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My enamaled pot is an off brand and it makes me nervous once in a while if I think about it to much. I'm with you on the cost of Le Creuset but they do have, at least till reciently, a great rep. Been hearning about them moving production to China and that makes me nervous.

I prefer regular CI and all but one are Lodge. One is a thin china made piece that was a gift, lucky for me it does great rolls and baking things so I don't have to worry about what may leach out of the iron. My #8 bean pot was my fisrt CI dutch oven and it has done numberous batches of baked beans, and more to come. The others are "Camp" DO's , also Lodge, that you can use outdoors with coals :)

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A very addicting past time :p
 
Oh, you're making me drool. That looks great! I have to take my DO to the fire pit and try some camp grub!
 
I had to necro this thread because I picked up my first Wagner skillet! I was in AZ for a vacation and a friend took me to this store called the AZ Man Cave. It is like a consignment shop, that has a little bit of everything. I was telling my friends about how I was a member of this forum and into cooking and cookware, knives, etc. Well sure enough I found a section of cast iron pans and picked up a Wagner 10 for 38 bucks.

It's far from perfect, but I was happy to have found it and bought it. Now I'm debating on how to go about re-seasoning it. It's actually pretty clean and the cooking surface is nice and smooth. There is some pitting on the inside and a little bit of rust.

For those who have brought older pans back to life, what's your method of restarting a pan?
 
Shinob1 said:
I had to necro this thread because I picked up my first Wagner skillet! I was in AZ for a vacation and a friend took me to this store called the AZ Man Cave. It is like a consignment shop, that has a little bit of everything. I was telling my friends about how I was a member of this forum and into cooking and cookware, knives, etc. Well sure enough I found a section of cast iron pans and picked up a Wagner 10 for 38 bucks.

It's far from perfect, but I was happy to have found it and bought it. Now I'm debating on how to go about re-seasoning it. It's actually pretty clean and the cooking surface is nice and smooth. There is some pitting on the inside and a little bit of rust.

For those who have brought older pans back to life, what's your method of restarting a pan?
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read this and this.
 
Mucho Bocho said:
Nice shots Dwarvenchef, Those rolls look perfect. I think Kitchenaid has the Best bang for the buck. I have some staub, Le cruset, lodge DO's.
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i think the best bang for buck right now is the clearance Sur La Table enameled. its nice.
 
There is at least one KA enameled piece on deep discount in every weekly flyer for a Canadian big-box discount hard-goods chain; this week it's a 7-quart round covered casserole for $69.99...

Cutlery and More had a Creuset bargain a couple of weeks ago.
 
EdipisReks said:
read this and this.
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Those were good articles. I'm not 100% on using the oven cleaner, but I may end up giving it a go. I'll post pictures and see what you all think about the pan and if it needs that much work. My only concern with the oven cleaner is it impregnating the iron and leeching out into the food.

I wish I had a self cleaning oven as I'd really like to try that method. No use of chemicals. I do have a Weber grill, I wonder if loading it up with coals and baking the CI pan would yield the same results? Or am I just being a baby about using oven cleaner?
 
Shinob1 said:
In case it would be helpful, what I cook mostly is saute vegetables and lean meats, (I'm on a diet). So unfortunately no biscuits or gravy, fried taters, or other magical southern food will grace the skillet, well at least not often. ;)

~ You may need to consider good fire/ heat management as cast iron gets really hot and may overcook the vegetables.. so either keep it moving or once it is cooked.. get it out fast. Adjust the heat source accordingly as needed.

I prefer my veggies.. translucent green. A testament of my fire management and doing it right...

you will eventually get a feel for your apparatus....

have fun..
D
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Shinob1 said:
Those were good articles. I'm not 100% on using the oven cleaner, but I may end up giving it a go. I'll post pictures and see what you all think about the pan and if it needs that much work. My only concern with the oven cleaner is it impregnating the iron and leeching out into the food.

I wish I had a self cleaning oven as I'd really like to try that method. No use of chemicals. I do have a Weber grill, I wonder if loading it up with coals and baking the CI pan would yield the same results? Or am I just being a baby about using oven cleaner?
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I've used oven cleaner many times and it works good enough. I go overboard with the cleanup- multiple rounds of hot water and soap, then rinsed out thoroughly with hot water, then scrubbed with a brush and baking soda.

If you have an angle grinder and a wire wheel you can easily get it down to bare metal. I was nervous about it at first but then I just went to town on my 90 year old Griswold skillet and didn't have any issues whatsoever.
 
Kyle said:
If you have an angle grinder and a wire wheel you can easily get it down to bare metal. I was nervous about it at first but then I just went to town on my 90 year old Griswold skillet and didn't have any issues whatsoever.
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A brass or stainless wire wheel is better, and preferably one that hasn't been used on other metals before. The aggressive nature of wire-wheeling tends to embed some of the elements of the wire itself into the steel or iron of the work piece, along with any particles of other work pieces it touched before. On stainless this is a disaster. Ask any TIG welder what happens when cleaning up a bead with either a non-stainless wire wheel, or one that has been used on other non-stainless metals.
 
Here is a picture of my Wagner. Do you guys think I need to take it down to the bare metal?
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Looks ok to me but it's up to you if you want to start with a clean slate, or seasoning if it where :p The bottom looks good but I can't really say much for the sides, I can't tell how thick that build up is.
 
On this one I just scrubbed it down with dish soap and water. Then after drying it out I hit it with some oil and salt. The salt came out clean so I rinsed it again and oiled it up. I think at this point it's ready to cook with.

I think later today I'm going to fry up some pork chops and see how it does.
 
I've been off this forum for some time but came in for a visit today and saw this thread on iron cookware, a longtime favorite of mine having collected it extensively since 1968.

Not much mention here about Griswold who was the largest US maker or iron cookware and possibly the best. Earlier Wagner and Lodge are also excellent pans. Earlier = pre-1960 or even earlier. Lodge used to have a ground (polished) line and their less expensive "as-cast" line until maybe 15 years ago when they discontinued the polished line, presumable to save on cost. I've toured the Lodge foundry while in operation and it was quite a treat. I can say that Lodge iron cookware is a top quality product; they remelt pans that show even minute flaws. Their iron is (or was at the time) alloyed with scrap steel stampings from Lazy Boy recliners.

Griswold dates to about 1880 for their cookware, Wagner to 1891, Lodge to 1896. Other quality makes were numerous in the early days of cast iron; only Lodge is left today in the US. I don't care for Lodge due to the heaviness and coarseness of their pans but I read that a heavy pan is a desirable pan. I just prefer cast iron cookware from around the turn of the last century or earlier. Does it cook any better? Maybe not but I get a lot of satisfaction by using OLD things.

Lye or lye oven cleaner is the normal way to clean iron cookware used by collectors. I don't know of any harmful effects of using lye to clean iron. Lye is used in food processing to peal things like pimientos and other vegetables.

Your self cleaning oven does an excellent job of stripping old seasoning and carbon from iron cookware. Just don't put anything in the oven with a wire handle which will loose the temper in the wire leaving you with a soft wire handle subject to being bent easily. Also, you'll have to leave the oven rack in the oven which is not recommended. The 850-900 deg. F heat will darken the racks and make them slide less easily. Ask me how I know.

I don't mess with any iron cookware that is marked "Made in USA" or with a size marked in "inches". Both are later pieces (with very few exceptions) made post-1960. I just don't care for the style and workmanship after that time although, if it satisfies you it will probably be just fine.

Over the past 35 years I have accumulated a large number of 19th century stovetop skillets and other pieces that I use, mostly, for my cooking.
http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll315/SteveStephens/cast iron cookware/CIMG1207.jpg

Steve
 
Fried up some bacon and eggs today. I had some sticking but nothing I couldn't deal with; I can't wait to get a nice seasoning on it.
 
I have one like that but no markings. It was my Dad's pancake pan. I find it to be a PITA to cook with. It is so thin that temperature control is very difficult.
 
Thanks all. I think I'm going to strip it down along with the recently purchased Wagner skillet using the oven cleaner method this weekend. Any recommendations for which oven cleaner to use? Someone on the griswold fb page said a kind in a yellow can. Not sure which brand that would be.
 
You could also use the self cleaning function of your oven. Carbonoff works pretty well, I'm sure any brand will do.
 
I usually throw mine in the fireplace for a week or so...come out a bit dusty but down to bare iron.
 
Zwiefel said:
I usually throw mine in the fireplace for a week or so...come out a bit dusty but down to bare iron.
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I don't have a fire place, (or self-cleaning oven), but I do have a Weber grill. Would loading it up with coals bring the pan to bare metal? Or would it not be hot enough to burn off the crud?
 
Shinob1 said:
I don't have a fire place, (or self-cleaning oven), but I do have a Weber grill. Would loading it up with coals bring the pan to bare metal? Or would it not be hot enough to burn off the crud?
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I'm sure it would work...just not sure how much charoal you'd have to go through. I'd guess about 5-10lb worth.

OTOH, if you had to spend a couple of hours relaxing, drinking beer, and tending the fire only to find out that it didn't work...that would be just awful. terrible waste. criminal even. :)

RE self-cleaning oven...if anyone else wants to use it for something like this, make sure you remove the racks as the oven will get hot enough to damage the temper on the racks themselves (I don't know the exact temp, but it's around 600-700F).
 
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