I saw this post a few years ago. Having read her other two posts on seasoning cast iron, I came to the conclusion that she was just making the science up as she went along.
In "Perfect Popovers" [1] she advises Avocado Oil for its high smoke point, out of fear that letting the oil smoke will release carcinogenic free radicals into your food.
Then in this "Science-Based How-To" (three weeks later) she switches to flaxseed oil and suddenly isn't concerned about the free radicals anymore.
There is no hypothesis testing, and there are no measurements of free radicals or polymerization. It's all conjecture.
Her third post [2] calls out "black rust"/magnetite as a key component of seasoning cast iron, because "someone sent me some links". The links are not provided.
I have no problem with her blogging about her experiences seasoning cast iron, but what she's doing is not science, and it is misleading to call it "science based". If the author were a chemist, biologist, or nutritionist, I could defer to her education and wouldn't be writing this comment. But her bio [3] doesn't indicate any such training.
When I first got into cast iron, I spent a lot of time on oven-seasoning. It turns out that your daily practice is much more important than that oven seasoning, and the two important steps are:
1. Get the oil hot before you add any foods.
2. Use a sheet-metal spatula/flipper
Humanity has known for a long time that when you get your cooking oil hot, it repels food instead of binding it to the cooking surface; but the amateur cook has forgotten because of a reliance on non-stick surfaces.
The sheet-metal spatula/flipper lets you clean the cast iron with each pass of the tool. A rubber/wooden tool will leave small, burnt on bits of food, which accumulate more bits of food; a sheet-metal tool with scrape those off before they become a problem. Also, a sheet-metal spatula will scrape the roughness of the cast-iron from the bottom of your pan over the course of decades, moving you towards that inky-black mirror of grandma's old pans.
I can cook anything on my cast iron, just by following those steps, even fried eggs: the surface is totally non-stick. And cleaning is simple too: sometimes I'll make a few passes with the spatula to scrape off any food that has dried on, but that's all I ever do.
My understanding about the "grandmas old pans" comment is that new pans are cast, i believe using sand?, in a way that leaves the "pebbled" texture. It's unfortunate, the smooth cast is certainly better, but I believe it doesn't have as much effect as you might think.
1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is going to have a texture like low grit sand paper. Any old Wagner or Griswold is going to have a much smoother base surface.
2) Make sure you get everything off your pan. If you did buy a new pan, they often have weird artificial seasoning on them. If you have an old pan, anything loose can provide a failure mode for your new nice coat of seasoning.
3) Don't get 100% of the oil off between coats as the article suggests. You won't build any seasoning.
4) Consider using Canola oil. The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning. That or I didn't shake mine enough.
5) Consider doing this at a time when you can open all the doors/windows. Even if you stick to the really thin layer, your house will still get a smelly smoke.
6) Don't leave anything nice on the top of your stove. My oven vents out over the burners, and a Le Cruset pot resting there got covered in a sticky residue that was a pain to clean off.
More background:
I tried this with a beat up hand-me-down wagner about a year ago. I did six coats of flaxseed while following the instructions to "get all the oil off" with a towel after each application. The result was a pan with basically no seasoning that everything stuck to.
I went back and repeated while leaving a thicker layer (still not oil pooled or anything, but noticeably wet/shiny). This worked much better, and left a decent coat on the pan that things don't stick to. Sadly I did not strip the pan back down after the first misadventure, and some of my nice seasoning is now peeling around the corners.
"The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning."
I'm guessing that you buy unrefined flaxseed oil, and that you keep it refrigerated? That's what you should be doing, and it's all well and good. But unrefined flaxseed oil contains a mix of fatty acids with different melting points. Some of these solidify under refrigeration, and give the appearance of being particulates when poured or used.
The story has a link to "Cooking For Engineers: Smoke Points of Various
Fats" [1] that looks real useful, but it does not provide any reference
as to where the values come from, and the stated smoke point
temperatures listed vary a lot from those listed on Wikipedial [2]. I'll
begrudgingly refrain from making jokes about believing what you read on
the Internet, but I figured pointing out the discrepancies might be
useful to some.
I've seen this before and have tried seasoning with flaxseed oil. In short, it does work much better than other methods. It also smells a bit unpleasant compared to some other oils when seasoning the pan.
Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula.
I also leave my skillet in the oven as a thermal mass, but that's another story.
I use soap all of the time on mine. I also scrub it off. Just throw some oil on after. Been using it for years.
Cast iron is a lot less maintenance than people think. I cook food too hot for Teflon, scrape the crap out if other pans, and like to throw things in the oven. I also use a metal spatula for everything. I pretty much do all of the things that these sites say not to, and never have problems.
I followed these instructions a couple years ago for some of my cast iron cookware, and it worked out pretty well. That being said, I only resorted to these instructions after failing to find a service to re-season my cookware for me.
I looked online for just about anywhere in Northern California and made phone calls to various kitchen stores and iron workers up to a radius of about 25 miles and found absolutely nothing. I would much rather have just paid someone who knows what they're doing to re-season my cookware than half-ass it myself. So does anyone else know of a service for this?
I keep seeing people saying this here and there, including the comments of this article. But I can't find any real substantiation of this carcinogenic claim in Googling. Anyone have something resembling real research?
She may be right that flax oil is better, but I don't think she gives the right reason. I don't think she knows what she's talking about as far as the science goes -- I'm far from an expert, but I believe most cooking oils will polymerize through exposure to oxygen and heat -- it doesn't require special drying oils.
There's a traditional black smith's finish to make an almost indestructible coating by rubbing some beeswax on steel heated to the smoke point... I imagine it's the same process when seasoning a cast iron pan with cooking oil.
BTW, There seem to be a lot of people looking for cast iron pans... Keep a lookout at garage sales and swap meets. You can usually find pans without too much trouble, and for around $5--$10 or so.
As far as seasoning goes, I just wipe some olive oil on and heat it 'till it smokes, let it sit, and repeat three or so times. As far as I can tell the oil forms a tough plastic-like coating. The only thing that'll damage it in normal use is cutting into it with a sharp knife or the edge of a spatula, or burning the coating off by getting the pan too hot. Flax oil max stick less, or be slightly better in some other way, but I doubt there is much of a difference.
Other than your recollection, I can find no evidence that Sheryl plagiarized this article from HouseOfPaine.org. Additionally, the archived version of the first blog post from House of Paine confirms that they intend to republish copyrighted material of others without authorization:
This website contains copyrighted material the use of which
has not always been specifically authorized by the
copyright owner. houseofpaine.org is making this material
available in our efforts to advance the understanding of
economic policy, educational, environmental, political,
human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice
issues, etc. We believe that this constitutes a “fair use”
of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107
of the US Copyright Law.
While this statement doesn't offer any confirmation, it seems fair to say that their beliefs regarding fair use are not in line with the usual interpretation of the courts, and indicate at least a willingness to commit acts that others would typically refer to as plagiarism.
Well, it looks like they're only months apart from each other. The House of Paine one refers to 1999 in the html file, and this post was published February 2000. Is it possible they're the same person?
Either way, it's kind of interesting. Nice find.
EDIT: ignore what I said about 1999. Clearly wrong now that I looked more at that page. They even reference 2000 in the House of Paine page.
For those of you who have the pebbly-textured pans from Lodge, this worked really well for me:
1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting)
2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust.
3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal.
4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.
A very timely write-up! Just last night I ordered a large (19"x16"), flat cast iron griddle[1] for oven baking after another disappointing result cooking pizza on my stone.
I used to own a pizza stone that seemed to transfer a lot of heat to my bread, even though it was relatively thin and didn't feel very dense. Bread and pizza would brown nicely on it, even though it was too small for baguettes. One day it cracked and I bought a different kind (Ceramic Chef brand). It's a little thicker and feels more porous, and I just can't get crisp bread on it even after pre-heating it in a 500F oven for 30 minutes. The new one is definitely a different type of stone. Maybe it's engineered for people who want to cook on rocks but don't like crust?
I'm excited about baking on a large slab of cast iron. I've had a 12" cast iron skillet for ~15 years and use it all the time.
According to the very knowledgeable folks on the pizzamaking.com forums, the best surface to bake pizza and/or bread is between 0.5 and 1" of cordierite, which is the kind of ceramic you find in pottery kilns. That's what I use with excellent results.
I also just bought a cast iron frying pan and it should be delivered today. I'm mainly curious about how good it can cook without having the nonstick layer, which feels dubious considering I am terrible at ensuring I don't use too much heat which would melt the Teflon and presumably poison me. Cast iron with oil/butter may be a bit greasier but hopefully more forgiving given my blunt culinary abilities.
Is the cast iron going to wick away the moisture like a stone? That's the point of a pizza stone, and what gives breads and pizza crusts that crispiness.
I followed the instructions in this post several years ago, and I can confirm that it produces an excellent finish. One of our pans has taken a bit of abuse recently, however, and has started to rust. I can't say I'm excited about having to do this again...
Still, you can't beat cast iron for durability and ease of cleaning.
In German speaking media, the universal recipe I found is to use any high-heat oil (canola, sunflower, etc), fill the pan with a lot of it (3 mm of oil in the pan), then add potato peels and a lot of salt. Fry the peels (and flip them in the process) until the peels are completely charred, done.
I tried the potato method and am not pleased with the results at all. I'm going to try one of the oil based approaches instead, they sound far less messy.
I'm fascinated by cast iron cookware, the durable nature of it seems to contrast with so much of the rest of our lives. Take good care of it and it will last generations!
It's not only the durability. As cookware my cast iron pans outfry every other pan I have. Their only downside is that they are not very large and since they are kinda needy when it comes to care I'm not sure I would like to have bigger ones anyhow.
My cast iron pans are awesome. They cook the best steak and they have been in the family for generations. I remember eating some good steaks as a kid that were made in those pans and now I use them myself.
I've been cooking for a long time and over the decades I've noticed non-stick has become better "value engineered" over time such that no matter how much you pay or how much you baby the pan, you'll be buying a new one every couple months. When I was a kid my mom's non-stick lasted for years, until the handle breaks off or something, but they've done a lot of coating engineering work to increase repeat sales for non-stick. So maybe a decade ago I switched to cast iron in a rage at my latest pan only lasting a couple months. I was shocked at the cost, I was trying to buy upscale to get non-stick pans that don't suck, and instead of paying $100+ for a six month lifetime non-stick I was paying like $15 for a lifetime grade CI pan.
I do understand how non-stick pan mfgrs stay in business, because they're guaranteed about two sales per year due to amazingly low product durability. I have no idea how Lodge and the others stay in the CI business because the pans last forever. Its a mysterious business model.
One more point to add is I have CI grates on my charcoal BBQ and a similar seasoning mindset applies to CI grill as to frying pans. Dump the coals, scrape/scrub the grates, apply some oil/crisco while it'll still smoke a little but not too much, you're good.
Another non-stick alternative I cook with a lot is stainless steel. If you're generous with the oil and keep the temps very high but not too high and start with a surgically clean pan, you can fry in stainless. "Barkeepers friend" is the best thing I can find for cleaning stainless. Stainless is also basically eternal. Unlike CI, if you're used to spending $50 at Target for a non-stick pot or pan, a CI equivalent will be like $15 but a large stainless pot could be maybe $100 to $150 for all-clad? I'm in the "all-clad or nothing" tribe of stainless users, there are cheaper alternatives. I like a steak in a nice near red hot stainless pan. You'll need the "barkeepers friend" cleaning powder after that. I could imagine that powder would strip a CI pan pretty well, given how well it strips baked on stuff off stainless pans.
This. The older I get, the more I care about purchasing or preferrably re-using proper durable tools of all kinds. Cast iron cookware is one of those. Another thing I love: the scythe. Belonged to my grandmother's father and because of genes I happen to have his posture making the scythe a pretty good fit for me. This handmade tool, now being close to hundred years old but with a new blade outperforms any motorized tool I've tried for mowing our grass. Cuts faster, less tiring, non-polluting, doesn't throw grass or rocks in your face and so on.
The reason it lasts generations is that the previous generations didn't use it! They put it up in the attic and used an aluminum or stainless, porcelain or copper cookware instead.
The impossible to remove gunk in deep-fryers is also commonly attributed to polymerization. What are really the properties of polymerized cooking fats?
[+] [-] bjt|11 years ago|reply
In "Perfect Popovers" [1] she advises Avocado Oil for its high smoke point, out of fear that letting the oil smoke will release carcinogenic free radicals into your food.
Then in this "Science-Based How-To" (three weeks later) she switches to flaxseed oil and suddenly isn't concerned about the free radicals anymore.
There is no hypothesis testing, and there are no measurements of free radicals or polymerization. It's all conjecture.
Her third post [2] calls out "black rust"/magnetite as a key component of seasoning cast iron, because "someone sent me some links". The links are not provided.
I have no problem with her blogging about her experiences seasoning cast iron, but what she's doing is not science, and it is misleading to call it "science based". If the author were a chemist, biologist, or nutritionist, I could defer to her education and wouldn't be writing this comment. But her bio [3] doesn't indicate any such training.
[1] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-a...
[2] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cas...
[3] http://sherylcanter.com/background.php
[+] [-] wodenokoto|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JASchilz|11 years ago|reply
1. Get the oil hot before you add any foods.
2. Use a sheet-metal spatula/flipper
Humanity has known for a long time that when you get your cooking oil hot, it repels food instead of binding it to the cooking surface; but the amateur cook has forgotten because of a reliance on non-stick surfaces.
The sheet-metal spatula/flipper lets you clean the cast iron with each pass of the tool. A rubber/wooden tool will leave small, burnt on bits of food, which accumulate more bits of food; a sheet-metal tool with scrape those off before they become a problem. Also, a sheet-metal spatula will scrape the roughness of the cast-iron from the bottom of your pan over the course of decades, moving you towards that inky-black mirror of grandma's old pans.
I can cook anything on my cast iron, just by following those steps, even fried eggs: the surface is totally non-stick. And cleaning is simple too: sometimes I'll make a few passes with the spatula to scrape off any food that has dried on, but that's all I ever do.
[+] [-] davorb|11 years ago|reply
I really don't think that will happen. The reason your new cast iron pan doesn't have that shine is because they've changed how they make them.
[+] [-] zhte415|11 years ago|reply
A few things I do:
Use wire mesh to clean, quickly, immediately after cooking.
Only use tap water to clean it. No detergents. This allows the pan to develop a literal taste of its own after a few months or years.
Heat the pan after cleaning, evaporating all water.
[+] [-] encoderer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vosper|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yojo|11 years ago|reply
1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is going to have a texture like low grit sand paper. Any old Wagner or Griswold is going to have a much smoother base surface.
2) Make sure you get everything off your pan. If you did buy a new pan, they often have weird artificial seasoning on them. If you have an old pan, anything loose can provide a failure mode for your new nice coat of seasoning.
3) Don't get 100% of the oil off between coats as the article suggests. You won't build any seasoning.
4) Consider using Canola oil. The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning. That or I didn't shake mine enough.
5) Consider doing this at a time when you can open all the doors/windows. Even if you stick to the really thin layer, your house will still get a smelly smoke.
6) Don't leave anything nice on the top of your stove. My oven vents out over the burners, and a Le Cruset pot resting there got covered in a sticky residue that was a pain to clean off.
More background:
I tried this with a beat up hand-me-down wagner about a year ago. I did six coats of flaxseed while following the instructions to "get all the oil off" with a towel after each application. The result was a pan with basically no seasoning that everything stuck to.
I went back and repeated while leaving a thicker layer (still not oil pooled or anything, but noticeably wet/shiny). This worked much better, and left a decent coat on the pan that things don't stick to. Sadly I did not strip the pan back down after the first misadventure, and some of my nice seasoning is now peeling around the corners.
[+] [-] jonnathanson|11 years ago|reply
I'm guessing that you buy unrefined flaxseed oil, and that you keep it refrigerated? That's what you should be doing, and it's all well and good. But unrefined flaxseed oil contains a mix of fatty acids with different melting points. Some of these solidify under refrigeration, and give the appearance of being particulates when poured or used.
[+] [-] batbomb|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _greim_|11 years ago|reply
Running it through a simple coffee filter might fix this.
[+] [-] jules|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kinofcain|11 years ago|reply
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron...
[+] [-] Zancarius|11 years ago|reply
One of my personal favorites is on making the perfect french fries:
http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h...
[+] [-] jcr|11 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-o...
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point
[+] [-] peatmoss|11 years ago|reply
Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula.
I also leave my skillet in the oven as a thermal mass, but that's another story.
[+] [-] mrcsparker|11 years ago|reply
Cast iron is a lot less maintenance than people think. I cook food too hot for Teflon, scrape the crap out if other pans, and like to throw things in the oven. I also use a metal spatula for everything. I pretty much do all of the things that these sites say not to, and never have problems.
[+] [-] slm_HN|11 years ago|reply
Rubber spatulas aren't recommended for cast iron. You're much better off with a metal spatula as long as it has a straight edge.
[+] [-] droob|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] inspector-g|11 years ago|reply
I looked online for just about anywhere in Northern California and made phone calls to various kitchen stores and iron workers up to a radius of about 25 miles and found absolutely nothing. I would much rather have just paid someone who knows what they're doing to re-season my cookware than half-ass it myself. So does anyone else know of a service for this?
[+] [-] fsloth|11 years ago|reply
My family will actually eat healthier food after I read this article since "Dad's panfried stuff" will no longer be so carcinogenic :)
[+] [-] claar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] webnrrd2k|11 years ago|reply
There's a traditional black smith's finish to make an almost indestructible coating by rubbing some beeswax on steel heated to the smoke point... I imagine it's the same process when seasoning a cast iron pan with cooking oil.
BTW, There seem to be a lot of people looking for cast iron pans... Keep a lookout at garage sales and swap meets. You can usually find pans without too much trouble, and for around $5--$10 or so.
As far as seasoning goes, I just wipe some olive oil on and heat it 'till it smokes, let it sit, and repeat three or so times. As far as I can tell the oil forms a tough plastic-like coating. The only thing that'll damage it in normal use is cutting into it with a sharp knife or the edge of a spatula, or burning the coating off by getting the pan too hot. Flax oil max stick less, or be slightly better in some other way, but I doubt there is much of a difference.
[+] [-] msandford|11 years ago|reply
http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/
Scroll down to "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning" and compare with her "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning"
I remember reading that other webpage some years ago, while her post is brand new. This kind of un-credited copying might well be called "plagarism"
[+] [-] nkurz|11 years ago|reply
Other than your recollection, I can find no evidence that Sheryl plagiarized this article from HouseOfPaine.org. Additionally, the archived version of the first blog post from House of Paine confirms that they intend to republish copyrighted material of others without authorization:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090825155249/http://www.houseof...While this statement doesn't offer any confirmation, it seems fair to say that their beliefs regarding fair use are not in line with the usual interpretation of the courts, and indicate at least a willingness to commit acts that others would typically refer to as plagiarism.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] gareim|11 years ago|reply
Either way, it's kind of interesting. Nice find.
EDIT: ignore what I said about 1999. Clearly wrong now that I looked more at that page. They even reference 2000 in the House of Paine page.
[+] [-] abakker|11 years ago|reply
1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting)
2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust.
3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal.
4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.
[+] [-] SippinLean|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] covercash|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sterwill|11 years ago|reply
I used to own a pizza stone that seemed to transfer a lot of heat to my bread, even though it was relatively thin and didn't feel very dense. Bread and pizza would brown nicely on it, even though it was too small for baguettes. One day it cracked and I bought a different kind (Ceramic Chef brand). It's a little thicker and feels more porous, and I just can't get crisp bread on it even after pre-heating it in a 500F oven for 30 minutes. The new one is definitely a different type of stone. Maybe it's engineered for people who want to cook on rocks but don't like crust?
I'm excited about baking on a large slab of cast iron. I've had a 12" cast iron skillet for ~15 years and use it all the time.
[1] http://www.katom.com/067-1016905.html (store link; the manufacturer only describes it in detail in a PDF)
[+] [-] benselme|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] steven2012|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hvs|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Tcepsa|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rquantz|11 years ago|reply
Still, you can't beat cast iron for durability and ease of cleaning.
[+] [-] Nitramp|11 years ago|reply
In German speaking media, the universal recipe I found is to use any high-heat oil (canola, sunflower, etc), fill the pan with a lot of it (3 mm of oil in the pan), then add potato peels and a lot of salt. Fry the peels (and flip them in the process) until the peels are completely charred, done.
I haven't tried either.
[+] [-] qwertz123|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nux|11 years ago|reply
I'm fascinated by cast iron cookware, the durable nature of it seems to contrast with so much of the rest of our lives. Take good care of it and it will last generations!
[+] [-] fsloth|11 years ago|reply
My cast iron pans are awesome. They cook the best steak and they have been in the family for generations. I remember eating some good steaks as a kid that were made in those pans and now I use them myself.
[+] [-] VLM|11 years ago|reply
I do understand how non-stick pan mfgrs stay in business, because they're guaranteed about two sales per year due to amazingly low product durability. I have no idea how Lodge and the others stay in the CI business because the pans last forever. Its a mysterious business model.
One more point to add is I have CI grates on my charcoal BBQ and a similar seasoning mindset applies to CI grill as to frying pans. Dump the coals, scrape/scrub the grates, apply some oil/crisco while it'll still smoke a little but not too much, you're good.
Another non-stick alternative I cook with a lot is stainless steel. If you're generous with the oil and keep the temps very high but not too high and start with a surgically clean pan, you can fry in stainless. "Barkeepers friend" is the best thing I can find for cleaning stainless. Stainless is also basically eternal. Unlike CI, if you're used to spending $50 at Target for a non-stick pot or pan, a CI equivalent will be like $15 but a large stainless pot could be maybe $100 to $150 for all-clad? I'm in the "all-clad or nothing" tribe of stainless users, there are cheaper alternatives. I like a steak in a nice near red hot stainless pan. You'll need the "barkeepers friend" cleaning powder after that. I could imagine that powder would strip a CI pan pretty well, given how well it strips baked on stuff off stainless pans.
[+] [-] stinos|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ensignavenger|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] giardini|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foobarian|11 years ago|reply
I haven't seen more high end antique pans first hand, but my understanding is that they were factory-polished, and that this step is somewhat costly.
[+] [-] fulafel|11 years ago|reply