Customer Reviews

Lodge Logic L14SK3 Pre-Seasoned 15 Inch Cast-Iron Skillet

5 star:		(681)
4 star:		(128)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(39)

 

 

I own several Lodge cast iron products and use them everyday. I have 3 teeneage boys that enjoy cooking, and after they destroyed a few teflon coated pans, I decided I would go heavy into cast iron. These pans are indestructible. You can use them in the oven or stovetop, and if you keep it seasoned properly food will not stick. Also, to avoid sticking problems, you may want to remember to allow the pan to get hot before applying oil or food.

As to seasoning, the Logic line now comes preseasoned. But don't make a big deal about this. To season a cast iron skillet simply coat it lightly with oil and bake it for a half hour or so. I have also seasoned these skillets on the stovetop. Cast iron is also great because it does not easily scrap like stainless steel and aluminum pots. Aluminum pans are painful to me, as my teeth fillings react to the aluminum. With cast iron, you won't have this problem. I also take my Lodge pan camping and set it right over the coals to cook. No melted handles or scorched bottoms to mess with.

Let me start by saying we have a kitchen full of 20+ pieces of Calphalon Hard Annodized Commercial cookware. I was always of the opinion that quality cookware carried a price that was justified by the performace of the cookware. So I thought if I wanted cast iron I should look at LeCreuset... wrong! Lodge blew that theory out the window! I can't express how well this simple pan works. Let it get hot and it will hold the temp like nothing else, oven to cooktop. I finally decided to get a good cast iron skillet after hearing Alton Brown (Host of Good Eats - ...- TV Food Network - ...) rave about cast iron for the last few years. He steared me to Lodge, Lodge's web site (lodgemgf.com) told me about the pre-seasoned "Logic" line. This stuff makes cast iron simple. No messing around with seasoning a new pan. Simple care instructions. And clear instructions to reseason should the need occur. At the price these pans sell, there is no excuse to not have one, (or more) in your kitchen. It will soon become your favorite pan. I bought a 5 quart Lodge Logic Dutch Oven at the same time and it is fantastic as well!

After waiting a month to get the thing because it was back-ordered, I FINALLY got to try out my skillet. I love this thing! Most of my cookware is garden-variety non-stick and hardly suited to things like searing steaks or fajita meat.

You can run this pan as hot as you dare without hurting it - works great for steaks, and makes an awesome cheese steak. The pre-seasoned coating works as advertised, and the cast iron gives good heat transfer and VERY even heat across the entire pan. I think I'm going to be using this skillet A LOT.

A handy suggestion regarding cleaning that I stumbled across on another website... be SURE to use a hot pad while doing this! Immediately after cooking, fill the pan with HOT water (not cold; you could crack it!), put it on high heat, and bring the water to a rolling boil... this will lift debris off the pan bottom. Dump the water and immediately wipe dry with a paper towel, set on the (turned-off) burner briefly to dry completely, and wipe the cooking surfaces with oil.

Another note - want those steaks well-done but juicy? Buy the Lodge Logic 5-qt Dutch oven; the lid fits this skillet! Sear both sides of the steak on medium-high (about 3 min each), then flip, reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook as desired, flipping the steak once along the way (about 5 minutes per side for a small, well-done filet mignon). Your cooking times may vary, but the combo of cast-iron skillet for searing and lid to keep things moist while cooking works exquisitely. Brown, not black, outside... and tender inside.

I own three pieces of cast iron cookware, and this item is one of them... and among my favorite cooking implements, period. In fact, I use this skillet most of all, and it doesn't even have a place in a cabinet! I keep it on the stove permanently, for that is how often I use it.

Beware that cast iron is not a quickie-cooking component (it takes time for the iron to heat, and it takes experience to gauge the iron's "perfect temperature" for sensitive dishes), but for dishes requiring steady, even heat and for cooks who require durable cookware with easy clean-up, cast iron CANNOT be beat!

This skillet is going to last forever. Its care is easy: I scrub it with hot water only, and dry it with an old rag and apply a thin layer of vegetable oil while the iron is still hot... a year and a half later, it's still rust-free and delivering the reliable service I have come to expect and admire. No scratches interfere with its performance, as is the case with my allegedly-long-lasting Wearever nonstick cookware set (what a waste of money THAT was!). Heck, I even use my cast-iron skillet for CREPES, and that's saying something! Despite the pan's weight, it's an immeasurably better nonstick crepe-cooker than teflon. In fact, I use my cast iron cookware for everything from french fries to spaghetti sauce to eggs and bacon to french toast! It's a dependable griddle, skillet, grill, and pot, and it goes right from the stovetop and into the oven for maximum versatility.

I am an avid home-chef, and I can say without exception that my cast-iron cookware is the best kitchen investment I've ever made.

I have 2 pieces of Lodge cast iron cookware. This one and the 12" un-preseasoned skillet which I conditioned myself. I have to add my voice to the chorus of cast iron admirers who don't know how they ever survived without their Lodges. I do about 80% of my cooking with one or the other. Steaks, burgers, any type of sauteed chicken recipe, stir-fry, fajitas, cornbread, bacon and eggs, pancakes, french toast, grilled cheese sandwiches, and on and on.

Cast iron's chief strength comes from its massiveness. It is basically a honkin' big hunk of iron formed into a cooking utensil. This large quantity of metal, once heated, will tend to evenly distribute its heat and stay hot no matter what you put into it. Futhermore, once properly conditioned (which Lodge has done for you here), they are almost as non-stick as teflon.

Unfortunately, cast iron is not without its faults. Its greatest strength may also be its greatest weakness in that it is significantly heavier than other types of cookware. This skillet weighs about 6 lbs. Imagine trying to pick that up, plus the weight of whatever you've cooked in it, with one oven-mitted hand so that you can use a spoon in the other hand to help maneuver your recipe into a serving dish or storage container! If you have weak hands or arthritis or any condition that limits your ability to pick up and manipulate heavy objects, it may not be a good choice for you.

Also, iron will rust if not maintained correctly. Lodge provides you with use and care instructions which are not complicated or difficult, but which you MUST follow to the letter. Read the instructions carefully when you get your pan. No dishwasher, no soap (just hot water and a stiff brush), dry quickly and coat with cooking oil.

I've read some reviews where folks are saying that you can't cook tomato-based or acidic products in cast iron. Though it may be true, I've never found an authoritative source to corroborate this and, in fact, Lodge's website (lodgemfg.com) offers recipes that contain tomatoes and acidic ingredients! I regularly put tomatoes, tomato sauce, wine, lemon juice, etc. in my cast iron and haven't seen any ill effects from doing so.

These pans are so inexpensive, it will cost you very little to give them a try. If you do, you'll be singing their praises with the rest of us!

I've decided to replace my teflon pans with cast iron and this is one of the first ones I bought. So far it has been excellent. The large size is fantastic, though it's definitely heavy. My arm muscles are getting a workout! I'm glad I got it pre-seasoned, since that was one less thing to hassle with. I have found that cooking with cast iron makes food taste better. Kind of surprsing. I'm not sure why this has been the case, but my husband and I have both noticed it. I have to say though, it is very different than cooking with a regular teflon pan. At first I kept burning everything. Cast iron gets very hot and maintains a steady hot temperature. I'm finding that I'm basically cooking everything in this pan on med-low heat, where I would have used medium heat. Overall, I'm happy with my purchase though and plan on getting a couple more cast iron pans

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.

Cast iron skillets, and Dutch Ovens are probably the most versatile pans you can own; it's a fact that fights have actually broken out in families over who is going to inherit the heirloom cast iron cookware after a loved one passes. Lodge Manufacturing, in South Pittsburg, Tennessee produces some of the last cast iron pieces to actually be made in America. They also happen to make the best in the world. They produce the only type of skillet I've seen that can go from the stovetop, right into the oven, and then onto the table. In addition, these pans can be used with great success over an open fire while camping, something no other cookware can do. Since this skillet comes preseasoned, you get to skip the job of seasoning the pan before it's first use. However, if you don't maintain this preseasoning, you'll have to reapply a new coat.

Seasoning cast iron is a very simple process, the instructions that follow apply to any piece of cast iron cookware needing seasoned. First, heat the oven to 400 degrees, then, using your hands, coat the iron pan inside and out, including the handle, with SOLID SHORTENING ONLY, such as Crisco(not butter flavored), or even lard. Then bake it, upside down, on the upper oven rack for an hour. Line the ovens bottom rack with alumnium foil and you'll catch the drippings that fall as the shortening melts and gets absorbed by the iron. Then allow the pan to cool before attempting to handle it again. If your oven has a hooded fan, you will want to run it to remove the fumes and odors caused by the melting shortening. That's all there is to it. You can also do this process outside in a gas grill, or even a charcoal grill so long as it has a cover. Afterward, you will want to fry fatty foods such as bacon, fried chicken, or fish in your newly seasoned pan, as these types of oily foods help to reinforce the new seasoning you've just applied. After a round of frying bacon or chicken, your skillet will be ready for virtually anything else you want to cook in it.

This skillet will quickly become the most frequently used pan in your kitchen, and that's a good thing because the more you use it, the more seasoning you're actually applying to the iron. Some have complained that they have lost a small area of the seasoning in their pan, and have had to remove the rest of the seasoning by hand before reapplying the Chriso and baking process. Actually, you can follow the steps above and be just fine. If, for some reason though, you have to remove all the seasoning, simply put the pan upside down in the oven and run the oven through the cleaning cycle once, then allow the oven and pan to cool. The skillet will come out like the day it was made, but you must wash, dry, and reseason it right then and there. Doing so will prevent rust, which is one of the few real dangers to cast iron. Two other dangers include, never adding or running cold water into a hot iron skillet or Dutch Oven because the sudden temperature change will cause the pan to crack. And finally, NEVER, under any circumstances, wash a cast iron pan in a dishwasher. Dishwasher soap is strong enough to remove even the oldest seasoning and the steamy, humid environment created during the drying cycle will then cause the pan to rust.

Clean all cast iron pieces by hand with hot water and a stiff bristled brush, NO SOAP EVER, and then dry the piece right after washing using a paper towel. You can then apply a very light shot of cooking spray, inside and out, to protect the pans seasoning; paper towels are helpful in spreading the spray over the pans entire surface. I realize this has been a rather long review, but I hope the various instructions listed above are helpful to first time buyers/users of cast iron cookware.

Finally, for first time buyers, I recommend purchasing the Lodge Preseasoned 3 skillet set which includes a 6", 8", and a 10" skillet, in addition to this 12 inch pan. Together, whether cooking in the kitchen or over an open fire while camping, these 4 skillets will give you the versatility of cooking for one person or the entire family. You will also want to get a Lodge Preseasoned Iron Lid and a regular splatter screen for this skillet because they raise the potential uses of the pan even more. I've used cast iron for years, and it really is the way to go. If you consider the cost of other types of cookware, and how long it will last when compared to cast iron, you really can't go wrong with purchasing 3 or 4 pieces for your everyday use. Remember too, that your kids, and their kids in turn, will be using these pans long after you're gone. With a probable service life of more than one hundred years, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

I can't say enough good things about the pre-seasoned cast iron. It is especially helpful to people who are new to using cast iron. This is a big skillet and the only drawback is the weight, it is VERY heavy. Once you get used to using cast iron and find out how it retains heat and cooks great, you will love it. I find that cleanup is easy too. After you are done cooking (while it is still hot), fill it half full with water and leave it on the still warm burner & the food will basically cook itself off. If necessary use a brush to loosen anything left on the pan, rinse with hot water (do NOT use soap)and dry. While the pan is still warm from the hot water, smooth a thin layer of shortening over it and wipe off excess with a paper towel. If the pan is still too hot to use my fingers, I use a small toothbrush and rub the shortening on with it. If you are cooking for less than four people, buy the smaller size skillet.

Too often, a 12" skillet is just not quite big enough. This one is perfect for cooking for a family. It makes a good griddle, is non-stick and holds a lot of food. No more ever-so-careful stirring to avoid spilling over the edge. It does heat up a bit hotter directly above the heat source, so the heat distribution is not perfect. But that is the nature of cast iron. Overall it is a must-have pan and the one I always reach for first.

Kitchen Collection (website and store often found in outlet malls) makes a lid called the "Extra Large Multi Cover" that fits this pan perfectly and makes the pan even more versatile.

The skillet is rather heavy, but with the helper handle, it has not been a problem moving the thing around even when full of food. It is impossible to pick it up and pour anything out of, but then, there are no pour spout indentations.

As some reviewers have noted, the bottom appears pebbly, but that is a complete non-issue. The pre-seasoning is a start, but I just lightly washed it and then reseasoned it first thing. It has been entirely non-stick for everything from eggs, to green beans to meats since.

The pan's actual measurements are 15" across the top and 12" across the interior bottom. Despite the written description and the pan's label (and Amazon's title when I bought it) that state the pan to be 15 1/4", it is and is supposed to be 15". I even contacted Lodge about the discrepency and was told 15" is the proper measurement. I took away a star for the mislabeling.