I used to browse antique shops for cookware — namely, the illustrious Wagner and Griswold pans of yore. They're ultra-thin, and they're finished more like high-gloss ceramics. But those bygone ...

That's a relatively new thing, compared to the sturdy utilitarian cooking approach of early American cast-iron cookware companies such as Griswold, Wagner, and Lodge, founded in Tennessee in 1896 ...