We started with the perfect cast iron pan.
Field Company makes things that get better with time, better with care, better with skill, and generally speaking, better when experienced with others.
We take things that used to be made well, or are simply no longer made, and then we make them again, with improvements and modifications as needed, the way we believe they should be made.
Field is Family
The company was started by two brothers, Stephen & Chris Muscarella, who named the company after their maternal grandmother—and it was from that side of the family that they inherited a number of vintage cast iron pans from the 1930s.
Those vintage pans were some of the only prized possessions that made it through many moves and kitchens. Both brothers acquired some new cast iron cookware and didn’t use it as much. It wasn’t as nice, it didn’t have the same weight or hand feel. A question was born - why don’t they make them like they used to?
Initially, the Field Company was never meant to be a company.
We started by wanting to understand all the secrets of cast iron. We love all the lore, but wanted real answers. We didn’t know if we would make fifty pans in a barn for friends and family or if we would end up creating a larger scale operation.
Starting By Hand: Pouring Iron
We started by taking one of our favorite vintage cast iron pans, a beautiful Wagner from the 1930s, and going to visit some foundries. We were told that there was no way that a modern foundry could pour iron that thin. Not willing to accept that answer, we stumbled on a whitepaper called Thermophysical Properties of Thin Walled Compacted Graphite Iron Castings written by a material science professor in Europe. We emailed him and he agreed to Skype with us. He was eager to help and more than a little amused. With his help, we were able to perform microscopic imaging to compare the graphite structure of vintage pans and make sure they weren’t black magic. Eventually, we visited his lab to learn to make iron castings by hand—the way our favorite pans had been made over a hundred years ago.
