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Re-seasoning a Cast Iron Skillet.

Re-Seasoning a Cast Ion Skillet
Posted by on January 16, 2015

Getting Another 100 Years Out of My Cast Iron Skillet.

Time for Re-seasoning a Cast Iron Skillet

Sometimes even the most adventurist have to do house work. Last spring after cooking breakfast of steak and eggs on my favorite cast iron skillet on the beach at Portsmouth Island, I scrubbed the skillet with beach sand and rinsed in the ocean – A big whoops. portsmouth island Several months later, stuck in my apartment on a rainy Saturday, I took on the project of re-seasoning a cast iron skillet. Turning to YouTube, I watched Martha Stewart and some other guy discuss the process. My pan was in worse condition than either of them and while they used either a SOS pad or a potato half and salt to scrub their cast iron skillet, I had to take more drastic measures. I resorted to 400 grit sand paper.

The markings on the bottom of the pan intrigued me. My mother had given me the pan to use on my Monocacy river float a few years earlier and she had mentioned that it had been my Grandmothers. Just how old was this pan I wondered? I turned to the internet for my answer and in little time I had learned everything I ever wanted to know about Griswold cast iron skillets. Based on the type, location size and even the type of font used on the markings of the Griswold pan, I discovered the pan was made between 1906 and 1927. My pan is around 100 years old. I was scrubbing 100 years worth of bacon and eggs from the pan. I was a little embarrassed that after 100 years of use; I was the one who messed up the pan by washing it in the ocean. I wonder if the guys at the Erie PA factory, back in the day, ever thought about some guy a hundred years later would try to clean his pan in the ocean.

Re-seasoning a cast iron skillet

It took sandpaper and plenty of elbow grease to remove the 100 years of cooking

 

Re-seasoning a cast iron skillet

The markings on the bottom of the pan intrigued me.

After all of the time scrubbing and sanding the grime and rust from the skillet and a liberal dose of olive oil baked on the pan, the 100 year old Griswold #8 cast iron skillet is again ready to cook. Re-seasoning a Cast Iron Skillet     Campers, overlanders, and exploration leaders can talk for hours about the virtues of aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium cookware. But I think I’ll just stick to my old cast iron skillet over an open fire. I’m the fourth generation to cook on the skillet, and one day I hope to pass it down to my daughters.

Re-Seasoning a Cast Ion Skillet

Four generations have cook with this pan.