Just speculating, of course, but maybe it had an internal crack either from a casting defect or a sudden thermal shock in the past. Then, when you heated it, the additional thermal shock enlarged the defect. Was it a new pan?

It could have been too much heat too fast; I generally place a cast iron pan on medium for a minute before I crank up the gas.

I would tend to think there was a flaw in the pan. I have often set my cast iron pans on high and they never cracked

Thanks y'all. I've been using the pan for a little over 3 years. Maybe I've never put it on high before but I think I have. Hm. The crack goes from the rim to the deep circle stamped in the middle that encloses the name. I have no idea where it started of course.

I guess I'll preheat gently in the future to avoid gremlins. Maybe putting a cheap iron pan on a high-powered induction cooktop set to high is just inviting them in. It's awfully fast.

(Kielbasa isn't as good warmed in the microwave, incidentally.)

There are many reasons why a cast iron skillet inexplicably cracks.

Poor quality control in manufacturing, natural crytaline formation defects, excessive impacts in handling, extreme thermal stresses, etc.

Cast iron, being a non-ductile material, in the daily thermal cycling of cooking, any minute microscopic fissure will start to propergate thru a process known as metal fatique, and eventually fail catastrophically.

To some degree, cast iron can be annealed or hardened, depending on your cooking habits. Something I do which I would not recommend to anyone else to try. I buy cheap cast iron cookware, heat it up red hot and pour cold water in it. If it didnÂt crack, them I heat it up again in an oven and let it cool down as slowly as possible to anneal any internal stress.

In your case, if the skillet is of great value to you, there are places actually can repair it for you.

Stop practicing skillet abuse and trying to be an iron chef. :-)

dcarch

I wasn't abusing it! I was always very careful with it because, well, I didn't want to crack it. Bah. It's in the recycling bin. I hope the sorter people know what it is.

Fori:
What Dc said.
You may have stressed it one time before and it just happened to crack now.
Lou

Cast iron is strong but it's also brittle. Sudden changes of temperature or, as mentioned, previous damage can lead to this kind of fracture.

Carol

I've always tried to avoid thermal shock but I guess one can only baby a pan so long. I was more careful getting a hot pan cold and didn't worry as much about getting a cool pan hot.

I knew it would happen eventually, but I just thought it would be from something stupid instead of something I've done frequently. (Which, come to think of it, might still be stupid...)

Fori:
Your Skillet just cracked.
Nobody called you stupid.
There are a lot of people like this.
We don't throw them away, just tolerate.
Try to find an old Griswold Skillet in a Garage sale.
Then we can tell you how to clean it up.
Lou

Nothing you did. It's called a JOOTT. (Just One Of Those Things)

Probably woke you up if you were sleepy! Just be happy you didn't have it filled with hot oil...

By chance fori do you remember the brand name of your cast iron? I know some of Paula Deen's cast iron products (made in China) were recalled for just this reason, cracking when heated. Poor quality cookware. NancyLouise

I would love to know what brand it was! I suspect it just had a flaw.

I love cast iron because it can handle the pot abuse that I dish out, I take mine off the wall, put it on my high heat burner on high to preheat. I have run them through my ovens clean cycle, plopped them on campfires . . . All of my pans are either hand me downs or thrift store finds. I guess they just don't make them like they used to?

Believe me, it can happen with an old pan just when you least expect it. An old pan may take abuse for years and then suddenly explode on the campfire. They are not indestructible.

Carol

I did say it was cheap, right? :)

It was a store brand, "Tools of the Trade Basic" or something like that, from Macy's. Imported, of course.

I did hit it with a lot of heat so if it was gonna go, that would be the time. Induction transfers the energy faster than gas or traditional electric so that wouldn't help

Anyway, now I know that it won't send bits of shrapnel hither and yon when a pan goes and it won't damage the glass cooktop and uh. Well, it'll still make me jump.

fori, same thing happened to me , one day it just cracked! Unfortunately I was doing a Tarte Tatin so I also ended up with a very messy stove.

Bought a new pan, cleaned the old stove!

I have a cast iron griddle which was my mother's. I has to be at least 30 years old. I have always washed it, put it on a burner and turned the burner on high to dry. Today it cracked. Age? I read one comment that there are places you can get them fixed. Is this true?

Where can they be repaired?

Google "Cast iron welder" in your area.

dcarch

I had a pan that cracked. A skillet give me by my 88-tear-old neighbor who had gotten it from her grandmother. I had put it on the stove to warm, probably on medium heat. I guess it was nothing I did.

I just cracked my skillet. Placed it on electric burner and turned it on to med high. I’ve done this with other Griswolds. This was no different but perhaps I hadn’t done it with this particular skillet. It was an antique #5 Griswold. Maybe there was a flaw which might explain why #5s are hard to find.

Too fast of a heat. Low and slow is the way with cast iron, whether it's old or new. It retains heat, and heating up gradually ensures food won't stick and the pan won't crack.