Stupidly good deal on cast iron pans

Martha said:
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This is a Wagner we use camping. Even though it looks scummy as we cook, it cleans up nice and easy. The only PITA is the smoke on the outside.
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I think I remember this photo from your West Texas trip a few years back. The dish really looks good, and the warm dry earth looks pretty nice too.

Ha
 
Looks good, Martha. Reminds me of this picture.

DutchOven.jpg

Got this Dutch oven for $3.
 
windsurf said:
Here's what I cooked in mine a couple of hours ago for Sunday brunch: I cooked down 6 slices of rubbed bacon (4 for me, limp, and two, very crisp, for the Missus). Set that aside and poured off most of the grease. Sauteed part of a purple onion and then wilted some spinach leaves and tossed in a handfgul of mushrooms. Pooured 6 beaten eggs over it and cooked it on low heat under a lid for a couple of minutes. Spread grated cheddar on top, replaced the lid until it raised and firmed up. .
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This sounds so good .I'm going to try it next Sunday !
 
That is a dish frequently referred to as "Joe's Special". It was allegedly invented in San Francisco in the 1920's by a north beach diner (I'm guessing "Joe's") and was originally a traditional italian frittata created to serve area musicians when they finished playing for the night.

Garlic, 3/4 cup of parmesan cheese grated and mixed with the egg, and a healthy dose of hot sauce over the top of it are also common ingredients, as is some combination of basil, marjoram, oregano and/or nutmeg.

I remember the first time I saw it on a menu, in a breakfast dive in san jose back in the 80's. I thought "That sounds completely awful. I'm getting it!".
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
That is a dish frequently referred to as "Joe's Special". It was allegedly invented in San Francisco in the 1920's by a north beach diner (I'm guessing "Joe's") and was originally a traditional italian frittata created to serve area musicians when they finished playing for the night.
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The restaurant was called Original Joe's. There was also an Original Joe's in San Jose that I wouldn't describe as a breakfast dive. Broiler out at the counter, very entertaining crew of chefs making Joe's Special and many Italian saute dishes, veal picatta, etc. This may be a different place than the one where you had the dish. I think I was told that there was no ownership connection between the two restaurants, at least by the mid-70s.

I have made it ever since I had it is the Bay Area in the early 70s; it was my kids favorite late breakfast.

Very satisfying meal. I use plenty of oregano and freshly ground cumin.
 
Ha, thats right...I've eaten at the original joes in san jose. Good food and they had this weird thing where they packed up your leftovers at the table by holding your dish in one hand and a box in the other and just tipped your dish and gave it a vigorous shake to slide the food into the box. Done with great flourish and always so that everything went into the box all at once. Strange, yet amusing.

The place I first had this concoction was right off of route 101, between the Great America exit and the one for the airport. It was sort of Denny's-ish but just a local small chain. I think that almost everyone in the south bay serves this particular dish.

Another odd local dish (and I think I brought this one up before) is the Hangtown Fry. I live just a few miles from the original "Hangtown" (Placerville) so this is pretty common on the breakfast menu around here. Allegedly its either the result of a gold miner who had made a big strike and walking into the Blue Bell, wanted something made with the two most expensive things he could think of...bacon, eggs and oysters. A minor collection of folks think it was the last meal requested by someone due to be hung, for the same approximate reasons.

This recipe comes from the Blue Bell Cafe (no longer in business) which was on Placerville's Main Street made this version of the Hangtown Fry for many years.

1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon milk
Breading mixture of cracker crumbs and bread crumbs
Vegetable Oil
3 oysters
2 slices bacon
2 eggs

In a small bowl, beat egg with the milk.

Dip the oysters in egg/milk mixture and then breading. Pan-fry until three-fourths cooked. While doing this, fry the bacon in another skillet until just before it becomes crisp.

Beat the eggs lightly. Place the bacon like railroad tracks off-center in a frying pan, pour a bit of the egg over the bacon. Place the oysters on bacon and pour the remaining eggs over. Cook and then fold the omelets over.

Makes 1 serving.
 
My Calphalon totally expensive pots and pans burned until I could no longer get the marks off and threw the set away. My mother--who is 89 now--cooked with iron skillets for years, so I am sticking with that. I'll take my chances on getting too much iron in my system.
What is the best and cheapest way to buy Griswold iron skillets and pans? Ebay? I am interested in that when I set up house again.:confused:
 
I looked at eBay and the Griswold and Wagner pans are very expensive and sold as collector items because they are old. You are better off hitting the rummage sales and local junk/antique shops. You do not necessarily need those brands. We have a fairly large collection of iron pots and pans inherited from both sides of the family. The unbranded ones that are similar, with nice smooth iron interiors and exteriors, work just as well as our Griswolds and Wagners. Also, when hunting, set them down on a flat surface to be sure the pan isn't warped.

We have so many of these pans that I thought about mailing a few to CFB just to irritate his UPS man.
 
YAY!

I noticed yesterday that some of the homes around the corner from me have no mailboxes down at the street level, but have mail slots that look to be in the passageway between their garage and house.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get the official change to move my mailbox up to my front door... :)

I got the good news today that not only are my pans shipping in two shipments, one for the 8" and one for the 12", but it appears that amazon may be shipping the 12" pans separately!!!

I hope they didnt run out... :(

Last month I picked up some of the Lodge enameled cast iron pans (like the le creuset only 1/5th the price). Not bad. I really like being able to start something on the stove and move it to the oven to finish it. Cost me around $110 total for 5 and 3 quart dutch ovens and an 11" skillet. Walmart and Target seem to carry these as well, but getting them on sale at amazon and getting the USPS guy to bring them up to my house was worth it.

I noticed that Marshalls, Ross Dress For Less and TJ Maxx all carry cast iron and enameled pans of various makes at good prices. Marshalls had the best selection. I saw some Le Creuset, Lodge and Tramontina, all of which have good reputations.
 
I noticed yesterday that some of the homes around the corner from me have no mailboxes down at the street level, but have mail slots that look to be in the passageway between their garage and house.
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Around here, the mailbox the post office will deliver to is on the street, at convenient height for the mail carrier to use while still seated in the truck. However, anyone who already had mail delivery BEFORE the new regs, got grandfathered in and they have delivery to the house or mailslot or whatever. New construction seems to have clustered mailboxes in a community location, so I'm guessing even the individual boxes are now grandfathered in. I've never heard of anyone getting their service "upgraded" from the plan in place when the house was built. Would be interested to learn more if you find that is possible.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
YAY!

I noticed yesterday that some of the homes around the corner from me have no mailboxes down at the street level, but have mail slots that look to be in the passageway between their garage and house.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to get the official change to move my mailbox up to my front door... :)

I got the good news today that not only are my pans shipping in two shipments, one for the 8" and one for the 12", but it appears that amazon may be shipping the 12" pans separately!!!

I hope they didnt run out... :(

Last month I picked up some of the Lodge enameled cast iron pans (like the le creuset only 1/5th the price). Not bad. I really like being able to start something on the stove and move it to the oven to finish it. Cost me around $110 total for 5 and 3 quart dutch ovens and an 11" skillet. Walmart and Target seem to carry these as well, but getting them on sale at amazon and getting the USPS guy to bring them up to my house was worth it.

I noticed that Marshalls, Ross Dress For Less and TJ Maxx all carry cast iron and enameled pans of various makes at good prices. Marshalls had the best selection. I saw some Le Creuset, Lodge and Tramontina, all of which have good reputations.
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I'm always scoping my tjmaxx/marshalls etc for their cast iron selection - anyone have an idea if the non-creusets hold up as long? i bought my mom one so i guess i will let you know in 10 years or so, there's a huge price difference so i thought i would give the copy cat a try before the original...
 
oh, and anyone have the double burner cast iron pans? it's one of my favorite pans! only draw back is the splatter can spread pretty quickly since there isn't a wall...
 
Cooks magazine did a test-thingamabob a month or two ago and said they found both the lodge and the tramontina to be very good and in the same league as the le creuset. They gave the nod to the tramontina dutch oven because it was a half quart larger and six bucks cheaper than the lodge (39 and 45).

I saw a heck of a lot of bad reviews on the Innova's, which I also saw at one of the cheapo places like Marshalls. Seems they lose chunks of their enamel at times and the company tries to pretend you dont exist when you call them about the warranty.

Saw some good warranty replacement stuff on the lodge and tramontinas.

Some of the le creuset use a 4 layer enamel process, a lot of the newer and less expensive le creuset use a 2 layer process, as do all of the less expensive pots.

That basically means if you chip a 2 layer, its more likely to rust in that spot as you're more likely to breach the enamel.

Unless you're throwing your pans around, not much of a worry.

Plus, if I chipped or scratched a $200 pan, I'd be pissed. A $39 pan? So what!
 
Al, its a simple function...the thin pan isnt any less hot, theres just less of it to hold and release heat to the cold food you put in it.
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Well, here's my thinking, let me know if it's wrong. The pan heats up until it reaches an equilibrium: when it's losing the same amount of heat as the flame is adding. I figure that that equilibrium temperature will be higher for a heavier pan.
 
TromboneAl said:
Well, here's my thinking, let me know if it's wrong. The pan heats up until it reaches an equilibrium: when it's losing the same amount of heat as the flame is adding. I figure that that equilibrium temperature will be higher for a heavier pan.
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I doubt this is much of an issue in normal cooking. The food and or the pan would burn up long before a true equilibrium were reached.

The more relevant factor is evenness of heating, and buffering. Get a good heavy cast iron pan up to medium cooking heat and drop in your 1# T-bone. The mass of the meat is going to cool down the surface of the pan, but not nearly so much as it would on a thinner pan, or a pan made from something with a lower specific heat than iron. It is similar to the difference between dropping a pound of frozen vegetables into 3 quarts of boiling water, vs. 1 cup of boiling water.

Ha
 
hey cfb - what are you going to do with all those pans? are you just hoarding? can't pass up a good deal? ;)
 
Hey, you cant go and answer something from way up there. By the time I went back to see what the question was again, and got back down here, I had to go back up and read it a second time. :p

I think a thick pan WILL pick up and hold more heat than a thin one, but the key here (I think) is continuous usable heat. Thick pan can pick up, hold, and discharge more of that high heat for longer.

Of course, setting food directly onto the heat source and skipping the pan works out great too.

For a good example, put some tin foil in the oven. Take it out with your bare hands. After a second or so, its not hot anymore to the touch. Try that with a sheet pan. Or better still, DONT! It'll stay hot in your hand for a lot longer. You can even touch foil while its in the oven in contact with hot food and its not going to burn you. All it can do is conduct, its not able to store that much heat on its own.

Similar with a pan...stick a steak in a thick heavy pan, and the pans thermal absorption ability can take a lot more discharge to the meat before cooling off, in the meanwhile the heat source can recharge it. Thin pan loses its heat almost immediately and then you've got a cool spot in the pan until the heat source gets it AND the food thats sitting on it back up to temp.

Given that it might have taken 5-10 minutes to get the pan up to its original temp, the thermal recharge situation becomes evident.

I received my first lot of four 12" pans the day before yesterday. Bad packaging. They just threw the pan into a large flat box, tossed in a twisted up length of brown paper and taped it up. Pan was probably banging around in there pretty good, but no broken stuff. On looking at one-star amazon reviews, seems they ship them all this way and some of them arrive busted. Stupid.

I did a little additional seasoning in the oven and then upside down on the grill. Just made chicken-sundried tomato sausages and scrambled eggs in it and its as nonstick as teflon pans. Beautiful.

Pan looks identical to the ones pictured above.

Very pleased with my $7.50 pans...now i'm just waiting for the $6 8" ones... :)
 
Wow -- this forum is so amazing. I had no idea cast iron was still so popular and useful! I always thought cast iron was a holdover from the 19th century! We actually need a frying pan or two, so I will look at some cast iron pans. Are the pans on the amazon link good quality? I see the stupidly cheap pan is now $15 -- is that still a good deal? How does one go about properly seasoning the pan? Does that need to be done before cooking in the pan??
 
Niko said:
...How does one go about properly seasoning the pan? Does that need to be done before cooking in the pan??
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Try this from the Griswold collector's site: Griswold & Cast Iron Cookware Association

Looks pretty plain vanilla to me - there are lots of different oils to choose from that all have different temperatures at which they burn. Do heed the "too much oil is a bad thing" part.
 
I've been using my cast iron skillet more since reading this thread (just had an apple pancake) and it really is better. Good summary, CFB.

We also have one of those two-burner griddles. My conclusion on that is that it's not really worth it. Ideally the entire thing would get hot enough to cook on, but I end up cooking only on the areas directly over the burners. Sure, it's fun, and you feel a little like a short order cook at Joe's Diner, but it's easier just to use two skillets or one skillet twice as long. I use it once every couple of years.
 
After reading this thread and several other websites on cast iron, I went out and picked up a couple of pieces. This morning I'll be making pancakes and bacon, and this afternoon it's cornbread! This will be my first experience with cast iron!
 
The ER Forum: Improving lives, one hunk of metal at a time.
 
For the cornbread, snoop around until you find a recipe that has you adding the batter to the pan after the pan has been preheated in the oven. Puts a heck of a nice crispy crust on the cornbread.

Unless of course you're one of the savages that likes tender corn bread.

Excepting a 15lb solid copper pan, its tough to beat a cast iron frying pan especially for deep frying and transition dishes that you sear on the cooktop and finish in the oven. They fell from favor because they're a little more work to maintain and clean. The enameled versions solve the cleaning and maintenance problems, but they shouldnt be used over very high heat or on a grill, and they're expensive and can chip.
 
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