It was 10:30 on a cold Saturday morning as I trekked up a hill to my ninth garage sale of the day. I had woken up just after dawn to hit as many garage sales as possible. I was searching for kitchen gear as I prepare to graduate from college and start my full adult life, and up to this point, it felt like the morning had been a complete bust. But I still had hope. This was the garage sale that I was most excited for. The one that was supposed to have all the good kitchen stuff.
As I eagerly browsed the tables, my hopes of finding something good started to fade. We were too late. All the good stuff was gone, or at least that’s what I thought, until I saw a rusty piece of black metal tucked away at the bottom of a shelf. As I dug this old, ugly piece of cookware out from behind everything else on the shelf, I was instantly giddy, overcome with child-like joy at my find. Through the rust and gunk that had built up over what I can only image was decades of use, I could barely make out the words “Wagner Ware,” identifying the skillet as at least 60 years old, which is older than my parents, and one of the best pieces of cast iron cookware out there.
People have been cooking with cast iron for over a thousand years, with the oldest known use coming in Han Dynasty China, around 220 A.D. As a relatively easy material to make a pot or pan out of, cast iron was one of the dominant cooking materials around the world until very recently. In fact, because of their importance to daily life in 18th century Europe, Adam Smith described cast iron cookware as more valuable than gold in his seminal economics book The Wealth of Nations, showing just how common cast iron was then. And while cast iron is no longer as valuable as gold, it is a great investment. With proper care, a single piece of cast iron can be used for generations. However, without proper care and regular use, cast iron can rust. Though, as long as the damage isn’t too bad, most forgotten pieces can be restored back to their original glory. This is exactly what I planned on doing with my new Wagner skillet.
To prevent cast iron from rusting, cooks burn thin films of oil onto the surface to create a protective layer between the iron of the pan and the oxygen in the atmosphere. This is a process known as seasoning, but it isn’t enough. To maintain and even build up a stronger seasoning, you need to cook in the cast iron using plenty of oil. A little bit of rust can just be scrubbed off and seasoned over, but when a pan is left for a long time, it can be best to strip everything off and start anew.
To do this, I would need something that could break down the thick layers of gunk and seasoning on the bottom of the pan. Concentrated lye is the (dangerous) chemical of choice for this as it can break down layers of seasoning without damaging the pan. So that afternoon, I went to my local hardware store and got a five-gallon bucket and lid, a pound of lye, some heavy duty cleaning gloves, and a scrubber. With my supplies gathered, I went out to my backyard, filled my bucket with water, and dumped in my lye. With this danger in mind, I submerged my unusable cast iron in the lye, put the lid on, and let it sit for 24 hours, checking in a couple times during that time to scrub off the outermost layers. After a few hours, I was able to scrub off enough to read the word “Sidney”. At first I thought this might be referring to Sydney, Australia, which is the only Sidney I know, but after researching Wagner ware, I uncovered an interesting yet sad story of the American cast iron industry.
Here in America, cast iron is often associated with cowboys in old western movies, frying bacon in their skillet over their campfire, but the story of American cast iron is so much bigger than cowboys. As the world’s industrial power during the 19th and early 20th centuries, American steel and iron manufacturers in what is now known as the Rust Best produced what are widely considered to be the best cast iron pans ever made. Brands such as Griswold, which were made in Erie, Pennsylvania, and Wagner, crafted in Sidney, Ohio, hence the word “Sidney” on the bottom of my pan, were staples in American households. However, with new processes to make other kinds of cookware such as stainless steel and aluminum more affordable, as well as the invention of new cooking materials like non-stick teflon, cast iron saw a decline in the middle of the 1900s. By the 60’s, both Griswold and Wagner had stopped production and cast iron was slowly forgotten by most Americans.
With this knowledge, I returned to my cast iron the next day with a new found sense of purpose, a responsibility and opportunity to bring back a bit of American craftsmanship. The lye was able to get off (almost) all of the seasoning, but it does nothing against rust. To get that off, I would need acid. So, I got a bottle of white vinegar, dumped it into my sink with the pan, and got to scrubbing. I scrubbed, and I scrubbed, and I scrubbed some more. I scrubbed that pan until my hands hurt and were a bit raw from the steel wool, and then I scrubbed a bit more. I was going to get off every last bit of rust to make this pan as good as new.
Finally, I got off everything I could and was ready to reseason my baby. This was the easy part, as all I had to do was rub a little bit of oil onto the pan, leave it in a 450F oven for half an hour, let it cool, and repeat 3 more times. In the end, I have a beautiful and functional skillet that will last me the rest of my life if I want. It isn’t perfect. It has a little bit of a wobble when it sits on the stove, but it is still one of the best pieces of cookware money can buy right now, and for much much less than a modern cast iron.
For a variety of reasons, cast iron pans have seen a bit of a resurgence in the past couple of decades. The seasoning makes them semi-nonstick, which allows them to function as a replacement for non-stick teflon pans. Since teflon was created, its manufacturer Dupont has known of the environmental and health risks it’s production causes. In particular, the disposal of waste products used in manufacturing is known to cause many types of cancers. Recent awareness of this issue has some ditching their teflon in favor of cast iron. Other people just want something that will last longer than a non-stick pan, which in the best case will last about 5 years before it loses its non-stick properties.
However, when people go to purchase a new cast iron skillet to replace their teflon pan, it really is a case of ‘they don’t make em like they used to.’ Lodge is the most popular and affordable cast iron on the market right now, you can get one for 20ish dollars, but their pans are heavier than the old stuff, making them difficult to use, and they have a rough finish on the inside. Brands like Field and Smithey do make pans that are similar in weight and finish to the old Griswold and Wagners, but a 10 inch skillet from field costs $145. I got my 10 inch Wagner for $20, plus about $30 for the restoration supplies that I can reuse. Plus, restoring old cast iron also helps prevent the creation of new iron skillets, which is an energy and resource intensive process. Overall, a win win for the environment, and another win for my bank account.
In the end, restoring my own cast iron was the perfect thing for me. I did not expect to get into restoring cast iron when I woke up that Saturday morning, but I think the fact that it was an unexpected journey made it even better. I was able to get a top quality yet affordable piece of cookware to start my new kitchen. I was able to give a historic piece of American made cast iron new life, which has filled me with a new sense of pride for the workers of my country and their craftsmanship. I admit restoring cast iron isn’t for everyone. Not everyone is a cookware nerd like me, but the idea of restoring or repairing what we already have instead of buying new shouldn’t be scary. In fact, it can even be fun. Heck, I enjoyed the process so much that I went out and got another skillet to restore!
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