Lodge is my favorite cast iron label because it is well made and inexpensive. Now it even comes pre-seasoned, although it still requires some additional seasoning before it reaches top nonstick form. This can be done by baking it with oil or meat grease or just by using it to cook a few times. The more cast iron is used properly, the more nonstick it becomes. If one learns to change cooking habits, following usage and cleaning instructions, better results will be achieved in short order.
Unaware of the teflon industry unethically hiding their toxicity reports from the public and the government for more than 20 years (not to mention the toxins they dumped into the environment), I raised my children on teflon nonstick pans. None of my food ever turned out with the flavorful browned finish that cast iron provides, but I was lazy and I bought into the idea of the new conveniences. Now that I know teflon is actually dangerous to not only our individual health but to the planet, I've replaced all of my teflon with cast iron, bought cast iron for my young adult children, and I'm trying to help them learn to cook on it so they too will learn that it is not only better for their health, but it also produces superior texture and flavor.
I started by going back and remembering how my grandmother used hers. It is all she used until she died at 91-years-old. Her cookware is still entirely useable and has been divided up among relatives.
Grandmother cooked everything on cast iron, and she knew how to use pieces in multiple ways so that she required fewer of them. For example, she used her large fry pan to cook homemade pancakes by turning it upside down on the burner and using the bottom as a griddle! Because she kept an empty coffee can of recycled meat grease next to her stove (lard) and used it as her cooking oil, she never needed to re-season. Her pans were completely nonstick from all of the use. While most of us will not recycle meat grease and cook with it, we can do the same with the olive and vegetable oils we use.
A contemporary concern often expressed is that it must be unhealthy to clean pans without dishwashing detergent. I remind my children that their great-grandparents lived to just under and just over 90-years-old (neither died from a cancer) and never once washed their cookware with detergent. They used only hot water.Our entire family grew up eating Grandmother's cooking and none of us were sickened by it. Remembering that reminds me that much of our concern with hyper-cleanliness has been marketed to us so we will buy innumerable products we do not really need; products that actually have hurt overall health by inhibiting our opportunities to strengthen our immune systems, and now we have actually introduced too many antibacterial products into our environment as well.Grandmother did dry her pans by placing them over a hot burner and that will kill bacteria, but it is not necessary to dry cast iron that way.Because drying pans over a hot burner uses more energy, I towel dry mine and I've never been made sick by doing so.
Reasons to switch:
1. Food has better flavor and texture
2. No toxins in the air or in the food to worry about.
3. No dishwashing detergent used so it is better for the planet and for the wallet.
4. For good results, cooking with lower heat is required, which means less energy use and that also is better for the environment and the wallet.
5. Less expensive to purchase than nonstick considered "high quality" and much more durable so rarely does any of it need replacing. The same pans can be used by multiple generations.One more reason cast iron is better for the environment and our pocket book.
6. Small amounts of healthy iron added to our diets without a mineral supplement in pill form.
7. Weight of pieces forces at least a little weight lifting every day which is better for our muscles, therefore our overall health, including contributing to staving off osteoporosis.
8. Because it is easier to wash right after use and needs to be dried right away, pans do not pile up cluttering the kitchen and hanging over our heads as a chore we are avoiding.
9. To stop rewarding the teflon industry for lying to us with withheld toxicity reports as they sold us products that were actually slowiy poisoning our children.
10. To stop rewarding the teflon industry for dumping toxins into our waterways and releasing toxic gases into the air during the manufacturing process.
11. To hold cookware manufacturers, distributors, and retailers responsible and accountable for what they choose to market and sell to us.
Reasons to purchase Lodge brand:
1. Well made
2. Readily available
3. Inexpensive
4. For those who do not want to go to the store, it can be purchased from Amazon with free shipping.
This is such a great pan for omlets because of the sloped sides that allow you to slide underneath.This would be a great first peice of cast iron for someone new to using it because of the size and it is pre-seasoned.I use it all the time & it just keeps getting better!
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Nope, it's cuz Lindy stir-frys. Lindy has used cheap non-sticks skillets, expensive non-stick skillets and was considering the ones that cost a bomb in Williams-Sonoma (Lindy like shiny...oooh..., aaah...) when the kindly and knowledgeable saleswoman informed her that there was not a non-stick skillet on the market that could tolerate daily stir-fry even with the temperature correctly set to medium heat (err....yeah....) for much more than a year. This tallied exactly and precisely with Lindy's experience with non-stick coatings, no matter the price.
Sigh. Lindy is not made of money. Sigh.
So at the nearest Wally World, Lindy found this skillet in the clearance section without the instructions for seasoning. Half price. Score!
A quick internet search netted much advice for seasoning the pan.
Update (11/23/12): Here's the classic method for seasoning a pan.
From the Lodge website:
"Re-Seasoning your Lodge Cast Iron
While maintaining the seasoning (as in Step 5 above) should keep your Cast Iron in good condition, at some point you may need to repeat the seasoning process. If food sticks to the surface, or you notice a dull, gray color, repeat the seasoning process:
Wash the cookware with hot, soapy water and a stiff brush. (It is okay to use soap this time because you are preparing to re-season the cookware).
Rinse and dry completely.
Apply a thin, even coating of MELTED solid vegetable shortening (or cooking oil of your choice) to the cookware (inside and out).
Place aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven to catch any dripping.
Set oven temperature to 350 400 degrees F.
Place cookware upside down on the top rack of the oven.
Bake the cookware for at least one hour. After the hour, turn the oven off and let the cookware cool in the oven.
Store the cookware uncovered, in a dry place when cooled."
Other internet sites are big fans of bacon grease. Simply put, you will need some kind of solid fat that can take very high heat in order to season the pan. Lindy knows that Crisco will take very high heat and is easier to obtain than bacon grease. Lindy doesn't eat bacon because of her high cholesterol.
Not that Lindy EVER burns food in her spiffy frypan but should this happen to you, scrap/soak/remove as much as possible, then place the pan on the burner set to max heat. The heat will burn off the crud and the pan will not rust. You can add salt to the pan and use it as an abrasive to help scrub off the food bits as they carbonize. Re-seasoning at this point is useful but not utterly necessary. Lindy would like to give credit where credit is due and report that Lindy's Mommy taught her this trick.
If you don't re-season, you'll just need more oil than usual until the seasoning builds up again. Once this happens, eggs don't stick. Steaks sear on the outside and are juicy on the inside. Lindy can break her diet and make fried rice. Use one of those plastic bottles with a tiny tip to drip oil in as needed and your food won't be too much fattier than using regular non-stick.
But Lindy is very scared for her toes if she ever drops the pan. Never use one hand to move it.
Update 11/23/12: Here's the method using flaxseed oil that is sweeping the foodie blogosphere:
Use flaxseed oil (from healthfood, or vitamin store) to season the pan. Be warned flaxseed oil is amazingly expensive; the price on Amazon is less than the healthfood stores but not by a whole lot. Some people note the chemical similarity between flaxseed and the very cheap linseed oil but LINSEED OIL is TOXIC. No substitutions.
Ventilate the area. The smoke is mild but it builds up as you keep working.
Strip off any old seasoning using procedure mentioned above. The salt reduces smoking as you burn off the coating. The cast iron will turn a silvery gray as the seasoning is removed. Let cool.
Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.
You want about 5-7 coats of oil on your skillet, so repeat this as many times as needed. Don't think about trying this with 1-2 really thick coats of oil. It won't season evenly or smoothly. You'll lose a lot of your costly oil as it drips off the pan during the baking procedure.
Coat your pan with the thinnest possible coat of flaxseed oil. Try to apply evenly. Avoid any drips, if the oil sets inside your oven or other equipment it will be a nightmare to remove. Put a sheet of disposable aluminum foil in case of drips below the skillet.
Bake the skillet for 1/2 hour.
Repeat for however many times as you desire.
By the last coat, the seasoning will have a soft, tacky feel, like you could scrape it off with a metal utensil. If you turn off the oven and leave the piece in place until the oven cools off on it's own, it should have hardened into a black and very, very shiny layer. It will be as shiny as black nail polish.
Observations about flaxseed oil seasoning performance.
1) It's hard but not indestructible. I was unable to scratch it with the back of a knife but scouring with steel wool did remove some of the seasoning eventually.
2) You can leave it sitting it water and it is protected. No rust.
3) you can clean the pan in the dishwasher. Not sure how many times you can repeat this before you need to re-season.
4) The surface has a smooth non-oily feel but it is not non-stick. You must use a little oil to prevent sticking. Clean up is very easy, stuff come right off. The pans have not been in use long enough to build up a second layer from bacon/crisco/daily use.
5) The flaxseed surface sticks more than the traditional seasoning surface. This may be a highly unfair comparison because the flaxseed surface is only a few days old and the traditional seasoning surface was a few years old. I will update this comparison if performance changes over time.
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Is not fully seasoned out of the box but within a short time will be a non-stick HIGH heat saute pan. Lighter in construction than other lodge pans it handles well. The casting ridges are not ground down but you will be using a potholder. Great tool period.
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Cast iron is safe (unlike teflon and other chemical nonstick surfaces). It's also very heavy. And sadly, Lodge cast iron pans have a rough surface, which make them that much worse with regards to sticking (slick cast iron surfaces are much more nonstick).
Lodge's comes pre-seasoned, but unfortunately the pre-seasoning is pretty bad. So the first thing you'll need to do is season it more. The easiest way to go about this is to cook nothing but bacon in it for the first several uses. In between batches, poor out the fat, scrape off the crumbs with a spatula or wooden spoon or whatever else you have, and wipe the pan several times with paper towels until you can't wipe up any more grease. This will ensure that you have the thinnest layer of oil on it. Then stick the pan in a 400 deg oven for an hour, turn off the oven, and leave the pan in there until it cools or until its next use. When you cook your next batch of bacon, repeat. Do this several times and your pan will be well seasoned enough to cook an egg on it.
Stuff can still stick to well-seasoned cast iron. If you get the stove temp right and add just the right amount of oil, you should be able to scramble an egg with minimal sticking. If the pan's too hot, your pan's gonna be a mess with egg stuck all over. If it's too cold, again, big mess. It takes practice getting the temp right, but you'll eventually get it. Thankfully, cooking meat isn't nearly as critical. Just preheat, add oil, and lay your room temperature meat in the pan (cold meat is more likely to stick).
There are a million other ways to season a pan, some better than others. Lard from the Mexican market is cheap and works great. Apply a thin layer until your paper towel cannot wipe up any more, bake for an hour, cool down, repeat. Do this a 5 times and you'll have a nice season.
Here are things that will ruin your seasoning:
-Acid. Don't even think about cooking tomatoes or tomato sauce or vinegary or lemony dishes in it. The amount of seasoning that comes off depends on how acidic and how long it's in there.
-Soap. I use soap, but only minimally, and only on well-seasoned pans. I will avoid it if possible, instead just scrubbing with a brush under hot water, followed by drying on the stove.
-Abrasion. Steel wool is safe on cast iron. It is not safe on the seasoning. Same goes with metal utensils. While you can certainly use a metal spatula, it's best to refrain from doing too much scraping.
-Too much heat. I constantly blast one of my skillets in my 550 deg oven or 700 deg BBQ. The cast iron can handle it, but some of the seasoning does burn off (google "self cleaning oven cast iron" without quotes to see why)
The great thing about cast iron is that you can always replenish the seasoning. But it's a terrible pain in the rear. It's best to season it right, then just take whatever precautions are necessary to maintain that seasoning.
Cast iron is great for:
fried chicken (any kind of frying, since it retains heat quite well).
pies
flat breads
pancakes
searing meat (esp steaks)
pizza (just make it small enough to fit; works almost as well as a stone!)
grilled cheese
cooking on the grill or over a campfire
Cast iron is horrible for:
fast cooking, since it takes a while to heat up
acidic foods
even heating (despite it's good heat retention, these cast iron pans distribute heat VERY UNEVENLY!)
Overall Lodge makes decent cast iron pans that are made in the USA. For the price they are a decent value. But I personally prefer other materials, such as stainless steel or carbon steel for my everyday cooking. If you've never used cast iron, and you have the storage space for it, it's definitely worth purchasing. Just make sure you use it enough to understand it. So many people I know buy it, try it, and then never use it again.
One more note... If you're OCD about cleaning pans, don't bother with cast iron. It's supposed to stay a little grimey after use and cleaning. It's advised to wipe with a little oil after each use, and you'll see your paper towel pick up black gunk from the pan. Don't worry, that gunk is supposed to be there, and it really won't transfer to your food.
I have had these pans for about 6 months and loved them at first.I have to say that the ceramic coating has held up much better than the more expensive pans and they do a good job of being non-stick and cleaning easily.But now my handles are cracking and falling off!I am so disappointed!I can only assume that the plastic handles cannot handle heat long term.I have had to discard both the skillet and the dutch oven, the pieces I use the most.The two saucepans are still fine.
