Lodge Boy Scouts of America Pre-Seasoned 12-Inch Skillet

The seasoning on this pan was perfect when it arrived. But I still coated it with peanut oil a couple of times and placed it in oven face down at highest temperature for hour at a time twice before I started using it.Then for a first couple of times, there was a little bit of eggs sticking to the bottom, but after using it over a week, now it doesn't stick at all, it is as smooth as a non-stick pan.I am glad that I bought the lodge brand, as the quality of workmanship is exceptional. No dents, no irregularities, no flaws anywhere. 8" is a perfect size to make 2-3 eggs omelettes. I also used this pan to make hash browns and they turned out crispy, but they need a bit more oil than I anticipated. (Pro tip: If you are making hash browns, make sure you wash your grated potatoes thoroughly and dry them as much as you can, and then use a lot of oil to make it in this pan, otherwise the moisture in the potato will suck all the oil and you will burn your hashbrowns instead of getting that golden brown crispy look).We also used this for chicken 65 recipe. Didn't stick to the bottom at all and chicken was fried very well. The size was again perfect for making small batches of about 15 nugget size pieces at a time without wasting too much oil.This is my first cast iron utensil. I was worried about it rusting etc. and saw a bunch of videos on YouTube about how to care for them, but it is really easy. I just let it sit there after cooking is done, allow it to cool down. If there is oil still in it, I just simple use paper towel to clean the debris from cooking and let the oil stay in the pan. Then I wash it just before using it for the next time with water and soap. After washing I immediately heat it and let the water evaporate.If it is too dirty and must be washed before storing it overnight, then I first let it cool down, wash it with cold water and soap, then start the stove and let the water evaporate. Once the water evaporates, then I let it cool down and once it is almost cool, I put about a teaspoon of oil and spread it across both inside and outside surfaces and even the handle. That makes it shine like brand new. If I don't use it more than 2-3 days (that only happened once so far), then I apply a slight coat of oil if I see that the shiny layer of oil is not there.I thought I would be tired of this ritual of putting oil on etc, but it is lot of fun. I won't mind doing it, it is a special pan that requires special care.This pan is expensive, but the good news is you cry only once paying the price of this pan, but then you don't need to buy another one for the rest of your life. This thing can easily last for a hundred years if you don't end up dropping it as it is made out of brittle cast iron material.Can't believe I would be writing a glowing review of a stupid cooking utensil, but here I am... can't help it. I think I have fallen in love with this pan. No joke. I use it everyday and I recommend buying it without any reservations.

Behaving like non stickVery good skillet to fryAm really my cooking nowNote seasoning is important each time

There is no zero star.Or I would hav given zero star.Its more about the seller.Please do not purchase from ATM Retail. It apparently ships from a different state (got to know from the courier tracking) and he had shabbily packed the skillets. I missed to take the picture of the entire box so I can show how badly it was packed.I ordered 2 skillets.The seller had not packed it in its original Lodge box.Whenever we purchase any item, be it anything,it comes in its original brand box.The skillets were kept just like that inside the carton box.1 skillet was fine. The other had a broken handle.It dint look as if it was broken during transit.It looked as if it was broken and then kept inside the box. I raised a replacement request and received the replacement yesterday and it was cracked.The packing was pathetic.It was kept just like that inside a broken box.This time, the box was also looking pathetic.Please see who the seller is and then buy.Do not buy from this seller. This seller had not paid any attention to the packing nor the product.There was no bubble wrap around it.Its a cast iron skillet and it will break if it is dropped.So care should have been given to the packing. It looked like he sent me two pieces which were returned by someone else.Regarding the product, I received 1 which was not broken. I still have my doubt if its original because of the pathetic packing. It was already seasoned.I bought an 8 inch pan. Its smaller than our regular dosa pan. Its good enough for a big omelette or 2 small steak pieces.I dint check the weight but it should be around 1 kg and a half. When you think about the cooking you can do in this pan, it doesnt feel so heavy. It has a rough surface but it doesnt affect its non-stick property after seasoning it. But the packing was so bad that I am sure it would have gone through dust. So I first washed it with soap and soft brush. Then dried it and applied oil, then heated it.The first thing I tried was egg. May be cuz I dint heat to a very high temperature, the egg got stuck to the pan. I had to scrub to remove the food from the pan. Then followed the same procedure to season it again. I tried one more egg on high heat. It took a while to get hot. We have to make sure that the pan and oil is hot before adding the food. The egg fry just slid in the pan without any spoon. I used a cloth to hold the handle. The handle gets very hot. The egg was crisp and brown on the outside and soft on the inside. It had a better taste compared to cooking in a non-stick pan. Non-stick pan can stand no where close to a cast iron pan. Another beautiful thing is it took very less oil. I dint have to put lot of oil like I usually do in an aluminium pan to get fluffy egg fries. Sorry dint take the picture of the beautiful egg fry.The next thing I tried was chicken fry. I had used vinegar, wine and sauce to marinate it.So it got stuck to the pan. But the chicken got cooked very nicely. It was brown on the outside and soft inside. And it was very easy to clean the pan after cooling it.As soon as you get the pan, clean it well, dry it and apply oil and heat it. You can heat it to dry the pan and then apply oil on it. Spread it nicely with a soft cloth which doesn't give lint. Or you can use a cut onion piece to rub oil as we apply in our dosa pans. Apply oil and spread it using onion.You need to buy cast iron for your daily cooking. Its amazing. Its so so much better than non-stick pans. Non stick pans take a long time to heat and also makes the food chewy. This one keeps the food soft.

The first skillet i received was in very bad packaging and had a crack..contacted Amazon and told them about the same .. was assured by amazon agent that she would return this and as I was ordering another pan would make sure this doesn’t get repeated..,returned it and ordered a second one.. with my fingers crossed hoping there won’t be any issues with this. When I recieved this skillet, packaging was equally poor.. it was just in a torn cardboard box..when I opened it had few rust marks but no crack visible.. the surface of the Lodge skillet is very bumpy.. not at all smooth..I was not sure weather this is a good thing.. searched over net and found that many people find Lodge skillets very rough ...haven’t cooked anything as of now.. will update soon regarding the same.. have seasoned my pan by washing, applying oil and then baking in oven for an hour.. ( searched the net for the seasoning video).. I am sure it will make the skillet better..would surely buy a Indian locally made pan and compare both and update the same...Update... Used the skillet to make dosa... Dosa didn’t stick at all.. but the was an issue removing it as the sides of the pan are pretty high.. so the removal part was a little difficult.. though the dosa was nice and crisp but would buy a griddle for the same...Update- According to many on net... the most difficult is to make eggs I guess.. so I tried it myself.. and the outcome was wonderful.. used very little butter and the eggs came out perfect.. the sunny sides didn’t stick at all and it had a lovely browning effect .. I am really impressed...Lodge is actually quite good..

I am obsessed with this pan. It’s bigger than an ordinary skillet and has a lot of surface area. It cleans sooo easy and is extremely durable. Seruousky. Buy it! I don’t have a complaint just a suggestion…when you’re cooking be aware of the burner you put this pan on. When you are cooking, the food in the pan directly above the burner is going to cook faster than those on the outskirts. So, for instance, if you are cooking chicken breast strips or whatever…the strips on the inside are going to be fully cooked but the outermost ones might be a little undercooked. Just make sure to move raw food around in the pan so the cooking is evenly distributed so you don’t get sick :) otherwise BEST pan ever. As someone who cooked incredibly often, this is my favorite pan. Don’t forget to re-oil (season) between uses!

I love cast iron. This is a good size.

It's big. It's heavy. It's next level. Great for those bigger meals that you would've had to do piecemeal. Great for roasting a spatchcocked chicken. Great for a large pan of biscuits or cinnamon Rolls. Overall, if you can store it and lift it, it's a nice pan.

As a born and raised southern I grew up around cast iron, seeing the same skillets pasted down from my great grandma, to my grandma and to my mom. I picked this great cast iron skillet up to have one of my own to use and it is great! It came preseasoned, but I went ahead and seasoned it very well. I haven't had it long but it made some great bacon, eggs and friend chicken so far!Very non-stick when seasoned, used and taken care of properly! Will only get better with time!I've seen some complains about rusting, if this occurs know it's not the skillets fault it's the users. Yes they will rust if you don't clean, dry and oil them!

I purchased a bottle of flaxseed oil at a ridiculous price so I could properly season this pan. I mean honestly how difficult can it be then to raise the temperature of the pan to accept the oil, put a code in a boil on it and then put it back in the oven at a higher temperature to season it. Those temperatures vary a little bit so no big deal and it was still below the smoking point of the flaxseed oil so no big deal. Every time I want to cook in this pan, black chips of the seasoning would come up. I totally cleaned the pan out and tried to re-season it again and it kept doing it so I gave it away. All cast-iron is not made or processed the same and that certainly goes for the pans that are made from it…