Cast Iron Cookware Availability in Europe

I struggled for ages to find a good range of cast iron cookware in Portugal. They sell Dutch ovens here, but not skillets or griddles.

Then amazon.co.uk started to sell bits and pieces, and now it seems they do sell a whole set, so if anyone has been itching to start their cast iron adventures this might be just what they've been looking for!

Here's the link.




Shipping to Portugal is a bit steep at £25, but only £6 to the UK, so don't forget to check before you buy and budget accordingly.

Anyone tried these ?

David

I haven't I'm afraid. I've just got myself set up with everything I need, and none of it is the same brand.

Brand ? I should be so lucky

David

Well they're all made by *someone* - TecTake isn't exactly one of the ones that springs to mind though.

I have 'Victor' and 'Kitchen Craft' stuff bought from amazon, a completely unmarked Dutch oven from a local market, and in pride of place a Skeppshult skillet given me its previous owner of thirty years when it got too heavy for her to lift. They all seem to work fine though.

Niether my three pans nor my large skillet have any names at all . My plate steel frying pan is made by Buyer ( french company not the toxic folks ) and I have a bright orange grill that cost more than the rest put togetrher origionally I expect but I got it for £5

David

even cheaper?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/broil-master%C2%AE-KTPS01-Pcs-Cooking-Pots/dp/B00HQCE00Q/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kh_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0FAFKXDXY9TGWWQ6KNVA

David

Oh wow - YES! It looks like exactly the same set, and only a tenner shipping instead of £25.

I wonder why they didn't think to use 'cast iron' in the title? It would have shown up so much better in the searches.

b@@@@@ its now listed as out of stock .....

David

My current collection still a bit light I think

Well it's a sturdy enough pot-rack. I'm sure it would hold some more if you could lay your hands on any.

I like that rack. It looks like a perfect match for my clothes airer.

they are made by the same company

http://www.pulleymaid.com/shelfrack.htm
or here
http://www.castinstyle.co.uk/product.php/6/6-lath-kitchen-shelf-rack

David

There is some fantastic stuff made by Netherton Foundry in the UK http://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

we have one of their frying pans and it is excellent

Looks nice Katy
but alas out of my price range better than the day glow orange french stuff though

David

Just found a German manufacturer of cast iron that seems to have a wide range of products, including items with perfectly flat bottoms that can work on glasstop stoves/cookers/hobs:

https://www.petromax.de/en/

Hi I would like to transition to cast iron kitchenware, but don't have clue
even how I would translate cast iron in Serbian.

Od kovanog čelika?
Tiganj od kovanog čelika ?(for example)

Although there is no amazon there is indeed vibrant online market on kupujemprodajem.com
Which gets me to idea to check also there.

Or have ever somebody saw cast iron tiganj on a fleamarket?
Or are there local producers or at least regional producers of cast iron products ?
I guess I will have to research it myself but would be happy to welcome good hint with a 3 beers or piece of pie.

Update: This kind of turns into LOG : In search of CAST IRON

Hey guys, very late to the party, but I have collected a whole range of cast iron cookware made by Le Creuset by checking second hand shops and second hand websites. They often go for a fraction of the price of a new one, which can be very substantial for Le Creuset.
You have to sift through some that are chipped or have some pitting in the bottom but these do not affect your health as the anti-stick coating is made of glass/ceramic so it is only an esthetic issue (I do prefer mine in good condition and with some patience and regularly checking the shops you can find them.)
Le Creuset also has an awesome custumor support. I bought a second hand skillet with a loose wooden handle that I tried to tighten at home and broke the screw running through the handle, securing the skillet to the handle. Got a new handle, for free (!), through customer support, even though it is a version they do not make anymore, as a Le Creuset pan comes with a life time garantee. Speaking about permaculture...

John Venn wrote:Hey guys, very late to the party, but I have collected a whole range of cast iron cookware made by Le Creuset by checking second hand shops and second hand websites. They often go for a fraction of the price of a new one, which can be very substantial for Le Creuset.
You have to sift through some that are chipped or have some pitting in the bottom but these do not affect your health as the anti-stick coating is made of glass/ceramic so it is only an esthetic issue (I do prefer mine in good condition and with some patience and regularly checking the shops you can find them.)
Le Creuset also has an awesome custumor support. I bought a second hand skillet with a loose wooden handle that I tried to tighten at home and broke the screw running through the handle, securing the skillet to the handle. Got a new handle, for free (!), through customer support, even though it is a version they do not make anymore, as a Le Creuset pan comes with a life time garantee. Speaking about permaculture...

Hi John, great idea on second-hand Le Creuset. I have a couple of items myself. They're really pricey new and it's a great idea to look for them in second-hand shops/sites.

As far as I know, all Le Creuset pieces are coated cast iron. On the outside coated with painted stuff, on the inside with either black stuff or white stuff. I used to be really confident that the inside stuff was "good" stuff, inert like glass. I thought that basically enamel = ceramic = glass as far as toxic gick goes. But then someone warned me of a number of toxic elements that could potentially be in enamel, and since then I am not as confident in these surfaces. The Le Creuset inside surfaces are really, really long lasting, gotta give them credit for that, but I haven't seen where they actually say what it's composed of. I suppose that's what they call a "trade secret" these days, but call me over-curious, I actually want to know.

And color me skeptical, but I'm not much comforted by affirmations of "no PFOA" or freedom from whatever toxic compound they choose to name. I'm concerned about the toxic compounds it DOES contain but no one is mentioning because they don't have to because trade secrets yada yada. /rant

So I'm kinda confident about my Le Creuset cookware but not totally.

Just so people know, in recent years, I have found Le Creuset knockoffs in European Ikea stores (Lord, please don't let word get out to my permie friends that I occasionally go to Ikea!). "Made in France" say these knockoffs, so I imagine they are actually made in the Le Creuset factory but wholesaled out for other brands like Ikea to sell as their own. I've also seen (and bought) Pyrex cookware in Europe that I'd swear was made by Le Creuset, but it didn't have a "Made in France" imprint, so that one is a bit more sketchy. Same deal with the coatings though, I really want to know what's in them. Not what they don't have, what they do have. Pretty please Mr. Manufacturer.

Plain old uncoated cast iron, I have a skillet of those too, I also worry about a little bit. Most people, I think, have too much iron in their blood, and I think that if you're not pretty careful about what you actually cook in cast iron (no acidic stuff like tomato sauce for starters), you might be at risk of overdoing the iron in your blood, which is not good for your health. The solution to which I believe is donating blood regularly, that drops your iron levels. But anyway, lately I'm liking the alternative of uncoated stainless steel rather than cast iron.

I am not a doctor nor a lawyer nor a metallurgist, but as far as I know food-grade stainless is more inert and less porous than cast iron, so you don't have to be concerned about making acidic foods in it, and also, whatever unhealthy anything might be in the metal is much less likely to slag off into your food.

I've got a good number of uncoated steel pots and pans now. You can see an example of an uncoated stainless steel omelette pan if you scroll up to the first picture above this post, in a post by David Livingston. Hanging there in the middle of the bottom row is a steel omelette pan like French chefs think everyone in the world should have. I have one just like it. If you treat plain stainless steel pans like you would cast iron, they behave just the same. Season them, don't use soap, etc. Another advantage is you don't have to worry about rust, so I just air dry them, whereas I heat my cast iron skillet to dry it. They're perfectly non-stick if you treat them right and last forever, just like cast iron, and unlike the consumerist non-stick coated crap you see so much of.

Hello Dave

Thank you very much for your reply. The previous message was actually my first message on the forum here. Did not expect a reply, nor such a lengthy one, nor so fast!

Sorry everyone for going off topic a bit with this, but Le Creuset is a very weigthy matter (Litteraly and figuratively speaking)!

Completely agree with you about the enamel, it is very hard to find any info on how exactly they make it or what is in it. However, as I do trust them, but I do avoid pans that are chipped where it comes into contact with food just to be sure.

However, it was the best solution for us. I am sharing this because I suspect it might also be the best solution for other people looking for cast iron pans.

My girlfriend inherited an old stainless set of pots together with a few anti-stick pans. We replaced those with Le Creuset pans as we found them second hand. As they are so durable and collectable, they are often found in much better quality then stainless steel pans second hand.
So for us it was the cheapest, most available ('real' skillets are very rare to find in general in Belgium), most ecological (as we reuse) and most luxorious solution.
Let me explain the luxorious part: we get to bake with cast iron that does not rust and needs less seasoning than a 'regular' one at a fraction of the price of a new skillet or new stainless steel one. They look and feel awesome and I do admit that I am a little biased as they are 'invented' by a Belgian.

Ah yes, for the fellow thrift shoppers, Cousances is the old name of Le Creuset, they are older but at least as good as the Le Creuset ones in my experience.

So, in conclusion, has anyone made or knows off a solid comparative study about which pan is the least 'toxic'?

A cast iron frying pan from Aldi here but i admit to a) having a dishwasher, and b) putting the pan in it (so no seasoning).
A house hold of vegetarians with low iron stores here, i am unconvinced Dave De Basque, that most people have excess iron in their blood. The men in this house donate blood voluntarily every so often, and the girls donate every month without having to volunteer!
I’d be interested to see figures that suggest excess iron is a bigger problem than anaemia on population level...

I have two De Buyer pans. They came with bee wax coating and the price I found to be reasonable (about 30€ each one), considering its life time. I bought them in an online shop here in Spain, especialized in kitchenware. I truly love this stuff. My wife uses them for only a few meals: potato omelettes. fried fish, french fries. She doesn't use them more due to the weight, for most stuff she prefers the modern anti-adherent one, toxic as it may be.

The problem with acidic meals is not that we eat more iron, but that the acids remove the patina. Frying tomato sauce means that I have to season the pan again. But if it is just fries and omelettes, I don't need to wash it with soap, then it never needs to be seasoned.
It suffices cleaning it with a kitchen paper, and maybe greasing it again with clean oil.

While I'd prefer to use these pans more often, I'm happy with them. Ok, maybe they are not the prettiest pans (the bottom forms soot), but they surely work well. It also means that the modern anti-adherent pan that usually lasts for one year, now lasts for two years before the coating is gone.