All-Time Favorite Piece of Cast Iron???

[deadpan]

 Armed with all the excellent advice I received, I made my first 2 purchases on e-Bay.  The thing that comes through in all of your conversations is that there is something greater at work here than just owning a practical piece of equipment.  I thought it would be interesting to hear what everybody considers to be their sentimental favorite pan......the one that you would grab first if, Heaven forbid, you could only save one of them.

Okay, okay, maybe you could save two!  

Thanks for sharing your stories......Lynda

[wwilderaz]

  OK Lynda...I"ll chip in...My single favorate is a Dutch Oven, marked "Wagner" Sidney O with the lid marked #10, with a little knob as a handle, which from the Blue and Red Books, is a fairly early vintage...This came to me years ago from a family member and was used by all of us for camp cooking.  When I discovered cast iron collecting and restoring, this is the first piece I undertook to clean up...What a job, but it came out in great shape and now is the favorite for stove top and oven cooking...  

[Greg Stahl]

Egads, only TWO!!!!  I'll have to think about that one for awhile....... I'll be back

[C. B. Williams]

Lynda: With a question like that, I feel fairly certain that you don't have a sevier case of ironitis yet. However, a few of your comments indicate that you are a real candidate. It is contageous, and you have found a web site with several hundred terminal cases of it. Of course I don't have a favorite.

[Harry Riva]

My favorite piece for some reason is a # 7 single lip skillet with a bottom gate mark. From a practical standpoint I would have to save the 13 dutch oven. That's the one with the #1, #2's and the toys inside of it. Second choice would be the # 12 dutch oven with the ..... well you get the picture. I always knew those big pieces had a practical use.
Harry

[Troy_Hockensmith]

 My favorite....... would have to be a very inexpensive # 8 Vollrath skillet. It gets more use than any other I own. While slightly heavier than say a Griswold it sure does season nice. Even after a hard work out of blackened Mahi Mahi on a propane burner on the back deck.  
As a kid I remember many times watching my grandmother cook fried potatoes or cattlemans stew in it. Her technique was high heat on a gas burner and have at it. When my grandparents passed they had public sale at the farm and I saw my uncle take that pan and throw it on the junk pile. It had a thick (1/4 inch) of carbon build up on it and he said "no one will ever bid on this". I thought "that's grandma's tater skillet" and pulled it off the pile and put it in my truck. After a good long lye bath the rest is history and rarely do I cook in it that I don't think of Grandma.  Value is not always about money.

[C. B. Williams]

Lynda: Please understand that there are different types of Griswold pieces. (1) a cooker, not very expensive and about the right size for your needs. (2) An expensive (say over $500) piece that you still enjoy cooking in sometime just to say you cooked cornbread in a $1,000 pan. (3) A piece that still has the label in it and the box it came in and you don't even think about cooking in it. So, we have favorite cookers and favorite display only pieces. One day I was asked to make some cornbread for a party and just for Giggles I used several different pans and skillets. A #13 & #2 block HR skillet, A #50  heart and star pan, plus several others and roughly figured I had cooked cornbread in about $10,000 worth of iron (book value) that day.  

[Greg Stahl]

If we are talking about saving just cooking collectibles, then I would have to save my #12 Wapak skillet (see my post on the Dutch Apple Baby, that is what I used).  That pan is so light and big enough to serve a lot of folks.  It also so easy to season and is stick proof.

The second item would be my #10 ERIE dutch oven, as I use that to make soups, beans, etc.  Great size for general use.


NOW if we are talking about only saving two of my collectible pieces  I would grab my aluminum Griswold ink well stand and then grab the #17 oval chrome Griswold skillet.  Both of those pieces are too hard to find with #17 being the only known example to exist at this time.

[Greg Stahl]

Oh I also forgot....

Lynda,  This is a GREAT THREAD!!  Thanks for starting it! [smiley=clap.gif]

[Steve_Stephens]

This is like picking a favorite child.  Just like I like my 6 cats for different reasons, my iron collection has lot of favorites.  Those pieces I use such as certain 19th century skillet and my Griswold waffle iron I consider favorites.  I have a Waterman golfball pan with a great design that is one of my favorite muffin pans.  It's nice design and quality of casting that appeal to me most.
Steve

[C. Perry Rapier]

Lynda, This is a great thread. For users I have a number 8 small logo griswold, a number 12 small griswold logo, and a Steve Stephens skillet (number 8 very finely made, beautiful finish, with bottom gate mark, and very old, it has the support at the back like the early eries and so I think it is possibly an erie or a skillet cast from the erie mold). For dutch ovens as users I use a number 8 chrome griswold, a number 10 griswold black cast iron, and a number 11 griswold black cast iron. One of these days I am going to cook something in the 13 griswold dutch oven. I have not used one of the waffle irons yet but will do so. As far as collector pieces I agree with Harry, I would grab the 13 dutch oven and then grab the 12 cause its close, and I have 2 Griswold spiders that I would grab also. Then if I had time I would run back in for a second load. Oh yea, also as a user I have a noname deep skillet number 8 with lid in black cast iron that I use for chicken etc.

[Greg Stahl]

Lynda, This is a great thread. For users I have a number 8 small logo griswold, a number 12 small griswold logo, and a Steve Stephens skillet (number 8 very finely made, beautiful finish, with bottom gate mark, and very old, it has the support at the back like the early eries and so I think it is possibly an erie or a skillet cast from the erie mold). For dutch ovens as users I use a number 8 chrome griswold, a number 10 griswold black cast iron, and a number 11 griswold black cast iron. One of these days I am going to cook something in the 13 griswold dutch oven. I have not used one of the waffle irons yet but will do so. As far as collector pieces I agree with Harry, I would grab the 13 dutch oven and then grab the 12 cause its close, and I have 2 Griswold spiders that I would grab also. Then if I had time I would run back in for a second load. Oh yea, also as a user I have a noname deep skillet number 8 with lid in black cast iron that I use for chicken etc.

Perry, you are only allowed to pick TWO pieces!! LOL

[C. Perry Rapier]

I took it to mean what we could carry in "two" hands or one trip. Oh yea, I could surely carry a bail handle attached to something, like a number 6 fully lettered dutch oven.

[C. Perry Rapier]

Oh yea, I forgot my cornbread users. A number 3 griswold small logo skillet, Wagner Krusty Korn Cobs Senior (Patent Pending), and a no name number 8 skillet finely finished and probably worthless.  

[Greg Stahl]

I'm with you Perry and Steve, it is almost impossible to pick among my "babies", LOL!! [smiley=crying1.gif]

[moosejaw]

Only two??  I have an old, unmarked aebleskiver pan that would have to go with me along with my Andresen goro wafer iron that I could never leave behind.  I sure would do a lot of weeping about all my other pieces!  Poor Greg would probably have a heart attack with all the fine pieces he would have to leave.  LOL!

[awdye]

Well, that depends on what time of day it is...

At breakfast time, my two favorites are a matched pair of early #7 wagner nationals, one for bacon, one for eggs.

At lunch time, my two favorites are a pair of #5's with the small diamond mark on the back, one for searing a chicken breast, and one for toasting walnuts to put on my salad.

At supper, it depends on whether we're having roasted meat or stew (a #8 iron mountain dutch oven) Chops/Steaks (a pair of #8 iron mountain skillets, one for the meat, one for cornbread) or chicken (a #8 1/2  deep chicken fryer skillet with lid, with a diamond mark on the back.)

After supper, of late, I've been admiring my early Wagner #10 deep skillet and my #9 early Wagner skillet-roaster.

but serious, if I were headed to Alaska and could only take two:
I'd take my #8 Lodge skillet with raised number on the handle, circa 1910-1920 as it has an interior that is glass smooth without a pit or scratch in it, and I'd take my #8 Wagner skillet circa 1900-1915 because they're both too beautiful to be separated from.  Of course, I'd wheedle and beg to take along my #9 Wagner deep skillet-roaster too for functional purposes...

[chrysolite]

For a user piece, I absolutely LOVE my #18 cookie sheet.  It makes the best cookies, pizza, bread, etc.; my wife has even given me permission to buy 1-2 more if I can find them (which is saying alot--she already thinks I have too much cast iron).  For a display piece(s), I really like my wood-handled, chromed, smooth-bottom, Large TM skillet set that I am putting together.  I only have a few of the pieces, but they really look sharp.

Mike

[Greg Stahl]

Those #18 cookie sheets are great for a lot of things!!  Last year I took two of them to our church's two day festival.  I was responsible for breakfast, so I put them on a gas burner and made eggs, ham, bacon, and the coupled them with toasted english muffins for our own version of Mickey D's.  They were a hit.

[Ed Allspaugh]

It would be a tough decision. But if it were on the fly , I would have to grab my hammered waffle iron, (that's the piece that started my addiction) and my set of ERIE skillets.