Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet Frying Pan. Made in The USA. 26 cm/10.25 inch, Multi-Coloured, 10.25-Inch

I love this frying pan. It's very good quality. Food tastes better from an iron pan. It can crisp up food far better than any of my so called non stick pans. I used to replace the nonstick every year or so and I was always worried about chemicals if the pan got too hot. I don't have this worries any more and wish I'd bought this pan years ago.

I've been very impressed with this product, I can imagine that provided it's looked after well it's going to last a very long time.As you'd expect, it's worth seasoning the pan when you get it and after that just a bit of oil after each use should keep it in good shape.I've mostly used it for cooking steaks and have had very good results, at this price point (~£50) I'm happy with the quality and the way it cooks.Works just fine on my induction hob.

The best pan to cook steak in . The best .

Like most people I've gone through my fair share of non stick pans and skillets in the past and really wanted a long term option that was going to improve the taste of food and the way it was cooked.I wasn't too concerned about cost due to spending a lot of money on pans in the past, then having to replace them after a while, which is really a false economy.Lodge, a US brand, have a great name for quality and you can literally use them on anything from camp fire to barbecue to stove.I've had mine for about 6 months now, enough time for a decent review and have to say it's been excellent and somehow it seems to make the food taste better (could just be in my head !)A couple of points to be aware of though, the pan is heavy! I'm 6 foot 2, average build and it can get difficult to manoeuvre when dishing out of it. Not a major problem as you can bring your plate to it instead but that might not work for you all the time.My wife who is 5 foot 3 and quite petit, cannot realistically dish up with this pan.Another point is, make sure you keep this pan well seasoned.Using oil to cook with it all the time kind of defeats the point, when it is seasoned well you need very little oil, if any to cook even the trickiest of foods, like fried eggs. Seasoning the pan is straight forward enough, a little olive oil on kitchen towel, rub all over the inside and outside of the pan, then put in the oven on 200c for an hour.Job done.If you don't do this, food will stick or you will have to use a lot of oil. Both of these reasons means you won't get the most out of the pan and defeats the object of having it in the first place.Lastly, it gets hot, really hot. I currently have the recommended silicone handle on it (see Silicone Handle review) and this is okay but definitely doesn't allow you to pick the pan up without an oven glove after half an hour of using it, which again isn't a problem but there could be a better solution.I have recently looked into the leather 'Lodge' handle cover which is supposed to be absolutely brilliant for the heat distribution but also about £20.That would however be worth it for a life time of oven gloveless pan use, with no burnt hands !I'll review this when I get it.I have concentrated on the more negative points but only because these are the niggles that stop it from being the best utensil in your kitchen, ever!However, from a positive perspective I will say that it's the best pan/skillet I have ever owned.The heat distribution gives you the consistency and control you realise you need to get the food cooked thoroughly and as said above, it just seems to make everything taste that much better.Especially when cooking Steak, the quality immediately becomes evident, being able to get from rare to well done with accurate consistency, making the pan well worth the money alone for that reason in my eyes.

This is my second go with a cast iron pan, I had generic cheap one about 2 years ago, but I think the combination of the poor quality finish and me not using it properly meant it ended up in the scrap metal pile. I decided to have another go after seeing people cook with them on YouTube. After some research I bought a Lodge 10.25 inch skillet. When I opened the package it was as I was expecting, there was a rough finish all over the pan as shown in the video about the manufacturing process you can watch on the Lodge web site. The first thing I did was season it for a second time as suggested by many owners. I rubbed it with some cold pressed hemp oil on a kitchen towel and baked it at 200 degrees Centigrade for about 2 hours and let it cool in the oven. I then tried frying a couple of eggs, again with hemp oil. This did not go well, the eggs stuck to the pan like **** to a blanket. I was not happy. The next thing I tried was to sand the cooking surface smooth and re season it. I did this with an abrasive flexible sanding disk on my electric drill, this took a little while and was dirty work but I got a much smoother finish. I re seasoned with hemp oil again and this time it came out of the oven a copper colour rather than the black colour with the Lodge seasoning. This time when I cooked some eggs I used a little bit of butter in the pan and it was as non stick as a new non stick pan, I was amazed. I wasn't sure what had caused the difference, was it the sanding or was it the butter? so I tried various types of veg oil, the processed stuff that's bad for you and cold pressed stuff that is supposed to be better for you. All had varying results, mainly bad. I have come to the conclusion that butter is best for the skillet, both cooking and seasoning, there is something about the way it spreads in the pan and coats the surface, unlike oil which just pools together. I have used nothing but butter for weeks now and nothing sticks, there are some exceptions though; be careful cooking things with sugars in them, I cooked some red peppers and the natural sugars in them burned and stuck to the pan, thought the veg itself didn't, it got nice and char grilled. All I did to clean the pan was pour in a little boiling water and while still on the heat and give it a good scrub with little round, wooden, stiff bristled pan scrubber and no detergent. I rinsed it out, dried it on heat and greased it with some butter. Be careful with bacon, it can make a real mess of the pan, I fried some cheap supermarket bacon (I live in the UK, I don't know what it is like in the rest of the world but i guess it is similar) and the saline/salt water the use to cure it also had sugar in it (I didn't know this until I checked), this resulted in horrible brown sticky mess in the pan that was very hard to remove. I had to use wet and dry sand paper and re season it. So my advice is, if you are cooking bacon, make sure it is dry cured (the old fashioned/traditional way) with no added sugars. Cooking acidic foods like tomatoes, or adding acidic ingredients like balsamic vinegar can strip the seasoning, but re seasoning is simple with the boiling water process mentioned above, then drying thoroughly, applying some butter with kitchen towel, then an hour in the oven. Lastly, I'm thinking of getting a lodge dutch oven, and the lid can double as a shallow skillet, this may be a more versatile option if you are going to buy a cast iron pan. Don't worry about the sanding process, looking back, I think the problems I experienced were due to using veg oils to cook (use butter, I haven't tried lard or other animal fat, not sure what works best for vegans...) and not letting the pan heat properly before adding the food.