While I've been into it for a while, this year I've really delved into an unusual hobby - I collect and restore cast iron pans. It started a few years ago as a curiosity. We had a few modern era skillets that we used occasionally, and I appreciated their ability to soak up and hold on to a crap ton of heat to give a steak a good sear. They're nearly indestructible and were also highly flexible, easily pivoting from oven to stove to grill and even a campfire if we were so inclined. One negative about cast iron, and it's a big one, is the weight. Our largest skillet at the time was manufactured in the late '90s and weighed in at nearly 8 lbs. That kind of mass makes it hard to air flip a pancake or fried egg.
One day I happened to catch a YouTube video that extolled the virtues of vintage cast iron. While modern cast iron manufacturing is now highly automated, back in the day it was a more manual process, allowing a great deal of refinement that's hard to match with today's assembly lines. The finish on vintage cast iron is noticeably smoother because of the finer sand that was used in their molds. These pieces were also hand-milled, further improving the surface texture. However, what caught my attention was the weight. The more manual approach used by the old foundries allowed them to use thinner castings, which dropped the heft. The first time I picked up a vintage skillet in an antique store, my jaw dropped. Comparable in size to the largest piece at home, it was just a smidgen over 4 lbs.
I think what drew me most to the hobby was the silent history of each piece. Wood stoves were ubiquitous in homes throughout the first half of the 1900s. Major stove manufacturers of the time would often offer full sets of cast iron cookware as an incentive to purchase their prestige line of products - kind of like a car dealership offering potential customers heated leather seats or upgraded sound systems to sweeten a sales deal.
Ironically, most of those stoves wound up rusting away to nothing or eventually being sold as scrap. Meanwhile, those modest, utilitarian skillets, if cared for, continue to serve their purpose to this day. Most stories of these individual pieces are lost to time. Sometimes though, we're lucky and know the full history of a pan. I came across a story of a particular skillet that's been lovingly passed through 5 generations in a single family. Can you imagine having a family heirloom that's been central to every meal, every holiday, every celebratory feast going back at least 100 years?
My collection of cast iron has over 50 different pieces with some of the oldest dating to at least the mid-1800s. As I painstakingly remove a century's worth of rust and carbon build-up from these flea market finds, I find they're trying to impart a few lessons.
For one, I don't really own them. Cared for properly, these will last indefinitely. Therefore, I just happen to be their current steward, holding them in safekeeping for another generation.
Also, they're constant reminders not to focus on the wrong thing. Through the mid-1950s, people took great pride in their purchase of a chromed-out, enamel-coated wood or gas stove that graced the covers of that era's home journal magazines. Yet, few of those massively dear purchases survive into the modern era. What has survived en masse are the sensibly functional skillets that were originally offered as a throwaway item.
So whether they're objects we choose to surround ourselves with, or people we hold in high esteem, or even causes we support, make sure they're not the fad du jour like those pricey, shiny stoves from the Eisenhower administration. Make sure they're worthy of your effort. Make sure they'll stand the test of time.
There's a deeper lesson here that can be applied to many areas in life. Presidential elections, news cycles, and, believe it or not, even pandemics come and go. While these issues may be divisive, they don't have to be. There are bigger truths than who sits in the White House - an old friend who's seen you through most of the highs and lows in your life, maybe your grandma's secret recipe for apple pie, or even a cast iron skillet that's never failed to deliver a perfectly seared steak.
Like the sun rising tomorrow, simple truths always transcend.
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