Lodge 8 inch Skillet Mini hot Handle Holder, Cast Iron, Red Silicone, 8"

Heavy as expected, if treated well allows perfect fried eggs non stick.

Recently I ordered this 15 inch skillet made by Lodge, and I'm really pleased with it and would totally recommend it. I also own two of Lodge's slightly bigger 17inch skillets as well. Lodge skillets are beautifully crafted and extremely heavy duty! This one is no exception! It's very respectable in size, and so is good for a crowd of people, and the cast iron is about 3mm thick! With proper care, it really will last more than a lifetime! However, some may find this skillet too heavy! (Personally I love the fact that case iron is so heavy). It's also fairly pricey compared with other cheaper cast iron skillets that are out there, but the quality of Lodge cast iron is so good that I definitely would rather pay the extra money!!

This is an absolutely fabulous product. It was very, very expensive is the only downside. But I know it was imported from the US which can be a very expensive proposition. We are from the US but have lived in the UK for decades. I've had various secondhand cast iron skillets and they've all worked well. But the oldtime ones I had were smooth surfaced and were already preseasoned - one was secondhand from my own home and the other from a charity shop. The one from my home split spectacularly over the hob flame! (This was aboujt 30 years ago). The 2d hand one works just beautifully. However we really needed a bigger one specifically for husband to make his excellent southern-fried chicken. We buy good quality organic free range chicken now and they all seem to be very big! So I bought this one as an early birthday present. I had read reviews of the new type of 'preseasoned' ones with bumpy surface and wasn't sure how I felt, thought most reviews were favourable. After a recent disastrous frying of a large chicken in a non-nonstick stainless pan, very big and great for lots of things but not for this, I decided to take the plunge. It works like a dream, seems to be more or less nonstick though not because it has teflon surface. We are really happy with ouir purchase, expensive thought it has been .

We love cooking in cast iron and this is the MOTHER of all skillets. Huge and HEAVY, but BOY is it a pleasure to use. The small handle on the opposite side of the "normal" one is a god-sent and rather essential. This pan is very heavy when empty, but with food in it, it is virtually impossible to handle with one hand. As with all cast-iron pans though, the heat distribution is fabulous, so food cooks nice and evenly rather than burning in the middle and not cooking along the edges. Highly recommended.

I do not use Teflon and never have, but find frying eggs a challenge. I thought I would start with a little 8 inch Lodge skillet to see if I liked it. I had an unseasoned Cast Iron pan that I bought in the UK in the 1980s. It came covered in grease and had to be cooked in the oven with potato peelings before seasoning. I had that pan for years and could cook anything in it including scrambled eggs. I dropped it on the floor and it broke into 2 pieces. I went abroad and then when I returned home to the UK I could not find an unseasoned cast iron skillet. Years later I have just seen these Lodge pans and thought they might answer. I have followed Cowboy Kent Rollins' (Youtube) advice and have lightly sanded the base and sides down with a mouse sander and 80 grit paper. I then did 4 bakings with flax seed oil. The pan is totally non-stick. I made some Cornbread in it which just fell out. I have also purchased the 10.25" Skillet and will treat it the same way. All this said I am not convinced that the pans I have received are not seconds. They are very rough with dents and chips on the edge and pits in the base. I actually wonder if the reason they are cheap is that the European market is being fobbed off with their seconds. I could be wrong, but the US reviews do not seem to mention these faults. However once properly seasoned these will be fantastic pans for my purposes. I have an Aga and they seem to work will on it and can easily be pre-heated in the oven to bring up to heat and dishes can be transferred into the oven for finishing. It must be born in mind that when cooking with cast iron, always heat the pan for at least 3 - 5 minutes on a very moderate heat and then add oil or fat of your choice and then add the food. It is the heat of the pan that cooks the food, not the heat source. Many Brits seem to struggle with the care and cleaning of unenamelled cast iron. The secret is to run the hot pan under very hot water (steam) and rub off the bits with a wooden spatula, dry immediately, re-heat on the stove to completely dry and then re-oil very lightly to prevent rust. Do not use soap of scratchy scourers. It does not take a minute. It still remains a mystery to me what happened to all the British manufacturers of Cast Iron cookware which must have existed. Britain abounded with foundries in the 19th century. I suppose all such pans were handed in during the wars which is why there is very little in the way of second hand skillets to be found in flea markets.

This is my third cast iron pan. I decided to go with Lodge as they are considered a premium brand. My previous pan was a large (12") skillet but the quality of the finish is not great and the base is quite thin. This pan does not disappoint, the seasoning is good but the surface is quite rough (a side effect of modern pans). Although my experience with seasoning is that once I have applied a few coats of good quality organic flax oil and baked in that the roughness doesn't really impact the non stick properties that much, and after a period of good usage can fry eggs nicely. My one comment would be to be very careful on measurements. Some companies show measurements for the base of the pan, and some for the rim. The 8" lodge pan has a base measurement of about 6.5" and a rim-rim measurement of 8". This caught me out as this differed to my previous pans which were advertised based upon their base size - and I expected the pan to be larger. I recommend going to the lodge website for proper measurements, although whilst they show dimensions they don't explicitly show the base size - which if you are measuring for a specific hob burner doesn't help greatly. I will be buying an additional 10.25" pan (which I suspect has a base of around 9") as this is better for my intended purposes. I would recommend the brand though, it is head and shoulders above my other two pans in terms of quality.

Great for small omelette I’ve used it a few times so now it’s non stick.

Great pan! Nice quality and weight, great finish. Only down point is the seasoning wasn't great, but if you are using a cast iron pan you should properly season it before using it anyway. I imagine these sit in storage for a while which probably doesn't help the seasoning.

After I learned to season it quick like 7 times, and started using a bush and cup with a dap of oil on the side I kept around to wipe with oil when done, and learned to due to size I needed to have rag on edge of sink when dumping out water, and then I often but not always heat up water in electric kettle to pour in when done cooking in order to not shock it. I find after all this that I actually do basically no scrubbing, just a bit of scraping with the metal spatula while the hot water is in it. And then I use a silicone handle on one side I had gotten and I want to get the other side for the silicone side to hold but I just use a pot holder for the other side, thicker one. But I find now that this is an ideal pan to cook everything and anything and many things. I just leave it on top of my stove for daily use. And the weight, for the same reason a mechanics arms are big while not lifting, their muscles are big purely due to making the same motion every day repetitively with the wrench. It’s called a hermetic stressor, the same way weight session (more stressful obviously) and a hot sauna, cold plunge, run, etc, are all good forms of stress that cause adaptation, So to does this just cause you to lift a heavier pot a few times a day as you cook. For vast majority of us it’s nothing. But I told my mom for instance that she should use it and she complained how heavy it was, and my brutal honest response was “that’s exactly why you need to be using it because it’s not like you are working out”. It won’t make you buff, just a bit heavier than a similiar size pan, but for the older crowd who find it important to get their exercises in at the pool and such, this is no different. Plus, once I learned to clean efficiently and season a couple times, it’s a god send of a pan. I love it. I just want to put that “it’s too heavy” criticisism that comes with cast iron in a new light. Your body adapts, allow it too gradually. I will at some point be adding a top to this, I just haven’t decided if I need to get the lodge glass one which would be nice or a silicone one for this, or just a cast iron one to keep the theme and look and durability forever. (Glass and silicone could both break in different ways). I do love this pan as I will admit, one of the reason I got this pan, being some one who can be hard on things by temperment, after knowing roughly how to care for this pan, I also have a lisence to absolutely abuse it and can’t scratch it or anything. Because once you have researched a couple of ways to take rust off and to totally reseason and recondition an old used on for instance, you have the confidence to own this the rest of your life and not ever feel like your going to rune it. I’m also strategically lazy, I call efficient, my mom thinks different, lol, but anyway, the fastest way to clean any pan is with hot water right when done cooking as it burns and melts stuff right off, I can do that with this without worrying how it affects coatings or anything and I can do that to kingdom come. I just try to throw water from kettle on it ideally but not always. Again, the point of these pans is the amazing non stick coating that develops after use and learning to season a few more times your self, but that you can absolutely abuse these pans and know they will last. There is a certain security that’s nice to feel with knowing that. The fact that it has a great non stick that develops after some use and is durable Af, I’m in love. Plus ever seen those videos on YouTube about how baking/pizza steel beats baking/pizza stones every time because of how the metal works vs the ceramic of the stone. It just hit me that this pan is also big enough to make a 15 inch pizza, and when making one for one to a few people depending how thick it is, that’s a good size to use as a pizza steel in the oven. I do even ti ally want a baking steel as I even learned you can leave those in your oven as it helps regulate the temperature in oven by functioning as a ballast in your oven. Don’t even have to clean those. Just let the oven burn stuff off. None the less, till then this will work as a great pizza steel surface too. ++. I don’t have much sense of smell, a bit impulsive so I tottally would put it on “HIGH” on the stove every time. Might turn it down at times but it always creates smoke which didn’t matter to me, but got my mom has the higher disgust sensitivity (these two traits in the house do not get along well) anyway, I out of impatience realized I had a habit of heating it up quickly on high, Then I realized I tested how long it takes to smoke with the oil I was using to season it after each cook. I timed how long on high, waited till room temp, tested how long on medium, etc. Did this for any cast iron and carbon steel pans I have too. And in this one I can get away on our gas burner stove on high: High Canola 400°-450° 4m 34s Medium Canola 400°-450° 6m 43s 400°-450°=smoke point at which smoke appears as the oil is actually starting to burn (note health wise causing this isn’t healthy so avoid normally by following these instructions). You can do the same test on your stove with your seasoning pans. And now I just run it for 3mins on high but then turn to medium or lower. Could probably get away with 3:30 duration on high. But this way you can cook at medium or a tad lower after.

Big size for big family, able to cook easily 1.5kgs of meat. Heavy, slightly sticks at the bottom but overall good.

Never seen such a perfect multi utility cast iron kitchenware! It has curved sides which makes it perfect for Indian style cooking.

very satisfied with the product

Sin duda uno de los mejores sartenes que podrás adquirir en toda tu vida, deja lo amateur aun lado y tira,regala y evita productos con teflon o recubrimientos que parecen mágicos pero son tóxicos y dañinos para tu salud. Este hermoso sartén vale su peso en oro, debido a que en mi país está a un precio de 100 dlls y en Amazon lo compre en 10 dlls. Sin exagerar ni mucho menos es un producto que usarán tus hijos y hasta tus nietos. Fácil de usar, con una cocción uniforme que funciona en todos los tipos existentes de cocinas, industrial, de vitroceramica, inducción, leña, fuego normal y sin duda alguna tal vez al principio te parezca algo pesado y estorboso pero los sabores que obtienes son naturales. Mi típ de cuidado es que al terminar de hacer mis alimentos los vació para servir y de manera inmediata lo lavo directo a chorro de agua, uso una esponja amarilla con verde y con una gota de aceite líquido lo tallo con cuidado, al terminar lo seco por completo y sin una sola gota de agua lo “curo” con aceite de oliva untándolo por ambos lados, y para almacenar lo guardo en mi horno de la estufa en una bolsa de plástico y con ese cuidado simple créeme que en tu vida volverás a comprar otro sartén. Es la joya del arca de los sartenes !!!! Mi próxima compra la cacerola Lodge.