Another Enameled BSR

W

W. Hilditch

Active member
Just received a very rare BSR enameled two egg skillet. The pattern mark got covered by the glaze but the telltale ridge is under the handle and it is exactly the same size as another BSR non-enameled skillet I have. Not sure this one has ever been used.



Pretty cool, huh? It will be fun flipping eggs in this thing. Size? It is a size 0 and those two peewee eggs are just the right size for this skillet.

Hilditch
 
BSR did not produce a size 0 skillet like Griswold, who marketed theirs originally as a toy and, later, a single egg skillet. As has been noted here before, this piece was made as an "ash tray/spoon holder" both plain and with advertising in raised lettering on the inside bottom.
 
BSR catalogs call it an "Ash Tray/Spoon Holder". It should be fairly obvious that on the label the "skillet" in Skillet Ash Tray is an adjective describing its shape, not its function. It would be similarly incorrect to interpret the wording to mean it is a tray for skillet ash.
 
I guess we will never know if this was first sold as a Toy Skillet by the company that did the enamel without the original label. It really doesn’t matter. This owner bought it as a skillet, will use it as a skillet, care for it as a skillet and display it as a skillet. Thus, it is a skillet.

It even looks like a skillet.

Hilditch
 
Here is my new skillet in action helping make a peameal bacon, egg and cheese muffin. Yes, there was a breakfast sandwich like this before the McMuffin. There is a difference.

Please pause and let the loading get ahead of playing. The diffuser was used to keep the heat down as well as catch splatters and spills as I’m practicing. A little off today.



Ashtray my ***,
Hilditch
 
W. Hilditch said:
I guess we will never know if this was first sold as a Toy Skillet by the company that did the enamel without the original label. It really doesn’t matter.
Click to expand...
No, we won't. And of course it matters. FDA standards dictate acceptable levels of toxins like lead in coatings including enamel for food contact items, not ash trays. In that light, ignoring the fact BSR catalogs show no toy items and that 99 of any 100 experienced cast iron collectors identify this piece as an ash tray seems more than a bit reckless.
 
Correction: I guess we will never know if this was first sold to the end user as a small or mini skillet, a spoon holder, a toy or whatever by the company that did the enamel without the original label. It really doesn’t matter to me.

Oh well, it won’t be the first time that the 99% leaned one way when there was a choice. Once the world was flat according to the 99% for 1,000 years after Aristotle said it was spherical. I guess I just proved this isn’t paint and it is a true ceramic coating, which has trouble leaching anything under 900° F. It doesn’t matter to me what the label or catalogue called it. My wooden spaghetti fork is great for cooking bacon and making scrambled eggs, not so good for spaghetti.

Jeez, if I wanted a phobia I’d choose cast iron that was made 60 to 100 years ago or germs long before this little ceramic coated skillet with a groove in the handle.

Hilditch
 
The first breakfast sandwich I remember seeing as a kid was at a 5 & dime store lunch counter when a guy ordered an egg sandwich. Two slices of toast and a fried egg. It didn’t impress me and I never had one - until today. Two slices of toast buttered (the potato bread below) and one fried egg squared up a little in a #5 skillet with salt & pepper. Nothing else. Should have tried this 50 some years ago. It was good!

Hilditch
 
Throw a slice of cheese on that and you have perfection. At least, it tasted like perfection at the mile 75 aid station during the Pinhoti 100. That's the only time I've ever had one (actually, two. I was hungry.)
 
Side note: If you want a sausage and egg muffin it’s easy. Off a roll of breakfast sausage just cut a slice. You can strip 2 or 3 links or take two preformed patties, put the meat in a sandwich bag and make one patty. Cook up the patty first in your size O skillet and then the egg. Everybody is the right size and there is only one little pan to clean.

We get 3 lb. boxes of the preformed patties. Not liking 100% crust we thaw 2 patties per serving in sandwich bags, squish into 1 patty small hamburger size and fry. The single patties also chop up great for the Goetta recipe below where more crust is good.

Hilditch
 
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