Rotating Your Pans

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RobHerrington

Member
I have about 8 pans at this point. I probably don't really need more than two for actual cooking. Do those of you with large collections rotate your cooking pans out so that they all get some "playing time?" I ask because I see you all mentioning that the more you cook with a pan, the better it gets. I am thinking of using two pans daily for a month, then switching them out. How do you keep all your pans seasoned?
 
I collect CI. I cook in CI. But I don't feel the need to, even though I certainly could, cook with every piece of CI I own. I'd rather optimize the performance of the pans I do use by using them often. If I rotated thru every skillet I own, it would take years to get them all to the state my handful of users are in.
 
Are the rest of your pans, the ones you don't cook in, displayed somehow? I have a nice narrow section of wall near the oven where I can hang about 7, smallest at the top and progressively bigger. My wife says "I like them better than [hanging] pictures." So do I! Makes for a handsome display.
 
The rest of the pans number in the hundreds, so there's really no practical way to display them all. I have a tower metro rack in the kitchen which holds my enameled CI, Kitchen Aid mixer and food processor, and my favorite gem pans. I also have a 100 year-old china cabinet for CI and aluminum toys and waffle irons.
 
I own about 30 pieces of CI. I'd say about 17 or so are skillets. I use 4 in heavy cooking rotation, a couple for baking and own some just to complete the set. I continue to hunt for them. I really don't see stopping any time soon. I'll have to get more creative about storing them, but that's a good problem to have.
 
Though my collection doesn't qualify as "large" by the standards of this forum, what I like to do is give my pieces a short break-in after manually seasoning to establish an initial practical seasoning. Not too long, maybe a week, depending.

Then for pieces that are versatile enough for general everyday cooking, I'll designate a "main user" or two and use them intensively for an extended period to build up a well-matured seasoning, up to six months before rotating.

While less versatile pieces, I'll use them when the opportunity comes up for a dish they are well suited for. Or I select dishes to cook that specifically are chosen to give those less versatile pieces more use.
 
RobHerrington said:
Are the rest of your pans, the ones you don't cook in, displayed somehow? I have a nice narrow section of wall near the oven where I can hang about 7, smallest at the top and progressively bigger. My wife says "I like them better than [hanging] pictures." So do I! Makes for a handsome display.
Click to expand...

this was my solution to getting some of them out of the closet/cabinets... my wife refers to it as the 'wind chime'... but at least some of them are out and kind of on display. And don't take up a lot of space on that narrow section of wall.

https://imgur.com/a/YGZeg
 
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