First time poster. Thought this would be a good place to start!
I feel the need to extend this answer beyond stovetop cookery because I have a few less common items I think still qualify as cast iron kitchen pieces that have played a big role in my decision to collect cast iron
1. What is the first piece of cast iron cookware you actually owned?
A Griswold No. 10 Skillet.
Just last year, I helped an elderly friend of mine move out of his home after he sold it. In the garage there was a fair bit of choice items. He told me I could take any item I wanted from what was left. I saw the Griswold and it was the easiest decision I ever made.
This was in Humboldt County California. He told me his mother grabbed that old skillet from a lumberjack camp where it had been left behind.
Pretty sure it's over a century old, and it still works like a charm. Love it. I've meditated many times over a sizzling meal wondering what stories this old pan could tell. How many meals had it dutifully served before reaching me? Some day my kids will get it (after I have some :chuckle: ).
2. Do you consider yourself more a collector, a user, or both?
Both. In that, I never picked up piece I did not intend on personally using, yet I have a persistent fascination and impulse to enlarge my collection for reasons that are less utility oriented.
Though they are expensive, every iron item I purchase I do so with the idea that I can pass my collection down through many generations, if those whom I bequeath them to do not split or sell the set. At the very least, I have bought the last damn skillet/comale/coffee grinder I will ever need
Even my wildest purchase (A Bedouin coffee roaster from Saudi Arabia, which I'll show in another thread), was acquired with the full intention of use. That purchase still has yet to be used, but rest assured its day is coming.
I think greatest thing about cast iron is the marriage of function and longevity. I don't like constantly replacing things throughout my life. While I do enjoy the aesthetic appeal of my cast iron and it's role as a conversation piece, I know it can both, walk the walk and talk the talk. That's why I love it! :icon_thumbsup:
3. What is the first piece you acquired with an eye toward collecting?
My Spong Coffee Grinder. I realized that this was an antique, and while I could surely find one a bit more economical I had to have it. The black painted finish with gold trim looked sharp and elegant. It has both a vice to secure it to a shelf and holes from which it can be mounted to the wall with screws. Save for the stylish wooden handle on the crank, and steel 2 bolts, it is 100% cast iron (including the grinding burr). A very simple but nearly indestructible and elegant design. Grinding it by hand gives a certain satisfaction when it's time to have a cup.
4. What is the first truly collectible piece you acquired?
Has to be my Griswold.
5. If you were forced to give up your collection except for one piece, what would that piece be?
This is a horrible thing to put me through! :icon_rofl:
In all seriousness, I'd have to keep the Griswold. It bakes, it fries, makes a hell of an improvised self-defense object, and will have many uses while my other pieces will have fewer.
6. Knowing it's hard to name a single favorite, name up to three CI items, rare or not, on your "holy grail" or "bucket list".
1. A cast iron kettle. Not a teapot. A WATER KETTLE that has an IRON HANDLE (not the steel coil safety handle that most Iron Kettles have.) I honestly find the standard kettles of today ugly, their non-iron handle ruins the prospect of buying one for me. I guess it's partly because my teapot has an iron handle and I want them to match somewhat.
So far I have only found only enamelled teapots for sale domestically, and the aforementioned ugly kettles. I own a Japanese style one myself. However, most (or all?) of which cannot be used on the stovetop to heat water. They are meant to brew tea and keep it warm, and the water for the brewing must come from another source.
In Japan it is traditional to have one teapot for brewing and the other for water, both of which were traditionally often made of cast iron until recent times. Now they are still made by artisans, but the price tag runs high, and then there's the shipping all the way from Japan!
Two companies that I know of in Europe made them once upon a time (Kenrick & Sons, and Swain) However those pieces are now also antiques and while some are affordable, the additional shipping from Europe will kill you. Ebay has a rather lackluster selection of old rusted kettles. I have no problem restoring a worthy kettle but many of these have unnacceptable chips and pits in the iron that render them useless as anything other than a decoration.
2. A Cast Iron Oven / Smoker Setup.
I grew up in a house with a cast iron stove inside. We usually only used it to heat the home during winter and never cooked more than hot dogs over the flames. Looking back it was a fantastic thing to have in the house and a really rare piece. Since then I've seen some massive Cast-iron ovens for indoor kitchens. Complete with smoking drawers and different compartments for baking and broiling. That is the holiest of holies for my cast iron obsession. The cost of one would be astronomical. (Hey I can dream can't I?)
3. A quality hibachi or sportsman grill.
. I don't have a third just now.
