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Yeah, you'll have to pry my 120 year old Griswold from my cold, dead hands.

On a less emotional level: the way they were cast is night-and-day different from what's sold as cast iron today. The pores on my Griswold are an order of magnitude smaller than those on my Lodge (that I just haven't gotten around to throwing away because I never use). It's a much smoother surface, and therefore develops a very different - and much better - patina than the modern stuff can/does.

Edit: 120, not 220 years old.

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Quick tip for Lodge cast iron: use a wire brush attachment on a drill to polish the cook surface smooth, then cover in some type of fat.

I hit my current one with an angle grinder the day I bought it. I didn't try a wire brush, but judging by how rough it was, I'm unsure it would have removed enough material.

Either way, it makes cooking 20 times less frustrating.

I used a random orbital sander with 60 grit paper to take the pits out of my Lodge. You’re right about the frustration—I thought all of the talk about cast iron being nonstick was bullshit until I did that. Like night and day.

I've done some reading into cast iron performance and everything I've encountered says there's no noticeable difference between the smooth surfaces of the old pans and the rougher new pans once they are well seasoned. The theory is that the residue that makes a pan non-stick adheres better to the rougher surface, negating any advantage a smooth surface would have.

I've never owned an old smooth pan (mostly due to the research above) but I've noticed that over time the original rough surface of my Lodge has largely smoothed out as it has become extra seasoned.

I had only my Lodge for maybe four years, and in all that time of being used three days or so a week, I never got it to build up the kind of patina I built up in no time on my Erie (I stripped it physically and chemically when I bought it then let it build up a patina anew). My Erie is also lighter.

Edit: see sibling comments about sanding down a Lodge to get better performance.

This has been my experience, my one old piece of Griswold is way more nonstick than my several pieces of lodge have ever gotten, no matter how much bacon I cook in them. Gonna try the wire bush on the lodge, couldn’t make it any worse!

I have lodge pans that are now almost 20 years old, well seasoned, and 90% smoother than when they were new. But they don't compare to some of the antique cast iron pans which have a mirror like finish, and are substantially less sticky. People who say there is no difference are flat out wrong. Ditch the reading and go buy a nice old pan and give it try! They aren't expensive.

Surely you mean 120-year-old or some other number? This article and others say Griswold started making cast iron cookware in the 1870s.

The Delorean was a fine automobile.

Sorry, I don’t know how I got that math wrong. You’re right, of course.

I have some antique/vintage cast iron pans and I have some newly made pans from Field and they pretty much cook the same. Even that Lodge can be made to be nearly as good with some finishing work.

The most important thing people can do with their cast iron is to just use it regularly, and make sure to dry it well after washing. That's it.

Stargazer Cast Iron makes cast-iron skillets with a machined cooking surface and a secondary handle. We got the 12" skillet recently. Much smoother than Lodge, and the 2nd handle makes a big difference.

https://stargazercastiron.com/

they only have skillets? no dutch oven? are they new?

Yes, launched via a kickstarter a few years ago. Their Youtube channel promises additional products soon.

Carbon steel pans also are much smoother… and at 20% of the price of the Stargazers.

At the other end of the spectrum, my carbon steel skillet is a little pricey, but it's pretty and made by a guy with a hammer.

    https://bluskilletironware.com/shop/7-fry-pan-cgk32-sjals-2nhb6-zl73y-68grf

Do you recommend a particular brand?

If you cook for a hobby there are plenty of great products in this thread but they aren’t commodity pans.

If you cook en masse / for a family then you’ve figured out that a stack of pans is a commodity worth having. I went with de Buyer carbon steel pans:

https://www.debuyer.com/en/454-steel-cooking

Their Black Iron pans are the thinnest and work best on gas.

The Mineral B pans are thicker and won’t warp as much on induction, where you really need to be flat bottomed no matter how hot the stove. The “beeswax” thing feels like bullshit but who cares.

Carbon steel is everything you want from a cast iron pan but without worrying that it will crack, much better heat distribution, and a fraction of the mass.

The heat distribution is really only better if you give it time to warm up evenly. They get hot quickly, so many people assume they’re ready to use but they won’t have yet heated evenly (except on induction, but that would apply for cast iron as well).

Cast iron takes way longer to heat up, so it too can achieve similar heat distribution - just in four times as long.

Thanks for sharing that link. Their prices seem very reasonable for family cooking! Also, continuer sans accepter on the cookie pop up made my day.

I’m a big fan of Samuel Groves carbon steel skillets. Absolute workhorses.

Carbon steel’s lighter than cast iron and usually polished when new. Once seasoned it’s seasoned there’s no problem cooking eggs or the like.

It’s just a little bit easier to live with which is why they’re so widely used by professionals.

Butterpat is another "new but like old" cast iron company: https://butterpatindustries.com/

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