Sorry for the long review - for the short review, count the stars! I'm a bit of a purist. I always season my cast iron - new, or used (hey, I don't know WHAT someone else used that old piece of cast iron for - maybe cleaning auto parts). I sand it down to bare metal, starting with about an 80 grit and finishing with 200. Then I season. The end result is a glossy black mirror that puts Teflon to shame. There are two mistakes people make when seasoning - not hot enough, not long enough. These mistakes give the same result - a sticky brown coating that is definitely not non-stick, and the first time they bring any real heat to the pan, clouds of smoke that they neither expected or wanted. I see several complaints here that are completely due to not knowing this. But there were a few pieces I needed (yes, needed, cast iron isn't about want, it's a need), and this was one of them, so I thought I'd give the Lodge pre-seasoning a try. Ordered last Friday, received this Friday - free shipping, yay! The first thing I noticed was the bumpy coating. The inside is actually rougher than the outside, and my hand was itching for the sandpaper, but that would have defeated the experiment. This time, I was going to give the Lodge pre-seasoning a chance before I broke out the sandpaper. So I scrubbed the pan out with a plastic brush and a little soapy water, rinsed well, put it on a medium burner, and waited. Cast iron tip number one - give it a little time. Then give it a little more time. Cast iron conducts heat much more slowly than aluminum, so you have to have a little patience. Then I threw in a pat of butter, and brought out the natural enemy of badly seasoned cast iron - the egg. And, sure enough, it stuck - but not badly, just in the middle. A bit of spatula work and I actually got a passable over-medium egg. Hmmm. But still not good enough. So I cleaned up the pan, and broke out the lard. I have only one justification for using lard. I don't remember Grandma using refined hand-pressed organic flax oil, or purified extra-virgin olive oil made by real virgins. Nope, it was pretty much animal fat in her iron. A scoop of bacon grease from the mason jar beside the stove and she was ready to cook anything. Grandaddy wouldn't eat a piece of meat that had less than a half-inch of fat around it. "Tastes like a dry old shoe.", he'd declare if it was too lean. In the end, I'm sure their diet killed them, but they ate well in the meantime. Grandaddy was cut down at the tender age of 96, and Grandma lasted till 98. Eat what you want folks - in the end, it's pretty much up to your genetics. So I warmed up my new pieces, and smeared a very thin layer of lard all over them - use your fingers. Towels, especially paper towels, will shed lint, and lint in your seasoning coat doesn't help things at all. Besides, it's kinda fun. Here's cast iron tip number two - season at the highest temp you think you'll ever cook at - or higher. If you don't, you won't get the full non-stick thing, and the first time you bring it up to that temp you'll get clouds of smoke from the unfinished seasoning. I put my pieces in a cold oven, and set the temp for an hour at 500 degrees (F, not C). Yeah, I know, Lodge says 350. Lodge doesn't want panicked support calls from people whose house is full of smoke. Crank the heat up. You have two choices here. You can put a fan in the kitchen window and blow smoke out of your house like the battleship Bismarck under attack by the Royal Navy, or invest in an oxygen mask. You will get smoke. You will get lots of smoke, especially if you're doing several pieces at once, like I just did. This is a good thing - that's smoke that won't be jumping out to surprise you the first time you try to cook with any real heat. The goal is to heat until you don't get smoke, and in my experience, 500 degrees for an hour does that pretty well. Let the pieces cool in the closed oven. Then re-grease and repeat. And repeat again. And don't glop the fat on. Just enough to coat. More thin layers are better than fewer gloppy layers. I managed four layers last night without my neighbors calling the fire department. Seems like a lot of work? Look at it this way. It's a lifetime commitment. Treat your iron well, and it will love you right back like you've never been loved before. And this is pretty much a one-time deal, unless you do something silly. The end result of my all-night smoking up the kitchen exercise? Dry, absolutely no stickiness, black as a coal mine at midnight and shiny - but still bumpy - could it possibly work with that rough surface? I put the skillet back on a medium burner, put a pat of butter on and tossed in a couple of eggs. After the whites had set a little, I nudged them with a spatula, and they scooted across the pan. I'll be... it works. My wife came back from the store and wanted scrambled eggs. If there's anything that cast iron likes less than fried eggs, it's scrambled. But it was the same thing all over again. No stick. No cleanup. Just a quick hot water rinse with a brush in case something got left on the pan (I couldn't see anything, but hey), then I put it on a med-hi burner till dry, put a thin coat of lard on the pan and waited until I saw smoke for a minute. Let cool and hang up. Done. So. do I like the bumpy texture of the Lodge pre-season? Nope. Does it work? Yes, and contrary to my misgivings, it works very well. My wife pointed out that even some Teflon cookware has textured patterns in it. The Lodge pre-season isn't a perfect surface out of the box - but it does give you a big head-start. After a night's work, my iron is ready to face anything, and you just can't beat that. Lodge makes a great product. For the quality, durability, and versatility, you can't beat Lodge cast iron. Plus, it's made in America. I like that. If you've never experienced cast iron cooking, you've just been cheating yourself. Plus, the price, for a piece of lifetime cookware, is insanely cheap. And my sandpaper is still on the tool shelf.

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.

I gave up cast iron years ago because of the weight, but I have begun using it again. I have my mother's cast iron, and my son is enjoying my grandmother's. My daughter uses cast iron as well. I am tired of replacing cookware and ingesting the toxins and finishes from non-stick cookware. I do have stainless steel, but prefer the performance of cast iron. I will say I am not a huge fan of Lodge's recent bumpy finishes. I prefer the smooth. I chose to reseason in the oven before use to further alleviate sticking. I recently ordered a 15 inch skillet, and I will preseason that as well. Nothing beats cast iron for heat distribution or searing. Or the ease of transferring to oven directly from cooktop. The weight is an even trade for the performance. The photo is my recently purchased 6 1/2" pan after frying an egg, third use. Now I just need to convert my husband back as well. 😉

An absolutely incredible pan! Works fabulously for: ▪︎ eggs (prepared ANY WAY) ▪︎ crepes and pancakes ▪︎ stir fry ▪︎ meat! Chicken breast, pork chips, salmon, shrimp, and tofu And I will be using it on many more foods! It comes pre-seasoned but they reccomend cooking something in oil on the first use. It's truly non stick pan and I adore that the handout it ships with informs you of all materials used to make the pan. Very transparent with their practices and clean materials. Tips they share on the handout/their site ● slowly heat the pan to your desired temperature to ensure you don't crack the seasoning. I like to chop veggies while I wait. ● the pan will release eggs/protein once it has cooked enough, don't flip too early! ● I purchased the pan scrapers to get off any food debris. It's reccomended to clean this pan with a bit of soap or salt, then dry it completely and season it with oil. Easy to clean. This pan is something that will last a LONG time. It needs a bit more bit of care than a traditional non-stick, but it is SO WORTH IT!

これで焼くと魔法のようです。 蓋は必須です。

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

These pre-seasoned Lodge cast iron pans - if cared for properly - are a life-long purchase, or possibly longer, if you decide to hand them down to the next generation! They are beautifully made, with a clean, consistent cast, and a considerable heft, even in the smaller sizes. The iron has a tight, fine grain which produces smooth curves and crisp details on the pan, and provides a visible sense of quality. Equipping your kitchen with a set of these would be ideal if you appreciate traditional, quality items that can be passed down from generation to generation - they are genuinely 'Modern Retro'. Unchanged in design over hundreds of years, there is a sense when cooking with these that a great-great-grandmother has done the same somewhere back in the distant past. In this manner, they are eminently suitable for cooking traditional and slow-cooked dishes. Pros: Solid, long-lasting, high quality construction that saves on energy (as less heat is needed) and may improve the taste of your foods. A slower approach on a lower setting will infuse the pan with an even heat all over. The cast iron may not actually add anything taste-wise to the food being cooked, but - possibly by not taking anything away either - it definitely does help food taste better! Meats sear really well, sealing in more flavour. There is absolutely no chance of any contamination from non-stick chemicals or coatings as the pans are entirely naturally coated (cooking oil). Cons: Need slightly more maintenance than a modern non-stick pan, and the considerable weight can make them a bit of a handful! Pre-seasoning (cooked-on oil) ensures less hassle when the pan is new, and as you add to the seasoning through time, the non-stick qualities of the pan increase. Unlike normal non-stick pans, you can use metal kitchen implements with impunity, as the surface is practically bulletproof. However, you must wash the pan in a gentle soap solution after each use, and re-coat the pan with oil before storing it away. In practice, this only takes a couple of minutes and leaves the pan with a satisfying black lustre. Not doing it, or leaving the pan damp, can result in rust quickly forming on the raw iron. However, even this is not a disaster as a gentle scrub and re-oiling will get rid of the rust (although leaving rust on for longer could result in physical damage to the surface of the pan). Due to their robust construction and the nature of cast iron, these pans tend to weigh heavily, even in the smaller sizes. This helps the pan spread and retain heat evenly, but can make them a bit of a handful when moving them around the stove. As an integral part of the pan, the handles heat up at the same rate, so be careful with them! The positive side of this is that the pan can go from stove top to oven to table top (and even BBQ!) without alteration, or risk of a plastic handle melting. Buy a pair of good quality silicone mitts or oven gloves and always lift them using both handles. Lodge do silicone covers for the handles and tempered, oven-proof glass lids in sizes to fit the main pans. For general use, the 8" and 10" sizes should be adequate, with 12" for larger meals or extended family cooking. They are also available in deep versions that can be used as a casserole. We store ours on the gas stove top as we like the look of them so much!

Muy muy buen producto.