I am obsessed with the Chambers stoves, but don’t think I’ll convince my husband it’s worth the back breaking effort of moving one down the steps of our property and wrangling it into the house.
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That house is lovely. The stove and floors are both great.
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If I ever managed to live somewhere with 100% renewable energy, my dream would be to have an Aga to cook on again. That was the stove I used when I was a professional chef. So incredibly wasteful of energy, but the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced in any kitchen anywhere. And my grandpa had a Chambers, so I know how good they are!
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Also, part of the rationale, is that that the seasoning resulting from flaxseed oil is supposed to be harder/slicker than other oils.
This may be true but whether this results in a better seasoning is definitely debatable. A lot of people (myself included) think that a flaxseed seasoning is too delicate under real world usage (not theoretical like in Sheryl’s original blog post reasoning). If I were to do it again, I wouldn’t use flaxseed oil. I think I would try cocounut oil or even Crisco.
Tips:
- The fumes from the first coat, in my kitchen oven, were unbearable. They gave me headaches and nausea. After that I switched to my outdoor gas grill and that worked out great. If you have a grill, use that!
- Sheryl’s blog post also mentions that at least 6 coats are required. IMO, this is overkill. I think ~2-3 with proper post-use maintenance is plenty.
I have sanded down 5 pieces of Lodge successfully; 4 frying pans and a dutch oven.
Just make sure to use the appropriate sand papers. Start with a really large grit, i think i started with 40, 80 is fine to start with, and then just like any other sanding job decrease the size of grit until you are happy with the smoothness of the pan.
I did it all by hand though, maybe the unsuccessful attempts you’ve read about were using power tools to do it? IDK, it’s worked for me is all I’m saying.
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Well played, sir.
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Grace under pressure. I salute you.
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I YAM JEALOUS. I was so close to getting a free Chambers a year or two ago… I called less than five minutes after the guy who did get it.
The down side was that it had to be disassembled and hauled up a narrow winding stair to street level. It was in some guy’s basement in Wilmington, supposedly in nearly perfect condition (which is amazing since most Delaware basements are very moist). The guy put it on freecyle because (like @ChickieD’s husband, perhaps) he wasn’t willing to schlep it up the stairs.
@Failure, I’m always amazed when people sand cast iron. I wouldn’t be bold enough! True cast iron is a heterogeneous material, and the outer layer can be quite different from the core; every piece of shattered cast iron I’ve examined closely (which is admittedly rather few) seemed to have a noticeable “rind” to it that I would not want to risk removing. If there is any porosity to the piece at all, it will increase towards the center because trapped gases (typically imparted by the form) tend to pushed towards the remaining molten iron as the piece solidifies from the outside inwards.
Since we’re on the subject anyway, porosity greatly effects heat transference, and uneven cooling of the molten iron is usually presumed to be the explanation for unevenly heating pans. If you see increasingly large pores appear as you sand or machine a casting, this is the reason.
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The “secret” of thin smooth cast iron is not lost…track down a cast iron wok - not the Williams Sonoma wall-hanger variety. Larger Chinese grocery stores around here (Boston) stock them.
The cast iron is around 1/16’ thick, a bit thicker at the rim. Overall the wok feels impossibly thin, but I have been using it for over 5 years - no cracks. The biggest issue I had with it is that as new it was coated with what smelled like motor-oil or cosmoline to keep it from rusting during shipping. It took some serious work to remove the stuff to the point where I felt comfortable eating from it.
They are mid-priced in terms of woks, less than the hammered woks, but more than the spun steel woks. I remember mine costing $14 or so.
It cooks like a dream once you get over the learning curve. Its heats differently than a steel wok.
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I have a lodge. It is a massive block of metal. It works amazingly well.
I don’t think sanding down the raised surface to smooth goes beyond the “rind.” We’re talking thousandths of an inch. The “rind” you describe on a lodge is pretty thick. Lots of talk about machining them down and how this used to be done on the vintage stuff in this thread. What has changed that taking a miniscule layer off will suddenly render the pan useless? Oh right, the magic formula for the steel! 
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Surely, I do scramble in a pan all the time when I want to be quick about it.
When I want to be fancy, I go the double-boiler route with some cream, and finish with chopped chives. That CAN take up to 45 mins, depending on the batch size.
They are a completely different scramble though.
As Jimi said, Have you ever been eggsperienced?
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Yea, I have memories of my mothers cast iron pans. They seemed to have a smooth sheen to them that I have never been able to accomplish with mine.
I seem to recall a vague reference to whisking the eggs in copper. Something about the copper contributes to the texture.
ah! found this:
Oh dear, I’m getting silly again…
CHIVES!!!
Singin’ in the Rain - Moses supposes.wmv
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Not unless you have yours machined.
We have a Lodge one too and I’m not really getting the concept because I’m used to a copper wok. It doesn’t seem to get hot enough, which I thought was the whole idea behind wok cooking. We have a gas stove with one burner that goes very high so it’s not the stove that’s the issue, it just seems that the cast iron diffuses the heat too much. Can you help? Is this supposed to work diferently?
I have never seen the Lodge cast iron wok. My Chinese cast iron wok is extremely thin. It heats very locally. Its only hot in areas where that are directly over flame. Unfortunately I just moved to an apartment with electric stove and it the cast iron wok doesnt seem to work as well on electric - this is my first experience with an electric stove…so I’m still trying to adjust. With gas off is off. With electric “off” really means “will continue to cook/burn for 15 minutes” - ugh.
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This is what I have. My Mother in Law got it for us as a wedding gift and it just doesn’t seem to heat up the way the thin copper ones do.
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Very few in-home stoves go as high as commercial wok burners.
The thing to remember with CI woks, just like any other CI pan, is start at a medium temperature to preheat for at least a few minutes and then put it up as high as you want. Copper heats much more quickly; with cast iron, you have to give it time for the entire pan to be evenly hot.
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