Griswold Store

Can Stains Be Removed From Enameled Cast Iron?

2012-02-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

I've acquired two pieces of Griswold enameled cast iron that is stained. One piece seems to have a burned on stain and the other maybe just stained. Doing a search online for how to clean these two pieces I came across seven different methods for getting rid of stains on enameled cast iron. Wanting to clean the two pieces for sale, I don't need these two pieces for my own kitchen and don't see a reason to add them to my "collection".

I thought this might be interesting to see if any of these cleaning methods work. The experiment could be cut short if one of the methods actually work. I'm a bit dubious that any of the cleaning methods that I have found so far will actually work. So here goes, starting with what I thought would be the best way to clean my enameled Griswold.

Denture cleanser made a lot of sense to me as the best method of cleaning enameled cookware. It would seem that dentures and enameled cookware are made from very similar material so why wouldn't it work? Shopping for denture cleanser, a product I've never bought and know nothing about, took much more time then I had anticipated. The different brands, different ingredients, different cleaning times and the obvious different prices.

I decided to go with the store brand denture cleanser, price being the major factor because any of the remaining product will probably never be used. Most of the store brands I have ever purchased have been of high quality, some in fact I prefer to the name brand. I bought the one with baking soda and a 15 minute cleaning time.

The cleaning was done using the directions on the box. The two pots were nested one inside the other, the large pot being about two quarts and the smaller being about 1 1/2 cups, so the small pot easily fit inside the larger. Figuring that my two pots are a little larger than a set of dentures, I used four tablets leaving the pots to clean for the 15 minutes or a little longer.

The result of the cleaning was nothing that I could see. So I tried another cleaning, doubling up the amount of tablets used to 8. In addition to using double the amount of cleanser, I increased the cleaning time to several hours. There was no difference, no cleaning took place that I can see. Would there have been a difference had I used the name brand, doubt it but I'll most likely never know because can't see myself using this method again.

Upon reflection there would seem to be one big obvious difference between enameled cast iron and dentures. Dentures are hardly ever heated to burn food onto them! Six cleaning methods to go unless one happens to work.

Easy to Stop & Hard to Start Again

2011-12-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

Wow it has been a long time! What a messed up year I've had for this blog! Almost totally abandoning this thing, but not quite. I've been thinking about this a whole lot and trying to get back to it. Well here I am, back at last? At least I hope I'm back.

I've been working hard the last couple of weeks trying to stock my stores on eCrater, Etsy and Facebook. The stores have run extremely low without me having much chance to get new items listed. Like I said it has been a messed-up year.

We got kicked out of the house we were renting. In April we were notified that we had 90 days to get out. Well, the landlord first raised the rent for June by phone call and then sent us a letter verifying the rent raise. The letter also said, Oh by the way I want you out by July 15. So we went out looking to buy a house even though we had right of first refusal on the house we were renting. The landlord refused to give us a price he wanted to sell the house for.

Well within a week in April we found a house and put in an offer. The homeowners didn't want to move until July 15th. We got them to move their date to July 8th giving us a week to move. We started looking for storage units but none were available until about the 3rd week in May. We filled the first 10 x 15 unit within a week and tried to get another unit.

We had to wait until mid June for the second 10 x 15 unit and we pretty much filled that one in about another week. We tried to get another unit any size but none were available. We finally got a 10 x 15 unit in an air conditioned building toward the end of June, filling that unit by July 5th. All during this time our landlord kept contacting us and telling us we had to be out sooner!

The landlord's sister a real estate agent called yelling at us that her brother was being too nice to us and didn't have to give us that much time to get out. So the landlord tells us he wants to paint while we are still in the house, he would be there on the 6th of July to start painting, so we told him we would be out on the 1st of July. Because of all the problems with getting storage units we didn't quite make it.

Our landlord shows up on July 4th while we were still finishing up and wanted to know why we weren't out. We finished the next day on the 5th of July. We had moved out and into a cabin with a bunch of our stuff, our 2 cats and our houseplants on the 1st of July. By July 5th when we finished our 2 cars were full of odds and ends and things we couldn't get into our 3 storage units.

Part of the move very obviously involved moving my cast iron, cleaned, not cleaned, items for sale, parts of my collection, all kinds of stuff. I don't know how many pieces, but a lot, way too much, way more than I wanted to move. The cast iron probably easily weighed over half-a-ton.

I never shut down my stores and kept selling things all during the move and when we lived in the cabin. There was only one item that I had a lot of trouble finding that I had sold. We ended up living in the cabin for 15 days and not one of them was any fun. We were cramped for space surrounded by piles of our stuff in a one bedroom cabin with 2 adults, 2 kids and 2 cats. A friend or ours took care of our rabbit so we didn't have to worry about him and his cage taking up a lot of room.

We were supposed to close on the house on the 8th and of course that didn't happen. At the last minute our bank brought up issues that weren't issues. Our loan officer was out with 2 ulcers that needed surgery. The loan officer's backup took the day off for personal issues. We were left just hanging in the dark.

We ended up closing on the 15th of July after missing another date of the 13th. The actual owners of the house were traveling back and forth from NY to ME for the closing. The actual owners wanted to cancel the sale on us, blaming us for the delays after we waited for them for over 3 months because they wanted to throw a farewell party in the house. When we finally signed all the papers the owners refused to turn over the keys to us because they didn't want to be held liable if anything happened!

This turned into a nice little row in the lawyers office. There was me and my wife and our real estate agent, their real estate agent who was on our side even though she was friends with the sellers. They were an elderly couple and their daughter and daughter-in-law (who was living in the house). And stuck in the middle was the poor closer, the lawyer was gone for the weekend and couldn't be reached.

The elderly woman wanted her money right then and there or she wouldn't turn over the keys. Our real estate agent came up with drawing up an agreement that absolved the sellers of all responsibility which we signed so we could get the keys. The real estate agents all said it was the absolute worst closing they had ever been involved with.

Now I had to start moving all of our stuff out of storage and into the house! Week and weeks and weeks of moving stuff. I haven't finished yet we have a lot of stuff still in one storage unit and a lot of boxes here at the house yet to unpack. We are trying to decide were to put things in our new home.

Our old landlord kept our security deposit accusing of of all kinds of stuff. It was unbelievable the things he accused us of. He complained because he had to top off the oil tank because it was $17 below full, what is that 5 gallons of oil from a 275 gallon tank! He hasn't sold the house yet and is renting it again after holding out for five months trying to sell!

Then to top it all off, I had a little spot of basal cell carcinoma. The doctor proceeded to cut out a 4 inch strip from my back with 15 stitches, telling me to do nothing for 4 weeks. The doctor's husband is her partner and he removed the stitches, I thought I was all set at that point but my wife asked the doctor if I needed more time and he said to go another 2 weeks without doing anything.

That is about the point the depression really started to set in, 6 weeks with doing nothing! But now I'm finally back at it! I have a lot of ideas for blogs and a lot of things I promised in the past to write about. So there are many, many things to do. I've added a couple of things to my collection that I can write about. More book reviews, more auction reviews are to come! A blog about Griswold in general, maybe some amusing items about buying cast iron.

Our "Quirky Little "L" Shaped Home" my name for it anyway. I have started calling the "L" "The North Wing" to make it sound like we are living in a mansion. Ha, Ha! My store is eventually going to be in the"L" at the white door you can see.

Great Gloves!

2011-03-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

I was using Playtex HandSaver gloves to clean my cast iron. I bought them at Wal-Mart (XL size I think). The gloves worked in that they protected my hands from the lye used to clean the cast iron but that is all they were good for. Playtex gloves are not good for protecting hands from hot water and they don't allow for very good grip very slippery. They fit quite tight are are difficult to put on and take off. The one positive is that they are fairly cheap.

I would probably still be using the Playtex gloves had they not changed the size. The gloves were made smaller so I could no longer get them on at all. So I cleaned my cast iron for a little while without gloves making my hands extremely sore and raw from the lye. Then I discovered these great gloves made by Towa online.

The GO GREENS™ LP (Liquid Proof) - ActivGrip™ Nitrile Coated 12" Utility Gloves with MicroFinish™ Grip by TOWA Glove are perfect in my opinion. Again I use the XL size and they are easy to put on and take off. These gloves are lined so I can use the hottest water out of my tap and my hands are protected, no more burning. They have a grip surface so they are not slippery at all. Besides these great features, the gloves protect me from the lye and are said to last five times longer than regular rubber gloves.

I have been using the Towa Nitrile gloves for quite a while now and they do seem to last a lot longer than the Playtex gloves. I probably would have gone through 2 or 3 pairs of Playtex gloves by now and the Towa's are still going strong. If there is such a thing as love for a pair of gloves then I think I'm in love. As you can see these have been well used! Here is a link to the gloves on Go Gloves Online where you can get great deals buying multiple pairs. http://www.gloves-online.com/proddetail.php?prod=LCR-566

Griswold #8 Slant Erie Logo Skillet With Wooden Handle

2010-11-02T15:55:00.000-07:00

Another magnificent find! A Griswold #8 slant ERIE logo with a wooden handle! This pan was manufactured between 1906 and 1912. It is in great shape with a bit of marking on the inside cooking surface, but that is to be expected with a 100 year old pan. The bottom is marked "8 GRISWOLD ERIE 726 A".

I have this in my collection. But I'm not really a "collector" so I also have it for sale. If someone wants to buy it for the price I have listed in my stores they are welcome to it. I now have four stores, Etsy, eCrater, InstantFinder and Junkables. The price is $249.95 plus $15.95 shipping which includes insurance and tracking.

Quesadilla in Cast Iron Skillet

2010-10-27T19:55:00.000-07:00

This technically wouldn't be a quesadilla because I don't fold over the tortilla - I use two tortillas. This is a little spicy version, just like I like it.

Spicy Quesadilla

Heat your #9 cast iron skillet slightly above medium on about a 5 1/2 or 6.

Butter one side of 2 soft taco size tortillas - I generally don't use real butter I use Olivio Light.

Grate about half a cup of cheddar cheese.

When skillet is properly heated place first tortilla in skillet butter side down, sprinkle cheese evenly around the tortilla.

Sprinkle a half a teaspoon each around on top of the cheese of refrigerated crushed red peppers and crushed garlic.

Place the second tortilla on top the cheese, red peppers and garlic with the buttered side up.

When the bottom tortilla is sufficiently browned turn the whole thing over with a spatula so that the top tortilla is now on the bottom.

When the new bottom tortilla is browned to the desired color, place it on a plate and cut into serving size pieces.

Eat and Enjoy!

Updates About a Variety of Stuff

2010-10-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

I promised pictures of the Griswold pan I found in the charity shop once cleaned as I subjected you to the dirty pictures in "The Competition Can be Fierce" post. Well the pan turned out to not be worth the time. It is pitted on the bottom and then it turned out to be cracked. I didn't think it was cracked to begin with so maybe I cracked it somehow but I don't think so. I haven't had very good luck with the fully marked Victor pans. This one ended up pitted on the bottom and then cracked while an earlier one which can be seen in post "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! It's Broken!" came in the mail with the handle broken and it was cracked.

In the post "Seasoning Cast Iron - My Way UPDATE" you can read that I've been doing a bit of experimenting with my seasoning techniques to see if there is a better method. I just want to update about the temperature that I use for seasoning 500 degrees. I have now gotten to as low as 425 degrees but don't care for the results. Even at 475 degrees the cast iron looks wet and greasy, not what I'm looking for so I am working back toward 500 degrees. The lower the temperature the wetter and greasier the cast iron looks. The last batch I did was at 480 degrees and it seemed to be what I'm looking for, so I guess that is the lowest I should go with the temperature.

In my post "Molasses as a Rust Remover" I said molasses works as a rust remover and it does. It does a fantastic job if you have a lot of time. You don't necessarily have to dilute the molasses with water as the post states and I found somewhere online. I took molasses straight out of the bottle and coated my very heavily rusted Favorite Piqua griddle and hung it up down in the basement (cellar) for a couple of months, the molasses was starting to get moldy. I then put the pan into my lye bath because I didn't want to scrub all that molasses off, I took the pan out after a couple of days and washed it good and all of the heavy rust was gone.

Update on the Favorite Piqua griddle that I used for the post "Molasses as a Rust Remover". Where the pan had the heaviest rust it was pitted beyond use. Sad to say but I should have put it back on the shelf where I found it but it has been fun using this pan for experiments and worth the conversation. The surface of the griddle is so ugly that I don't see wasting the time on posting pictures of it.

In my very first post "Wow these were snatched up fast!" I had a couple of Griswold pans that were purchased from my store in what I thought was a very fast amount of time. Well those were kind of slow moving as I posted a Griswold slant logo griddle that I thought was kind of ugly because the nickel coating had worn mostly off. I had this griddle sitting out in the garage for over a year until I decided to clean and season it because I was running out of things to clean and season and I didn't have a griddle in my store because I had sold the one I had. The handle design is rare for Griswold. This griddle didn't last an entire day before it was sold! In my stores I've started using a sold lightning bolt for any sale that is less than a week after posting all others I'm using a sold blue ribbon.

Somewhere I mentioned electrolysis as a rust remover. My first attempt at setting up a tank was a miserable failure. I went with all the advice online for setting up the perfect tank and read and researched and whatnot. Well I fiddled and messed with my setup and couldn't get it to work. The problem turned out to be that there was a short in the battery charger and it didn't work. I returned the charger and there weren't any more on the shelf so I got my money back. In the mean time I've spent the money I had for a charger so I have to save up all over again to attempt getting a tank running.

I think that is all the updates. Hope you enjoy them.

Adventures in Cast Iron

2010-10-16T15:51:00.000-07:00

Went to an auction (review later) today that was advertising Griswold and Wagner skillets. They had one of each and four other junk skillets! The Griswold was a small logo #8 late handle and the Wagner was a #10 from the 1960's to 1980's with the size in inches and made in USA on it, nothing special. I was very disappointed having driven for an hour to get there. Deceptive advertising? The one positive for the day was I got to spend time with my youngest daughter (she's 5), we get to go out without mom and big sis and we can act as goofy as we want too.

We left the auction because we didn't like the cast iron and headed back to what we thought was a big yard sale or flea market. All these cars turned down this street and looking down the street we noticed that there were cars parked everywhere along the street. I asked my daughter if she wanted to go to the sale if we had time after the auction and she said she did.

We got to the street and the traffic was horrific. We also noticed it was a church, in fact it was a United Methodist Church. So we were like hey it must be a big church sale going on. We found a parking spot and we headed for the door. We could hear organ music and we thought that was kind of strange for a sale even for a church.

We got to the door and a couple of women came out giving us a strange look. We looked in seeing the minister wearing his long white robe standing by the interior door shaking hands. I said to my daughter this isn't a sale it's a church service, odd for Methodists to have a church service on Saturday. Turning around to leave I saw the hearse and flower vehicle.

We had basically walked right by the hearse to go up to the church door, not noticing it on the way there. I said to my daughter, oh my god lets get out of here this is a funeral. We were both saying hurry up lets get out of here.

When we got back to the parking lot we noticed the two women that had come out of the church giving us the stink eye, they were walking their dog. I'm sure they were giving us the evil eye because of the way I was dressed with my baseball cap, jeans and with my shirt untucked. Who are they to give us a look when they brought their dog to a funeral? I ask you who brings a dog to a funeral? We got out of there as fast as we could blaming each other for ending up at a funeral looking for cast iron.

We ended up at Dunkin' Donuts. On the way home we saw a bald eagle fishing! Bad day for cast iron but fun just the same.

Review of "300 YEARS OF Kitchen Collectibles"

2010-10-12T17:26:00.000-07:00

300 Years of Kitchen Collectibles by Linda Campbell Franklin is an extremely handy book to have if you are into collecting cast iron kitchenware or any other item for the kitchen. I refer to this book as the encyclopedia. At 896 pages long, 300 Years would seem to cover everything!

There are not enough pictures in 300 Years, very few in fact. Mostly what you get is a brief description for most items and maybe a drawing here and there with a few photographs thrown in. While this doesn't seem like much it in fact is quite comprehensive and requires a lot of reading to match things. A tremendous amount of research went into the compilation of this material I'm sure!

This book contains a very nice section on cast iron muffin pans with pictures of most of them. The muffin pan section goes way beyond just Griswold and Wagner pans, which I find extremely helpful! You may run across an odd piece of unmarked cast iron, as I have, when I bought a muffin pan for my wife and then found it was actually worth about $45 and is collectible. The photographs that are included are excellent.

300 Years also includes lots of fraud or reproduction alerts to help the novice collector keep from being taken advantage of. There are also old recipes included along with old advertising stuff, measuring conversions, history, definitions, and a whole host of other things. The bibliography is extremely impressive and can lead you to a lot of other collecting books that might be more in line with your specialty of collecting.

If you are interested in collecting items for the kitchen, then this book is indispensable! If you are a cast iron collector, then you probably will be disappointed in this book, although I use it all the time because it goes beyond the basic Griswold and Wagner collecting. I like this book and recommend it highly.

New Cleaning Tool for Cast Iron

2010-09-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

I have found a great new tool for cleaning my cast iron. A brush! Not just any brush but a Lysol Flexi Brush. I found this brush at Wal-Mart for around $3 in the cleaning supplies section. The brush is meant for the bathroom but who cares, if it works for other applications why not use it. This simple brush has gotten my #10 Lodge skillet from my posts "Why Cast Iron Cookware?" and "Why Older Cast Iron Cookware?" the cleanest it has been in quite some time without hurting the seasoning, the grease and cooked on stuff is gone.

This brush is far superior to the Lodge or Williams-Sonoma brush for cast iron. First of all the Lysol brush is made of plastic not wood like the other brushes so when I want to clean it I can just pop it into the dish washer. The Lysol brush has much stiffer bristles then the Lodge or Williams-Sonoma brushes and will even work on rust. The Lysol brush doesn't have a wooden handle that will break off.

The Lysol Flexi Brush is plastic without a handle, you grip it around the brush. There are slots in the sides of the brush that squeeze together when you grip it, hence the flexi. I have found this flexi system much easier and more comfortable to use than any other brush. I didn't get any hand cramping as I normally do with the other brushes.

I was going to add a link to the brush somewhere on the web but I can't find one. Go to your local Wal-Mart or other retailer that sells Lysol products and get yourself one of these brushes because you won't be disappointed.

Cracked Cast Iron Pans!

2010-09-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

What to do with a cracked cast iron pot or pan? First of all don't use it to cook with! I've been told that a cracked pan can explode. Do I know that a cracked pan can explode, no I don't. I imagine though that it can. What I think would happen is that water or moisture would get into the crack and expand into steam when heated and break the pan apart.

Technically would the pan explode, probably not but if full of oil and whatever you are cooking you could end up with quite a mess. Just as likely to happen is that you would get burned by splattered hot food or oil. So please don't use that cracked pan for safety sake.

If it is an old pan that you adore or has been handed down to you from your grandmother or some other cherished relative and you just can't get rid of it. Hang it on the wall of your kitchen as artwork. Old cast iron is wonderful as a decoration and you can tell people that it is Americana art.

If the pan is not so old, or not so cherished or not even a family heirloom then by all means recycle it. Don't throw it out, it can be recycled and cast iron is the original recycled item dating back hundreds of years. Don't use that cracked pan for cooking but use it for artwork or recycle it.

What is Cast Iron Cookware Made Of?

2010-08-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

There are four basic types of cast iron; white iron, gray iron, ductile iron and malleable iron.

White cast iron is characterized by the prevalence of carbides, impacting; high compressive strength, hardness and good resistance to wear.

Gray cast iron is characterized with graphite in the microstructure, giving; good machinability and good resistance to wear and galling.

Ductile cast iron is gray iron with small amounts of magnesium and cesium which nodulates the graphite, resulting in; high strength and high ductility. Very similar to malleable cast iron but pieces can be cast larger. Ductile cast iron is the newest form of cast iron and is also called nodular cast iron.

Malleable cast iron is white cast iron heat-treated to improve ductility. Malleable cast iron is more like mild steel but is limited in the size that things can be cast because it starts with white cast iron.

Not being an expert in metals or metallurgy I will now try to describe some of these terms.

Ductility is the irons ability to withstand bending or twisting pressure without fracture, while malleability being very similar to ductility is the irons ability to deform when compressed and not fracture. Galling is the irons ability to not form a lumpy surface e.g. when welding. Nodulates refers to the graphite in the iron forming round balls instead of flakes which helps to prevent cracks because of greater distance between balls as opposed to flakes.

What does all this mean? I don't know. But cast iron cookware is made from gray cast iron according to everything I've read and it is fairly easy to obtain this information online. There is no such thing as black iron. But my cookware is black you say. Yes it is, from the carbon formed from the grease or oil used to season it.

The only way to tell what kind of iron is used to make something is to break it. Once the iron item is broken then you look at the break to see what color it is. If the break is white you have white cast iron, if the break is gray you have gray cast iron. Another way I know that cast iron cookware is made of gray cast iron, I've received enough broken pieces to be able to look at enough cast iron cracks to tell you they really are gray.

Now all these so called experts who use the term black iron are just plain wrong. One of the experts who helped to form one of the largest cast iron collecting groups and has written the bible on cast iron collecting, references "Principles of Metal Casting" and "Casting and Forming Process in Manufacturing" in the bibliography of the bible, this guy calls it black iron within the bible. How can this be? I don't think he actually picked up either of the books he cited to make his work appear more impressive.

Another of these experts and co founder of the same large cast iron collectors group is supposedly an educated (he has a doctorate and works for a prestigious university) man, he calls it black iron. This guy even refers to himself as the Black Iron Dude. If he were a black man it might be O.K. to call yourself the Black Iron Dude, but he isn't a black man, he is referring again incorrectly to what cast iron cookware is made of.

Enough ranting on my part but I think you should at least try to get your terminology correct. Get the terminology correct especially if you are a noted national voice or so called expert in the field. If you are out there educating others you should be giving them the correct information.

Seasoning Cast Iron - My Way UPDATE

2010-08-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Seasoning Cast Iron - My Way UPDATE

In my studies of seasoning and cleaning cast iron I have some new information to impart here about what I've learned with a little closer scrutiny of my techniques.

1. I said in my earlier post that you could probably use less time for seasoning than I was using and the answer is yes indeed you can use less time as I'm now down to one hour and getting the same results.

2. If you leave the Crisco on the stove top to melt for too long then you will get a sticky seasoning when you are done and this is not the desirable results at all. So keep the melting temperature of the Crisco low and take it off the burner as soon as it is melted.

3. Do not leave the cast iron for more than 5 minutes before wiping off the excess Crisco as this will cause streaking and again this is not an ideal look for the finished product.

Hope these new suggestions improve your finished showpiece cast iron cookware.

#10 MARIETTA PA Skillet

2010-07-28T17:51:00.000-07:00

My personal collection; those pans I intend to hold onto, while very small so far is also getting quite diverse. I find great beauty in all kinds of cast iron cookware and I don't limit myself to just Griswold. Although Griswold is considered the best(more on that in a later blog), I find it rather snobbish to collect only Griswold but to each his or her own.

Wine drinkers(another snobbish group & I used to be one of them) don't usually limited themselves to just one kind of wine, they try different vineyards, different wineries, different vintages, different grape varieties and so forth. I can just hear the Griswold collector doing the same; why I have Erie pans, diamond logos, slant logos, block logos and even some small logos, I am still looking for a Selden and Griswold pan. But you haven't tried different vineyards or different wineries, you may have achieved different vintages and different grape varieties but you are still lacking.

I found this pan a #10 Marietta PA Skillet and I think it is quite lovely. It has a rather rough cast handle with a "10" on it. The casting of the cooking surface is surprisingly smooth when you consider how rough the handle looks and how rough the bottom is. The bottom reads "MARIETTA PA" at the top and "10 IN" at the bottom. I find this interesting that it is labeled 10 inch because it is nearly 13 inches at the top which is the general measuring place for a pan and it is over 11 1/2 inches at the bottom. The bottom has an inset heat ring, a large gate mark and two points on the bottom and another on the handle that are nice and round and stick out; probably risers for the casting process.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of this pan as much as I enjoy having it in my collection. It really needs to be cleaned, you know what they say the dentist has the worst teeth in town. Probably an old pan as I don't know a lot about Marietta Pa Cast Iron but another indication of age is the one pour spout which is for right handed people.

Tasty & Juicy Low Fat Hamburgers

2010-07-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

There is always a problem with cooking low fat hamburgers; they come out dry and with very little taste! Well this recipe solves those problems, these burgers have plenty of taste and they come out juicy as well!

Tasty & Juicy Low Fat Hamburgers

1 1/4 pounds of 90% lean ground beef (that's right 90% lean)

4 ounces finely chopped fresh white button mushrooms (I suppose a 4 oz can of mushrooms can be used in a pinch)

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Much healthier fat! Not nearly as much fat as using 80% hamburger which is used for most hamburgers)

1 teaspoon refrigerated crushed red peppers (optional but not for me)

Mix it all together will in a large bowl. Form into 5 large patties and grill in a stove top grill pan such as the one pictured from my etsy or ecrater store. I will be listing a larger grill pan in the near future.

Serve with your favorite condiments on a multigrain or whole wheat bun.

Suggestions for toppings: cheese, sprouts, onions, lettuce, tomato, pickles, relish, muffuletta or anything else you can think of.

Griswold #26 Vienna Roll Pan - Pattern #958

2010-07-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

This is a new addition to my collection a Griswold #26 Vienna Roll Pan Pattern #958. These pans were produced from the 1920's to the 1940's. This pan is variation 1 with a rarity of 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. There are only 2 variations of the #26 pan and they both have a book value of $175 to $225 but the #26 is the same as the #6 Vienna Roll Pan. The #6 Vienna Roll Pan has 6 variations with the values ranging from a low of $75 for variation 2 up to $300 for variation 6. The #6 pans were produced from the 1880's to the 1910's and it appears as if the number was changed from 6 to 26 so that it wouldn't be confused with the #6 Gem Pan. The #26 pan is considered somewhat common and rather easy to obtain. The size of the pan is 12 3/8 x 6 3/4 x 1 but it is fairly light at just under 3 pounds. Hope you enjoy looking at this great pan.

Why Older Cast Iron Cookware?

2010-07-07T13:06:00.000-07:00

Why use older cast iron cookware? Why not use new cast iron cookware? Isn't newer cast iron better than the old stuff? Shouldn't the older cast iron cookware just be collected and used for decorations?

Older cast iron cookware is better than the new modern stuff. The older cast iron such as Griswold, Wagner Ware, Favorite Piqua, Wapak and many others was cast smoother than the newer cast iron. The smoother casting is a result of using a higher grade iron ore than is available today. The older pieces were cast by hand not machine which resulted in finer casting because a finer grain sand can be used in molds when hand casting versus machine casting.

The older cast iron cookware is actually lighter than the modern cast iron cookware which would seem to be counter intuitive. An example of the lighter older cast iron is a #10 Griswold slant logo skillet versus a #10 Lodge skillet both of which I have available to weigh. The Griswold weighs in at 4 1/4 pounds versus the Lodge weighing 7 1/2 pounds, quite a significant difference! The side wall is approximately 1/8 of an inch thick on the Griswold versus approximately 3/16 of an inch thick on the Lodge. I wish I could find my micrometer.

If you look at the two pans you can see that the Lodge is noticeably rougher. This roughness translates into the cast iron not being able to hold its seasoning as well and not being as nonstick as the much smoother Griswold. Lodge stopped finishing (making them smooth) their pans in the 90's in order to compete with foreign competitors.

As for collecting old cast iron and not using it, I'm for whatever you might want to do. If it is your personal preference not to use the older cast iron and just stick it up on your wall so be it. They make wonderful decorations but they were meant to be used and cooked with. I currently have one Griswold skillet that I use and one Wagner Ware which I will feature in another post.

Most of the cast iron I use everyday is actually Lodge (see earlier post Why Cast Iron Cookware?). I was given a Lodge loaf pan that I love and as a present I was given a Lodge long handled wok. Woks were not make by the other manufacturers and this wok and the loaf pan while not terribly old are much smoother than the current Lodge pans.

This is the Griswold Slant Logo and it is for sale in my store at Etsy. Although photographed smaller you can still see that it is nice and smooth!

This is the Lodge pan from 2002 and you can plainly see that it is much rougher than the Griswold pan.

Why are Lids - Covers - Toppers so expensive?

2010-07-04T23:16:00.000-07:00

This is a #5 Wagner Ware skillet with matching lid. The underside looks the same as the underside of the Wagner Ware dutch oven below.

Why are lids so expensive? The answers are obvious if you think about it. Not all skillets came with lids. In fact most skillets didn't come with a lid. Over the years as the available lids have become broken; the handle on top of the lid is the weak spot if the lid is dropped, the price of the remaining lids have increased in value. Most times the lids are worth more than the skillet.

I have seen on ebay where sellers separate the lid from the skillet and list both separately. I feel that separating a lid from the skillet and selling them separately is a crime; not a crime that they should be arrested for but just a crime against sensibility. The reason they separate the lid from the skillet and sell them separately is that the lid is worth more by itself than when it is sold with the skillet. Does the lid being worth more by itself than with the skillet make sense; no not at all.

I am always on the lookout for lids. I have a few on my list to complete items that I own and would like to put up for sale. What I have fought doing but is done by a number of top sellers on ebay and elsewhere is sticking any old lid on a chicken fryer or dutch oven and selling it for enormous amounts of money! The temptation is great to sell skillets and dutch ovens with mismatched lids but my conscience wouldn't allow it.

The most common mismatched item is a dutch oven because a dutch oven isn't much good if it doesn't have a lid. Commonly what you see for sale on ebay by top sellers is a Griswold or Wagner dutch oven matched up with a Lodge lid. Why? Again Griswold and Wagner are worth much more money than the Lodge and Lodge lids are readily available (because they are still manufactured and Lodge doesn't put their name on their lids) where Griswold and Wagner lids are not readily available.

These sellers then turn a virtually worthless piece of old cast iron into a valuable piece of cast iron but not really. These unscrupulous sellers then sell to unknowledgeable or uneducated buyers. These poor uneducated buyers then think they have bought an original Griswold or Wagner when in fact they have been duped into buying something worth a lot less than they paid for it. To identify a Lodge lid look at the underside and see the drip points which are called nipples (see earlier post Why Cast Iron?) and much older Lodge or another manufacturer Birmingham Stove and Range (BSR) have inverted nipples.

Below see some items for sale in my store that have lids that actually match the skillet or dutch oven!

This is an unmarked Wagner Ware dutch oven with a Pyrex lid - this is the correct lid for this dutch oven.

This is a Wagner Ware dutch oven with matching lid and a view of the underside of the lid.

This is a Griswold Iron Mountain #8 skillet (deep skillet) with matching lid and a view of the underside of the lid.

Shopping Tips for Vintage/Antique Cast Iron Cookware

2010-06-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

When out shopping for cast iron cookware there are certain things you want to look for. Your treasured find may be covered in grease, dirt and grime as well as rust so you may want to take along gloves or hand wipes. If you are at a big event such as a flea market you may want to take along something to carry your finds in such as a backpack or a wheeled cart. Make sure your back can take the strain or that the wheels on your cart are solid and won't break under the strain of the heavy cast iron.

Expect to pay full retail prices for items that are clean! Items not cleaned you should figure on the price being discounted 20% to 30% or even more from retail pricing. But be careful with pieces that are covered in grease as you never know what is under that grease. I have overpaid a number of times for items covered in grease that were not as perfect as they appeared to be. One nice #9 Griswold block logo skillet covered in grease turned out to be quite pitted on the bottom from use on a coal stove. I can't resell this pan as people look at it and make a inward sucking sound when they see it, so it has become an everyday user in my kitchen, it is a great pan probably the best pan I use.

Take any pan you are interested in and handle it, check it over thoroughly. Feel the pan, is it smooth or rough? Put the pan on a flat surface and grab the sides does it rock back and forth? Knock the pan does it have a nice ring or a thunk? You want the pan to be smooth, sit flat and ring. The ring means it has no cracks but don't be fooled, knock the pan all over with a metal object because knocking on the bottom only you might miss a crack, like I have on a beautiful #9 Erie pan. I knocked the bottom of the Erie pan and it rang like a bell but I later discovered it had a crack near the handle. So I knocked the Erie pan again and it rang like a bell on the bottom but as I knocked around the sides I discovered the thunk from the crack that I could now see because I had cleaned the pan.

One thing that is extremely important to remember is not to get overly excited about a find. Stay calm. Don't let your heart race away with your emotions. Look at any cast iron purchase as a business transaction. Easy words to say but extremely hard to do. I get carried away far too often and make mistakes overpaying or buying damaged goods. So do as I say not as I do because I have a growing pile of broken pieces of cast iron in my garage.

If this sounds like too much, you can always buy from my store! I have already taken the risk on dirty, grimy, greasy and rusty pans and cleaned them to a beautiful condition and offer them for sale at very reasonable prices in my store at Etsy.

The pan that causes the sucking sound from people who see it!

Why Cast Iron Cookware?

2010-06-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Why would anyone want to cook with cast iron? There is much newer technology in cookware. Cast iron is so hard to take care of. Cast iron cookware will scratch or break my glass top stove. On and on the questions and perceived problems of cast iron go.

Well let my say this about cast iron cookware; until I discovered cast iron I didn't know what I was missing. My family was a military family so we moved a lot when I was a kid, all of our cookware was aluminum because moves are based on weight. When I got married I had a set of Farberware and my wife had a set of Revere Ware, after we got married we starting buying All Clad. All Clad I must say far out performed both the Revere Ware and Farberware. The Farberware heats evenly but the handles fall off or break, the Revere Wares big weakness is that it warps and the copper bottoms need special care.

Then I discovered cast iron cookware by accident. On our 6th wedding anniversary the iron anniversary we didn't have much money (the story of our lives) and my wife was at a book signing event for her book "The Orphan Seal" at the Kittery Trading Post. I hadn't bought my wife a gift for our anniversary yet, so here we are at the trading post without much money and I saw this #10 Lodge skillet. Well that was it! And I really splurged and even got the lid to go along with it. You must agree I am quite the romantic!

I'd like to be able to tell you that it was an instant love affair between myself and cast iron but it wasn't. I seasoned the skillet and let it sit around. We moved that great big Lodge around our kitchen for years! We moved with it from Massachusetts to Maryland. My wife couldn't get rid of it you see because it was an anniversary present.

Finally after about 5 years and seasoning the stupid pan and lid at least 3 different times because it would start to rust, I broke down and used it. I can't remember what I made but I remember that it seemed to taste better than it ever had before. That was the start! So now we have quite a collection of pots and pans including a few odds and ends we have cast iron stuff (Lodge, Wagner Ware, Griswold and unmarked pieces that we use all the time), Revere Ware, Farberware and All Clad. We just can't get rid of any of our cookware.

Enough of my personal life, this is supposed to be about cast iron. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers iron to be a healthy food additive. Small amounts of iron come off the cookware into your food as it does from any other metal cookware, other types of cookware may not be as healthy for you as cast iron. I like the thought of my cookware helping to keep me healthy.

Now let me start answering the things I posed in the first paragraph. Things seem to taste better cooked in cast iron and they brown better. Cast iron cookware for the most part (some old cast iron cookware has wooden handles) can be taken from the stove top directly into the oven.

Yes there is much newer technology in cookware but not any better. Cast iron is tried and true and performs as well as any of the modern cookwares. Cast iron cookware retains heat and cooks relatively evenly. Cast iron will last for generations if minimally cared for. Cast iron is easily recycled and is the first ever recycled material.

Cast iron cookware is relatively easy to care for (see my Cast Iron Care post). It is the original non-stick surface so minimal care is required. Keep using it and it won't disappoint you, the more use the better it becomes.

I have used cast iron cookware on 2 different glass stove tops and haven't scratched one yet. I pick up the pan and slide it on only a very small pan surface area as I must admit the Lodge pan is very heavy and difficult to pick up when hot and or full of food with one hand. Older cast iron is much lighter than the newer cast iron. As for breaking the glass store top with cast iron, I'm pretty sure if I drop one of my All Clad pans on the glass top it would break it too.

I hope I've convinced you. This is a picture of the pan and lid that got it all started. Visit my store on the Etsy button below for some great deals in vintage cast iron cookware.

My lid needs some work because it is hardly ever used!

G. F. Filley #10 Gem Pan

2010-06-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest addition to my collection! Another pan I am in love with! This is a G. F. Filley #10 Gem Pan which was manufactured between 1865 and 1900. So if I can do the math correctly it is 110 to 145 years old! Wow just think about that for a moment. The pan is 12 1/4 x 8 3/8 x 3/4 and heavy. The bottom is quite ugly and rough but is part of its charm. If you look closely you can read No 10 and G. F. FILLEY on the bottom. These pans were to make individual sponge cakes with a hollow top for berries and cream. The book value is $150 on this one which I decided I like better than the #11 which books for about $225.

Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! It's Broken!

2010-06-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

Something you never want to see is a very old piece of cast iron that you have bought broken. Even worse is when you never got to enjoy it and it arrived broken. People think cast iron is invincible, maybe it's Iron man's fault. Cast iron is actually very brittle (that is one reason that modern cast iron is so thick) but treated with a little bit of care it will last an extremely long time, generations in fact.

I have received quite a few pieces of cast iron that luckily were not broken, one was a camp dutch oven with feet that tore through the canvas bag it was in, through the bubble wrap and through the box so that the feet were sitting on the ground. I have received a 150 year old piece that was wrapped in minimal bubble wrap sliding around loose in box. My favorite is a beautiful Griswold Victor #8 skillet that I bought which included a handling fee and it was just thrown into the box with nothing to protect it. You judge the results!

To ship cast iron it should be wrapped thoroughly in bubble wrap or newspaper. There should be at least one inch between the cast iron and the box on all sides with that area filled with crumpled newspaper so the cast iron piece does not move.

Molasses as a Rust Remover

2010-06-18T14:41:00.000-07:00

I saw this posted somewhere online that molasses could be used as a rust remover. Seemed pretty incredible to me, in other words I was extremely doubtful. The recipe is 2 parts water to 1 part molasses. Spread it on whatever you want to remove rust from, let it dry to a sticky mess and wait. The theory is that the molasses forms a bacteria or yeast or something that eats the rust.

I tried it on a very rusty Favorite Piqua griddle that I probably shouldn't have bought. But I'm a sucker for hopeless causes, found it in a junk shop marked $40 (Actually couldn't read what the price was and asked the guy at the counter and he told me $40 and I said I would put it back. He said he would see what he could do so I went on shopping and when I got back to the counter he asked me what I would pay for this rusty mess of a griddle (my words) and I foolishly said I could go as high as $10 and that is what he had written on the tag which he had hidden under the griddle.) I bought the griddle for $10 and have had it sitting around for about a year with quarter inch thick rust on it. The griddle has been fun to use for my experiments though.

On the sections with light rust it cleaned up nicely after several weeks of sitting around with the molasses on it. The heavy rust loosened quite a bit and could be scrapped off. This griddle may be salvageable after all. It seems very smooth so far and I'm pleased with how it is coming out. A lot of work to go on it though.

This method actually works! It took quite a while but did a fantastic job of removing the rust. Would I recommend this method, probably not, unless you had only one piece to work on every 2 or 3 months. As for removing all of your rust from multiple items at a time no way. I might use this on my Griswold Rabbit Mold.

I should have taken some before pictures so I could show you what I was dealing with and what I have now. Hindsight is 20/20. More experiments to come.

You Don't Realize Just How Beautiful These Things Can Be Until You Actually Have One In Your Hands

2010-06-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures I've been promising for the No. 240 Turks Head Pan! I haven't had a chance to clean it yet. More pictures once I've cleaned it. This pan is big, 14 5/8 X 10 X 1 1/2. It is heavy, 6 pounds. Most of all it is beautiful even in it's smelly rancid oily uncleaned state.

These pans were manufactured in the 1930's and 40's. They have a book value of $450 to $500. There is only 1 version of this pan and it has a rarity of 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. The book Griswold Muffin Pans says, "It is fairly uncommon but is obtainable." Hope you enjoy the pictures.

For now I am keeping this for my "collection". I guess my collection is this pan along with a #10 Marietta PA Skillet. My other collection consists of pans I cook with every day Lodge, Wagner and yes Griswold.

Every collection has to start somewhere, so in truth I must confess I'm awaiting the arrival of a G. F. Filley #10 Gem Pan. I have my eye on a couple of other pans to add in the near future. I'll let you know. After much thought throughout the day I've had to add 2 other pans that are part of my collection because my family insists that I keep them. I have a Griswold Rabbit Mold and a Griswold Sheep Mold. So suddenly my collection is up to 4 pans with another on the way.

Fran's Awesome Pancakes!

2010-06-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Cook these on a well seasoned cast iron griddle. Makes enough for 2 people because they are really good. Don't be fooled by the whole wheat flour - these pancakes are truly awesome.

Fran's Awesome Pancakes!

2 Cups Whole Wheat Flour - we use Bob's Red Mill

1 Tablespoon Sugar

2 Tablespoons of Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon of Salt

2 Tablespoons of Whole Ground Golden Flaxseed Meal - we use Bob's Red Mill

1 1/4 Cups Milk

2 Large Eggs

2 Tablespoons of Oil - we use canola

1/2 Cup of Unsweetened Applesauce

Mix dry ingredients together in a large bowl - and wet ingredients together in another bowl. Add the dry mix to the wet mix - don't over mix. Place about 1/3 cup of batter per pancake on hot well seasoned and oiled cast iron griddle - medium high heat. Flip when bubbled on top side. Serve when bottom side is nicely browned. Serve with genuine maple syrup and butter (we use Olivio Light). These pancakes will leave you wanting more!

Regular Coke/Cola as a Rust Remover

2010-05-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

My first attempt at removing rust other than hard work scrubbing by hand involves using Coke to do the work for me. It works! Light rust can be removed rather easily using Coke but it takes a while. Heavier rust takes a long, long time but it does work some on the removal of it. There seemed to be no damage at all leaving pans in the Coke for weeks. Using Coke as a rust remover can be rather expensive so it is not something you would probably want to use all the time.

Another reason using Coke for long term rust removal is not a good idea is it goes bad! It goes real bad! Using Coke long term, it smells like the local sewerage treatment plant, so again probably not a good idea for all of your rust removal. Five days later I can still smell the old rotten Coke out in the yard at quite a distance. I figured there would be no environmental impact from dumping the solution but there seems to be a impact on air quality. I didn't want to dump it in the house because it smelled so darn bad. I'm now wondering if Diet Coke won't go bad as badly.

I'll have to try Diet Coke to see if the lack of sugar makes it last longer without the awful smell. I assuming that the brown bubbly froth which was real tough to look at was caused by the sugar in the Regular Coke. Moving the container to dump the Coke out caused the bubbles to burst and that was anything but pleasant.

More experiments to come! I'll write about them when done.

Cast Iron Skillet Meatloaf

2010-05-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

I never really make the same thing twice. I use the same basic recipe and then add different things to it, I may hit on the same combination every once in a while. This recipe is designed for a #10 skillet (not a 10 inch skillet) with a lid. The basics by themselves should make a great meatloaf!

Meatloaf Recipe Basics

4 pounds of ground meat. I usually use 1 pound each of beef, veal, pork and bison but my wife likes me to add chicken and/or turkey

About 12 ounces of bread crumbs - I prefer Progresso Italian Style

4 large eggs - 1 egg per pound of meat

8 ounces of tomato sauce - I prefer Hunt's no salt added

1 heaping tablespoon of crushed garlic

1 teaspoon each of black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder

That's it for the basic ingredients!

-Substitute ingredients

In place of tomato sauce use ketchup or bbq sauce or maple syrup or agave nectar or crushed tomatoes

-Additional ingredients if desired

Add a finely chopped onion or about a half cup of finely chopped mushrooms.

Add 2 tablespoons of whole ground golden flaxseed meal - Bob's Red Mill

Add probably no more than a teaspoon of any of these: parsley, rosemary, thyme, Angostura aromatic bitters (just a few drops), liquid smoke, crushed red pepper (dry or fresh), chili powder, hot sauce

Mix it all together very well! I use a 6 quart pot and my hand. Stuff it into a well seasoned #10 cast iron skillet place lid on it. Cook in 350 degree oven for about an hour - if using chicken or turkey cook for about an hour and a half or until the internal temperature is 180 degrees.

My family (4 of us) usually eats only about 1/4 of this then we cut it up into 3 more pieces - 2 of which we freeze for later use and 1/4 we refrigerate for sandwiches the next couple of days. If you can't tell with all the spicy stuff I've listed my family likes a little spice in things. They don't like as much spice as I do but I'm getting them there. I don't use all of the spicy stuff at the same time but I might use 2 or 3 of them depending on my mood.

Nothing to do With Cast Iron - My Quick & Easy Ice Tea!

2010-05-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

As the title says this has nothing to do with cast iron. This is my first recipe and it is for ice tea. A lot of times I think of cast iron as a summer use item as in camping or outdoor cooking because you don't want to heat up the house! Summers are for ice tea although I drink it all year long as it makes me feel better than not drinking it with my fibromyalgia. Here is my recipe for Quick and Easy Ice Tea that won't cloud up in the refrigerator and then another version that takes a little longer, is stronger and still won't cloud up in fridge.

Quick and Easy Ice Tea That Won't Cloud Up

I use equal amounts of whole leaf Green Tea, Black Tea and Oolong Tea (I use 3 kinds of black tea, 3 kinds of green tea and 1 kind of oolong but use equal amounts) about 12 to 14 heaping tea spoons full for 2 quarts of tea. I put the tea in a filter or disposable tea bag and use hot water out of the tap (as hot as it gets, usually between 120 and 130 degrees). Steep the tea for 5 minutes and serve over ice.

Stronger Quick and Easy Ice Tea That Won't Cloud Up

Same as above but boil 1 quart of the water and use 1 quart out of the tap as hot as it gets. Steep for the 5 minutes and serve over ice.

The Competition Can be Fierce

2010-05-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

I found a fantastically beautiful #9 Victor Griswold skillet yesterday. It was locked up in a case in a store, it is very dirty and ugly and nasty. When I first got my hands on it all I knew it was a Griswold because that was all I could read. I knew it was different from a regular Griswold but wasn't sure how it was different. A woman immediately approached me asking me what kind of pan it was and I made the mistake of telling her that it was a Griswold.

Well this woman was all over me asking me the price and telling me it was too much money to pay for the pan. She kept watching me, hoping I would put the pan down, she even told me she was hoping I'd put the pan down! She asked me what I was going to do with the pan and I told her I was going to clean it and resell it. She got all upset and told me I didn't know what I was doing, that I was wrong and the pan should never be cleaned because all the "flavor" would be lost. I told her that I had no idea what the previous owner had done with the pan and that the price of the pan is at least 20% less when it is covered in grease like it is. She insisted that I was wrong, looking for help from other people in the store. Her husband said he didn't care about cast iron and I told her that the previous owner could have used the pan as a pot to go to the bathroom in on a camping trip for all I knew about it. My pot statement seemed to gross out her teenage son who told me that was disgusting. She left the store after haggling over prices in a charity shop.

I got into a conversation with a nice couple who were asking me questions about cast iron and if their pans were of any value. I had to tell the nice couple that there are so many variables in cast iron, condition, size, manufacturer, logos, that it was impossible to give them a price without seeing what they had. They told me they had a Griswold and a Wagner (which the woman pronounced Vagner because she was German). She actually said is it "Wagner" or "Vagner" because in Germany we pronounce it "Vagner". I told her that was understandable with the composer Wagner which is pronounced Vagner.

I pay for my pan and a book my wife found at the last minute. I go outside the store and the woman from earlier pops up again behind me and tells me she is watching me to see if I put the pan down. I told her that I had paid for the pan and I was going to put it down in my car when I got to it.

The lighting had been so bad in the store I didn't realize that the pan was a Victor until I got outside and could see it in the sunlight. Victor pans were manufactured by Griswold with the fully marked variety (which this one is) manufactured from 1920 to 1935.

It doesn't look like much does it?

Most Beautiful Piece of Cast Iron!

2010-05-07T11:39:00.000-07:00

Although a little rusty this is the most beautiful piece of cast iron I have ever seen! The design and detail that went into making this mold is incredible. The fur on the rabbit is amazing. All of the detail right down to the eyelashes, the musclature even the whiskers are there, obviously make by a truly gifted sculptor. This is the Griswold Rabbit Cake Mold and if a person can love cast iron then I am in love with this fine casting from the 1940's to the 1950's. It just arrived today and I'm so pleased I had to show it off. For other fine pieces of cast iron for sale visit my store by clicking on the etsy button below.

Beautiful Wagner Ware Bacon and Egg Breakfast Skillet

2010-05-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Sold an extremely nice, smooth Wagner Ware Bacon and Egg Skillet in my Etsy store. Take a look and you decide.

Holmes Auction Center

2010-04-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

This is my first in what I hope to be many reviews of auction houses around the country and online probably concentrating on Maine and New England. Holmes Auction Center is located at 605 Middle Rd in Skowhegan, ME, although I don't believe they are in Skowhegan proper, as that address can't be found using online maps. The head auctioneer is Harold S. Holmes, he maintains a moderately paced auction with a very friendly atmosphere.

Food and drink are available on site for a moderate price, leaning toward coffee and muffins in the morning and then to hot dogs and popcorn in the afternoon. Restrooms are available right in the auction hall, they are clean and well maintained. Parking is ample and there is a good size loading area for when you win one of the larger items auctioned. Fairly comfortable seating is provided and the hall is handicap accessible.

There is a buyers premium of 13% discounted to 10% for cash or good check. Master Card and Visa are excepted as well. And of course there is Maine State Sales Tax of 5% unless you have a valid resale certificate. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable and willing to help! Phone questions will be answered in a friendly courteous manner.

This auction attracts a few antique dealers with pockets full of cash so be prepared! Auctions are generally held twice a month on thursdays starting at 11 am. Some good deals can definitely be had but Harold can be persuasive and talk you into items that you might not otherwise buy. In an effort to try to get you to stay until the end of the auction they do 2-$50 drawings at the end.

My only complaints which are minor about Holmes Auction Center is that they don't get pictures up on their website until a few days before the auction and they have no set auction order. Holmes web site is at www.holmesauction.com Check them out online or in person, you won't be disappointed especially if you are new to the auction game.

Griswold Slant Logo Cleaned Up

2010-04-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

Here it is! I promised that I would show off my Slant Logo (SL) once I had it cleaned up. I was going to list it at my etsy store but I think it is sold already! This pan cleaned up beautifully! Have a look and you decide. The inside cooking surface is perfectly smooth!

Seasoning Cast Iron - My Way!

2010-04-16T13:04:00.000-07:00

After cast iron cookware is cleaned (I'll go into cleaning in a future blog) it is time to season it. I have tried numerous methods I have found online and none of them worked properly until I discovered my method by accident! When I say they didn't work properly the seasoning failed regularly (wasn't non-stick) and/or it was that sickly brown color.

How I discovered this method is that I bought a dutch oven at a yard sale, it looked relatively well seasoned although it was that ugly brown seasoned color. I cleaned it up with soap and water then dried it up nicely. I bought the dutch oven to make Bittman's no knead bread and the dutch oven I had, Le Creuset was too big and the knob on top won't withstand the 500 degree temperature required by the recipe. I made my dough, coated the inside of the dutch oven with olive oil and cooked away. When the bread was done the inside of the dutch oven was the most beautiful black color.

Enough of the history, here is my method. I warm the cast iron in the oven at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes. Then take the pan out of the oven and coat it with melted Crisco using a basting brush so I don't get too much Crisco on the pan. Put the pan back in the oven at 350 degrees for another 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and wipe it down with a cloth. Put the pan back in the oven at 500 degrees for an hour and a half (you probably could use less time). When time is up turn off the oven and leave the pan in there to cool down. I double season each pan using this method. The final results should be a nice dry not sticky black color, the appearance will be dull black.

Visit my store and you can actually buy the dutch oven for $39.95 that made the no knead bread and helped me discover the proper way to season cast iron.

Review of "GRISWOLD MUFFIN PANS"

2010-04-12T06:57:00.000-07:00

This book "GRISWOLD MUFFIN PANS," published by Schiffer in 1997, is simply the best book available in cast iron collecting. This book is what all other cast iron cookware collectors' books should aspire to be. Muffin Pans contains so much concise information, set up in a terrific format, with the best photographs I have seen in any cast iron collectors' book.

The author Jon B. Haussler had only five years of cast iron collecting experience when he wrote this book but you would never know that by what he has accomplished. Haussler provides detailed drawings of virtually every variation of Griswold muffin pans ever made. Haussler also provides ways to start collecting muffin pans that won't have you mortgaging your house.

Muffin Pans is 148 pages packed full of information on Griswold pans and the multitude of variations of those pans. Included is a brief history of Griswold muffin pans and some interesting background on collecting. Another interesting chapter that Haussler includes is one about muffin pans made by Griswold for others. The appendix is made up of Griswold pattern numbers.

All right, the book isn't perfect; my criticisms are few but I do have some or I just wouldn't be me. The one major problem I have with this book is the sheer arrogance of the writer a cast iron collector for five years but he declares "It is suggested that the terminology used in this book be considered as the standard among collectors when they refer to the various Griswold muffin pans. This would minimize misunderstandings and provide a clear consistent language to describe Griswold muffin pans since there presently is no standard." Griswold named their pans whatever was popular at the time and probably used different names in different parts of the country in order to sell their products just as a submarine sandwich is called a sub, grinder , torpedo, hoagie, hero and on and on. This arrogance is not Haussler's alone as there are many snobs within the cast iron community who want to be the expert much like wine snobs who tell you about the clarity or floral notes in a wine. Then Haussler invites a major question; why is a #3 Golf Ball looking pan called a Gem Pan and A #9 and a #19 are both called Golf Ball Pans?

Nothing major is wrong with the book itself, it simply isn't more than it purports to be. I wish that other manufacturers were represented, as I constantly pick up the book to check on a Wagner Ware pan and can't find it within the glossy pages. Maybe I'm just too dumb to remember that this wonderful book contains Griswold and Griswold only. Another handy item that should have been added is the height or depth of the pans. I believe that Haussler should have omitted Plett pans, Munk pans and Danish Cake pans as none of them are truly muffin pans as they are generally used on the stove top. Another problem is that aluminum and other finished pans are mentioned very briefly but not priced. Unless Haussler believes that all finishes are priced the same but there is no indication of that or further mention beyond the very end of chapter one. "The Book of "Griswold and Wagner" indicates that the prices are greatly reduced for items that aren't cast iron finished. My last complaint is that the prices are high even though the book was published in 1997. I think human nature is that we all want to believe that what we have is worth more than it probably is. I have done extensive research tracking and cataloging prices on ebay and other sites and I don't necessarily see these prices approached even 13 years after the book was published.

My Store is At:

Basics of Cast Iron Care

2010-04-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

Basic cast iron care

Storage of Cast Iron

The best place to store cast iron is in the oven although that isn't really practical - upside down with the lid off. Most people want to display their cast iron because it is so beautiful which means with the lid on. If storing with the lid on place a paper towel inside to absorb moisture and prevent rust.

Another rust preventive measure is to use a light coating of mineral oil on your cast iron - this also prevents the seasoning from going rancid and smelling bad. Coat once or twice a year with a light coating and wash off with a stiff nylon brush before use.

Cleaning Cast Iron is Generally Considered Easy

Do not place cast iron in the dishwasher as this will remove the seasoning.

Do not immerse cast iron in cold water or place cold water in cast iron when it is hot as it may crack.

Purists insist that cast iron should never be cleaned with a detergent or soap. This is utter nonsense as many commercial kitchens use cast iron and by law have to clean it with soap or detergent. Use a little soap or detergent and clean pan with a stiff nylon brush, this will not ruin the seasoning, simply dry pan over low heat on stovetop and give it a light coating of vegetable oil.

Cleaning stuck-on food - allow pan to cool and rub stuck-on food with salt and a paper towel. Another method of cleaning stuck-on food is to put water in pan and heat it over low heat on stovetop until stuck-on food can be scrubbed off easily with a stiff nylon brush, again dry over low heat and give it a light coating of vegetable oil.

Cooking Precautions When Using Cast Iron

Care should be used when cooking with acids as they can remove the seasoning and possibly pit the pan. Acids include such things as tomatoes, vinegar, pineapple and orange juice. I cook with tomatoes a lot and have found that with proper seasoning I don't have much trouble, I don't let the acids sit in the pan long. I rinse the pan as soon as it cools down or wipe it with a paper towel when still hot and then rinse when it cools. I have met a guy who just leaves his spaghetti sauce in the pan and claims no problems with the seasoning, he has a Griswold and says it seasons right back up for any use he has.

Cast iron cookware gets hot and stays hot for a long time. You will find that you can cook at lower temperatures on the stove top than you would with other cookware. As the saying goes; never use more heat than you necessary.

Cooking utensils should be of plastic or wood so that the cast iron cooking surface does not get damaged.

Finding Cast Iron

2010-04-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

On saturday went to a flee market that is the first saturday of the month. Got a #10 Wagner Ware skillet, a Griswold dutch oven with no lid and 2 muffin pans no names. Then went to a second hand store and got another muffin pan. Today easter sunday went to an auction advertising cast iron and had a look - it was all junk. Drove around a lot went to one of my favorite junk stores - there found a #8 Favorite Piqua skillet, a very large muffin pan and a bread stick pan, no names again. I can clean them all up and sell them.

On the way into the junk store had an interesting little conversation with the owner, typical old tyme Maine person (he's probably well into his 70's). I asked, "How are you doing today sir?"

He replied, "I'm doing good, I have to."

I inquired, "You have to do good?"

He said, "Sure don't you have to do good?"

Then I said, "I guess I do, there are state and federal laws that say I have to."

He said, "Don't they make the rules for you?"

I thought he meant my daughters because they were coming up the stairs at that time so I said, "No they are to young, in a few years I'm sure they will be making rules for me. Doesn't you daughter make rules for you?"

"My daughter, naw, not my daughter," he pondered.

"If not your daughter then who," I asked.

"Everyone else," he said.

I left it at that everyone else makes the rules. I walked away shaking my head.

Review of "The Book of GRISWOLD & WAGNER" 4th edition

2010-04-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

I believe "The Book of Griswold & Wagner" 4th edition is the newest edition of this book, published by Schiffer 1995 with the 4th edition published in 2005. The authors are David G. Smith, also known as "The Pan Man," a collector of muffin pans, and Chuck Wafford, whose specialty is cast iron miniatures and muffin pans. This book is variously called "The Bible" and "The Blue Book" by cast iron collectors or so called experts. The reason the book is called the blue book (the book is blue) is because the authors added another book that is red, so if collectors refer to this as both "The Bible" and "The Blue Book" this must be the old testament or the Hebrew Bible.

Le'ts get straight to the point: while this book may be the best book on the market for Griswold collectors, it leaves a lot to be desired. The photography is adequate — David G. Smith is the photographer — and the color section is much better than the black and white. Well over half of the items I have found, for either Griswold or Wagner, can't be found in either of the books, blue or red. The listed pattern numbers don't always match up to what they claim as far as plated and bare cast iron. There could have been much more done with the pattern numbers, such as including the years they were used or perhaps cross referencing them with prices. The index is poor at best. A skillet chart with pricing, maker's marks, sizes and years made would have been handy. More and better or more accurate information on pieces would have been good. There are pans for which the authors don't list measurements or listing inaccurate measurements. A better job of editing would have caught the fact that Wagner's catalog numbers are in the book twice.

While I understand that Griswold is the gold standard of cast iron collecting, I wish that more space had been dedicated to the other manufacturers in this book. Not only is this the book of Griswold and Wagner but also Favorite, Wapak, and Sidney Hollow Ware. Approximately 226 pages of a 328 page book are dedicated to Griswold, with their poorer cousins—all four of them—getting 102 pages between them. If so much space is dedicated to Griswold, why not cover more of their aluminum products? Even Wagner, which shares the main title, gets only 52 pages of coverage; there should have been more room for Wagner because, after all, they did eventually buy out Griswold.

The authors are biased as far as prices are concerned, the prices listed for toys and miniatures favored by Chuck Wafford and the muffin pans favored by both authors are extremely overpriced, while at the same time the prices for skillets and dutch ovens and such are undervalued by perhaps 20% or more. I have tracked the prices of cast iron items for a few years now and found this bias on the part of the authors.

The authors themselves know that their pricing is biased, by the fact that if you follow David G. Smith's web site The Pan Man, you will notice little things like his claim that the book pricing is based on "pieces in excellent condition" yet he occasionally sells cracked pans at the low end of his book price range. How can a cracked pan be anywhere close to excellent condition? Other pans Mr. Smith sells are above his own pricing. Collectors use this book as gospel for pricing, especially when dealing with inexperienced people. Even the collectors will even claim that the prices are too high in the blue book and that is why I started tracking prices.

By now you must get the impression that I hate this book and or the authors, yet nothing could be farther from the truth. I use this book on almost a daily basis if not multiple times a day and feel that "The Book of Griswold & Wagner" is a must for any collector casual or serious and it just might be the best book on the market for cast iron collecting. However, if a new edition is ever in the works, I'd like to see the items from my "wish list" in this review included.

Found My First Griswold Slant Logo

2010-03-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

I've been restoring cast iron for over a year. I've sold about 20 pieces and accumulated another 75 or so pieces. I have almost half of them on Etsy. But this is my very first Griswold Slant Logo. It is a #10 skillet, more on it later when I get it cleaned up and do a before and after.

Wow these were snatched up fast!

2010-03-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

I posted this Griswold Enameled Square Egg Skillet (the middle picture) on friday and it was purchased on saturday.

I never expected to sell anything so fast but I am getting a lot of hits on my new store. Since that first sale I sold two other pieces (#5 Favorite Piqua Smile Logo Skillet and a #7 Griswold Block Logo Skillet) on sunday that I posted on saturday. Hope it keeps going. Visit my store at: