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Lodge Carbon Steel Seasoned Skillet – Item of the Day — 32 Comments

  1. Those carbon steel pans are money!! The do conduct super fast…so heat up time is nill. The trick is building up the seasoning layer. Lodge Logic is a great pre-seasoning..but they still need TLC to really get a good coating.

    Big mistake people make it by trying to add too thick a layer of oil before seasoning..I have made this mistake……so use a very, very thin, almost invisible layer of oil as you season the pan.

    You can repeat over and over, but the pan HAS TO cool to room temp in between each seasoning layer. As Jack says…you can sear amazignly well with them.

    I must also confess…..do to added mantainence….I use my stoneware pans more often. I am testing some other non stick pans at this very moment…when and if I find they are a good product…I will chime in here.

    Happy Cooking !

  2. I was delighted to hear that you were not recommending a modern Lodge cast iron skillet which is junk compared to their older skillets. Most modern day skillets have a rough cooking surface while the older cast iron was polished smooth, thus it’s higher cost. I can fry an egg in the older cast iron and it won’t stick, using a teaspoon of oil. You were right about cast iron not being suitable for searing. In addition to your comments, cast iron can lose it’s temper if it is heated to a temperature used in searing meat.

    Thanks for opening my eyes about a couple of skillets that I can use for searing.

    • Yea all my cast (except for one enameled dutch oven) is old school. You just go to antique shops etc, you can always find good stuff, a bit of TLC and you have a 100 year old heirloom as good as the day it was first seasoned.

      Best article EVER on rehabbing cast iron is from our own Paul Wheaton!

      https://richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp

  3. A few years back I bought an oval cast iron fry pan that was super rusty….really bad…..it took about 45 minutes using a electric drill powered heavy-duty wire brush thingy….once it was rust free I used kosher salt and sand paper until it was completely smooth . Washed it, dried it and starting seasoning it. It’s a great pan now….back from the dead! I paid $1 for it.

  4. Another good place to find older cast iron is at estate sales. There seems to be one or two sales every weekend within 25 miles of where I live. You can get on an email list for your local area at https://www.estatesales.net/. Photos of the items are also found on the website. The good stuff always goes fast. I bought one skillet online only because I got tired of looking for a large and 3 in. deep cast iron skillet (and I wasn’t getting any younger – LOL).

  5. Hey Jack, Keith Snow has moved away from the Moneta/Greystone cookware and onto Diamond Swiss as his preferred non-stick cookware. Might want to try it out for us and let us know what you think.

    • Hey Pat
      This is true.. I had 2-3 pieces of stoneware and it’s non stick no doubt, but still flimsy like the vast majority of non stick pans, Swiss Diamond on the other hand is HEAVY…almost as heavy as my best French copper…but easy to maintain…handles are oven safe too…this brand is one of the only brands I have sought out..I have a pretty good set so far and they perform terrific…simple case in point…Steel cut Oatmeal..when I make it in stainless pots its a pain in the ass to scrub it out later…with Swiss Diamond it comes right off….until the 31st..you can enter to win a free Swiss diamond 8 inch skillet….about 3,000 entrants so far…see this link…https://www.swissdiamond.com/swiss-diamond-food-storage-feast-giveaway

    • Keith cannot recommend those anymore….Swiss Diamond, great at first, but hey are VERY VERY Slow to heat up, and I dont trust the coating…..I am back to using carbon steel and occasionally Scanpan…..which are expensive….but built better than Swiss Diamond.

  6. I purchased a lovely Mauviel 1830 skillet on Chef Keith Snow’s recommendation. Love it! I used your link to purchase a Lodge CRS15 Carbon Steel Skillet. I think it will be great for many things we cook including stir-frys and many oven recipes as well (doesn’t have a long handle). These are MUCH lighter in weight compared to equal sizes of cast iron we own….which is important as I move closer to being a senior citizen. 😉

  7. Hey Jack, I’m looking for an older post where you linked to a nice stainless steel soup/stock pot which was 6-8 quarts–maybe the Cuisinart brand? I’ve looked all the related posts here in the Amazon Review/TPAZ area and cannot find it. I need to replace mine, so was checking to see which one you recommended.

  8. The one that comes with a super useful and cool orange silicone slip-on/off handle is cheaper. Same skillet, more value, lower price????

  9. I have a large no-brand carbon steel wok that we bought almost 30 years ago.  Still just as good as the day we bought it and we love it for stir-fry.  However we have always had gas cooking stoves, I wouldn’t want to try to use it with electric.  In fact I don’t know how you would use a wok on an electric cooktop.

  10. I picked one of these up and when I used it the first time I noticed the center was warped upward. I contacted lodge and they sent me another one and this one is also warped. It really bugs me when pans are warped in the middle like this. I assume it is supposed to be flat. Has anyone else noticed this?

    • Mine is slightly domed in the middle as well.  Didn’t notice for a few years after I bought it because I don’t really use it for things where it would matter.  It’s a good pan for a lot of things, but I think I use cast iron just as often.

      • I am not sure how this would even happen.  Did you forget it for a long time on a hot burner or something?

  11. Just got my 12-inch today.  Ordered a smaller incarnation of one over a year ago and love it.

    Unfortunately, the finish on this one is of classic Lodge cast-iron variety sandpaper. Even the handle is rough.

    Unless I’m doing something wrong and the finish will magically smooth out with a little bit of use, I’m returning it.

    • Just cook with it and care for it it will become very stick free over time.  They are pretty damn stick free out of the gate though.  The key is the seasoning the texture you describe is not an issue.  That is how they are made.

  12. I have Griswold and Wagner cast iron skillets.  Griswold is the best IMO but they quit making pans with the Griswold name on it around 1959 if memory serves.  The ones I have are extremely smooth on the cooking surface, and they just don’t take much special care.  My #6 lives on the stove top and gets used for just about everything.  I have a 10″ Wagner that is almost as good as the Griswold.  I use it to sear meat before I throw it into the slow cooker.  I have been looking at the Lodge cast iron pots from time to time, but none of them have the smooth finish on them like the Griswolds or the Wagners.  Must be the cost of the labor to finish the bottom, so they leave that to the user.

    • Getting harder to find the good old ones, but as Jack said….garage sales, antique stores, yard sales etc….but people are wise and I see them cost a lot of dough…..good old things are worth money….especially these days…

  13. I bought one of these skillets at the local Lodge store after I heard you recommend it the first time and I love it. I was lugging along a cast iron skillet this size for cooking at camp and I replaced it with this and it suits that purpose a lot better.

  14. I bought the Lodge Carbon Steel 15 from Amazon and it would not sit flat on the counter. Had a bowed out middle. I got a replacement no questions asked and it was fine. If you look at the comments this is common.

  15. Season Season Season, Preheat your oven to 450 – 500 degrees. Do yourself a favor and get some Flax Seed oil. Apply a very THIN coat of oil all over the pan, so thin you can barely see it. A lot of people make the mistake of adding a thick layer of oil and eventually it cracks and leads to a whole other issue to deal with later on. Put the pan inside the oven upside down and cook for 1 hour. Then turn off the heat in the oven and let sit inside the oven until cool to touch. Warning the Flax Seed oil will smell like fish, but it’s worth it. Repeat the same process 4 to 5 times for the best coating. Minimum of 3.

  16. I wasn’t sure if you needed or should season carbon steel pans.
    Any input here for seasoning with tallow or light olive oil? Being those two, plus lard or chicken fat is mainly what i use, or do i need to get a bottle of flax seed oil or something else just for seasoning?
    I have one from walmart when they were remodeling and marking things down a LOT. I believe $3 but the brand is tramontina, not lodge.

    I want a 8 or 10 inch for cooking smaller things and take camping.

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