Was this skillet cast iron?

November 18, 2011 9:27 AM

Were the skillets I saw at the thrift store cast iron?

I'm looking to buy cast iron, but I realized I'm not 100% confident in my ability to identify it, oddly:

Last night I saw two old 10" skillets at a thrift store. (Sadly, I didn't take a picture.) Both were made of a single piece of metal and looked very much like the cast iron skillets I've seen, at least in shape. (Although one of them had evidence of fine bumpy concentric circles on the cooking surface like I've seen occasionally on modern non-stick cookware--this one's ridges had been worn smooth, though.) I wanted to buy them but I wasn't sure if they were cast iron.

They were both dirty, with stuff flaking off (not surprising), but I'm not sure if the stuff flaking off was some sort of enamel/non-stick coating or stuff that happens to cast iron over the years. The insides of the skillets were dirty/slightly rusty with a variety of colors, but the outsides and handles were mostly black. And the black stuff was flaking off or could be chipped off a little with my nail, at least on the handle. I'm confused about what this would be, because I'd expect any buildup that's flaking off to be on the inside of the pan, not the outside and handle. Does this happen with cast iron? What is it?

Also, the rim of the pan looked like it had had stuff scraped off from it or whatnot, and was kind of slightly shiny and grey, much lighter than I would expect. Does cast iron do that? I know the new Lodge skillets I see are solid black.

posted by needs more cowbell to Home & Garden (31 answers total)

Response by poster: Also, I couldn't really make out anything useful stamped onto the bottoms. The one with the fine concentric circles said "Taiwan" (which seemed odd) and the other had stuff that I couldn't read because it was too worn/dirty.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:29 AM on November 18, 2011

you can get new cast iron skillets for stupid cheap....and they're fun to cure (they don't start off black...you put that on them) IIRC, rub them with cooking oil and put them in the oven on broil for a few hours...open the windows, there WILL be smoke.
posted by sexyrobot at 9:37 AM on November 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Seasoned cast iron is nice and glossy black. If the pan has been mistreated since, by washing with soap or scraping or whatever, the non-stick layer you've added through seasoning can start to peel off.

Basically you'd just want to scrub the things down, wash them thoroughly, and then retreat with oil. You can read about curing or treating cast iron online, with the help of a quick google search.
posted by Stagger Lee at 9:38 AM on November 18, 2011

Were they heavy? Cast iron is really heavy. Like, REALLY heavy.
posted by misskaz at 9:38 AM on November 18, 2011 [13 favorites]

The concentric circles one sounds like a Circulon. Those have a coating. I'd not get that one, as my experience with Circulon is that the coating just stops working after a while (although it seems to be quite resistant to flaking off, as opposed to almost all other coatings). As for the others, hmm. I can't say for sure, of course. They're heavy, which is how I'd tell. Fresh cast iron (i.e. if you break the handle off and look at the wound) does look grey. Lodge seasons them before sale which is why they are black. Stuff does flake off the outside of my cast iron pans. If I got a questionable pan from a thrift store I'd sandblast the heck out of it to remove whatever bad stuff might be on there and start over seasoning it from scratch.
posted by zomg at 9:39 AM on November 18, 2011

Yes, these were almost certainly cast-iron. They probably just need some heavy re-seasoning. Here are some simple instructions on how to re-season. Keep in mind that it takes a while for a cast-iron pan to develop a good layer of seasoning. Also keep in mind that the more often you cook bacon = magic. Two years of cooking bacon in my old Salvation Army pan has yielded the most beautiful glossy seasoned pan ever.
posted by ourobouros at 9:39 AM on November 18, 2011

They sound like cast iron. Cast iron will rust without the black stuff, which is "seasoning". Seasoning will come off for a variety of reasons, but it's pretty easy to restore. (Someone will have a link handy, I'm sure.)

Removing the rust should just take a little elbow grease, unless the damage is really extensive. The grey color is, indeed, what raw, unseasoned cast iron looks like.

The dead giveaway should be the weight - if they're rusty stainless steel with a flaking non-stick coating, they will not be terribly heavy.

So on preview, like everybody says, they're probably cast iron, especially if they're stupid heavy.
posted by snoe at 9:39 AM on November 18, 2011

The first thing to know about cast iron is that it is VERY heavy. When you picked it up, did you get the feeling that if you dropped it on your foot you'd be heading to the ER? If not, you probably didn't have cast iron. Also, did the handle and pan look like a single seamless piece of material, with no obvious welds or rivets holding the handle on? That's a cast iron thing.

The (highly desirable) black seasoning that builds up on cast iron can and does flake off from time to time - which is why reseasoning is so important. On the other hand, the concentric circles and grey edge lead me to believe that you probably didn't have a cast iron pan.
posted by deadmessenger at 9:39 AM on November 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Just to clarify what I said above: grey can be characteristic of cast iron as others have mentioned, but shiny and grey isn't.
posted by deadmessenger at 9:42 AM on November 18, 2011

Here's a really excellent piece on seasoning cast iron--one that suggests most of the standard advice you'll find on the internet is either wrong or at least suboptimal. Short version: use edible flaxseed oil and do multiple very thin layers.

I'll second the advice that brand new Lodge cast iron pans are really cheap. Go to Amazon or wherever and forget about the second hand market. Unless you're buying antique cast-iron bakeware (hard to get modern stuff) there's really no point in buying second hand cast iron pots and pans. This is one of those things where "top of the line" is still very affordable.
posted by yoink at 9:44 AM on November 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

Sounds like these pans have been abused. A normal re-seasoning probably isn't enough. You might need to strip off everything and go down to bare metal with some oven cleaner (spray the pan thoroughly, put in a trash bag overnight).
posted by zsazsa at 9:44 AM on November 18, 2011

Yeah, cast iron is really heavy and made up of one piece with the handle and is the same material throughout (inside/outside/handle). Newer brands are often Lodge. Other (older) brands are Griswold and Wagner.
posted by shoesietart at 9:47 AM on November 18, 2011

Response by poster: So the "seasoning" exists on the outside as well and can flake off?

Also, I'm only looking for advice about whether these sound like cast iron, not advice about how to re-season them if they are. I've read a good bit about care and feeding of cast iron, but I'm just having doubts about whether I can identify a good used piece. (The new Lodge stuff doesn't seem as smooth inside, so I'd rather get old stuff.)

I totally would have thought these were cast iron based on the weight, shape, and how they were both made of a single piece of metal, but the odd flakiness, the shiny rim, and the one with concentric circles confused me.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:47 AM on November 18, 2011

there's really no point in buying second hand cast iron pots and pans.

Really old pieces have collectible value, although I don't think that's what the OP was going for.
posted by deadmessenger at 9:48 AM on November 18, 2011

FWIW, the "new Lodge stuff" doesn't feel smooth because it hasn't been used/seasoned heavily. Those pits that you feel in the new stuff get evened out and filled in as they are used, mostly with carbon residue from the various oils/foodstuffs. So over time, they become more slick and shiny.
posted by griffey at 9:52 AM on November 18, 2011

Here is a great post containing a few very good links with information on buying (and re-selling) second-hand cast iron cookware. In it there are the names to look for, and references to find more information.
posted by peagood at 9:52 AM on November 18, 2011

Response by poster: For what it's worth, both looked almost exactly like this (in shape/design, not condition.)

Do things that look like that but aren't cast iron exist? The concentric circles in one (which I could see, but not feel) threw me off...

griffey, I know seasoning will help, but there was a AskMe a few years ago where someone explained that the manufacturing process is different now and that the newer Lodge stuff is never going to be quite as smooth as the old stuff. I know the old stuff I've seen is actually smooth, not pitted at all, even when I scrape it with my fingernail/in spots where there's no buildup. Lodge stuff is kind of pitted.
posted by needs more cowbell at 9:55 AM on November 18, 2011

That picture you linked to is a cast iron pan.
posted by smorange at 9:57 AM on November 18, 2011

(I have never seen a pan that looked like that and was anything other than cast iron)
posted by smorange at 9:59 AM on November 18, 2011

As far as I know the pitting is a side effect of the casting process, you can see it on the handle of the linked pan, and it should still be visible on the exterior of your used pans. It also makes it pretty unlikely that you'd see fine details like words or concentric circles, they wouldn't show up in the mold.
posted by marakesh at 10:03 AM on November 18, 2011

Response by poster: It's off-topic, but I'm getting my info about the pitted/"pebbly" Lodge stuff vs. smoother old stuff being due to difference in manufacturing process from an AskMe from last year.
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:07 AM on November 18, 2011

That AskMe thread you linked to refers (in the last post) to "concentric circles" as a byproduct of the polishing process.

I don't see any evidence to suggest that a well-seasoned contemporary Lodge pan performs any worse than a well seasoned old pan, but YMMV. In any event, if you're buying rusty old pans you're going to need to do a lot of restoration work to get them up to scratch. One thing you need to make sure of is that the rust is merely superficial and hasn't actually pitted the cooking surface.
posted by yoink at 10:47 AM on November 18, 2011

Response by poster: These didn't look like grinding marks, though--they looked very much like totally worn down ridge on Calphalon. (But Calphalon seems to have riveted-on handles, usually.) Who knows? I'm going to see if they're still there when I'm near the thrift store again this evening, and I suppose I'll buy it, or at least take a picture.
posted by needs more cowbell at 10:54 AM on November 18, 2011

I've never seen "faux" cast iron. If it looks and feels like cast iron, I'm going to say it is.
posted by DoubleLune at 11:20 AM on November 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

(Yoink -- thanks for the link!)
posted by cool breeze at 11:56 AM on November 18, 2011

As others have said, cast iron is crazy heavy. So heavy that I am pre-mourning for my old age when lifting one will likely snap my tiny wrists.

I have three ancient cast iron pans that I picked up at the Sally Ann in 1990. They're fantastic. Of course, even if I'd bought them new, they'd be old now. They do have flaky seasoning on the outside and up the handles, too. The smallest of the three has ridges on the sides of the pan. It may have had them on the inside bottom at one point, too, but don't now.

FWIW, little while ago I was looking at cast iron pans in a combo cooking store/restaurant here in town and the chef saw me and said he'd never buy new. Instead, he looks for them in every garage sale he sees every summer. When I bought mine, I was a no-nothing 20-year old who'd grown up with Teflon and I manged to get them up and cooking easily. I don't foresee a huge challenge ahead of you buying them second hand.
posted by looli at 12:40 PM on November 18, 2011

As others have said, if the pan weighed 20+ pounds, you can be 99% sure it's cast iron. Nothing else pans is made of is even a fraction as heavy.
posted by zug at 12:42 PM on November 18, 2011

"I don't see any evidence to suggest that a well-seasoned contemporary Lodge pan performs any worse than a well seasoned old pan, but YMMV."

The nice old pans are smoother and also thinner (so not quite as heavy as the new ones, but still heavy). Get used to those and the modern ones feel really rustic in comparison. They still cook really well, though. Nothing wrong with a new pan, but the old ones feel much nicer.
posted by litlnemo at 5:23 PM on November 18, 2011

Response by poster: I went back tonight and only the pan with the small ridges was there. I decided not to buy it (the ridges seemed odd and a $10 gamble didn't seem worth it in my current budget), but I took some pictures in case anyone would like to see. The ridges/circular ring thing seems puzzling. The entire skillet also seemed relatively light compared to an new cast iron grill pan that was on the shelf next to it.
posted by needs more cowbell at 12:13 AM on November 19, 2011

The pan is almost certainly cast iron, but I don't know what it's had in it that caused that type of discoloration.

If you want a good, perfectly seasoned, will-last-forever cast iron pan, call around to local antique stores until you hit one that has a large selection of them; there's always someone who specializes in cast iron and those pans will all be cleaned up to perfection and reseasoned perfectly. They'll almost without doubt be either Wagner or Griswold by brand - those are the collectable brands, but in this case it's for a reason: they're the best. The newer stuff they call cast iron seems more than a little odd to me - it's too light weight, the color isn't right, some have wood handles (never! cast iron goes in the oven as well as on the stove), and I'm not sure just what material these newer ones are made of, but it's not the same as the old Griswold and Wagner skillets. The antique ones come in a wide range of sizes and depths, and when you get into the larger skillets they have an extra handle to help balance the weight.

These pans will be the ones you'll hand down to your children and grandchildren - I promise.
posted by aryma at 12:45 AM on November 19, 2011

The circles are milling marks. I have a cast iron skillet with those marks. It's unmarked for brand, but the circles are there. It's about 100 years old, from the South. After they cast the iron it is pebbly inside. They then mill it to make it smooth on the cooking surface. Not all skillets have gone through that additional step before being sold.

If you look at this blog post, a woman writes about seasoning a pan she bought. I know you aren't interested in seasoning! But click the photos to see them in full-size. You can see in all of them (before and after seasoning) that they have the same concentric circles.

On this Straightdope post, people discuss the pros and cons of the milled surface. I've noticed no difference in the cooking ability between the milled/not milled pans. Mine were first bought during a time when they were just serviceable skillets and nobody used flaxseed oil or had long conversations about seasoning them.
posted by Houstonian at 6:20 AM on November 19, 2011