This is a 2598 size 8 hinge tab skillet cover, which I got with a 2528 deep hinge tab skillet/chicken pan. Since having a collection of cast iron is part and parcel with sitting around and endlessly comparing the pieces to each other, I was indulging a week or so ago, and I saw something kinda odd on this skillet cover that I haven't seen on any other Griswold skillet covers I own. If you run your fingers all the way around the inner rim of the cover, the rim that fits down inside the skillet and keeps the cover centered, you can feel regular inconsistencies that are cast into the rim thickness. It has uniform repeating skinny segments and fatter segments. You can even see this by eye -- in the second picture, the green arrows are pointing to two of the fatter segments, and the red arrow is pointing to the center of the skinny segment in between them. Every other self-basting skillet cover that I've checked has a uniform rim thickness all the way around its underside.
I know that this lid could have pulled double duty as a dutch oven cover for the 2568 hinge tab dutch oven, but I can't imagine that that would have been the reason for casting the rim this way, unless it had something to do with heat conduction and cover warping. I don't have any other sizes of hinge tab skillet covers to compare to, so I don't know if they're all cast like this, or if the size 8 is the only one. I've seen pictures on e-bay where people are selling this cover, and all the 2598 covers seem to have this same feature.
Anyone know why this was done? Anyone know if all the hinge tab covers are like this?
Thank you.
