How wonderful for you!

I have one, too. Just before my dad died in 1988 he gave me a wonderful paring knife I treasured and used constantly until summer of 2024 when it simply disappeared. Everybody in my family knew I treasured the knife but no one had any idea what happened to it. I just happened across it in the garage last summer, no idea how it got there. Its It’s still as sharp as it was!

Yay you found it! It's pitted. Is it cast aluminum? Looks like a nice size! I'd be happy with that pan for cooking eggs in...maybe a little olive oil and it will be good for another 100 years....😂

I keep thinking to myself....I have an expiration date...my pots and pans don't!

I think yes as to cast aluminum. There was also a big aluminum skillet, which my father had made a nice wooden handle for, but I think a worker threw it out!!!! (Someone said so... :( ) It had been my mother's favorite, but there's nothing I've tried to make that I couldn't do in my LeCreuset braiser (i.e., shallow pan, same curved corners, enameled cast iron). I had been resigned that the same fate had befallen my Precious, but it seems it had been discovered in some hiding spot and restored to the pot cupboard. I do not know by whom, but I have a warm bubble inside. Eggs are easy on the induction in my carbon steel crepe pans, but they have no after images of my father's hands. And the blintz pancakes. ....

I did rescue my mother's Wagner and Griswold cast iron pans (bought new at the hardware store before she was married) some years back. The cook was thrilled with the new Lodge replacements I got, silly thing. ;) Though even with wrecked seasoning and rust, even those will last, as you say. :) Mother's sit in pride of place in my kitchen, ready to do their thing gracefully, though some still need to be reseasoned. First I have to fix up my Precious.

Sheeshie, I think it was the TV version of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that posited trans dimensional scientists who study us by taking our socks, one at a time, from washing machines, then putting them back, but no always in the same load of clothes. We tend to blame them for that sort of thing...

Definitely a special treasure, plllog!💕

Powdered Bar Keeper"s Friend with a wet paper towel will take care or the stains and tarnish. I have no idea about the pitting. If you find out, let us know. I have a favorite baking pan that is pitted.

I'm not worried about the stains. There are some that seem polymerized, but easy enough to heat and remove. I'll have to look more closely. There are a lot of scratches but I think what look like pits in the picture may just be stains.

Great little pan. Makes you invisible when you hold it? You could polish that up to improve its nonsticktoiveness.

I have some pots and pans that hold memories. A big stainless+aluminum said pan with helper handle that Lammie got for me at a flea market. All the copper pots SWMBO and I bought at d’Hillerin with the money we saved from eating street food instead of at restaurants and lugged home in our suitcases as the most valuable things we then owned.

You can cook great food in nearly anything. What matters is how you feel and what, who you remember as you’re doing it.

Speaking of treasured pans—

Years ago I inherited the beloved big cast iron pan my dad had inherited from his parents. He grew up with that pan, and so did I. I took it to my driveway to clean one day and dropped it on the concrete. It split in half! I watched in horror as the smaller part skittered away. Nothing lasts forever, I guess.

Oh, no! I know cast iron can break like if dropped just so, but to have it happen to such a treasure! 😪

John, thinking on the memories, I see my mother's hand on the biggesT of her Wagner frying pans, making the paella. First the rice, which I have yet to master (haven't tried since I got her pans--that might make the difference), It was soooo good! The meat was always cooked separately, often starting as kebobs. Mother laughed at a Julia Child recipe for a paté. She said there was a direction missing from the meat, "Serve this pot roast to your family for dinner, first." She made a number of things that started with cooking dinner adding more meat to go in the next meal.

That's such a treasure. Your happiness comes through the page - it's contagious! How wonderful!!!

wow, THAT is a cool pan! So glad you finally found it! Take pics when you make the pancakes/crepes, and pics of your blintzes. Then post the photos. yum!

Ah, well, PM, that might take awhile. To make proper blintzes, I have to make the cheese. With my sous vide circulator and small cheese press, I now can, but it takes determination and an occasion. It's the pan more than the pancakes... :)

So, I had a horrible thought waking up this morning, that the differences in the pan from my memory are real and this isn't it. But my father definitely made the handle, and it's definitely old, and could there possibly another such that I never knew about? I think I'm getting a bit nuts. I'll clean it up first, before letting myself back into the Twilight Zone. :)

You just need to reaquaint yourself with your Precious! Make a mess of omelettes!