Guga's favorite cast iron pan rusted out by his nephew

Ah! I didn’t watch the video, didn’t know it was a bumpy contemporary model.

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I have my grandfather’s cast iron, and it too is slick as glass. As a metalworker, I took all my modern, rough cast stuff to the shop and polished the surfaces, and sure enough after seasoning even the new stuff was much easier to cook with. I wonder if there’s a business model in there . . .

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I’ve wondered about doing this with my griddle (like, every time I cook on it), but assumed it would take forever. You’ve got my attention.

Yeah, that’s what kind of annoys me about it. It seems like a company like Lodge could release a range of “chef quality” cast iron with little to no effort. I would gladly pay a little extra. A little extra, mind you.

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My understanding of the issue is that the mass production seasoning of cast iron is difficult to do with polished surfaces. So it isn’t only the grinding itself that adds cost, but the pre-seasoning would take longer and be more expensive. Alternately they could sell them unseasoned like our grandparents bought, but I guess they would probably still need some coating or they would rust during storage and transport.

In terms of semi-premium cast iron, lodge has their “blacklock” line which is thinner and lighter than their standard stuff – it is supposed to be on par with high quality antiques. It’s a fair bit more expensive and still comes with the sand cast texture.

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My daily use duo

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Probably because it’s fake. Increasingly these “restoration” videos involve tarting up the “before” item to make it look worse than it is. Dunking it in bleach, for example, with create a lot of flash rust that looks really dramatically bad on the car/heirloom/frying pan but is trivially removed with any mild acid or rust converters like Evaporust.

Always be suspicious when the before item has very thin even orange rust on it, and no deep scaling, pitting, or dark brown/red rust.

I’m not saying this video is fake, but more and more restoration videos are. It’s too much of a cash cow not to be abused.

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Yeah, I was thinking about this again because I’m cooking and realized that the pan that he’s fawning over preserving the “details” of (ie the logo) is the same brand as the burner he uses to season it. :thinking:

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(Also I agree with those suggesting this is probably a fake story)

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It’s not exactly the same but heavier carbon steel pans are smooth with many of the benefits of cast iron. Omlettes etc slide right off the smooth surface.

I have yet to find an economical smooth (non enamled) cast iron pan as well.

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I just got a badass wok and fully tempered and seasoned it. It’s been great so far!

Ok, ok since you asked, I’ll post photos of the process.

Just beginning to blue:

Fully blued:

The first coat of oil:

I soaked a paper towel and wrapped it in aluminum foil to keep the wooden handle from burning, then finished it in a beeswax oil:

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One of my aunts loaned her cast iron pots and pans to a neighbor who needed them for some celebratory occasion. When they were returned, nu aunt discovered that they had been scrubbed. All that “seasoning” obliterated.

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Here is another super sus pan and 6.5M views:

When I got my totally shitty looking Wagner Ware for $1.75 or whatever from Goodwill it looked like someone had completely carbonized E.T. having shat on it. Decades of awful, and it cleaned up fantastically. This pan. and the Guga one, look like they had 3 nights soaked in water within 1.5m of the ocean.

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Ooh I “need” one of those outdoor burners. I’m currently working the slow way into a patina on my new carbon steel wok which isn’t exactly fast up the sides with an electric element. I might have to put the blowtorch on for more concentrated heating, rather than just for cooking.


Not pretty yet but its building up. (theres no gunk it’s just uneven)

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Can you remove the wood elements, coat with Pam and toss in a BBQ?

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Obligatory:

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The main handle does come off, but the secondary one is not removeable.

Although… Now that you say BBQ, I think if I cover the wood part and build a reasonable mound of lit charcoal I could probably get the wok pretty screaming hot from the bottom.

Might have to experiment this weekend when I fire up my smoker :thinking:

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An hour at 350 will do it if you can protect the handle.

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Yeah I would normally toss the whole thing in the oven…

I might try to build a little heat sink for the small handle out of foil with some wet paper towel between layers. Experimenting weekend time.

Its a bit awkward having a slick non stick base and sticky sides. Makes tossing suboptimal :wink:

I have a Lodge cast iron wok, and there are no wood bits. :slight_smile:

It weighs more than I do tho. Moving it around is like doing deadlifts.

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Anytime someone questions my love of cast iron skillets, I point out the years of gym memberships they’ve saved me from :wink:

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