Lodge 33.66 cm / 13.25 inch Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Round Skillet/Frying Pan

Typical Lodge quality: this is almost a piece of art. Pre-seasoned, all it needs is a hot rinse and a wipe with oil before first use. Pan and handle are a single casting, so no rivets or machine screws to work loose. It takes a little longer to reach temperature than steel or aluminium, and the handle can get uncomfortably hot -- although you quickly learn to anticipate that. Works well with any heat source (apart from microwave, obviously) and I like that it's at home in a charcoal barbecue. Cleaning is a breeze -- just a hot rinse, maybe a short soak, dry and wipe with cooking oil. In just over a week it has built up a nice patina of super-non-stickiness. Nice. Just be sure to avoid using metal utensils, aggressive scourers, or any detergent.

This is an absolutely fabulous product. It was very, very expensive is the only downside. But I know it was imported from the US which can be a very expensive proposition. We are from the US but have lived in the UK for decades. I've had various secondhand cast iron skillets and they've all worked well. But the oldtime ones I had were smooth surfaced and were already preseasoned - one was secondhand from my own home and the other from a charity shop. The one from my home split spectacularly over the hob flame! (This was aboujt 30 years ago). The 2d hand one works just beautifully. However we really needed a bigger one specifically for husband to make his excellent southern-fried chicken. We buy good quality organic free range chicken now and they all seem to be very big! So I bought this one as an early birthday present. I had read reviews of the new type of 'preseasoned' ones with bumpy surface and wasn't sure how I felt, thought most reviews were favourable. After a recent disastrous frying of a large chicken in a non-nonstick stainless pan, very big and great for lots of things but not for this, I decided to take the plunge. It works like a dream, seems to be more or less nonstick though not because it has teflon surface. We are really happy with ouir purchase, expensive thought it has been .

I haven't used this pan enough to give it 5 stars but can report back on my findings so far. My reason for purchasing cast iron was, after much research it seemed like the safest option - I've been looking to get rid of my potentially toxic non stick pans for some time, The first thing I did when it arrived was to give it a quick scrub under running water then seasoned it twice using coconut oil. Seasoning is very easy - there's plenty of videos & advice online. I was impressed with the quality of the pan & the weigh is reassuring! The first item I cooked was salmon. I melted some butter with a hint of olive oil & once nice and hot, placed the salmon fillet in the pan. I left it skin side up for a few mins, then flipped it over. There was slight sticking but the fillet remained in tact. Once the other side had cooked for a few mins I popped it in the oven for around 5 mins. The salmon was beautifully cooked & tasted great. There was a bit of residue left in the pan which disappeared with a gentle scrub under hot running water. When the pan was completely clean I simply wiped it with a tiny bit of oil & put it away. The next item to be cooked was scrambled eggs - the eggs cooked beautifully but there was quite a bit of sticking which did require a hard scrub to remove. From my research (which I hope is correct), the more I use the pan the greater the non stick properties will be. Overall I believe this to be a good purchase... I will keep seasoning it regularly until happy with the non stick!

These are great pans, please ignore the low ratings as these have been given by people wno don't know how to treat cast iron. To get the best out of it when you first get it give it a good scrub in hot soapy water the factory seasoning is OK but not great so we will see to that next (this should be the only time you use soap). Next dry it and coat the whole thing in a thin layer of either vegetable shorting or rapeseed oil then cook it in the oven upside down for at least a hour, repeat as many times as you like the more you do the better the non stick of the coating. (Any more than 5 times is probably overkill) After use while it's still warm for light soiling just wipe it out with a paper towel, medium soiling add a bit of salt and scrub it with a paper towel make sure to remove all salt. Heavey soiling under hot water use a plastic scraper or chain mail scrubber. Then dry and heat the pan and coat with a thin layer all over then heat till it smokes and that's it let it cool and put it away.

I find it as good as my equivalent size le Creuset skillet; this pan is possibly more non-stick for delicate foods. This is a very small, deep pan - it cooks even delicate foods like eggs/ omelette beautifully without sticking as long as the pan is hot before adding eggs (same principle for fish). I like cast iron as it can compensate for my gas hob that doesn't heat well. The pre-seasoning is good; the handle gets very hot so you definitely need good oven mitts or a silicone handle cover. Care is minimal (quick wash and dry or rub with cloth) but essential to do immediately after use or the pan may rust (and never soak, or leave wet or on a wet surface or you'll have rust stains everywhere!). Having said that, even bad rust in a cast iron pan is relatively easy to remedy with vinegar and steel wool (lots of youtube clips!). It's useful to season cast iron every now and again (a couple of times a year), which is a very simple task: clean well (with steel wool or an abrasive if necessary), rub inside and out with grapeseed/soy/sunflower oil, bake for half an hour at 225 C/450F, turn off oven and leave to cool. Rub off any excess oil and store in a dry place. Successive seasonings (3-4 over a few days) certainly improve non-stick properties in cast iron cookware, but I find that they generally aren't necessary with this brand.

After I learned to season it quick like 7 times, and started using a bush and cup with a dap of oil on the side I kept around to wipe with oil when done, and learned to due to size I needed to have rag on edge of sink when dumping out water, and then I often but not always heat up water in electric kettle to pour in when done cooking in order to not shock it. I find after all this that I actually do basically no scrubbing, just a bit of scraping with the metal spatula while the hot water is in it. And then I use a silicone handle on one side I had gotten and I want to get the other side for the silicone side to hold but I just use a pot holder for the other side, thicker one. But I find now that this is an ideal pan to cook everything and anything and many things. I just leave it on top of my stove for daily use. And the weight, for the same reason a mechanics arms are big while not lifting, their muscles are big purely due to making the same motion every day repetitively with the wrench. It’s called a hermetic stressor, the same way weight session (more stressful obviously) and a hot sauna, cold plunge, run, etc, are all good forms of stress that cause adaptation, So to does this just cause you to lift a heavier pot a few times a day as you cook. For vast majority of us it’s nothing. But I told my mom for instance that she should use it and she complained how heavy it was, and my brutal honest response was “that’s exactly why you need to be using it because it’s not like you are working out”. It won’t make you buff, just a bit heavier than a similiar size pan, but for the older crowd who find it important to get their exercises in at the pool and such, this is no different. Plus, once I learned to clean efficiently and season a couple times, it’s a god send of a pan. I love it. I just want to put that “it’s too heavy” criticisism that comes with cast iron in a new light. Your body adapts, allow it too gradually. I will at some point be adding a top to this, I just haven’t decided if I need to get the lodge glass one which would be nice or a silicone one for this, or just a cast iron one to keep the theme and look and durability forever. (Glass and silicone could both break in different ways). I do love this pan as I will admit, one of the reason I got this pan, being some one who can be hard on things by temperment, after knowing roughly how to care for this pan, I also have a lisence to absolutely abuse it and can’t scratch it or anything. Because once you have researched a couple of ways to take rust off and to totally reseason and recondition an old used on for instance, you have the confidence to own this the rest of your life and not ever feel like your going to rune it. I’m also strategically lazy, I call efficient, my mom thinks different, lol, but anyway, the fastest way to clean any pan is with hot water right when done cooking as it burns and melts stuff right off, I can do that with this without worrying how it affects coatings or anything and I can do that to kingdom come. I just try to throw water from kettle on it ideally but not always. Again, the point of these pans is the amazing non stick coating that develops after use and learning to season a few more times your self, but that you can absolutely abuse these pans and know they will last. There is a certain security that’s nice to feel with knowing that. The fact that it has a great non stick that develops after some use and is durable Af, I’m in love. Plus ever seen those videos on YouTube about how baking/pizza steel beats baking/pizza stones every time because of how the metal works vs the ceramic of the stone. It just hit me that this pan is also big enough to make a 15 inch pizza, and when making one for one to a few people depending how thick it is, that’s a good size to use as a pizza steel in the oven. I do even ti ally want a baking steel as I even learned you can leave those in your oven as it helps regulate the temperature in oven by functioning as a ballast in your oven. Don’t even have to clean those. Just let the oven burn stuff off. None the less, till then this will work as a great pizza steel surface too. ++. I don’t have much sense of smell, a bit impulsive so I tottally would put it on “HIGH” on the stove every time. Might turn it down at times but it always creates smoke which didn’t matter to me, but got my mom has the higher disgust sensitivity (these two traits in the house do not get along well) anyway, I out of impatience realized I had a habit of heating it up quickly on high, Then I realized I tested how long it takes to smoke with the oil I was using to season it after each cook. I timed how long on high, waited till room temp, tested how long on medium, etc. Did this for any cast iron and carbon steel pans I have too. And in this one I can get away on our gas burner stove on high: High Canola 400°-450° 4m 34s Medium Canola 400°-450° 6m 43s 400°-450°=smoke point at which smoke appears as the oil is actually starting to burn (note health wise causing this isn’t healthy so avoid normally by following these instructions). You can do the same test on your stove with your seasoning pans. And now I just run it for 3mins on high but then turn to medium or lower. Could probably get away with 3:30 duration on high. But this way you can cook at medium or a tad lower after.

It's an awesome frying pan! A joy to cook with!

Big size for big family, able to cook easily 1.5kgs of meat. Heavy, slightly sticks at the bottom but overall good.

Easily my favorite pan. It's already pre-seasoned. You just need to cook with it. This is medium size, just perfect if you does not want to cook big portion of food.

Adoro questa misura perché è decisamente più maneggevole anche se magari a volte bisogna cucinare un po’ alla volta. L’altra che ho è da 28 cm e per alzarla in giro mi servono entrambe le mani XD in ogni caso, arriva già pronta, fatela scaldare bene con una fiamma bassa all’inizio, aggiungete comunque una goccia di olio. Più la usate e più antiaderente diventa. Per lavarla aspettate che si raffreddi, usate acqua calda e una spugna ruvida o la cotta di maglia apposta per queste padelle, una goccia (e sottolineo GOCCIA) di detersivo, sciacquare bene e asciugare subito con carta da cucina. Rimettetela sul fuoco basso e ungetela con olio di arachidi o girasole (no oliva perché irrancidisce) sia dentro che fuori e aspettate che l’olio fumi. Spegnete e lasciatela raffreddare prima di riporla via. Sembra lungo, ma una volta che si prende l’abitudine è facile e rapido. Vi ripagherà con cotture ottime, le uova al tegamino vengono stupende, la carne fa la crosticina fuori e resta morbida dentro perché il calore la sigilla subito ❤️