Cast Iron Cookware
— submitted by Paul Sackmann
One thing is for sure— we all like to eat! When a meal is prepared there will most likely be one or two portions that are served hot. How it tastes and the method used in the cooking process are many.
If a survey was done on folks’ kitchens here in Brown County, I would say you would find that a large percentage of them are equipped with cast iron cookware. Brown County has a history of old skillets, kettles, and other cast Iron cooking items getting passed down from generation to generation. The old cast cookware is in good supply at all the local antique establishments and the flea markets, too.
Skillets, kettles, and other cast cookware made from the 1890s through the 1940s are still common. These years
of cast goods were largely a man made process. The pouring of molting cast steel provides a lot of control. Foundry workers took much pride in the quality of their ironware. Some of the companies that made this great cookware are Favorite, Griswold, Martin, Wagner, and Wapak. Older, pre-1890 skillets did not always have company names on them. You can spot the earlier cookware by a metal line on the bottom side. This mark is known as a gate line. The gate line was made when the cast cookware items were removed from the mold. Surviving examples of pre-1890 cookware are still around and used by many chefs today.
Old cast iron will have a smooth cooking surface, is easy to keep clean, and has great eye appeal. There is one problem I have found with using any cast iron cookware though— it is brittle. If dropped on a hard surface they can crack, chip, or break easily.
Kettles, caldrons, and other large interesting cast cookware that has been damaged often ends up in gardens as planters and yard art. Drive around Brown County and you can sometimes see cast iron doing their new job as a planter or other decoration.
The next time you see and old, blackened, dusty skillet it could have more than 100 years of service behind it. A good cleaning might bring a gem of a cast cookware piece to your kitchen and become a new family heirloom. •
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58 Our Brown County • Sept./ Oct. 2014