C.W. Welch, who goes by Butch — or, depending on how well you know him, Cee Dub — has made evangelizing camp cooking his life’s work. The former Idaho conservation officer has penned cookbooks, run a camp cooking school in the Texas Hill Country and, well before Youtube began christening his successors, hosted a 39-episode exploration of cast iron camp cooking for KWSU in Pullman, Washington. Welch is attached to his cast iron, but he’s not cooking on anything made this century.
Like many cast-iron cookware enthusiasts, Welch prefers the iron of yesteryear, skillets bearing long-gone names such as Griswold and Wagner. He calls finding the old pieces his own “modern treasure hunt,” which is good news for collectors, enthusiasts or just people interested in acquiring vintage cookware: starting this weekend, multiple years worth of his vintage collecting is going on sale.
Hosted by Best Made Co., Welch’s 100-plus pan lot includes cast-iron skillets, saucepans, mailboxes and, yes, Dutch ovens. Some were made as recently as the 1960s, others were poured pre-1900, but all were cast and poured by hand “before the modern wonders of computers and mechanization,” Welch said.
Shop in person at the company’s New York City and Los Angeles stores starting Saturday, July 20, and online the following Monday. From $38 to $498, the Best Made Co. sale is stocked to the teeth with old-school iron. Here’s a preview of what to expect.
Griswold No. 9 Camp Dutch Oven
“The [Dutch ovens] struck a special chord with me simply because Dutch ovens have been my stock in trade for the last forty years,” Welch said. This large camp oven was made in the 1910s by Griswold, vintage cast iron’s most revered name.
