09-25-2015, 18:49
|
#1
|
|
Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cochise Co., AZ
Posts: 6,200
|
Cast iron makeover
We had several skillets that were heavily encrusted with burned on oil. One was a hand-me-down from my wife's grandmother and I thought that the other was from my great-grandmother via my grandmother. Cleaning it reviled a different history.
The first photo is my wife's and you can see that it was horribly encrusted. After baking it in the gas grill at a little over 700° and brushing it off, I found that it was probably a pre-1920s Wagner which fit with the date that her grandmother was married.
My hand-me-down (the middle sized one in the photo) said "Made in Korea" which would make it pre-1950s which is when my mother was married. Turns out that she still has my great-grandmother's skillet and gave me hers. But, the one she gave me is the one she used to knock the snot out of my father back in the '50s. He was laid up for several days.  She obviously watched too many violent cartoons when she was young.
Pat
__________________
"Hector Lives!"
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -- Frederick Douglass
"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." -- Dennis Prager
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." --H.L. Mencken
|
|
PSM is online now
|
|
|
09-25-2015, 21:05
|
#2
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 20,929
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by PSM
entire post
Pat
|
Very cool indeed!!!!! They will last forever!
__________________
"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
|
|
Team Sergeant is offline
|
|
|
09-25-2015, 21:26
|
#3
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Orange, Ca.
Posts: 4,950
|
Way cool- My sister has my mother's, they must have made thousands of Salisbury Steaks...
|
|
mark46th is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 09:38
|
#4
|
|
Area Commander
Join Date: Dec 2010
Posts: 1,696
|
Very nice work!
It would be interesting to know the amount of cast iron skillets and pots that have been passed down from generation to generation...
Everyone wants grandma's cast iron pots...I know I did.
|
|
Sohei is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 10:55
|
#5
|
|
Area Commander
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Western WI
Posts: 6,973
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by mark46th
Way cool- My sister has my mother's, they must have made thousands of Salisbury Steaks...
|
Same with my Mom's; hers was the benchmark by which that dish is still judged.
Good cast iron is up on the periodic table near bacon.
Nice job Pat! 
__________________
"Civil Wars don't start when a few guys hunt down a specific bastard. Civil Wars start when many guys hunt down the nearest bastards."
The coin paid to enforce words on parchment is blood; tyrants will not be stopped with anything less dear. - QP Peregrino
|
|
Badger52 is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 15:44
|
#6
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Occupied Pineland
Posts: 4,701
|
Don't forget the easy over eggs and corn pone fried in a cast iron skillet full of bacon grease. 'Bout the only part of (camp) breakfast that doesn't depend on cast iron and bacon is the boiled coffee and it wants only the egg shells to settle the grounds.
__________________
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C)
|
|
Peregrino is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 16:51
|
#7
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 459
|
Love me some cast iron! The older the better, simply cant destroy them and once seasoned properly just about anything tastes better cooked in one!
__________________
"Excellence is its own punishment..."
|
|
CDRODA396 is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 21:16
|
#8
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs
Posts: 4,530
|
I recently stripped and re-seasoned my non-historical, boring, bought-by-me Wagner cast iron skillet. Filled a 5 gal bucket with water, added 1/2 lb of lye (100% lye drain cleaner from Home Depot) and stuck the skillet in the water. Let it sit 24 hours, then pulled it out, scoured it with steel wool to remove a couple remaining spots and soaked it another 24 hours. Pulled it out, rinsed it with clear water and it was bare iron ready for seasoning.
|
|
Razor is offline
|
|
|
09-26-2015, 21:20
|
#9
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posts: 20,929
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Razor
I recently stripped and re-seasoned my non-historical, boring, bought-by-me Wagner cast iron skillet. Filled a 5 gal bucket with water, added 1/2 lb of lye (100% lye drain cleaner from Home Depot) and stuck the skillet in the water. Let it sit 24 hours, then pulled it out, scoured it with steel wool to remove a couple remaining spots and soaked it another 24 hours. Pulled it out, rinsed it with clear water and it was bare iron ready for seasoning.
|
Holy Green Pad Batman! And easier way to clean it would have been to toss it into a bonfire, sand blast it or the ole steel wool. That was a lot of work!!! 
__________________
"The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where they are."
|
|
Team Sergeant is offline
|
|
|
09-30-2015, 17:20
|
#10
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Colorado Springs
Posts: 4,530
|
If nothing else, I am thorough.
|
|
Razor is offline
|
|
|
10-16-2015, 22:55
|
#11
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,064
|
I've seen a lot of old cast iron skillets in antique stores are reasonable prices. Are they worth putting back into service?
__________________
Grando autem duodecimo hominis
|
|
Divemaster is offline
|
|
|
10-17-2015, 08:34
|
#12
|
|
Guerrilla Chief
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 830
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Divemaster
I've seen a lot of old cast iron skillets in antique stores are reasonable prices. Are they worth putting back into service?
|
Do some on line research. Griswold, Wagner and others are very collectible. Try and check to make sure the the bottom is flat if you intend to use them. A pan that does not have a flat bottom works fine on gas or over a fire but sucks on an electric stove top.
__________________
Oldrotorhead
|
|
Oldrotorhead is offline
|
|
|
10-17-2015, 10:47
|
#13
|
|
Quiet Professional
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: FBNC
Posts: 26
|
Seasoning
I bought a cast iron skillet a while back and have followed online instructions for seasoning it. I'm under the impression that when I cook things in it, they shouldn't stick to the pan. At least 50% of my eggs stayed in the pan this morning, and that's typical. Can someone give me advice on how to make my pan not suck? I wanted to throw it out the kitchen window this morning. Thanks!
|
|
tazaygul is offline
|
|
|
10-17-2015, 11:07
|
#14
|
|
Asset
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Oregon
Posts: 57
|
I found with my cast iron that as well as the seasoning, I need to let the pan get hot enough before I put the eggs in. When I do this they hardly ever stick. I used to put them in to soon and have the sticking problem.
|
|
zeke is offline
|
|
|
10-17-2015, 12:12
|
#15
|
|
Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cochise Co., AZ
Posts: 6,200
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by tazaygul
I bought a cast iron skillet a while back and have followed online instructions for seasoning it. I'm under the impression that when I cook things in it, they shouldn't stick to the pan. At least 50% of my eggs stayed in the pan this morning, and that's typical. Can someone give me advice on how to make my pan not suck? I wanted to throw it out the kitchen window this morning. Thanks!
|
What oil/fat are you cooking in? I found that if I used just bacon fat they would stick a little if I didn't add a little vegetable oil or clarified butter (for higher temperature) and scrape the pan with a spatula to loosen the bacon fond. (Also, when my wife uses them, she can't resist washing them with detergent.  I can usually just rinse them out with hot water. If anything does stick, I use course salt with a little hot water to scrub it.)
Pat
ETA: Family portrait
__________________
"Hector Lives!"
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -- Frederick Douglass
"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." -- Dennis Prager
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." --H.L. Mencken
Last edited by PSM; 10-17-2015 at 13:48.
|
|
PSM is online now
|
|
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
|
|
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:23.
|
|
|
Linear Mode
