Best pan for cooking steak?

[kitchengoddess8]

What is the difference between the Griswold and the Lodge pans?

 

[Andy M.]

Griswold made great CI but is long out of business. Lodge makes the best CI today.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

What is the difference between the Griswold and the Lodge pans?

All cast iron is made using a process called sand casting. Lodge CI is much heavier, due to thicker metal in the pans. It also has a grainy, almost coarse surface, whereas the Griswold pans are very smooth to the touch. In my experience, they both serve their purpose very well. They heat up and hold their heat well due to the thermal mass of the cast iron. Obviously, as there is more metal to retain the heat, the Lodge pans will actually be less affected by adding foods or liquids to the hot pan than will the Griswold. However, the Griswold is lighter in weight, which makes it easier to move around, is just as durable, and due to the smoother cooking surface, easier to season properly. Once seasoned, both pans are substantially stick free.

Another thing to remember, cast iron is a poor conductor of heat, as metals go. So the pans will have hot spots where the metal touches the flame, or heating element. The thicker pans, if allowed to heat up sufficiently, are less prone to the hot spots than are the thinner pans.

This is why I have Griswold, Wagner, and Lodge pans. I use my Griswold to fry steaks, eggs, and other foods that really don't care about hot spots. The pan surface is hot enough all over to do the job. But if I'm making a sauce, I use the heavier pan, and at a lower temperature to minimize the hot spots, as the sauce will scorch at the hot metal sites on the pan surface. Use of an aluminum heat diffuser eliminates this problem.

All CI is great for oven use, and under the broiler. It is also great for use on a campfire, where any smoke or soot deposited on the outside of the pan can be scoured off. I use my largest CI pans over charcoal, in my Webber Kettle Barbecue to make pizza that tastes like it was cooked in a wood-fired brick oven.

Griswold went out of business in the 1950's I believe. Wagner (the 2nd best CI pans IMHO) went out in the 1990's. Lodge is the only U.S. company still making cast iron cookware. There are other cast iron pan makers showing up on the market as consumers learn again the advantages of the cooking material. Like lodge, they are substantial pans, that weight a lot. There are also some very cheap pans out there that are poorly made, and can crack easily if transferred hot to a cold water environment (it's never a good idea to immerse any kind of hot pan into cold water. It can craze ceramic coatings, warp stainless steel, shatter cast iron, glass, stoneware, and ceramic cooking vessels), such as when pouring cold liquid into a hot pan.

If I've made any mistakes in this post, feel free to set me straight. I'm working from memory on this one.

Personally, I look for three names in cast iron, and in this order - Griswold, Wagner, and Lodge.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[msmofet]

I use blue can Crisco to season mine. Oil left my CI tacky.

 

[taxlady]

I know of a mechanic who tried using engine oil to season cast iron.

His wife was furious.

 

[Dawgluver]

I know of a mechanic who tried using engine oil to season cast iron.

His wife was furious.

Ewwww!

 

[gadzooks]

Griswold made great CI but is long out of business. Lodge makes the best CI today.

Griswold was bought by Wagner. Some CI pans from that period bear both company names, such as the Chef Skillet. Later incarnations of that excellent 9" pan bear only the Wagner name or no name at all.

 

[Bigjim68]

I've always read to season CI with shortening vs. oil, though I can't remember the specifics as to why anymore.

+1 on the Griswold recommendation. A Griswold #8 or #9 is my next cooking purchase. Hoping to snag a good one from eBay for cheap.

The one I bought over the weekend was a Wagner, not a Griswold. IMO there is very little difference in cooking ability, This one looks like a mirror in the photos, and cost me $25 + $13 in shipping. They will often go for less if they need cleaning and seasoning. I doubt I will have to reseason this one.

 

[RPCookin]

I pan fried a 6 ounce sirloin medallion in a 12" stainless steel Farberware sauté pan and it was impossible to clean even after soaking it in warm water overnight and scrubbing it with Barkeeper's Friend powder. I made sure that I heated some sunflower oil in the pan before adding the meat, so I don't understand why the pan was so hard to clean. I cooked the meat on medium-high heat for three minutes on each side.

Should I have used a nonstick pan? Does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonably priced pan that can be used to pan fry a small piece of steak and is easy to clean?

You can deglaze it while it's hot just with some water, or make a simple pan sauce with some wine or stock or balsamic vinegar (and maybe a little heavy cream or cornstarch to thicken it) to both deglaze and get the benefit of all of that tasty goodness left behind. I use my stainless Kitchen Aid pan for steak all the time, and it does a wonderful job.

 

[justplainbill]

Griswold was bought by Wagner. Some CI pans from that period bear both company names, such as the Chef Skillet. Later incarnations of that excellent 9" pan bear only the Wagner name or no name at all.

Then Wagner was bought by Textron. I've been following the escapades of Textron for decades and it aint pretty.

 

[Kylie1969]

We have recently bought a cast iron skillet with the griddle lines and it is fabulous for cooking steaks and lamb chops

 

[kitchengoddess8]

We have recently bought a cast iron skillet with the griddle lines and it is fabulous for cooking steaks and lamb chops

Would you post a link to the skillet you got?

 

[CWS4322]

I know of a mechanic who tried using engine oil to season cast iron.

His wife was furious.

Must be the mechanic/mechanist mentality--mine wanted to use TSP to clean the pan for which he ruined the seasoning...I used sand from Lake of the Woods to remove the old seasoning and then re-seasoned it--it now is like it was before he abused it re: how to clean it after use.

 

[taxlady]

Must be the mechanic/mechanist mentality--mine wanted to use TSP to clean the pan for which he ruined the seasoning...I used sand from Lake of the Woods to remove the old seasoning and then re-seasoned it--it now is like it was before he abused it re: how to clean it after use.

This same mechanic once used the toaster to cook an egg.













Okay, it was this kind of toaster, but still...

 

[CWS4322]

I know the DH has baked a potato on the engine while driving...I had a roommate who used to dry her socks in the oven...it didn't matter that each time she did, one always caught on fire...(xxxxx, tes bas brule! was often called out by either myself or our other roommate) or that on the third-floor of the apartment, there was a perfectly good clothes dryer...right beside the washer.

 

[Bigjim68]

You should never dry socks or underwear in the oven. The microwave works much better.

 

[taxlady]

You should never dry socks or underwear in the oven. The microwave works much better.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

We once tried to warm a towel in a microwave. It began to smoulder after only a minute and a half. I quickly took it out and placed into on our wooden porch, figuring that it would only smoke until it cooled. I glanced outside a few minutes later and saw flames right next to one of the wooden supports to the porch roof. I ran out an extinguished the burning towel before anything was damaged. I learned a valuable lesson about using the proper appliance for the proper job. I have a perfect good drier that is in the room next to my kitchen, just on the other side of the wall. Simply open the door to the laundry room, and there it is.

Why do we do such foolish things? I guess we're all young and foolish at some time in out lives, and i don't think age has much to do with it.

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Kylie1969]

Would you post a link to the skillet you got?

Hi

We have recently ditched that one as it was annoying to clean and was very heavy

Yesterday we bought a Jamie Olive Tefal grillpan...it is great, we much prefer this for cooking steak, chicken and fish

 

[pacanis]

Ya gotta love a long thread you start by reading the last post and working your way forward
Drying underwear in the microwave?
This boy tosses them on the register whilst he takes his shower and hopes either the furnace or the AC kicks on a few times