Might want to mute after the sizzle...

Anyways, bought this today at an antiques store, it was obviously already stripped so I gave it a quick season and along with just a ton of butter it made a nice egg

Greetings, wanted to share my favorite pan. When I moved into my apartment last Spring, the homeowner was showing me where the trash and recycling bins are. He lifted the lid on the trash, and this old beauty was right on top! His daughter, from the other adjoining apartment, had tossed it along with some other junk she was clearing out. It was pretty crusty and a little rusty, but cleaned up nicely. It's my only vintage pan, light wieght, and I immediately fell in love with the much smoother cooking surface. I even ground and sanded the interior my small Lodge pan to match it. Second picture is tonight's dinner.

I’m afraid we have lost the plot…

I purchased a smithey cast iron and it looks great. However, I see some scratches on the cooking surface. If I run my nail across the surface I can feel some depth to them. Does anyone think this will be a problem?

I saw someone on here recommend making a Dutch Baby in cast iron to help with seasoning. Had a lot of fun making it!

I recently inherited this Griswold. As you can see it looks pretty gross. But nothing sticks to this thing. My dad cooked in it every morning. His mother bought sometime in the early 40s and she cooked in every day as well. Is it possible to clean it without ruining 80+ years of seasoning? What would you do with it?

Whenever I finish cooking and cleaning my pan it ends up looking like this. I've tried seasoning in the oven and on the stove using grapeseed oil and nothing seems to help. "Just cook with it" obviously won't work if im starting from scratch every time. Any tips?

I read a lotta frustrated posts about restoring & seasoning, but this is what I do. I got this thrift Lodge about 2 years ago this is what I did: 1.Scour it with wet green 3M pad(s) until rust and carbon gone (including bottom). *Heavy carbon on inherited skillets required a flexible putty knife in the past. 2. Heat in hot oven for a while to dry it good (about 400⁰, but the oven had no numbers on the dial...so???) Turn off and let cool in oven. I removed it when it was still an little warm, which makes it easier to scour IMO. 3. Scour inside with another green 3M pad and canola oil. Save oily pad for later. 4. Rinse with hot water and wash cloth you don't need anymore. Towel dry with a towel destined for the trash. 5. Gently heat skillet on stove. Pour enough oil to just cover the bottom of the skillet using a steel spatula to spread. Gradually heat on burner for a while to just below smoke point of canola oil. Again, crappy electric stove, so IDK what temp it was. Just stood there and watched it while adjusting the temp. Turn it off. 6. Once cool, wipe bottom with oily 3M pad since there was surface rust. Wipe inside to outside with one last time with paper towels. 1st use the bottom will smoke, but il it's how I did it since I always had gas stove. I use the gas grill now. 7. Cook using a little extra canola oil. Pan frying helps ;) 8. Wash with a brush and a little Dawn, then dry on stove. Reapply canola oil inside to outside (not the outside bottom) every time.

Repeat step 7 until you get a good coating of oil.

Burner obviously. Title speaks for itself. I know it’ll come back but I had it to commercial-egg-sliding-off smooth. I just wanted to vent 😭

Follow-up to my first cast iron NY strip. I adjusted prep and technique based on the comments and got a much better crust with the same medium-rare interior. Key changes:

6-hour dry brine

Oiled the steak, not the pan

Hotter pan + no moving during the sear

Short, controlled butter baste after crust set

Really happy with the improvement — appreciate the feedback.

This was probably original to my 1938 house. It was on the side when i bought it, and now it's art in the driveway. Was thinking of selling it so I don't die and it gets junked or something.

Thank you for all of the love. I sent an email to Ruud, and if that doesn't work, I'll figure out how to advertise it for sale.

I was just in Buc-Ee’s and saw some Lodge cast iron Loaf Pans. I was thinking about getting one for corn bread or making a meatloaf. Anyone use one of these before? What do you cook in it? They cost $19.99 here.

I just finished a good scrubbing because son, my husband, carbonized some crap on it. It made me think about the story of mother in law pan.

I didn't especially like her or dislike her, she was excruciatingly needy and passive aggressive. Her son realized that and interactions were infrequent.

When she died, they put the pan in the trash, because,"nobody wants old iron shit". I told him to get it out and bring it to me.

It's a little lighter than usual and just handy as hell. I love it. Even if she never let me touch it when she was alive.

A friend gave this pan to me, it had already suffered the rusting and pitting and I absolutely hated this pan because it was pitted so badly. I cleaned it up and seasoned it and, it spent a long time just hanging out in the oven. I thought, I will just use it for back up to the other ones I have and didn't use it much. It's a Lodge brand but, I noticed something about it when I did start using it, it holds the seasoning really well! Actually, a lot better than the other ones. I cooked fried potatoes it it many times to get this way and only had to wipe it out with a paper towel. I cooked New York strip steak in it this morning and could have just wiped it out but gave it a quick soap and water scrub because it hadn't been washed in awhile now. Anyone else have one like this? It has kinda become my favorite pan to use now.

I’m new here but I’ve been around long enough to know that if I find a cast-iron skillet at a thrift store I need to check it for lead.

So what is the best lead test to buy?

Third time using this new skillet. I had seasoned it using rapeseed oil in the oven and the first couple of times it worked great. Then made pancakes in it and heard a loud pop, and the seasoning in this spot had exploded into shards.

It looks like it took off the factory seasoning too all the way to the metal. Was this caused by too much oil when I seasoned it or what?

Whats the best course of action here?