Lodge seasoning

W

W. Hilditch

Active member
It seems the newer Lodge hollowware is looked down upon for not machining the cooking surface, even though they seem to cook more evenly than the machined CI. There are many recommendations on this site to use a piece to complete the seasoning process. Below is an example of what using it can do. I do not oil my CI after washing so there is no oil shine. The skillet on the left was machined and has 75 years of seasoning. It feels like glass with baby powder on it. The center skillet has 32 years of seasoning, shows some wear and tear but is coming along. It feels like glass with some gouges. The DO on the right has 14 years of seasoning and is often used to fry as a skillet. It is not as smooth as the other two but does have more than 1/32” of seasoning.

The thing to note is that the two pieces on the right are un-machined Lodge. Seasoning has filled the valleys and covered the hills on the bottom as well as the walls making the Lodge CI great users even if a bit heavy. I believe teflon has been matched or exceeded in all three, but with natural seasoning.



Hilditch
 
The main issue I see is patience. In all honesty, I dont have 32 years to wait to make good food :) Also, I love working with history. I love using old tools. I love making things useful again. Im new to the CI scene by far but half of the fun for me is restoring. Cooking good food is turning into a great bonus ;)
 
The way I see it, it isn't just about the rough surface on modern Lodge CI. It is about the love of the artistry, craftsmanship, and care that went into making the old cast iron. Modern Lodge (and most other modern CI) is soul-less... lacks heart.
 
W. Hilditch said:
It seems the newer Lodge hollowware is looked down upon for not machining the cooking surface, even though they seem to cook more evenly than the machined CI. There are many recommendations on this site to use a piece to complete the seasoning process. Below is an example of what using it can do. I do not oil my CI after washing so there is no oil shine. The skillet on the left was machined and has 75 years of seasoning. It feels like glass with baby powder on it. The center skillet has 32 years of seasoning, shows some wear and tear but is coming along. It feels like glass with some gouges. The DO on the right has 14 years of seasoning and is often used to fry as a skillet. It is not as smooth as the other two but does have more than 1/32” of seasoning.

Hilditch
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I think you're trying to defend the unmachined Lodge, but it seems to me you've made an excellent point about why lots of folks do not like it. I'd ask why you think the unmachined Lodge "cooks more evenly" than machined pieces. When whatever you may be cooking has more surface contact with the cooking surface than all the humps and bumps of an unground piece it stands to reason that you will have more even cooking.
 
In my opinion, modern Lodge pieces cook just fine. You would think the sand texture surface would make it stick more, but if you're setting your temp correctly and using a correct amount of oil/fat to cook in, I find them to be quite non stick. If someone is just looking for a good CI skillet and doesn't want to go through the process of finding vintage and stripping/restoring, Lodge's are great, and they're quite affordable.

I happen to enjoy the hunt and the process involved with vintage CI. I also like that some are thinner castings, so you can get some variety of cook surface and responsiveness that modern pieces and their heavier castings lack. But that's for me and something I enjoy, it's not for everyone.

For everyone who wants things easy, modern pieces are great and can be cooked on quite successfully with very little time. Cooking with CI is much more about learning proper technique vs. a teflon pan than it is about years and years of seasoning.
 
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Many folks, with practice can make good food in less than 32 yrs in CI. I did it in about 5 yrs. Yes, the new stuff is soul-less and almost naked. It’s up to the owner to give it a sense of worth, one use at a time.

Kevin, I temperature tested BSR, Griswold, Lodge and Wagner #8 skillets as best I could taking identical readings between the center and edges of the cooking surface after a warmup on a gas stove. I then worked the % of differences to determine the most even heating.
BSR came out the best with Lodge second although Lodge needed a longer warm up period than BSR. Both had less of a center hot spot than Griswold or Wagner after 20 minutes@ on the burner. The Lodge was seasoned - no bumps.

As Doug H said, Lodge does not have the responsiveness of the thinner machined brands which can be an factor for the best and worst cooks out there. Doug has it all correct in my opinion and a new Lodge is a great first piece of cast iron to develop technique, and seasoning as a bonus.

Hilditch
 
W. Hilditch said:
As Doug H said, Lodge does not have the responsiveness of the thinner machined brands which can be an factor for the best and worst cooks out there. Hilditch
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I just commented to this on another site tonight, so I'm going to cheat a bit and paste what I posted there....

There's an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they test a new generation of thin cast iron skillets against other thicker cast iron pans, think Lodge & Calphalon. The thicker, heavier pans won, as they had more mass on the bottom to help evenly distribute the heat, and could hold the heat longer. The thinner pans would be hot mostly right above the burner, and would have hot and "cold" spots.

Thicker pans really are better for cooking, it's just a shame that the attention to detail has been lost over the years. Grinding the cooking surface smooth. Offering nickel plated pieces, hammered finishes, etc. Lodge just produces the Honda Civic of cast iron. I wish they'd step up their game and offer multiple levels of iron. The cheap stuff for the masses, nicer stuff for people who would love to spend an extra $10 for something nicer.
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No soul, mass produced, whatever... All of our "Vintage" pieces were at one time soulless, mass produced pieces as well. I love to romanticize cooking in 100+ year old iron just as much as the next guy, but it's the memories that make the soul. I've got a ton of iron, yet, it's the pieces my Mother gave to me that I always use that bring a smile. My other pieces, I sometimes think about all the great meals that have been cooked in them, but not like I think about the ones my Mother used.

**End Rambling...**
 
RickC said:
I just commented to this on another site tonight, so I'm going to cheat a bit and paste what I posted there....



No soul, mass produced, whatever... All of our "Vintage" pieces were at one time soulless, mass produced pieces as well. I love to romanticize cooking in 100+ year old iron just as much as the next guy, but it's the memories that make the soul. I've got a ton of iron, yet, it's the pieces my Mother gave to me that I always use that bring a smile. My other pieces, I sometimes think about all the great meals that have been cooked in them, but not like I think about the ones my Mother used.

**End Rambling...**
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Thick will certainly distribute and hold the heat longer, but whether that is better or not depends on the application. The inverse to that is that they are less responsive to necessary adjustments to the temperature. Trade-offs. (I didn't realize that Calphalon made cast iron! but that's another discussion)

Our old pieces were handmade. Modern CI is slammed out by a DISOMATIC at the rate of one every 6.5 seconds. Soulless, in my book.
 
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