Author’s note: We do not have any affiliate relationship with Lodge, or any other food or equipment product manufacturer for that matter. There were just too many people arguing out there about something that only a legendary manufacturer can authoritatively address.
The first thing you learn about a new cast iron skillet is the actual value it brings as a game-changer in your own cooking life. The second thing you learn when it comes to buying a cast iron skillet is how big the world of cast iron is, sort of like the James Webb Telescope showing us the universe we never knew.
Merely by chance I followed one of those Interstate 24 East exit signs before Chattanooga that promised “The World’s Largest Cast Iron Skillet.” Suddenly I was lured into South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and inside the Lodge Cast Iron Company’s showroom with products galore, changing my own worldview of cast iron and chalking up a hefty credit card purchase.
My motherlode that day included a 10 1/2-inch skillet and matching lid, and that was the purchase that really did it for me. When I got home, I went on the Lodge website and got a crash course on cast iron history and usage. Suddenly I was following and inventing recipes, using that same skillet frequently on a Big Green Egg and in our kitchen, and then the whole thing snowballed as I joined the Cast Iron Restoration group on Facebook and dabbled in rusty and crusty cast iron foraging and restoring, as a passion and maybe a side hustle.
One minute it’s just a heavy object among all the cookware you’ve piled up over the years, and the next minute you’re a cast iron nerd. It’s quintessentially Americana.
There are so many things about cast iron that many chefs who routinely use it probably do not even realize. We do not have any relationship with Lodge or Big Green Egg any other food or equipment product manufacturer, but I thought I’d share 11 of the things I’ve learned since I got into cast iron, from cooking to collecting to cornbread to cleaning:
1. 🍳
For starters, a black skillet emoji is not something I had ever noticed on my iPhone or laptop, but again it’s just one of those (really) little things you pick up. It’s almost identical to the Lodge logo, so that’s what I identified it with at first.
It might not be cast iron at all, it might be shiny Le Creuset enamel cast iron you hear about people when it comes down to buying a cast iron skillet from Williams-Sonoma, it might be your basic Teflon skillet in the cabinet as a wedding gift long ago. But I’m saying right now that’s a 110-year-old cast iron beauty passed down from great, great grandparents, cooking survivor eggs through two world wars and the Great Depression, used on camping trips in the 1980s then neglected in the ’90s, traded for a Dutch Oven, almost sold by mistake at a garage sale in 2000, then suddenly re-appreciated a few years ago when your neighbor built an e-tank and offered to remove all the rust and reseason it and allow you to bring back its glory with a delicious fried egg.
2. Griswold
To me, “Griswold” always meant either Clark and his family doing dumb stuff in the “Vacation” movies, or maybe the Griswold vs. Supreme Court landmark 1965 privacy ruling that made it legal for a married couple to buy and use contraceptives.
Turns out Griswold is also the name in cast iron if you’re a collector, the Rolls Royce of the stuff a century ago. If you come across any Griswold cast iron product at a yard sale or thrift shop, make an offer and ask questions later.
They stopped making these a long time ago, but it’s usually worth a lot, especially after being cleaned up and oiled. People love the famous Griswold cross logo on the back side, and the value of their products will just keep rising due to scarcity.
3. Cornbreadmania Part 1
During that aforementioned trip to the Lodge showroom in the home of the nation’s biggest annual cornbread festival, I bought a bunch of bags of Traditional or Southern or Sweet cornbread mix. Then the first thing we did was whip up a batch of Skillet Cornbread on the Large Big Green Egg smoker.
I realized quickly that following a recipe for this only gets you so far, because a kamado ceramic cooker like the BGE or Kamado Joe has its own temperature control issues that you have to master first, so after experimenting with a few batches, my wife and I pulled off a clean match of cornbread skillet heaven that made us happy for days. Here are 13 steps to perfect skillet cornbread on a Big Green Egg.
4. Cornbreadmania Part 2
After I began advertising locally when looking into buying a cast iron skillet and restoring vintage cast iron cookware using a lye bath and/or an electrolysis tank (e tank), the first person to come forward had a few cornbread pans.
She sent me photos, and using a brand chart from the Facebook group I was able to quickly determine that she had a Griswold No. 273 Crispy Corn Stick Pan and a Wagner Ware Cornbread Pan. You can tell by the shape of the handle and how many holes, plus the telltale direction of the cobs. When I asked if she’d like to sell them, she replied: “Hmmm idk they were my grandmothers! I just can’t manage to have the cornbread come out.”
I mention that here because it’s indicative of what I’ve learned since getting into cast iron. It’s a real pride and passion, and we should encourage people like her to keep passing down the tradition. It’s all about stripping and seasoning, and in this case I advised her how to give it a lye bath, and offered to do it for her at a price.
It’s one pound of lye crystals per five gallons of water. It will remove crud and anything but rust, which requires an e-tank to do that right. The catch here is that cornbread pans are a pain to restore, because each kernel in the mold is an area that needs to be scrubbed. Cornbread cast iron pans are a real piece of Americana — just imagine all the families who have eaten golden cornbread that looks like corn!
5. Cleanup is Easy as 1-2-3
In the world of cast iron, there is cleanup and then there is cleanup.
The first version is the simple process that follows your cooking process, removing the foodstuff that you and your family have just enjoyed and then reseasoning and storing. The second version is restoration itself so that it’s clean like it was first bought, and that involves some chemistry and scrubbing and some grapeseed oil for good measure. The first part is probably the only one you have to worry about, and we’ve presented three easy steps to clean your cast iron pan.
The good news is, you can use dish soap if you want to, so throw out that old-fashioned theory of “no soap” that dates back to a time when soap actually included lye. I have a parent in Indiana who has a stash of old cast iron, and he told me recently that you can’t use soap on it; I had to break the news.
6. Shakshuka
It’s no secret that Mediterranean diets equal longevity, so we’re trying to mix in more of it and here’s one of our favorite dishes on the cast iron skillet.
We followed The New York Times recipe for this one, but you can substitute your own ingredients and customize it the way your family likes it. Hundreds of comments on that NYT recipe offered great ideas for variations, and others come from just playing with your refrigerator and pantry.
The caramelized drippings are always great to drizzle on and mop up with some naan. I love to put the matching No. 10 lid on this dish after we remove our own individual servings, because it keeps it perfectly warm and tight.
7. Trust in Rust
If I see a rusty cast iron pan or cast iron Dutch Oven, I’m even more interested in it than if it’s clean. It means I can go to work and see the actual chemical process of restoration where the rusty build up bubbles to the surface of the e-tank water, and when you pull it out you are on your way toward shiny and new. So where others see rust as junky and bad, I see it as potential.
8. Salmon Stove to Broil
Last night I put a large salmon filet onto the hot skillet with a few tablespoons of canola oil, and let it sear for a few minutes. I added Old Bay Seasoning and juice from half a lemon, then tossed in four grape tomatoes and lemon slices.
I flipped it once and cooked that for another minute or two, then put a handle holder on the skillet and placed it into an oven that was preheated at Broil. The salmon then cooked for a good 10 minutes, until it flaked nicely with a fork, and then I removed it, cut it into two pieces, and served one of them over a bed of yellow rice.
I drizzled and scraped the bottom of the skillet onto the top of the dish to add moisture and flavor. The other half of the salmon was for me and Bear to split the next day. This process has never failed, and it’s pretty much the same procedure I follow to sear and broil a steak from time to time.
9. Things You Don’t Want in Cast Iron
There are some things you don’t want in a cast iron pan, especially if you are a collector spending money.
No cracks, because it’s the start of something bad. Turn it upside down and slap the bottom, and you should hear a nice, bright ring — unlikely if it’s cracked. You don’t want wobbling or spinning, which indicate some degree of warping. Tap the handle and see if it wobbles, and then tap the side of the handle to try to give it a spin and see if it just stays put, which is ideal. If it wobbles or spins, you can still use it just fine on a typical stove burner and in the oven or grill, but they don’t work on a sealed cooktop stove.
You don’t want a sparkly pan that indicates high crystallization and bad iron, or a rough and bumpy exterior texture from poor production, and you don’t want splotchy slag on the interior that’s indicative of terrible iron processing where they didn’t bother to strain out the slag. Or pits, which are the pits.
10. Stove to Table
Colorful enamel cast iron pans are well-known for this benefit, but I like to slide the black cast iron skillet right onto the center of our round table as well.
Sit it on a thick hot pad or a trivet, and this way everyone experiences the same beauty of that dish and the way it feels coming out of the skillet. We let everyone serve for themselves. A round table is definitely more practical for doing this, so everyone can reach it safely. Cast iron skillets become a dinner conversation topic as people recall memories of how they were used growing up.
11. Cast Iron Even Works with Tacos
Today I went to an antique shop and discovered a Griswold No. 22 Corn Bread Pan with the “ERIE PENN USA” marking, 954 H. It’s a mold for 11 cornbread sticks, which is a pretty cool idea in itself. The tag on it said $150 but I got it for $95. That’s a win when buying a cast iron skillet!
It’s a 1920s work of art, and I have to credit the folks at Cast & Clara Bell for coming up with the best usage idea in the promo copy with their own Griswold 22s. They said to use it for Taco Tuesday, as the 11 hollow tubes allow you to stand up crunchy taco shells while you add the fixins. Genius!
And that’s why I decided on 11 things here, as a tribute to that beautiful pan hanging on the wall for who knows how long in a musty corner of an antique shop.
It was made with pride in northern Pennsylvania by the Great Lakes in the thick of iron and steelwork manufacturing, in the blue-collar work ethos that made America, and it was built to last.
Those 11 cornbread sticks or whatever bread sticks brought joy to countless meals over these last 100 years since it was forged and sold, and I couldn’t just let it hang there anymore. It will be around long after I’m gone, too, because cast iron is forever and us pan fans are here to enjoy it and pass it on. When you’re buying a cast iron skillet, you could also be buying an heirloom that will continue to be passed along.
