What is a Southern Mystery Skillet?
Southern Mystery Skillets There are a lot of opinions on who made these skillets. I own several that date back as far as the 1800s. The folklore behind these skillets is they were made by local blacksmiths in town or smaller metal foundries. The latter is true about small foundries
They would purchase old molds from cast iron manufacturers like Lodge, Griswold, and many others and start making their own. The retired mold we clean up or “buttered” to metal down cast iron and make skillets, pans, and other cast iron cookware.
As you know there was no Amazon back then and it took weeks or months to get one from the catalog, or general store in town.
Some of the southern mystery skillets I have faint marking that will allow you to somewhat tell where the retired mold came from companies like Wagner ware, Lodge, Griswold, and others
Is Southern Mystery Skillet good for cooking?
Some of these skillets made a great cooking skillet that is very lightweight. You know they were built well if some are over 100 years old and still cooking today. There are still quite a few of these old skillets around mostly in small antique shops.
The value of these skillets is not very high because they are not brand name skillets, however, they will perform with any manufacturer on the market in my opinion.
If you happen to run into one of these old skillets do yourself a favor and take one home with your to either hang on the wall or for daily use.
Pictured below is a #7 with a fancy handle and a gate mark on the bottom a sure sign of a skillet made before 1900.
This skillet looks great and performs well, it has been stripped to bare metal and seasoned with our 100% organic cast iron seasoning. TnJ’s Cast Iron Seasoning. Purchase your seasoning today by clicking on the pictures below
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