Customer Reviews

Lodge Pizza/Roasting Pan

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When properly preheated, this heavy cast-iron pan can store enough heat to promote a very nice pizza crust, whether you like crisp thin crust or a higher rising deep dish crust. You can use it like a pizza stone but without same danger of cracking it by heating or cooling it too quickly. After following the easy instructions to season the pan, the non-stick surface will be faster and easier to clean than stone. The shallow lip around the edge and the low profile handles work great for use with a wood pizza/bread peel. Spread a little corn meal on the peel under the dough to keep it from sticking to the wood when sliding it onto the pan.

Keep the pizza pan on an unused bottom rack for general baking to maintain the oven temperature for dough that rises higher, more consistently, and a better crust. The stored heat in the cast-iron allows the oven to more quickly recover to the proper temperature when you need to briefly open the ovendoor during baking. When baking bread, throw some icecubes on the preheated iron to generate steam long enough to delay the crust formation until after the most of the rising occurs, promoting a better crust as well.

I decided to buy this pizza pan when I saw Lidia, from "Lidia's Italian Kitchen" on PBS make pizza in cast iron skillets, which she of course recommended. I made pizza in my square cast iron skillet and it was delicious! I just needed a bigger size for pizza and here it is! I have made wonderful pizzas and foccacia breads using this pan! It is great! Just needs to be seasoned before using, like all cast iron, but very easy and certainly worth it!

I did some research on pizza stones and found that the biggest complaint was that they were very delicate to use and handle. Not so with this pan. Of course like all cast iron, it may not withstand a hard fall on a hard surface (cast iron can be cracked).

Cast iron retains heat extremely well, which is exactly what makes stones so effective, with the added benefit of being extremely durable. This is the last pizza pan I'll ever own!

I just used this pizza pan for the first time and am placing my order for a second. We cooked two pizzas together. One was cooked on a regular, non-stick pizza pan, while the other cooked on the new Lodge Pizza Pan. The non-stick pan pizza had a limp, rather doughy crust while the Lodge Pizza was crisp, even and delicious. I'm sold! Seasoning the pan was easy, and the crust came out of the pan without sticking a bit.

I have tried so many other products claiming to give you the best cooked pizza using their stone..only to be disappointed..unitl I found "Lodge". Now, no greasy smelly stones to store or fill the house with smoke. The Lodge pan turns the crust golden brown and keeps it hot until the last piece is gone! I purchased the pre-seasoned pan...but seasoning it yourself is easy.

Just received it today, seasoned it, cooled it, washed it and cooked fish fillets on it. The pan worked great. The second batch came out better than the first since the pan was preheated. Can't wait to roast some zucchini, carrots, and potatoes on it. Pizza is planned for later this week. This pan is already a real nice addition to the family.
Almost a year now we have owned it and I moved it from the bottom rack to the bottom of the oven and I guess with the last few times we used the oven it burned the seasoning off. It was a perfect black, now it is gray again. Do not leave it on the oven floor(gas), leave it on an oven rack off of the floor if you store it in the oven!

I'd like to add to the other review that you can preheat this griddle on top of the stove while your oven is preheating, making it possible to bake your pizza a lot sooner. I keep mine in the oven at all times, and bring it out to wipe it off and rub a little oil in it once in a while.

I tried making pizza a few different ways with stones and crisping pans but my oven never gets hot enough to cook both the crust and the toppings together. I was thinking of getting a hearth kit but the price was a few hundred bucks so I figure I should try this first.

I never used cast iron before and I was kind of put off by the idea of seasoning pans but the possibility of saving whole bunches of money made the process not so hard to try.

Basically you line the lower rack of the oven with aluminum foil. Then you wash the pan with mild soapy water and dry it with paper towels. Then you turn the oven on to bake at 350 degrees. Stick the pan in the oven until its just a little warm. Then you pull it out and rub it all over, including the handles, with a paper towel that's been dunked in vegetable oil. Then stick in back in the top rack of the oven upside down and let it cook for about an hour. Two things to remember are to not take too long getting the pan back into the oven while its getting up to 350, the sooner the better. You want the pan to ease up to 350. The second thing is that the aluminum foil catches any drips from the pan. There will be a few and the house may smell a little like hot oil for the hour. It wasn't a really bad smell, if it was my wife would not hesitate to tell me, and the smell went away pretty quickly as the oven cooled. The pan changes color from a dark grey to a brown. And that's that.

I made my first pizza today and it went really well. I had the oven to 450, even though most recipes say 550 or higher; and even though it took a few more minutes the crust got crusty, the toppings cooked at the same time without burning and it slid right onto the peel without sticking. It all cooked together like real pizza and I basically washed it with water and a dobie pad when it cooled and dried it with paper towels.

Now I have to work on getting my pizzas into the classic round shape.

Even frozen pizza turns out better on this one! We like crispy crust...something you never truly got with the other pans until it was close to setting off the smoke alarm. With this pan you get crispy crust everytime! Also builds strong muscles from lifting it in and out of the oven (careful..it's heavy, not one to be dropping on your foot)...cut your pizza right on the pan...no problems.

Appeals to my "thrifty" side...I should never have to buy another pizza pan again with this one.

The cast iron enables a shortcut that can't be done with a stone: we place the cold pan with (kinda thick) pizza on the high burner for 2-3 min before putting it in the oven. The rapid preheat of the pan promotes a good crust and speeds up baking. The handles make it easy to transfer into an oven (which may still be approaching our baking temperature of 450 F). This technique gives us a better result (nicely browned firm crust), while saving lengthy preheat time and eliminating the occasionally messy process of sliding a pizza on and off the stone with a wooden peel. Note also that the cast iron pan, unlike the stone, can be used for storing and reheating leftover slices.

I was so pleased to be able to make so many pancakes and pieces of French toast at one time, but then I tried it for fajitas. Even better! Marinate steak strips in lime juice, oil, tequila, a few other ingredients. Toss it on the hot pan with sliced veggies, shop aimlessly at Amazon for a few minutes, come back flip everything and there's dinner. Great pan!