Hi all,
just thought I'd introduce myself. I grew up in a family where all skillets were Griswold (although oddly, on my mom's side of the family we have both Vollraths and Wagners - go figure!) but my mom still is greedily holding onto hers. After having all my cookware in storage for a few years I started dating a lovely person who mentioned something at one point in time about wanting to try cooking in cast iron, so I dragged out my box of stuff and realized that a) it was a pretty poor and bachelor looking collection of skillets and b) the few good pieces I had really weren't well seasoned, and needed to be redone.
So a year or so ago I stripped most of them and used Sheryl Canter's flaxseed oil seasoning method, and while the skillets looked great, the seasoning did not last on them. So I've picked up a few new ones since then and I've been obsessively reading about seasoning and refining my technique. What I've settled on finally is using Jeff Rogers' method but instead of Crisco I've been using lard (I'd already bought the lard because "that's what grandma used") and I've found that an hour and a half at 400-450F is sufficient, no need to go the whole two hours.
I think I've finally got the confidence to go back and strip some of the ones I've already done and redo them. Also I'm acquiring more stuff as a) I still don't have a dutch oven, for example, and my largest good old skillet is a #9 and b) herself has three kids in HS now, so someday they'll need some cookware, and if I can refine my seasoning technique I can pick up more old skillets when I find them and pass them on, knowing that they'll last much longer than some Teflon-coated "non stick" stuff that you can't just patch up when the cooking surface gets shabby.
Anyway, I wandered in here to both share what I know, and also learn more especially about identifying pieces. I never much cared before other than I knew that Griswold was good stuff (I remember my mom hitting thrift stores when I was a little kid, she trained me to flip over any cast iron and look for the Griswold logo). I apparently didn't do too badly on my own though; once I decided to get serious about stepping up my cookware game and identify what I had, apparently in addition to the Taiwan skillets that my mom sent me off with when I got my first place, I'd managed to acquire a Lodge and two BSRs over the years along with a Korean skillet that looks like a direct copy of a three notch Lodge. Those were all picked up in thrift stores over the years and I'm going to strip and reseason them all to try to bring them up to the level of the ones I've done more recently. Also have a #12 Wagner's 1891 Original that I picked up at some point that I figured would get used maybe twice a year, but now that I see that herself actually uses it quite a bit, I'd love to find a Griswold or BSR to replace it with, although anything larger than a #8 or #9 seems to go for serious money when it pops up. So I'm back to hitting thrift stores, I was doing it quite a bit always looking for music (CDs, LPs etc.) audio gear or cookware but fell out of the habit a few years ago. I do have a BSR dutch oven coming in a few days that I got off a Certain Auction Site so I'll be starting another round of restos.
Anyway that's me, my "real" hobbies are music and cars, but I do just like old stuff, and I like quality, durable stuff, so cast iron makes sense for me.
just thought I'd introduce myself. I grew up in a family where all skillets were Griswold (although oddly, on my mom's side of the family we have both Vollraths and Wagners - go figure!) but my mom still is greedily holding onto hers. After having all my cookware in storage for a few years I started dating a lovely person who mentioned something at one point in time about wanting to try cooking in cast iron, so I dragged out my box of stuff and realized that a) it was a pretty poor and bachelor looking collection of skillets and b) the few good pieces I had really weren't well seasoned, and needed to be redone.
So a year or so ago I stripped most of them and used Sheryl Canter's flaxseed oil seasoning method, and while the skillets looked great, the seasoning did not last on them. So I've picked up a few new ones since then and I've been obsessively reading about seasoning and refining my technique. What I've settled on finally is using Jeff Rogers' method but instead of Crisco I've been using lard (I'd already bought the lard because "that's what grandma used") and I've found that an hour and a half at 400-450F is sufficient, no need to go the whole two hours.
I think I've finally got the confidence to go back and strip some of the ones I've already done and redo them. Also I'm acquiring more stuff as a) I still don't have a dutch oven, for example, and my largest good old skillet is a #9 and b) herself has three kids in HS now, so someday they'll need some cookware, and if I can refine my seasoning technique I can pick up more old skillets when I find them and pass them on, knowing that they'll last much longer than some Teflon-coated "non stick" stuff that you can't just patch up when the cooking surface gets shabby.
Anyway, I wandered in here to both share what I know, and also learn more especially about identifying pieces. I never much cared before other than I knew that Griswold was good stuff (I remember my mom hitting thrift stores when I was a little kid, she trained me to flip over any cast iron and look for the Griswold logo). I apparently didn't do too badly on my own though; once I decided to get serious about stepping up my cookware game and identify what I had, apparently in addition to the Taiwan skillets that my mom sent me off with when I got my first place, I'd managed to acquire a Lodge and two BSRs over the years along with a Korean skillet that looks like a direct copy of a three notch Lodge. Those were all picked up in thrift stores over the years and I'm going to strip and reseason them all to try to bring them up to the level of the ones I've done more recently. Also have a #12 Wagner's 1891 Original that I picked up at some point that I figured would get used maybe twice a year, but now that I see that herself actually uses it quite a bit, I'd love to find a Griswold or BSR to replace it with, although anything larger than a #8 or #9 seems to go for serious money when it pops up. So I'm back to hitting thrift stores, I was doing it quite a bit always looking for music (CDs, LPs etc.) audio gear or cookware but fell out of the habit a few years ago. I do have a BSR dutch oven coming in a few days that I got off a Certain Auction Site so I'll be starting another round of restos.
Anyway that's me, my "real" hobbies are music and cars, but I do just like old stuff, and I like quality, durable stuff, so cast iron makes sense for me.