Cast Iron and Sticky Fingers

Where was I? Oh yes, leaving Nashville.

Our route home took us through Chattanooga which meant we would be driving right past the Lodge Manufacturing foundry and outlet store. I have posted on this before. Several years ago I had an opportunity to spend a day in the foundry touring it and picking it apart. Neat place. Afterwards I dropped a pretty penny in their outlet store. I have more than a complete "set" now. At the time you could still buy raw unseasoned pans, not anymore. I don't know why but I like seasoning my own for some reason. I don't always do the outsides either. Anyway, we stopped in, had a good look around and didn't spend as much money as I did before. I wish I had planned better and brought my buddy's business card with me and got an extra 10% off. Of well.

Dinah bought for me an enameled three quart casserole dish, in red to match other stuff I have, as an anniversary present. It had some nearly invisible blemishes in the coating. Amazon has this item "on sale" for $59.83, regularly $77.50. She bought it here for $29.95. For herself she bought an apple dutch oven which she has longed for for awhile. It almost matches our plates. Amazon has it for $116.70 marked down from $169. I think Dinah bought it for $60. Both broke my rule about buying Chinese iron but I didn't make the purchase. I don't turn away gifts! ;-)

I can't remember all of the things we bought and the prices. I know I bought this muffin pan for $8.95. I got it out of the back room where the casting defect stuff is.That's where the real bargains are. It's pretty easy for me to find stuff with meaningless defects since I used to do that for a living. I was compelled to buy another little witch's kettle. This one was seasoned of course. My old one is not which I use for keeping change in. I paid $7.95. I was tempted to buy a giant Dutch oven, but really don't have a need. They were less than half price. We also bought two mini-corn stick pans, about nine bucks I think, and a cast iron horse toy for Rose. That thing has a big sand inclusion in it's side. Damn Chinese castings. Well worth the stop if you are in the area.

After we left we opted to eat in Chattanooga. I take great joy in letting Rose pick where we are going to eat. It's better than a magic eight ball. I let her chose between Sticky Fingers and Big River Grill. It almost didn't work because she would change her mind every minute, even as we would pull into the parking lot. But I did get her to commit to Sticky Hands, as she called it. I got the ribs. This isn't the first time I've eaten at this chain but those ribs were some of the best I've had in a while. They were so good and so what I had been craving. Nobody has good Memphis style ribs where we live. I know I am going to be disappointed anywhere I get ribs until we travel out of town again.

Olvida Cookware

I'm a metal guy. I love all things made of metal. And my passion is lowly cast iron. On the cooking side, I have quite a complement of cast iron pots and pans, perhaps even too many. I've had the good fortune to tour the Lodge factory where most of today's US made pans are made. Lately I've been cooking with a cast iron pan at least three times a week and loving it more and more with each time. So I really perked up when I saw a new type of cast iron pan mentioned in passing on PBS' cooking show Cook's Country.

This new pan is not black but shiny bright. It's made by a company called Olvida. What makes Olvida's cast iron cookware different is that their pans are nickel plated. The reviewers on the television show passed on this pan because of its expense but the fact that someone could reinvent the cast iron pan which has existed for millennia caught me hook, line and sinker.

Some quick research confirmed that yes, this stuff is quite pricey, but really good cookware is. To compare, a 10" Olivida skillet from Chef's Resource is $99.95. A 10" Lodge skillet from Wal-Mart is $13.97. Wow!!! Not enough yet though to turn me off, if the quality is there. At first glance Lodge has two advantage for me, price and made in the USA. Just being an industry insider, I know there is no way the Olivda pans are made in the US, probably China.

I should probably take a moment to go a little sideways here and explain my feelings on China. While I rant and rave about China, I don't hate the Chinese. On the contrary, it is quite the opposite. I love their history, their culture, their beliefs. I can say that my very limited understanding of Tao has had an impact on my life (I read Eva Wong's book cover to cover and refer back to it often). What I do hate, and with proper use of the word "hate," is the their government, their business practices, their manufacturing practices and their human rights practices. But most of all I hate OUR country's shipping of jobs, income and products to China, devastating our economies, our families, our security. That's what I hate.

Lodge makes 99% of all cast iron cookware made in the US. If you see, buy, or own any cast iron cookware made in the last 10-20 years that does not say Lodge on the back, it was made in China. My fear with Chinese cast iron cookware is the potential lead content. I had a friend of mine who works in a foundry send me some lab results on some cast iron his company had purchased from China. These castings were not for skillets but who knows what any given Chinese foundry also produces. On these tests of a random sample the lead level was 0.004%. Most US foundries will run the potential of high scrap with those lead levels and those castings would never go out the door. But we are regulated here in the US, not so in China. The lead is elemental, so if lead is present in cookware, it could leach out. That's why I don't buy Chinese cast iron cookware. Lodge's enamel ware by the way is made in China. While the enamel would protect the iron, you need to ask yourself what is the potential lead content in the enamel from China or what if the enamel chips and you continue to cook with it?

Yesterday I had a wonderful phone conversation with the owner of Olvida. And yes, my assumption was correct, the raw castings come from China. I can't blame him from a business perspective, the cost of a pan is 1/3 what a domestic foundry would charge. He does have a double edge sword though. The Chinese castings have a high scrap rate and he can't return them. After discussing with the owner his unique process, I feel much better about buying an Olvida pan even if they originate in China. The nickel coating permanently bonds to the iron surface, sealing it and eliminating any risk of potential lead leaching out into food.

All of the finishing of the pan is done in North Carolina. It is quite a labor intensive job which explains part of the price but also means at least a few American employees are making a buck. The coating's use on cast iron was originally developed for the automotive industry but it is the same coating used on many nickel plated pieces of equipment in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The coating is not pure nickel so any fears of nickel allergies can be put to rest. The process is technically called Electroless Nickel (EN) coating and uses a nickel-phosphorous alloy. The coating makes the pans non-stick, non-reactive and scratch resistant. The big selling point to me is that the Olvida pans are NSF certified. This means that they can be run through a dishwasher, a requirement for restaurants. You can't do that with regular cast iron. Think about that next time you order fajitas.

So the newest thing on my wish list is a 10" Olvida skillet. I hope that it will exceed my expectations. If I get one, I'll report back. If it exceeds my expectations, I'll probably have some Lodgeware I'll be selling.