cloth, or other things used to apply this oil. You don't just ball up the cloth you used . . . you rinse well and spread it out flat in a safe place to dry.
Mike
Just found this thread somehow... I love cast iron! I stop by the thrift store every other day or so looking for some vintage goodness. Can't beat a 12 in Wagner for $3.99!
Since my family found out about my new interest in old cast iron, my grandmother is sending me two pans that were her fathers. She doesn't know if he brought them from Italy, or if he got them in NYC. She grew up in "Hells Kitchen", the address escapes me at the moment, but it was mentioned in the movie "The Godfather". It was mentioned right before the famous "Leave the gun, take the canollis" line. Her building is still standing, we visited it back in '07. It's cool to think I'll be using the cookware from a man I never met but have heard so much about. My grandmother is 85 and she remembers him always having them, I can't wait to see them.
"Food-grade flaxseed oil is cold-pressed, obtained without solvent extraction, and marketed as edible flaxseed oil" - From Wikipedia.
I'd read an engineering blog that got into the science behind using flaxseed oil, but the bottle I eyeballed at the local grocer was spendy enough that I went with the traditional bacon grease for my latest re-seasoning project.
Might break down and get the flaxseed oil if the traditional seasoning doesn't hold.
+ a whole lot
Yes, this is true and a VERY good idea. It is the curing of any oil gives off heat, even common oils. Boiled linseed is simply more vigorous about it. Put a rock on the rag and place it in the drive till hard, then trash. You can also burn the rag, but that is a problem for many people as you need a safe place to burn it.
A side note, commercial "boiled" linseed oil is not actually boiled. It is treated with chemical dryers to create a similar effect as boiling does. These chemical dryers are best to not have in your diet.
Phil
All linseed oil is sicative or drying. What this means is that it does not cure by evaporation but by polymerization. It creates an elastic polymer when exposed to oxygen this chemical reaction generates some heat which is what can cause combustion in a pile of rags. The fats typically used to cure cast iron are not. Raw linseed oil, whether extracted by certified food safe means or not, will cure just as boiled but will take 1-3 weeks to obtain a full cure, as opposed to 1 day depending on ambient conditions. I imagine that a thin layer exposed to heat would in effect accelerate the process and render the oil, in effect, boiled. Whether or not this is a good idea for cast iron to cook with I have no idea.
I do know that highly polymerized linseed oil fully homogenized with beeswax makes an attractive and historically accurate coating for raw cast iron hardware and architectural fittings.
All linseed oil is sicative or drying. What this means is that it does not cure by evaporation but by polymerization. It creates an elastic polymer when exposed to oxygen this chemical reaction generates some heat which is what can cause combustion in a pile of rags. The fats typically used to cure cast iron are not. Raw linseed oil, whether extracted by certified food safe means or not, will cure just as boiled but will take 1-3 weeks to obtain a full cure, as opposed to 1 day depending on ambient conditions. I imagine that a thin layer exposed to heat would in effect accelerate the process and render the oil, in effect, boiled. Whether or not this is a good idea for cast iron to cook with I have no idea.
I do know that highly polymerized linseed oil fully homogenized with beeswax makes an attractive and historically accurate coating for raw cast iron hardware and architectural fittings.
Interesting post. In researching this question (re cast iron seasoning) I see the argument made that it is the "drying" quality of flaxseed oil and its nature to form a polymer that make it desirable for seasoning pans. I have no independent knowledge on this, but am intrigued to try it myself.
At the moment I have only raw linseed oil (for conditioning Cricket bats) and boiled linseed oil (for garden tool handles) but will avoid these since I don't know what kind of solvents and additives they might contain. Flax-seed oil unfortunately has a relatively short refrigerator life, and we are out at the moment. But this thread has me thinking.
Bill
