1 Lodge 10" frying pan
1 Lodge enameled Dutch Oven
1 stovetop griddle
Everything else is non-stick aluminum. For most cooking I use the aluminum, but when things need to go from the stove top to the oven the cast iron is used exclusively.
You can definitely get cheaper cast iron stuff that’s unbranded and likely from China/Mexico, and you can get more pricey stuff like Le Creuset, Finex, or Staub.
Lodge is just that sort of mid-range branded American manufacturer product that’s available everywhere- Wal-Mart, Target, etc… - all carry Lodge.
Did you just use it as you bought it, without seasoning it yourself? These things are supposed to come pre-seasoned but I don’t trust that. I have a 12" lodge skillet and love it. Yes, it’s pebbly but it still performs great. I seasoned it myself with canola oil when I bought it, two cycles.
If you managed to scrub off the seasoning with a plastic scrubby then it’s the seasoning that is at fault, not the pan.
(I bought the Lodge a couple of years ago after following some really bad advice posted to this board to put a cast iron pan in the oven for the self-cleaning cycle. I did that with a beloved skillet that I had had for 40 years. Never do that. Mine cracked.)
Does it make sense to grind off that “pebbly” finish on the inside of a Lodge skillet? Will polishing it smooth make it work better?
This. And, pretty much just this.
The problem is with the seasoning. Lodge’s factory seasoning is not really very good. It really is intended only to prevent corrosion from humidity. A rusted cast iron pan is considered defective (particularly if brand-new), Lodge performs a factory seasoning to prevent rusting. It is a single-application process and while is it suitable for cooking, it is recommended that additional seasoning cycles be performed by the user. A minimum of three seasoning cycles are recommended. I will typically add another seasoning cycle after several uses. I just wipe the cooking surfaces with oil (usually grapeseed oil or some other vegetable oil, whatever is handy) and put on the stove and heat it until it just barely starts to smoke, then let it cool.
You can, but it really isn’t necessary, IMO. A good seasoning will even out the unevenness in the surface, although it will take many cycles. Grinding it will speed this process up, but for a well-seasoned pan, I don’t think it matters if it had been ground or milled to start.
Don’t be afraid to use soap on cast iron, particularly if you are going to re-season after washing. In my experience, it will just improve the quality of the seasoning, as oils that have only partially polymerized are removed and the new layer is applied to a well-polymerized surface. What you don’t want to do is scrub the seasoned surface. And, yes, if you do use soap and/or need to scrub, re-season it after cleaning. See post above.
I use my 12-inch Lodge frying pan at least twice a week, usually for bacon. I just put it in the oven, as a matter of fact. It’s pretty slick.
The popularity of cast iron probably comes from when we were cooking over the fireplace. When you’re using wood, there’s large fluctuations in temperature as you add new a new log, when something gives away and the logs fall, and as the fire burns down. Having a large, heavy mass that slowly absorbs and releases the heat allows the chef to better maintain temperature when they’re forced to work in an environment that’s going to shift constantly and they have other things to attend to besides just managing the wood.
In the modern day, when we have temperature controlled ovens and constant, dialed gas/electric heat elements, cast iron cookware just wastes energy coming up to temperature, is slow to change temperature when you need it to, and are uncomfortably heavy. While @bump 's point that it won’t cool down when you throw cold meat on it is true, I think you’ll find that a thin, lightweight pan will bounce back quickly enough from the heat underneath itself that the momentary loss really doesn’t matter.
Professional chefs prefer thin, quick-changing pots and pans for kitchen cooking because - with dialed temperature technology - it’s better to be able to adjust the temperature that you’re cooking at quickly and, in general, lightweight is just easier to deal with. (Of course, in a professional kitchen they also don’t care whether it looks good/cool, they’re perfectly fine with beating everything to hell and throwing it away, eventually.)
Cast iron is primarily used these days for dishes where you don’t want a temperature drop - like searing meat. For something like a dutch oven, it’s not that big of a deal that it’s cast iron, or all that heavy, as most of the cooking is done in the oven anyway.
90% of the time, something like clad stainless steel or a non-stick pan is the best option, with cast iron occupying a fairly narrow set of cooking applications that it’s best at.
For example, making cornbread just isn’t the same in a different sort of pan. Same for steaks or other seared meat. But something like bacon? Doesn’t matter at all. Same for other stuff. And some tasks like sauteeing are actually worse in cast iron because of the slow response time.
Back in 2020, I bought a few Lodge cast iron pans that were decades old. In fact, they didn’t even have Lodge stamped on it. But you can tell they’re lodge because they have three notches on the heat ring on the bottom as you can recognize the font they used in the letters. I’m not a cast iron expert, but I’ve been told the notches on the bottom were only there for a few decades. The ones I have were probably made in the 40s or 50s before “Made in the USA” was stamped on their products.
These old Lodge pans and skillets work great. I bought mine from a nice couple at a nearby flea market who takes the old pans, restore them, and then sell them. A few years back my mother bought an enamel cast iron pot from Lodge and the enamel kept flaking off. To their credit, Lodge did sent her a replacement. Twice. Because the enamel kept flaking off. My mother didn’t have that problem with the Lodge enamel cast iron pot she bought in the 80s that I broke in the 90s, so I don’t think she was abusing it. But the newer pot was not well made.
It’s my understanding that part of the reverence for old Griswold cast iron is because it is thinner and lighter than what’s available today. That gives it many of the stove top to oven and other benefits of cast iron, but it also heats up faster, and is simply easier to work with.
I have cast iron, stainless (uncoated), and non-stick pans. They each have their uses. The cast iron is probably the most versatile, though. It can do everything the stainless does, but is much less sticky. Even with the cast iron well seasoned, I’m still going to use a proper Teflon pan to fry an egg.
I use my cast iron pots for baking bread, where that is a bonus.
I also use them on fires, where, as you say, it is a bonus - mostly stews (or “poitjiekos” in this country - literally “pot food” - which is a quite specific form of “stew”)
I also use them for baking bread on fires, and that is the biggest bonus. It’s hard to keep up a steady(ish) temperature with a cast iron pot on a fire; near impossible with lighter pots. I do use a technique I invented/rediscovered for lighter pots in cast iron pots too: fill the bottom of your pot with sand or rocks, and place the bread dough in a shallow pan on top. Add water to the bottom layer, keep the lid on and you get half steamed, then half baked bread. The sand/rocks keep direct heat off the bread so it is less likely to burn.
But the timing is all instinct. Open to look too early: you lose all the steam. Open to check too late: the heat has penetrated the sand/rocks and burnt the bottom of the bread.
It’s also connection. When I make cornbread in my cast iron skillet, I’m making Mom’s cornbread in Mom’s skillet. Any other skillet wouldn’t be the same.
In my experience, cast iron skillets also great for baking deep-dish pizza.
+1. I’ve made a couple to-die-for pan pizzas in my 13" iron.
I have often posted hostile-to-Lodge rants about their pebbly skillets. Of course they still work and people find them satisfactory, or they wouldn’t still be in the business of producing them. I apologize to those of you with Lodge frying pans who are enjoying your cast iron.
I am spoiled by my classic Wagners. They’re all Wagners except for the enameled Lodge dutch oven. They’re seriously wonderful cooking equipment and I wish they (Wagner) were still around making them.
I never had to “season” one. Admittedly all but two of them were used equipment when I acquired them, but the same is true of the ones I managed to acquire in previously unusued condition. The milled surface meant I could toss some oil in, heat it for awhile, and then toss in whatever I intended to fry. On the other hand, the cooking quality and behavior of the pans definitely improved with time as the patina of oil added to the milled surface. Without doing a formal complicated “season your cast iron frying pan” routine, I was nevertheless making it better by simply using it and not scouring off the oils when washing it. Which, after awhile, I veered towards not using soap but just very hot water. Most of the time. But yes, sometimes soap, on the rare occasions when I’d burned or caked something onto the pan. I think the milled pans are more forgiving of being soaped. Your mileage may of course vary.
I can’t recall the last time I’ve reached for a frying pan that isn’t cast iron. I just don’t ever think to do so. My partner likes her steel pans and when she’s asked me to take over and stir and finish what’s in them, I haven’t had major complaints, but I tend to think “frying pan” means cast iron frying pan and never reach for the others to be honest.
I have 2 Lodge skillets (a useless little one and a standard 12 incher) and they are both seasoned well and the big one is frequently used. They are both hateful garbage though. Great for frying bacon, pan frying chicken, searing some meat or toasting off some buns or tortillas. Utterly useless as a “non-stick” surface in every single respect.
I remain completely convinced that anyone claiming to fry eggs on cast iron are 1) liars, 2) essentially boiling the egg in oil, or 3) leaving 2/3rds of their eggs stuck to the pan and simply don’t know any better.
I promise you that isn’t so. My eggs never, ever, stick to the pan. Omelets don’t stick to the pan. Cornbread doesn’t leave behind any granular bits. My pans aren’t Lodge.
I cook cornbread in a cast iron pan. But I’m dubious that it would stick in any pan.
I mean, you can look this stuff up on Youtube. It really can be done! (And I do it when I need to, but usually I use a light, Teflon pan for eggs, since I like mine over easy and I like pan flipping them.)
