One of the all-around best cast iron skillets you can buy today is the … With the advent of wood-burning stoves, pans were produced to conform to the sizes of the openings in their tops known as "stove eyes". Avoid using steel wool or other harsh materials to clean, as they can also damage the pan. That does not mean, however, that you can use your cast iron skillet to cook all the things. This week: the ring on the bottom of a cast-iron skillet. Definition of cast-iron. Co. catalog lists roughly the same dimensions for its regular skillets, with the #3 and #4 being somewhat smaller than Wagner's, and the #13 and #14 somewhat wider. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. If you apply seasoning to the cast iron, you can prevent rust from forming on it. It was important, therefore, to know which pattern currently in use was creating sub-standard pieces. Lodge 8-inch Cast Iron Skillet. Related: Expert Tips for Caring for Your Pots and Pans. On some smaller pans, you may see a tiny numeral on the bottom of the handle. Doing any of these things can ruin its natural seasoning. Over time, patterns would wear or suffer damage, the result of which would end up being cast into the pan. So, here is a listing of most of them: Navigation A 1918 Griswold Mfg.  Privacy & Legal or "6-1/2 Inch Skillet" spelled out. For efficiency, small pieces would be sometimes be cast in groups simultaneously in the same sand mold. Enter to Win $10,000 to Makeover Your Home! Perhaps the original plan was to have a unique number for each and every pattern made, or to change numbers when the design was updated. The longer you use your cast iron skillet, the darker its color will be. Seasoning is also used to protect bare cast iron from rust. The letters do not represent pattern design revisions, but only served to identify which individual pattern among several was used to make which pans. This method is best for lightly soiled pans. Maintain a Cast Iron Skillet Clean it right away. A number 273 corn stick pan is pattern number 930, which might seem a little redundant, as there is no other item 273 nor pattern 930. The letter or letters after the numerals, in all four cases, are what's known as pattern letters. Get inspired to make your porch your new favorite living space with these ideas designed to add a refined look to any outdoor space. Get rid of gunk. Many pay a premium for Griswold cast iron skillets. A heavy cover piece was left in place when an eye was not directly in use, and removed-- using a special, heat-resistant lifter handle-- when maximum heat from the eye was required. Heat rings, the rims protruding from the bottom circumference of most early cast iron pans, served multiple functions: as a "seal" of sorts between the pan and stove eye, as added stablility for less-than-perfectly flat pan bottoms, and as a device to help reduce hot spots. Cast iron is “the original nonstick cookware,” says Mark Kelly, the public relations manager at Lodge, the brand synonymous with cast-iron cookware. Later, metric dimensions were added by some makers. Never dispose of a good old cast iron pan. It’s the at-home work you do to turn a cast iron pan into an heirloom, and it’s as important for your cooking as the iron your pan is made from. From dinner to dessert, a good cast-iron skillet can cook almost anything with ease. The more people cook with cast iron, the more oils are imparted onto the cookware. It is required for cast-iron cookware and carbon steel, which otherwise rust rapidly when heated in the presence of oxygen and water, even in small quantities such as in drippings from dry meat. (Some people still call them that.) A cast-iron skillet is a deeper frying pan made from cast iron material. Depending on the brand of stove, and the sizes of its various eyes, appropriately-sized pans would need to be purchased for use with it. To someone knowledgeable about the manufacturer, it's easy to tell that a Wagner pan marked "1053C" is a regular skillet (105x), size #3 (xxx3), made from the pattern for it lettered "C". All Rights Reserved. Dense and a relatively poor conductor, cast iron can hold a lot of heat for a long amount of time, making it ideal for superhot applications, such as searing a steak. black. See Note at andiron. The long lifespan of cast iron along with the growing demand for second-hand instead of new makes vintage cast iron a common find in the antique market. Unlike many other nonstick skillets, cast iron is totally ovenproof, so you can start a dish on the stovetop and finish it in the oven. These would either be in addition to or, in some cases, instead of the traditional size numbers. Wagner even let a mathematical rule apply when the size number became two digits. A cast-iron skillet Heavy-duty cookware made of cast iron is valued for its heat retention, durability, ability to be used at very high temperatures, and non-stick cooking when properly seasoned.