Average Rating: 
Rating: - Great skillet - buy one!
I own two Lodge cast iron skillets... a 12-inch one, and a smaller one (6 or 8 inch?) I *adore* them. They are the only skillets I have, in fact; for any bigger jobs that a stock pot won't work for, I use my wok.These skillets can be used for just about anything. Very even heat, dependable. I haven't tried to make crepes in them yet, but I suspect you could. On the stove or in the oven, they just rock. Keep them clean and well seasoned, and you'll have a fantastic tool for decades. Even though the saying goes to never use tomatoes in a cast-iron pan, I have... and it's just fine as long as you don't cook the stuff too long, and clean your pan out well right away once you're done. Clean it out, brush it out with a paper towel to get off the excess moisture, then set it on the stove over heat until it's dry, that's all it needs. The cast iron skillets are wonderful, too.
Rating: - The Most Important Tool In Your Kitchen
I don't know how I survived without a cast iron skillet for as long as I did. Maybe it's because my mother embrased the new-fangled non-stick cookware, and I never learned how useful cast iron could be. Maybe it was because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to take care of cast iron. Or maybe I just thought it would be too much work. Whatever the reason, I should have gone out and tried cast iron years before I did. Have you ever pre-heated a skillet, only to have the temperature drop as soon as you put the food in? You can't get a decent crust on something if you can't keep your cooking surface hot enough. Ever find yourself cooking in a sea of fats and water that rendered out of your meat? A hot cast iron skillet would have sealed in those jucies. When you want to fry, don't you want to fry, not braise? Are you afraid things will stick to the pan without a non-stick coating? Well, part of that sticking you fear comes from not searing fast enough, but one very important thing often overlooked is that a well seasoned cast iron pan *is* non-stick. Caring for this pan is easier than you might think. Once you've used it a few times, you'll hardly ever have to scrub it if you clean it immediately after cooking. (Immediately rinse-out the pan, lightly scrub or scrape any pieces left behind, and then wipe it dry. Coat it with Crisco, and stick it in the oven.) One thing I try to avoid is putting tomato sauce or other high acid liquids in the pan. That can cut through the non-stick surface that you've built-up -- especially if you don't rince it out before serving dinner. You might also want to be aware that vegetable oils that are used in cast iron will not be able to be reused (for cooking) as often as they would be if they were in a non-stick deep fryer, for example. But sometimes I'll just go ahead and store the pan in the oven with whatever left-over oil I have around (no higher than 1/3 the way up) instead of coating it with fresh Crisco. Once you start cooking with cast iron, you save the non-stick skilets for eggs, and you'll find yourself looking for things to cook on the cast iron. And the best thing is if you don't let the pan start to rust, you'll be able to pass it on to another generation. This will be the best value you'll ever buy for your kitchen. As for the Lodge brand, it's the only brand cast in the USA. Other brand are imports, and sometimes are not as heavy as the Lodge. So this is deffinately the pan you want.
Rating: - The thinking-man's cookware
I always thought that cast iron was old-fashioned and too much trouble to justify... at least until I discovered Alton Brown.That's right, THAT Alton Brown, the host of Food TV's fabulous show "Good Eats." Alton in the show, and through his book (I'm just here for the food) taught me WHY cast iron is so wonderful. The pan heats evenly, even if the burner is smaller than the pan's diameter, which is often not the case with other pans. It's slick as wet vaseline if you take the time to season it correctly (I did), and it's totally indestructable. My great-grand kids will be using his pan. If I was stranded on a desert island and had only one piece of cookware to choose from, this 12" Lodge skillet would be it.
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