The Best Cast Iron Skillet For Our Kitchen
This is the second of a 4-part series of posts on cast iron:
Part 2: The Best Cast Iron Skillet For Our Kitchen
Part 4: Our 2 Essential Cast Iron Skillet Accessories (Scheduled publish date: Tuesday, January 29th, 2019)
Part 2: The Best Cast Iron Skillet For Our Kitchen
When it comes to cooking with cast iron, it’s the material, not the individual brand, that matters most. As we wrote in our first post in this series (see Part 1: Why We’ve Welcomed Cast Iron Back Into Our Kitchen), almost any cast iron skillet will offer durability and versatility, and will be terrific for most of your stovetop cooking tasks.
The choice of which cast iron skillet to choose therefore comes down to the details, and the best cast iron skillet for our kitchen is made by Lodge.
Why Lodge Is Best For Us
Main Handle
Neither too long nor too short, the handle steers your hand near to the base (closest to the main body of skillet), where you have the most control. Other cast iron skillet have handles that are either too long, too short, too wide at the point where the handle meets the skillet, or have exposed edges on the bottom that dig into your hand.
Helper Handle
A necessity for such heavy cookware (and because the whole skillet is often burning hot), the handle on the other side of the skillet is easy to grip and has a large enough opening to fit a hand that is wrapped in a dishtowel or wearing a bulky oven mitt.
Spouts
This is a feature some new manufacturers have done away with as a cost-saving measure. We use them all the time! Bacon is one of our favorite foods to cook in our Lodge, and we always pour the grease out using the built-in spouts (we save it in jars for future use). Lodge’s spouts are virtually drip-free.
Build And Weight
With all the flimsy tools in today’s kitchens, and with it’s heft and durability, there’s something immensely satisfying about handling a Lodge.
Price
Lodge skillets are shockingly affordable! New manufacturers (Stargazer, Fields, etc.) have brought cast iron products to market that are 5 or even 10 times more expensive than Lodge’s. We believe in spending money if it gets us the best kitchen tools, but in this case, we can’t see any advantage to doing so.
Availability
Lodge skillets in different sizes are available on many website (including Amazon), and are also widely available at retail stores, both large and small.
What's Not To Like
Weight
If there’s one thing that might prevent a Lodge skillet from being a good fit for everyone, it’s the weight. The 12-inch skillet weighs almost 7 ½ pounds. Add the food you are cooking to that, and you’ve got a very heavy skillet.
Seasoning
Although Lodge is known for it’s factory seasoning that makes food release easily, we find that it is necessary to add more layers of seasoning when you get the skillet home. Like all cast iron skillets, Lodge skillets also become more non-stick the more you use them.
Texture of the Cooking Surface
Also Worth Knowing
- Wondering what size is best? We have both the 10.25– and 12-inch Lodge skillets, and we get plenty of use from both. If you want to choose just one, we’d suggest the 12-inch, although a 10.25-inch skillet is probably sufficient if you usually cook for 2 people or less.
Did You Know?
Based in the small town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee for over 100 years, Lodge is the only major American cast iron cookware manufacturer to survive the arrival of Teflon cookware in the 20thcentury. Always innovative, the company survived the 1930s in part by producing cast iron garden gnomes and animals.
Lodge is still owned and managed by the Lodge family, and all of its seasoned cast iron products are manufactured in the United States.
Sources
- About, Lodge website
- Use and Care → Other Common Questions, Lodge website
Lot’s of interesting information in this review, thanks. Another thing that is fabulous about black cast-iron pans, they can be used over a campfire. No need to worry about them being blackened by smoke.
Exactly right! If you haven’t had the chance to read it, check out the first post in our cast iron series: Why We’ve Welcomed Cast Iron Back Into Our Kitchen. We talk about using cast iron over live fire. Unfortunately, cast iron is a bit heavy to take canoe camping, hiking, etc. Thanks again for the feedback!