Yeah lodge. Already have the skillet. A little bit of a learning curve but now I like it. Might need to get another one
When my wife moved out on her own in the mid 80's, her mom gave her her own mother's old cast iron set - a skillet, pot, and lid that fits both. I have no idea when they'd last been used, but I can tell you we've never used them. I have a large skillet and dutch oven that I use for camp cooking, she has a tiny skillet she uses for an egg once in a great while, and that's about it for 'merican cast iron.
I've decided to resurrect the old cast iron pieces that have been gathering dust in the basement, essentially following the approach articulated here.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/how-to-restore-vintage-cast-iron-cookware.htmlThe pieces don't have a brand name stamped on them, but by visiting this site
http://www.castironcollector.com/unmarked.php I've been able to identify the skillet as a "three notch" Lodge.
I found this comment on the restoration site interesting:
One of the wonders of cast iron is that it's tough as nails, and can last for generations. For those looking to take their cast iron cooking to the next level, a nice piece of vintage cookware is a pretty sweet first step. It's not that the vintage stuff is worlds better than the modern pans available today—the smoother finish characteristic of very old cast iron provides only marginally better non-stick properties.
But, for those of us nerdy enough to get excited about the details, vintage cast iron has a lot going for it. First, it tends to be lighter than its modern equivalents, which, if you use cast iron regularly, can start to make a difference in your quality of life (at the very least, your back will thank you for it). Second, it has that smooth finish, a final production step from long ago that was eventually dropped in favor of manufacturing speed and efficiency. Aside from the small improvement in non-stick qualities that the smooth surface does offer, it's also just a heck of a lot more beautiful to look at.
So, at some point they stopped making the cooking surface so smooth, degrading the non-stick property. As I clean up my wife's grandmother's pieces I am hoping they are the old slicker surface era type but the article didn't really say more about the subject.
