I finally found a Chicago Hardware Foundry chicken fryer after searching for years. Very good shape with no rust or warping. $20 at a small junk shop. Now I have to find a Griswold #3 to finish my collection.
Was at Mom and Dads place over Easter weekend. They have an O'brien and O'brien #3 skillet hanging from the mantle of the fireplace as a decoration. I remember this skillet from when I was a kid, as it got used occasionally for cooking. However; it has what appears to be a chrome plating on it. Sorry, didn't get any pictures of it. What up with the "plating"???
Nickel... Only kept it from rusting, a lot of them were used on ships, crappy enviroment, outdoors, cosmetically appealing etc... Back in the day, they were a little more $ pricy but were supposed to be tougher and last longer in certian elements. http://www.castironcollector.com/plated.php
My 2 small skillets (a #3 and a #5) are getting better the more I use them. My "dutch oven" is doing even better. In it, I've cooked multiple times, my own version of "pheasant cachitorre" based off of Emeril Lagasses' chicken cachitorre. Twas killer!! Thanks a bunch WD!!!!
I had a carbon steel wok. Same kind of upkeep as cast iron basically. It heated well and was nice to cook with.
I have never found a noticeable difference. I have a steel griddle for campfire cooking that is 30 x 20 and 5/8" thick that I use for french toast and pancakes. It cooks no differently than my 16" CI skillet. Seasoning and care is the same for both.
The pan fairy has graced me with a nice piece… My scrap guy calls me and says he has a porcelain coated frying pan, so I go look at it. He wants $5.00 for this pan… Ok, I hand him $20 and said have a beer on me… I should have given him $50.00. A Lecreuset 4-1/4 qt deep cast iron porcelain coated sauté pan. Now, it's not very old but it cost $350.00 new and I just got one for $20.00 That's one for the collection!!!!
i love my cast iron skillets and kettles , i finally got the wife to get rid of the most of the Teflon coated stuff ? uh junk lol . handy tip if your wife likes to scrub the seasoning off , just rub a Little grease on your skillet and bake it at 350 to 425 deg right side up for a hour , just turn the oven off and let it cool slowly , and your back to frying eggs like a nonstick skillet , but you had better turn the vent fan on cause it will smoke off a little.
I made a mistake, It's 2-1/4 qt not 4-1/4 qt... , I looked at the wrong one... But it's still over $200.00
most all of the old timers i knew never washed them, they might just lightly scrape and wipe it out , some just stuck a lid on it and left in on the stove with the grease still in it till it was time to cook again , they are real easy to care for if you keep em away from the soap .
Today, was finally a nice day so I decided to leave work early… I was gonna be nice and do the dishes for the wife, "No we don't have a dish washer" she went to college…. So after, I looked at some of my cast and they needed a serious wipe down so I took them "all" out side. I forgot just about how many I had so heres "most" of them, 2 are with my Daughter in school and I can't seem to find my other bigger griddle, It may be in the attic when I moved last. Theres a few more I can't find but I'm sure there here somewhere. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do, I love seeing everyone who likes these keeping them and cherishing them… They are definitely a piece of history. It's real cool to se everyone else's stuff and their stories! Its sad for me to see them in a yard sale or a flea market, but the way I see it, I will save it and love it. If only these pans could talk!
