The cast iron thread

[MikeG]

My family had a construction company in one of the more 'interesting' parts of town. Cinderblock 'houses' with furniture on the porch, shopping carts in the yard, etc......

A colorful story about the neighborhood was that one of the gentleman in the neighborhood, after returning from an evening's entertainment with his buddies, got into some sort of intellectual disagreement with his woman.... and broke a cast iron skillet over her head.

She retaliated by stabbing him to death with a butcher knife. Ruled justifiable......

Don't try that at home kids.......

 

[Shran]

Since my last post I've picked up a few new pieces, most not worth mentioning but there were a couple cool ones in the mix. My future mother in law was cleaning out her kitchen and gave us a bunch of stuff... which included a couple #8 skillets, a Lodge grill pan, Lodge roast spacer thing, and this stupid cute little dutch oven that I made a cobbler in tonight. I think it's a 2 quart one, it's tiny. It was absolutely disgusting and needed a good cleaning so I left it in the coals of my fire pit this evening and the layer of nasty shit burned off.

Cobbler recipe is:

1 can pie filling (apple, in this case)
1 box yellow cake mix
1 stick of butter, sliced 1/8" thick pieces

Pie filling goes on the bottom, dry cake mix on top of that in a flat layer, slices of butter on top of the cake mix. Bake until the top looks crispy - if you're using charcoal or whatever, I pile coals on the top first for 10 minutes or so, then put some under the dutch oven... you want the top to cook before the bottom burns.

I also found this weird round griddle thing. It has a wire bail handle, and is only marked "12" on the bottom so I'm not sure who made it. It's in really nice shape... I need to season it better, I burned tortillas on it. Might end up being my camping griddle.

 

[Roert42]

Looks like it’s supposed to be a lid that you can also cook on.

I was looking for some larger pots/Dutch ovens recently and I found most of them had something similar included.

 

[Dirtman]

Fun fact, a Dutch oven is when you fart under the sheets and then trap someone else under said sheets with said fart. The Dutch adapted this technology for cooking...

 

[Shran]

Looks like it’s supposed to be a lid that you can also cook on.

I was looking for some larger pots/Dutch ovens recently and I found most of them had something similar included.

Could be. Not much info on them out there. Griswold, Wapak, Wagner and obviously others made them and they're being called griddles on eBay, but that means nothing. A lot of cast iron cookware is multi purpose... My chicken fryer lid is a lid, skillet and dutch oven top all in one, for example.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Fun fact, a Dutch oven is when you fart under the sheets and then trap someone else under said sheets with said fart. The Dutch adapted this technology for cooking...

Another fun fact: some idiot actually smothered his newly married bride by creating this dutch oven and not letting her out of it.

google the story... it happened a few years ago

AJ

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Could be. Not much info on them out there. Griswold, Wapak, Wagner and obviously others made them and they're being called griddles on eBay, but that means nothing. A lot of cast iron cookware is multi purpose... My chicken fryer lid is a lid, skillet and dutch oven top all in one, for example.

I am not overly familiar with wood stoves but is the ring on the bottom a fire ring to fit in the hole on a stove?

My grandmother had a woodstove in the kitchen up until the mid to late 90's, it was a little one used more for heat than anything. I remember the holes in the top but I don't remember her ever cooking on it. Something like this but old:

 

[Shran]

My parents have an ancient wood cookstove like that. They used to use it for heat in the kitchen mostly and heating water... not so much for cooking... I actually don't remember them cooking very much when I was a kid. Maybe I was a breatharian or something... anyway...

A lot of older cast iron skillets in particular have what's called a heat ring on the bottom. The purpose of it is to center the pan inside of one of those round hole (aka stove eyes.) You'd remove the eye lid and set the skillet in its place. Newer cast iron may or may not have heat rings. They serve no purpose on a modern gas or electric stove, but I kinda like them because they will usually allow a pan to sit flat even if the bottom is a little warped.

This griddle thing doesn't really have that. The edges are angled, the rim sits on a counter but the bottom doesn't touch. It's very awkward to use on my square stove grates... I imagine it would work better on an electric stove, maybe that's what it's designed for. I found a reference from the 1800's to these, it still doesn't show it in use, so the mystery continues.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Actually I think they are kind of a buzzkill for a glass top stove. Never actually tried them but you won't get much if any contact with the "burner"

Yeah, heat rings. For some reason I was thinking headgasket terms with fire ring.

 

[97RangerXLT]

Actually I think they are kind of a buzzkill for a glass top stove. Never actually tried them but you won't get much if any contact with the "burner"

Yeah, heat rings. For some reason I was thinking headgasket terms with fire ring.

None of our three cast iron skillets have the heat ring, but we do have a glass top stove. my biggest worry is that one of us is going to drop one of the skillets on the cooktop and that will be it... they do cook well on the glass stove though.

AJ

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

None of our three cast iron skillets have the heat ring, but we do have a glass top stove. my biggest worry is that one of us is going to drop one of the skillets on the cooktop and that will be it... they do cook well on the glass stove though.

AJ

Mine is kinda hugish... but I love the size of it. Just cooked three pork chops in it tonight.

 

[JohnnyO]

Fun fact, a Dutch oven is when you fart under the sheets and then trap someone else under said sheets with said fart. The Dutch adapted this technology for cooking...

I've read that that's why singer Ethel Merman divorced actor Ernest Borgnine back in the 50's.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

My wife swiped my newest one for a cast iron apple pie recipe she found for a get together tomorrow night.

The house smells so good and it is off limits...

 

[Curious Hound]

She even made an apple shaped vent on top. Nice.

 

[Uncle Gump]

My mother bought me an 8 inch Lodge skillet a couple years ago. I just started using it within the last 6 months. It's been a son of a gun to get a good season on it. It's getting better but still a work in progress. I thought it was too small but for the wife and I it's actually a pretty good size.