Griswold Cast Iron.......score!

annie1992

10 years ago

Yes, I've been shopping. Ann T would be proud of me. (grin).

We have a local on-line auction, people take items to the auction on consignment, kind of like a second hand store. You can go to the store and look at everything that's going up for auction, and on the auction date, bid on line. If you win, you go to the store, pay for your items and pick them up. They've sold everything from an airplane to old silverware, LOL, and they had this nice Griswold cast iron pan.

It was in great shape, is amazingly light for a pan that size, and the final winning price was less than $30. I was happy. I picked it up this morning and brought it home to season it. A liberal coating of Crisco and into a 350F oven for several hours....

Truthfully, I'm not even sure it needed seasoning, but I scrubbed it well (hey, it's second hand, you know?) and did it anyway.

Now I'm bidding on a Wagner Ware cast iron teapot. It's up to $3, LOL, so we'll see.

Annie

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Comments (13)

dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
10 years ago
So what is the size?

Looks like in excellent condition.

dcarch
dedtired
10 years ago
So cool. My mom has some cast iron skillets that were her grandmother's. I intend to get them some day! The finish on them is kind of velvety from so many years of use. Not sure if they are Griswold. I will check.
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First, NOT an expert on the stuff but LOVE cast iron... collection is always growing. Got reunited with it a few years ago when I found a Lodge, Wagner, and Griswold at a yard sale for $1 each. TOTALLY crusty... I took quick & dirty (lazy) route and stripped off all the crud with spray oven cleaner... summer-time, so no self-cleaning cycle on oven. Griswold if my favorite with surface like glass that is virtually non-stick. I'm a yard sale, thrift store and flea market junkie, so have to recommend looking for pieces there. Would recomment looking for pieces that look "dirty"... sign that probably older and well used in their day. CI is pretty much indestructible and comes back to original glory very easily.
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Hi Robin, Just saw your posting and responses and wanted to add some info. American Brass & Iorn as noted used recycled iron in their foundry for years. This iron included old auto engines, transmission and differential cases, etc. that of course previously had oil in them. Todays American foundry practices do not use those types of reclaimed metals to manufacture food processing materials such as cast iron cookware to my knowledge. This is a hot and sensitive issue and current question and concern about imported cast iron especially from China. If your pan were mine I would be cautious of its use until the material content could be confirmed. AB&I also used different logos on the bottom of their pans. Most if not all pans were marked with the American Cookware logo. I had a pan and have seen others with a covered wagon on the bottom, and have seen boats and ships, all depicting americana. Your pan is unusual because of its size, large pans are hard to find. I also agree and disagree with the link to Old Jack's seasoning recipe and cleaning technique. I deal in cast iron on ebay and clean 200 or so pieces a year using the electrolysis method, fast, easy, efficient, and no posinous chemicals used. For more info on cast iron and use and cleaning I recommend the Wagner and Griswold Society or the Griswold and Cast Iron Cookware Association websites. Both sites have open forums and can be used by non members.
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Once it's well seasoned you won't need to scour much, but at most use a plastic brush or scrubber. Lacking that, use some coarse salt and a paper towel. If it isn't seasoned and some stuff has stuck, here's what I find usually works: put water in the pan to cover the stuck stuff. Bring it to boil, then turn it off. Let it soak a little while you clean up the rest of the kitchen. Then use salt or a plastic scrubber to dislodge the stuck stuff. Once clean, rinse out with hot water, paper towel it dry then put back on the burner on low for a minute or so to drive the remaining moisture out of the pores of the iron. While the pan is warm, put a tiny amount of oil (I use grapeseed) and use a paper towel to rub it into the inside of the pan. You don't want it really greasy, it'll attract dust. Oh, and if your cast iron piece has a lid and you live in a humid climate, don't store it with the lid snug or the inside will rust. You can fold up a paper towel and put it on the rim, then put the lid on to allow air to circulate within the pot.
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ann_t
10 years ago
Annie, I am very proud of you. Love the size. You did good.

~Ann
annie1992
Original Author
10 years ago
See, Ann T, I KNEW you'd like it.

dcarch, that #8 is about 9 inches across the bottom, flares out to nearly 11 inches at the top and is about 2 inches deep. A good size, not too big, but big enough.

Annie
arkansas girl
10 years ago
That's what I like about mine is that it's so much lighter than the new cast iron skillets. I actually gave a brand new 12 inch skillet (Lodge) to the thrift shop because it was way too heavy to use. I love mine, found for $15 a few years ago at a flea market! The seller obviously did NOT know what he had!
tibbrix
10 years ago
So jealous. I LOVE cast iron.
Jasdip
10 years ago
I didn't think anything cast iron was light! LOL
Annie I love the size of that skillet!!! It's in fantastic shape, too.

I'm on the hunt for a reasonably priced 12" stainless steel one, not going to pay upwards of $100 and more.
arley_gw
10 years ago
Great score!

I spent a weekend once with some abrasive wheels on my drill, trying in vain to get the cooking surface of a new Lodge cast iron skillet to be as slick as a vintage Wagner. If I paid myself minimum wage, I would have had enough to pay full retail for a Wagner or Griswold.

Those vintage items are just plain better. I wish Lodge or some other manufacturer would resurrect the manufacturing techniques or metallurgy or whatever the heck it was, and would start making new items to the standards of yesteryear.

If you don't have access to a slick old cast iron skillet, I have found that a heavy carbon steel pan is almost as good: slick as a whistle out of the box, and takes seasoning nicely. I have both Paderno and DeBuyer, and I prefer the Paderno--about half the weight of a Lodge skillet of similar size.

Here is a link that might be useful: paderno carbon steel pan
sally2_gw
10 years ago
Great find!

Whatcha gonna cook in it first?

Sally
bcskye
10 years ago
What a great find, Annie! We all know it now has a good home and will be used and well cared for. Enjoy!

Madonna
sleevendog (5a NY 6aNYC NL CA)
10 years ago
Great score!. I have a bit of it and mostly from yard sales. One is Griswold and thin. So thin that DH passed it up but i knew better. So smooth. The older method was to grind them very smooth for a better surface. The newer ones are often slightly pebbly and takes a while to get a build-up surface...too much labor in the factory to grind like the older ones.
No matter how funky they are when i come across them...often used under plant pots and rusty, they sit in the barn for a while until we get around to a rainy day of 'pan restore'.

Like Annie's, my griswold did not need much at all. Just an easy scrub and season to make it 'mine'.
lazy_gardens
10 years ago
Arley - The awesome silky finish of the vintage skillets is from decades of scrubbing and cooking and seasoning.

If you have ever seen a skillet from that era that was not used much, they are about like the new skillets today. I have my grandmother's (1920s?) chicken fryer skillet that was not used much because of its size and it's not as smooth as my far newer (1990s) small skillets that are used several times a week.
Lars
10 years ago
With that Griswold mark, it is definitely old and collectable. I have a similar pan marked "Wagner's 1891 Original" that was made in the late 1980s (scroll down in the link) and is semi-collectable and not nearly as valuable! Mine has the 9" diameter bottom but is 10-1/2" diameter at the top and therefore the side do not slope as much as yours. You definitely got a good deal on an authentically collectable piece. I do not own any Griswold pieces, as I have only started collecting cast iron in the 1980s. My mother had old cast iron, but I do not know the manufacturer's name.

This morning I made a Spanish tortilla in my own cast iron, and I will post a photo in a new thread.

Congratulations on your find! It's a great pan to have.

Lars

Griswold Cast Iron.......score!

Comments (13)

dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m

dedtired

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Griswold Cast Iron.......score!

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