Is it still possible to make cast iron skillets as good as the old ones?
You always hear people talk about old cast iron vs. new cast iron: the old stuff is lighter, smoother, and generally better, while the new stuff is heavy, pebbled, and generally a poor imitation of what cast iron ought to be.
So fans of cast iron go to great lengths to find the old stuff, pay good money for it, and look down on Lodge Logic and similar pans.
So here's my question: why is this?
If we can make high-quality knives at a relatively affordable price, why can't we make cast iron pans as good as the old ones? We're not exactly talking about Damascus steel.
Best Answer
"Back in the day", cast iron pans were manufactured in a much more labor-intensive way. Each sand mold (minimum of 2 per item) was hand-rammed around a form, which was a wood (later aluminum) "positive" of the pan to be produced. The forms were slightly larger than the finished pan to allow for the shrinkage of the iron as it cooled. Molten iron was poured by hand into the forms, which is as much art as science to do properly. After the iron hardened the frames of the molds were removed, and the "raw" pan was ready for machining. First the "gates" on the edge of the pan were removed by nipping/grinding. The pan was then placed in an apparatus similar to a brake drum lathe and turned. A counter-turning grinding burr (shaped as a truncated cone) was run across the cooking surface of the pan. The quality of the result was due to the fineness of the sand used in the mold, the age/quality of the grinding burr, and the skill of the machinist. The bumps didn't get "smoothed out with use". To my knowdledge, none of the major hollow-ware manufacturers sand-blasted any if their products.
In the late 50's, early 60's, domestic manufacturers had to compete with imports if cheap overseas manufacture. Labor overhead made the old manufacturing methods economically unviable. The surviving manufacturers, BSR and Lodge, retooled for automated casting. This led to the thicker, unmilled pans that are with us today.
The spiel about "the rough surface is for pre-seasoning" us pure marketing BS. I bought Lodge dutch ovens in the 70's that had the rough surface and NO PRE-SEASONING. They were, however, shipped with a thin coat of paraffin wax to prevent rusting. Lodge came up with the "pre-seasoning" story years after they started selling un-milled pans (and people complained about how tough it was removing the wax coating).
Older, smoothly milled, properly seasoned pans are WAY slicker than you can get any rough surface iron. My daily egg-fryer is an unmarked Lodge #5 from the 40's. It was a $5 crusted-up wreck of a thrift store find. Degreased in a lye bath, further cleaned by electrolysis, and re-seasoned with 6 baked coats of flax seed oil. With a wipe of oil, over medium heat, the cooked eggs slide around in the pan, nearly as slick as Teflon.
Furthermore, cast iron does NOT do a good job distributing heat, but DOES do a good job retaining heat. Copper, and even cast aluminum, are better heat conductors/distributors. A thinner cast iron pan works just as well as thick one. The only thing that thicker, rough finish cast iron does better than the smooth pans is sear meat.
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More answers regarding is it still possible to make cast iron skillets as good as the old ones?
Answer 2
I'd say that it's not that we can't make cast iron pans as good as the old ones. It's that for most companies that's not where the money is. A company doesn't make money by making super high quality cast iron ("like the old stuff") that costs $100-200 per pan and selling them to a few cast iron enthusiasts (those prices are random, I don't actually know how much those would cost if they were made, but it would be a lot more than the current price). They make money by selling $15-30 cast iron cookware to loads and loads of consumers. Back in the day when manufacturing wasn't as automated and people were involved in the process at a lot of steps, it didn't add much incremental cost to also sandblast and polish the surfaces, yielding the super-smooth surfaces that you used to see. Now, when lots of the manufacturing process is automated, adding in the additional time adds significantly to the cost of the product percentage wise.
So, could we do it? Yeah, sure. But big companies won't. I just suggest making your own :)
As a side comment, newer cast iron isn't as nice as the old stuff for a number of reasons, but I use the newer style cast iron all the time (my mom has not yet bequeathed me her old cast iron pans) and it works great. Not as non-stick, heavier, and so forth, but still excellent for cooking.
Answer 3
(yes, I know this doesn't answer the question directly ... I'm hoping this is still useful)
It's possible that the exact composition & technique might have been lost (similar to Damascus steel) ... but that doesn't mean than you can't get old cast iron, as the stuff is nearly indestructable.
The best place to get it at a reasonable price are yard sales and estate auctions. If you have a local thrift store, talk to whoever does their incoming processing, and tell them that you'll buy any cast iron pans, no matter the condition for a given price (eg, $10/$20, I should be near what they sell other pans for, and enough so that it's worth their time to remember your request). It's important to say any condition, because cast iron can typically be salvaged even when it looks completely foul. You can often find old cast iron pans at antique stores, but if they know what the they're doing, they'll clean them up themselves and mark up the collector's items accordingly.
We rescued my neighbor's grandmother's skillet ... it had been moved to the basement at some point, and was so disgusting that her mother & aunts had planned on throwing away, but it's now back to almost daily use after a pass through a fire pit, a wire brush and a re-seasoning.
If you rescue enough old pans, sooner or later you'll find some of the $200+ Wagner and Griswold pans, and maybe even some of the $500+ "ERIE" Griswold pans. You can then give your cleaned up cast iron pans away to friend who cook, or give them back to the thrift store to sell once your friends & family are sick of you giving them pans.
Answer 4
The old pans are usually smoother mostly because they have been use a lot over time, and the little bumps have been scrapped off
Cast iron pans are just that, cast. Casting does not produce a beautiful surface
Old style casting was very rough, and to produce anything resembling a pan surface they had to be ground and sand blasted
Modern pans have a smooth finish direct from the casting machine. They should not require further finishing. Just proper seasoning, and some normal use with metal implements
Most of the imperfections are voids (holes). High heat and seasoning will fix this with the polymerised oil filling the void, and covering the sharp edges of it. Any imperfection that are bumps are rare as it would be a flaw in the casting mold!
In new style pans, most of the bumps you see are grinder splatter from the finishing of the mold release points (usually around handle and edges). These splatter marks should come away with a decent wash and scrub, or just from normal use with metal implements
If you do have a very rough pan, new or old, take it to the local engineering shop, they should be able to smooth it out
Answer 5
Yes. You can still buy a machined and polished cast iron skillet. As of this writing, those skillets are cast and machined in Milwaukie Oregon and finished in Portland Oregon. The finishing involves re-machining any defects, polishing, seasoning, and putting on the handles. The octagon shape may take some getting used-to, but it allows you put on a lid that seals or rotate the lid to let out some humidity.
I'm not very familiar with the company, but if you go to the location in Portland to buy a skillet, they'll give you a tour of their small factory. My skillet was still warm from seasoning when I walked out the door carrying the cardboard box.
Rescuing an old skillet is probably a more thrifty option, however.
Answer 6
The answer, other than cost which has been described already is that the smoothness of griswold for example ended up not providing as much add value as you would suspect.
No cast iron is going to be as non-stick as Teflon, advocacy or not, and I am a cast-iron advocate and use cast iron to near exclusion of everything else.
Once you develop a nice seasoning, and this takes time no matter what brand of pan you have, they all behave the same. The principle difference between super smooth and not so smooth is how long it will take to develop this nice seasoning. My lodge 10inch is baby skin smooth, it started out dimply, but it's not anymore.
I however use that skillet a minimum of daily, and scrub it gently but thoroughly with a green scrubby which knocks the tops off the seasoning bumps, and oil and heat the pan dry at the end of each day it's been used (I said daily use didn't i?) my other cast irons bits are two 8 inch griddles which get used about twice a week for breakfast, and another 8 inch skillet which gets used when I need two skillets on the stove at once.
I also have a lodge wok which I adore for stir fry, just preheat it like everything else and it makes perfect fried rice every time. That wok is still very dimply since there really isn't a spatula that fits the curve exactly.
Answer 7
The new cast iron is better in most ways. Except for the old cast iron needed much more graphite in the iron to keep from sticking to the old molding methods. So a different alloy of iron than today.
Answer 8
Just ran across a Kickstarter company. That uses a slightly different process to achieve the lightness and smoothness of old cast iron (wax loss). And yes, they are a bit pricey...
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Images: Erik Mclean, Erik Mclean, cottonbro, cottonbro