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Seeking info on an antique cooking pan
I mentioned, just after Christmas, that my mom had given me a box full of stuff from my great-grandmother (things she had intended me to have). There are some really cool things in there (especially neat, because I had no clue we had any family heirlooms further back than about three generations), and my great-grandmother was wonderful about writing notes for every item, detailing what she knew of its history and often mentioning why she wanted me to have it. Reading through it all with my mom was really a treat, because it was almost like having my great-grandmother there with us again (she had a very acerbic wit). Among the items was a bonnet that had belonged to my great-great-great-grandmother. It's in beautiful shape... hand stitched with what we think may be whale bone or baleen sewn into it around the front fringe to help it stay a bit more rigid (so it wouldn't be falling in her eyes, I'm guessing). I'm currently working on finding a way to display it and still preserve it.
Anyway, the real reason I'm writing this is to see if anyone might know the name of a particular type of cast iron pan. This one was supposedly brought over from Ireland by my great-grandmother's great-grandmother, but the name she has listed isn't familiar, isn't showing up when googled and her handwriting there is a bit tough to decipher.
So, here it is:
And from the note she wrote for it: "This supposedly belonged to my great-grandmother Greer. I've been told she brought it with her from Ireland. Do not know the year. It was called a (gern???) iron. She passed it on to my mother. In her time, as in mine, it was used to bake cornbread. The story goes that one of my mother's sisters, when a child, broke it."
I realized Livejournal might be a good place to ask after watching the most recent episode of Good Eats ("Honey, I Shrunk the Cake"), where Alton Brown was going through the history of cupcakes and pulled up a pan that looked remarkably like the one I have and called it a "Gin Pan" (no idea on spelling). I literally leaped out of my chair, because it was so close to the "gern" or "jern" or "genn" or "jenn" that my great-grandmother had written. But I've still had no luck tracking it down online.
The one interesting tidbit I've run across is that "jern" is actually Norwegian for "iron." No clue if there's any relation between that and the pan (or "iron" as my great-grandmother called it).
So, anyone have any ideas? I figure with all the folks on my flist, there has to be someone who is either into antiques or cooking or lives in a region where the term is more commonly used who will know exactly what it is!
Anyway, the real reason I'm writing this is to see if anyone might know the name of a particular type of cast iron pan. This one was supposedly brought over from Ireland by my great-grandmother's great-grandmother, but the name she has listed isn't familiar, isn't showing up when googled and her handwriting there is a bit tough to decipher.
So, here it is:
And from the note she wrote for it: "This supposedly belonged to my great-grandmother Greer. I've been told she brought it with her from Ireland. Do not know the year. It was called a (gern???) iron. She passed it on to my mother. In her time, as in mine, it was used to bake cornbread. The story goes that one of my mother's sisters, when a child, broke it."
I realized Livejournal might be a good place to ask after watching the most recent episode of Good Eats ("Honey, I Shrunk the Cake"), where Alton Brown was going through the history of cupcakes and pulled up a pan that looked remarkably like the one I have and called it a "Gin Pan" (no idea on spelling). I literally leaped out of my chair, because it was so close to the "gern" or "jern" or "genn" or "jenn" that my great-grandmother had written. But I've still had no luck tracking it down online.
The one interesting tidbit I've run across is that "jern" is actually Norwegian for "iron." No clue if there's any relation between that and the pan (or "iron" as my great-grandmother called it).
So, anyone have any ideas? I figure with all the folks on my flist, there has to be someone who is either into antiques or cooking or lives in a region where the term is more commonly used who will know exactly what it is!
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See... I knew it would be a good idea to ask here. My flist knows all!
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You could use it for oatcakes, or for drop-scones, and the name being an 'iron' implies that it is a griddle pan, rather than an oven one.
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You can pre-heat it in the oven and fill it with batter, but then it should be put on a baking sheet for safety.
Julia, would love one of those; my grandmother's is long gone
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I had never heard of gems before, but it makes complete sense now.
I'm wondering too if maybe your great-to-many-powers grandma also used it for boxty or fadge,
I'm guessing so, as well. I certainly doubt they would have been making a lot of cornbread in Ireland! And, of course, these particular ancestors settled in the South after they emigrated to the United States.
I'm so excited, because I really had absolutely no clue where to even start to look... especially since I was so badly misunderstanding my great-grandmother's handwriting.
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But, then again, those lie flat.
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Does Missi know about the Victorian Valentines?!She adores that stuff!
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Or possibly a manequin head under glass?