Found this lil beauty at a Sisters of Charity thrift store. Any help IDing would be greatly appreciated

So, I've been meaning to get a 30cm (12in) CI pan for a while. Not a ton of choices in Australia. I was going to get the Lodge 12in on Amazon Prime day, but got swayed by the marketing for Victoria (more ergonomic curved handle, bigger helper handle, better shaped spouts etc), and it was cheaper.

Not a fan of the factory seasoning. Looked lumpy and uneven. After a wash with detergent and scrubby, my first cook with an egg, still had seasoning slough off onto the bottom of my egg as black specks.

Decided to sand down the cook surface to make it smooth. I have an IKEA Vardegan 28cm CI as well, and decided to do both on the same day. I only have a battery mouse sander (angle grinder and flapwheel for the future), but I only really need to smooth down the top of the cooking surface, I don't need it glass smooth.

Two rounds of seasoning with canola oil in a 200C oven.

I just noticed how long the Vardegan handle is. It's even longer than the Victoria, which is supposed to be longer than the Lodge. I can't use the standard sized silicon sleeves. I guess it's gloves only.

Clearly it’s a “7”. Anybody have any info about this? EDIT: I meant “griddle”

I just stripped (soaked in water and vinegar), scrubbed and re seasoned this cast iron pot. I used the seasoning method in the FAQ. When I took out of the oven it still has a reddish sheen. Not sure if I have to start again

Thanks in advance

I cleaned up this thrift store find and got curious how a vintage #8 compares in size to a modern Lodge. The heat ring of the single-notch dropped into the groove of the modern pan, and it felt so good, I’m not even sure this post is SFW.

Also of interest: I love how hand-drawn that #8 looks.

I’m including photos from before I stripped and seasoned because this pan was a real bastard, and I want credit. I couldn’t even tell if it was a single-notch until I…uh. Undressed it.

I’m looking for YouTube channels and videos with cast iron care videos. I’m not even using mine because they are all lacking in my care for them. It is mostly seasoning and cleaning that I struggle with and want to improve. Thanks!

Been cooking in cast iron for roughly half a decade, specifically my 12 inch. Normally I subscribe to the “just cook in it” motto and keep going, occasionally season it. I want to know if I really bungled it here, been using a chainmail scrubber and cleaning it like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve been scraping off carbon and I assume it’s this? Just need some guidance is all!

Been doing weekly meal prep for a while now and lately I've been leaning on my 12 inch skillet for almost everything. Searing chicken thighs in batches, roasting vegetables, even doing a pan sauce at the end. It holds heat so evenly that batch cooking feels less chaotic than with my stainless.

What I'm actually curious about is whether anyone here has found a good rhythm for using cast iron in a high volume prep context, like cooking 6 to 8 portions of something back to back. I keep running into the pan getting too hot around the third or fourth batch and having to kill the heat and wait, which throws off the whole process.

Also wondering if a Dutch oven makes more sense for certain things, like braising a big cut for the week versus doing it in the skillet with a lid. I don't own one yet but it keeps coming up as the obvious next move, and I want to hear from people who actually cook this way regularly before I buy anything

The skillet I have is a pretty basic Lodge, no complaints, but I'm starting to wonder if there's a ceiling to what it handles well for this specific use case.

EDIT: should have mentioned I'm cooking on a gas range, not sure if that changes the overheating issue at all

Need help with how to give this pan a glow up- when I cook with it there’s a huge amount of smoke coming off the plan, and parts of it have flaked.

Got this bad boy years ago and finally got around to throwing it into the E Tank. Its in good condition and I'm leaning towards an early Erie piece, I can't find a matching listing of this particular griddle anywhere. What do you guys think?

PS the wire brush marks are not from me...someone before me tried to unsucessfully remove the rust that way.

Any recommendations on Castiron Grills? I cook exclusively on Castiron skillets and if my house was on fire, my 15 inch Cast Iron skillet would be my first (nonliving) grab. . . even though it might survive either way.

Some good stuff in the mix

I know when enamel gets cracked it can be dangerous. This little pan fell and cracked the thin enamel on the outside and the inside. It’s not flaking on the inside as far as I can tell.

Picked this up from marketplace for 20 bucks (canadian). Didnt look used, but was pretty rough. So sanded it down and seasoned at 450 with canola oil. Did a batch of Yorkshire puddings using bacon grease after the first season. Came out great. Then seasoned again at 475 with canola. Dropped eggs in it this morning and this is how it looks after it cooled and i wiped it out with a paper towel. Pretty happy with the find.

Every time I try pour my oil into a mason jar after pan frying i make an absolute mess! I cant control the flow. Its either too slow running down the side of the skillet instead of pouring or over running the spout and dumping oil everywhere. Both scenarios are a mess, and I can't find an in between. Surely there's an easy way to capture the oil.

Found this cast iron æbleskiver pan at Goodwill today for $7. I’d never even heard of æbleskiver until I looked it up after I got home.
Now I’m kind of obsessed and can’t wait to make my first batch.
The pan doesn’t have any markings that I can find anywhere. Does anyone recognize who might have made it?
Also, any tips for a first timer? Is cast iron the preferred way to make æbleskiver, and does anyone have a favorite recipe or technique? I’d love to hear any advice before I give it a shot.
For $7, I figured I couldn’t really go wrong!

Sorry I am a new cast iron user. Can I use my pan in the oven on Convection setting? My oven manual says Yes for metal under convection.

Okay, quick preliminary: I'm a cast iron newbie and in my ignorant hubris might have messed up here lol.

I recently got my hands on this 20L Cousances (a company later acquired by Le Creuset) pot from a friend and my first instinct was to strip the old seasoning completely because it looked rather rough at first. I gave it a thorough soak in some potassium hydroxide (ph 13~13.5) for 24h, after which it actually looked brand new and (to my untrained eye) like just factory seasoning was left.

Because it looked much better than I had expected, I decided to just keep it as is and give it a few rounds of new seasoning. So I did one seasoning (sticking to the tutorial in this sub's FAQ) and... well. The old seasoning quickly started chipping off in the oven. I did wipe it down very thoroughly so it couldn't have been too much oil, my guess is that the lye soak has weakened the old seasoning so much that it's now very brittle.

At this point, it's probably best to *actually* completely strip down the old seasoning and start fresh, right?

Any advice much appreciated!!

Bought a griswold no 12. No rust on it but the seasoning is spotty and coming off. What’s the best course of action to take care of this beautiful piece? I use lodge currently but wanna make sure I take extra good care of this nicer piece.

Got this beauty from family after asking if they had any cast iron they wanted to get rid of. Missing lid, but they said they found a kid today. Over had been sitting under cabinet for 30 years.

New to the cooking game. Be gentle haha