I know my troubles are like a hill of beans compared to many people’s, but I had been somewhat manically determined to get to the cottage and stay there, seule moi, and after my brief hiatus and with the considerable help of friends and fambly, got back up for a night and closed up more properly [properlier, ed.?] and slapped some stain on the visible posts and fascia.
Painting around the screen is going to take some painstaking paint staining [hubby kept complaining mentioning that the stain seemed very paint-like and I kept responding that the label said it was stain even though it seemed very paint-like. It was a fascinating conversation …] but the screening is old copper and we would hate to cover it in paint stain as we might have seen in other cottages, that may or may not also belong to my mother.
I think the before and after pictures show a considerable improvement. Like she lost twenty pounds!
When we left in May. You can play where’s Waldo with the cottage:
When we left on Sunday morning:
I just wish I could straighten the cottage as easily as I straightened that picture!
Now why my personal toings and froings should be of much interest to others is something I have considered [and then ceased to consider, ed.] but having fallen off my hostessing bandwidth wagon lately, and having been both happily busy and sick as a dog, my philosophizing has been as limited as my internet access and so we are reduced to Xty, unplugged.
I had wondered about trying to pre-write for the blog, just while I wash out my laundry in public, but it is a live thing for me, you will be happy to know, and not a canned thing. It just seemed creepy, leaving posts to magically appear and not being there to tend my tiny seedlings. But back in O-town once again, opportunity awaits me like a rat in a drain [Bernie Taupin has a lot to answer for, ruining Elton John’s music with his hideous, offensive and unnecessary lyrics, I mean Jamaica Jerk Off? Hey kids, this is a nice song about waking up …]
See, there it is … the city cynicism just waiting to crack out … bacq at it take two, and grounded. Like an unruly teenager.
Good Morning.
Before the topic moves on, I figured I might as well get this one out of the way. Possibly even more versatile than the chicken fryer, it’s a #10 Wagner, with a matching Wagner C-10 glass lid. Nearly a foot across and 2.25″ deep.
With the lid, I can dutch oven things. Deep enough to deep fry. A big enough skillet to do a hefty batch of bacon and/or fried potatoes. Still fits on a Coleman camp stove. The downside is this gets to be a heavy thing to lug around the kitchen, or have take up space on your stove top. So, it mostly sits on a shelf in the basement, waiting to be called up for specific duty.
Last one, I promise!
This is a pretty handy item. Same size cooking surface as the #10 skillet, but without all the weight due to the 1″ sides. I’ve been using this for bacon, and it sits on my stove top all the time. If looking on Ebay, look for “11 1/4 inch skillet griddle”.
Last run up to the college dorm is imminent.
i suspect that cast iron will always be a current topic at the Lighthouse. if acceptable i will punctuate with minor posts of interest such as this.
anyway, don’t write off Texas just yet. my only suggestion for improvement is to put wheels and a pull rope on this thing…
http://nypost.com/2014/08/27/brewery-launches-99-pack-of-beer/
I went and got down an old and encrusted pan that is super heavy, scrapped away at the bottom, and all I could fine was 1058H, but that produced on Google these things, but I don’t think there is any more writing on mine.
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/ANTIQUE-1940s-CAST-IRON-WAGNER-WARE-SIDNEY-8-Chicken-Fryer-Deep-Skillet-1058-H-/310966496393?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item48670c2c89
It even said Chicken Fryer! but mine is super beat up, although the inside looks good. 11″ from outspout to outspout. I guess I should clean the darn thing up, but it is bumpy on the outside.
A Wagner 1058 is a very nice pan indeed. The real McCoy. It is a standard #8 skillet, probably the most common size, and will take the same glass lid as the chicken fryer. Technically, it is not a “chicken fryer” in terms of design though. Your 1058 is 2″ deep, while the “chicken fryer” is model 1088 and stands 3″ deep.
I love the 1058’s too though. Another versatile pan. Get a lid and you can do a chuck roast as well as any dutch oven. Fry anything. Bake corn bread. Clean that baby up and you are good to go! Great find.
On Ebay, search “Wagner C-8 glass lid”, and it will be a perfect fit. Oftentimes, the best deal for the money is to find a #8 pan and lid combo, or Chicken fryer and lid combo, or #8 dutch oven and lid combo. The lids can be pricey by themselves, and yet are often tossed in pretty much for free along with a pan.
I don’t know where it came from. It is heavy, so I kept it. But it was so heavy, and it looks unclean although the inside is fine, so we just somehow forgot to use it. I cannot see any writing other than the 1058H, and I am afraid to scrape away where it is a bit pitted and there is rust.
I think I will just to the bacon thing to the inside and see what a hot oven can do. Then maybe I will dare to take its photo. And now I can’t find a different weird old pan. I once bought a cast iron dinosaur mould from Vinnie’s but I have no idea what you would make in it. I will take a picture.
too big for chocolate
and here’s the inside:
now i want to find some glass lids for my skillets. they would be much more useful that way. and i love glass lids anyway. you can check on your food with out letting all the steam out.
i wonder if your pan is for those Swedish pancakes Xty. how deep are the depressions?
EO – can glass lids be found that fit Lodges also?
Swedish pancakes? I will measure the pan. I have gone and pulled out all my old skillets, and reading their bottoms might take some carbon dating. Nothing big, but one heavy smaller one. Still can’t find the flat one. But there was a spider the size of King Kong guarding the camping stuff. I tried smoking him out and then got at him with a broom when he proved recalcitrant. But i am not putting my hand in there without a glove.
One of the pans says CSW #8 Made in Canada, and is heavy and 2 inches deep by 8, and the internet is so far mute, but I cannot find anything on the bottom of the other one. Buying glass lids is a very good idea – we have one that fits many pots but I hadn’t thought of glass roofs for the other pans.
The dinosaurs are an inch deep at their deepest, and four or five inches long.
nope, not a Swedish pancake pan. too deep. it would work for corn bread though. i am going to Google some of my markings, the visible ones. i have yet to clean up my recent finds, except for the one i reseasoned using the grill.
And I rescued two of these, one smaller, from mum’s funny farm, and just now went and read their bottoms – you are an interesting lot.
They turn out to be from Denmark, Copco cookware, but these are cast iron, not enamel which seems to be the norm, now that I am an instant expert on Copco cookware, as well as a proud owner. The number 7101 is very clear.
I found the picture on eBay.
Feel free to give me advice on care … I just use it and wash it, and sometimes cook bacon in it if it looks like it needs it. But there is awesome crust on a couple of the frying pans. I use the pots all the time, just the frying pans are heavy, I guess. I need to do a mass reseasoning!
Not that it is important, but it turns out the other one is bigger, probably 8″. I always liked them but it never occurred to me to take better care of them, they just came at us from such an odd source, and I clung to them.
this site has everything – how to reseason, how to care for, how to identify… here i find that the one i reseasoned on the grill last week isn’t collectible, but is still a good “user” as they say. i already knew that – i burned the crap out of my cornbread, yet it fell right out of the pan! (did not stick at all)
across the bottom mine says spelled out ‘? INCH SKILLET’. i believe it is a whole number and a fraction that i cannot read.
“At some point, around the 1950s, manufacturers began to use dimensional descriptions on the pieces, such as “10 5/8 IN.” or “6-1/2 Inch Skillet” spelled out. These would either be in addition to or, in some cases, instead of the traditional size numbers. Later, metric dimensions were added by some makers. Generally speaking, pieces with such markings are not considered among the collectible, perhaps with the exception of some early unmarked Wagner Ware and some Birmingham Stove & Range Co. “Century” pieces, which are esteemed as good “users”.
from http://www.castironcollector.com/
oh – can you remove the handles on those Copcos? if so, you can reseason them the easy way in the oven, or on a grill like i did. those look pretty cool btw.
make sure that those Copcos aren’t actually enameled before taking my above advice!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Modern-COPCO-Covered-Sauce-PAN-7102-Michael-Lax-Denmark-/121418273290?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c4517d20a
DP, sadly I am not as expert in Lodge dimensions as I am in Wagner. I know that BS&R pans prior to the early 80’s had a completely different sizing scheme, and then they conformed to the rest sometime in mid 80’s. I know that Wagner, Griswold, and Favorite are pretty much identical, though if I were to nitpick (as I tend to do) I would say that early Griswold’s run just “one blond **** hair larger” (pardon my french).
I just measured a Wagner 1058 and I’m getting 10.25″ diameter without the spouts, and 11″ with the spouts. A C-6 Wagner glass lid fits a #6 Wagner pan, a C-8 fits a #8, and a C-10 fits a #10. I don’t think there are other size Wagner lids, and I don’t know enough about Lodge to know if they made lids of their own. If Lodge pans conform (as I suspect they might) then you are good. If not, then what I would do is take careful measurements of the pan in question, inside diameter and outside diameter, and then go to ebay and search “Mexico glass lid“. You will usually see a variety of lids and you’ll have to pay special attention to the measurements given in the listing, then take your chances.
Otherwise, just always be in the habit of carrying a tape measure when you go out to garage sales or thrift stores, and know what you are looking for. There are a lot of old lids from pyrex baking dishes and crock pots floating around out there and you should be able to find something that will work.
Good Luck, and yes having a good lid definitely expands your potential uses of a good cast iron pan.
Brand new Lodge pans sometimes come with lids, but those are of cheaper construction, with maybe plastic handles, etc. Blah.
I am drawing a blank on CSW, but Made In Canada, it has to be good, right?
The basics of everyday care are:
Never send them through the dishwasher.
Be as tender and gentle as possible in cleaning.
Just a quick soak if needed, and then just maybe a plastic spatula on it, or even just a fingernail.
Even just a green scrubby might be too harsh. Be careful.
Some say never any soap, but I’m not that strict if I’m only going to soak a few minutes.
Then rinse well, and dry well. Maybe a minute back on the heat to really dry it.
Then a dab of grease or oil with a paper towel. Not lathered up, just a light sheen.
The extra mile would be to heat it again at that point just to a smoke, then turn it off.
Never put it away wet.
And if all you did was fry a couple of eggs in the first place, just wipe with a paper towel and you are done.
I posted a couple of pretty good videos on cast iron restoration and care a couple of weeks ago, if you missed them, or are now interested in a refresher.
http://www.xtybacq.com/worlds-worst-novel-chapter-fifteen/comment-page-1/#comment-7652
http://www.xtybacq.com/worlds-worst-novel-chapter-fifteen/comment-page-1/#comment-7653
I use bacon grease, lard, or olive oil on my pans, all with good results.
i feel like showing off the best of my latest finds (again). 🙂
it is my turn to cook. see ya later.
Yeah, that #14 Lodge makes my #10 Wagner look like a pee wee. 😳
And yes, I have my dogs lick out my cast iron all the time. 😛
Nothing rougher than a dog’s tongue will be my new motto.
We use these all the time, and I would add I have been away from my messy kitchen for over 2 weeks, and I did NOT wash these pans. The back one, which you will hate to hear we boil rice in, looks like someone gave it to the dog and hung it up. Not that I make them shine, but at least I get the food off. Good thing we are having this particular conversation, and are also particular people, because I decided to take a picture of my pans … even I felt pretty odd doing it, but here they are, and they could use a little of at least my bacon grease if not a more serious effort. I didn’t know the handles were teak. Those crafty Danes, and I just finished basically dumping a bottle of teak oil on mum’s rowboat gunwales and seats [it could use an oil IV]!
And from the bottom of the little one, strangely legible:
These were at my mum’s funny farm and I suspect my dad bought them at some sale or thrift store. He was the baker and liked good pans. Both a good and a bad cook. But the pans were used on the wood stove and totally abused for decades. I think there was a casserole, which is bothering me, and I am wondering if there could possibly be even deeper recesses of our basement, but I don’t think so. We did also take the wood stove – you have never seen two more determined people when just hubby and I and a little wooden dolly (only woman I allow to really get close to my hubby, Dolly, and I often hope they will spend time together) took off the stove-pipe, removed all the pieces we could to get it a bit lighter, and then dragged the thing out of the farm, across the front deck and onto the thing we call the verandah, a shelf that attaches to the trailer hitch, and took it to the in-law’s. Where it awaits a brighter future.
On that picture above, with the two chicken fryers, and where I mentioned that we raised our kids with that one on left, well, I mistreated it for years. I didn’t know any better. After supper, I’d fill it with hot soapy water and let it sit overnight, or sometimes longer. It would start rusting right there in the sink, the seasoning was bad, etc. This went on for years.
My point is, it’s never too late (within reason) to start treating them right. You look at it now and you’d never know.
First text from daughter at college: “Can you get me some Frosted Flakes?”
Ah yes, a parent’s work is never done. Nice. 😀
With that dinosaur pan, I could see making little dino cakes for a child’s birthday party.
They can get themselves into college, but they still need dad to get the Frosted Flakes. You should have seen my youngest’s look of horror and reluctant acceptance when I suggested he change the lightbulb in the back basement that hadn’t been on as usual when he went in. He went back in, only to find someone had removed the bulb. I was only away for two weeks … if it had been much longer he might have been sitting in the darkened house, only his laptop to light his way.
Good morning Pete.
EO- that lid you use as a bacon fryer- just curious do you have the pan it goes to? Looks just like the lid to my chicken fryer, only larger.
Do you mean this one? That is not actually a lid. It is made specifically as a round griddle. Griswold used to make them in the olden days (model 109, but with tiny spouts), and then Wagner started with a modified version later. Most are unmarked in terms of maker, and simply say “11 1/4 inch skillet griddle, made in usa” on the bottom.
I know what you are talking about though. Skillet and cover pairs, both cast iron, that have sort of locking ears on them. Where the lid makes another pan or griddle. But I don’t have any like that.
Here’s a listing on one. Reasonably priced too.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-11-1-4-Round-Cast-Iron-Skillet-Griddle-/261557638065?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce60cd3b1
You are thinking of something like this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-n-1-Lodge-Cast-Iron-Double-Skillet-w-Cover-Lid-Fryer-top-and-bottom-jr-/121347501917?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c40dfef5d
must have cast iron when camping
still too hot to season any cast iron in the oven. but i satisfied a craving and made ginger molasses cookies. they look better in real life. they taste exactly right – maybe even better than Grandma’s. they are a little too soft though.
Whoa, hold the phone!
Major red flag on buying any new Subarus right now. Major oil consumption problems for the past couple years with the new generation of engines. They have technical service bulletins out about it, but will still fight you tooth and nail to avoid covering anything under warrantee. At a minimum, wait to see if they can get this fixed for future model years.
The cars are using a ton of oil, right from the start. Does a quart of oil in 1200 miles, on a brand new car, sound normal to you? They won’t even give you the time of day unless it’s worse than that.
Mrs. O’s 2011 Legacy had the old engine. I guess that’s why it’s awesome.
Looking to take my chances on a used Suby now.
Hello Subaru!
(they should love this)