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

annie1992

12 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
12 years ago
So what is the size?

Looks like in excellent condition.

dcarch
dedtired
12 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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Thank you to all! I also did an web search last night and discovered that cracking cast iron isn't all that uncommon - mostly when heat and cold are too quickly applied. So I will pre-heat more slowly in the future. I cook a lot - and I'm still getting used to cooking with induction. Boiling water - as the expression goes - is the best and easiest. Sauteeing, I have discovered, has a learning curve, depending on the pan (I have several, some old LeCrueset, some expensive DeMeyere, some cheap made-for-induction). The best are enameled cast iron, i.e. LeCrueset or Descoware. I had purchased an inexpensive griddle which I ended up throwing away - it buzzed, it burned food, it was hard to clean. I replaced it with the cast iron griddle, which arrived in the mail poorly packed, with a chip on the rim. I should have sent it back - it was not inexpensive - but I figured it was still cooking-worthy and return shipping was a fortune. That chip on the rim may have compromised the pan enough to crack it. It was also too large for the hob - 14" on a 12" circle. That may have contributed to the problem. The next one I buy - I haven't given up - will be smaller. I will pre-heat it more slowly. On my old electric stove, I set my former non-stick griddle (not induction compatible, so I gave it away) on the high setting, let it heat up, turned down the heat, and made perfect pancakes every time. The adventure continues!
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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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Got reunited with CI several years ago when I found 3 skillets for $1 a piece.... a Lodge, A Griswold, and a Wagner. Could barely read the names on bottoms for the crud but knew they weren't cheap junk from China. I went the quick & dirty route for cleaning them up... and I d mean Q&D. Cheapo spray oven cleaner... SEVERAL application. Once clean some serious seasoning with bacon fat. I was hooked. My collection has grown with all yard sale, flea market and thrift store finds. NOW I have a problem! Most of it has just gotten TOO heavy for me to feel confident cooking with. Also I'm planning on moving in the next 6 months or so... extreme down-sizing. Have at least 3 nicely seasoned skillets. Found a Le Creuset square grill pan, in perfect condition, for $5. One of those Abelskiver (please excuse the spelling) pans and a few "corn" cornbread pans. There are a few pieces I absolutely will take with me. A LARGE round griddle (Wagner or Griswold... would have to go look to be sure... almost a slick as non-stick, perfect for grilled cheese, and makes a good pizza pan for a smallish pie. A muffin/pop-over pan that makes 8. A cute little diamond shaped skillet specifically marked on bottom for an egg. Would love to have someone get them who would LOVE them rather than just donate to a thrift store. Don't have patience/energy/time to deal with trying to sell online. If I could find someone in my area whi might be interested, that's the way I'd prefer to go.
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I have four LeCrueset enameled cast iron pans and seldom use any of them, the two largest have never been used at all because they are just so heavy. I much prefer the old Griswold and Wagner cast iron I've picked up at yard sales and on-line auctions. Like Plllog, though, I have different pans for different uses. I use the cast iron for my over easy eggs and the cast iron dutch oven for deep frying. The cast iron griddle is for steaks and for baking bread in lieu of a baking stone. We have an enameled Aeternum skillet that Elery loves for omelets and I have those stainless steel All Clad/Calphalon/etc skillets that I bought at auction, I use those for things that need a lot of stirring or that stick, my metal utensils don't ruin those. My biggest enameled dutch oven is a cheap one from Aldi but it works fine for beef stew and swiss steak. I also have a 6 quart Nesco roaster, a crockpot and a pressure cooker, each of those has its own use also. My stockpot/chili pot is a hard anodized Calphalon and all the "anodized" has chipped off the bottom, so it's basically aluminum. Works fine anyway, I really like the short-wide shape so I'm looking at stainless to replace that, eventually. Good luck on that Wagner. I think that as long as it isn't warped or cracked, it'll be fine, just clean, reseason and cook! Annie
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User
12 years ago
Annie, I am very proud of you. Love the size. You did good.

~Ann
annie1992
Original Author
12 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
12 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!
User
12 years ago
So jealous. I LOVE cast iron.
Jasdip
12 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
12 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
12 years ago
Great find!

Whatcha gonna cook in it first?

Sally
bcskye
12 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)
12 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'.
User
12 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
12 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!

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

dedtired

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