popular Posted by phoinix | Staff • 3d ago
May 21, 2025 3:50 PM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
popular Posted by phoinix | Staff • 3d ago
May 21, 2025 3:50 PM
$37.49*: 3-Quart Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Combo Cooker at Amazon
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After cooking on some higher end cast iron, I understand why people don't love lodge. The cooking surface is a bit rough and ruddy. Not the end of the world but not as non stick as a smooth finish. For bacon and frying it's fine, otherwise I'd recommend carbon steel for eggs and stuff.
That said, Lodge is not, and has never been, in their 100+ years of operation, a premium brand.
They're sturdy, consistent, and serviceable. But back in the day they weren't a Griswold, and now in the day they aren't a Smithey, etc.
If your eggs are sticking to any Lodge skillet, the fault is with the user not Lodge's skillet, as either you're starting your cooking process at the wrong temperature or your skillet has a substandard seasoning which is all under the control of the user.
Any smooothed pebble-grain to the surface, as on modern factory Lodge cookware, is immaterial and is not the cause of any sticking.
I can cook eggs, over-easy, over-medium, or over-well, and they glide across the skillet as if it were teflon. The pebble-grain is totally immaterial.
If it were gritty sandpaper surface like on many of the cheap China-made Ozark Trails and others, then yes that would effect the cooking, but the smooth pebble-grain of any Lodge isn't at all the cause for eggs or foods to stick.
As for the first poster who 'heard' Lodge quality has gone down? Where on the cookware has it gone down? Those complainers need to be specific, which I'd bet they can't do. Lodge has not gone down in quality at all, judging from all their cookware I've seen, up close, and have regularly used over the past 5 decades, including recent years.
Wow that's great!! May I ask what kind of CB is that?
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Obviously, yes, black cast iron gets hot, I get that. Not trying to skirt responsibility here. You may just not be fully cognizant of how hot it gets, and the combination of the material and the weight likely made the burn on my hand much worse than had it been some other kind of vessel.
If your eggs are sticking to any Lodge skillet, the fault is with the user not Lodge's skillet, as either you're starting your cooking process at the wrong temperature or your skillet has a substandard seasoning which is all under the control of the user.
Any smooothed pebble-grain to the surface, as on modern factory Lodge cookware, is immaterial and is not the cause of any sticking.
I can cook eggs, over-easy, over-medium, or over-well, and they glide across the skillet as if it were teflon. The pebble-grain is totally immaterial.
If it were gritty sandpaper surface like on many of the cheap China-made Ozark Trails and others, then yes that would effect the cooking, but the smooth pebble-grain of any Lodge isn't at all the cause for eggs or foods to stick.
As for the first poster who 'heard' Lodge quality has gone down? Where on the cookware has it gone down? Those complainers need to be specific, which I'd bet they can't do. Lodge has not gone down in quality at all, judging from all their cookware I've seen, up close, and have regularly used over the past 5 decades, including recent years.
Cast iron may have micro pores and a 'grain', just as EVERY cast iron cookware has, whether its 'high end' (which I personally find laughable, as any surface smoother than Lodge's is not required for non-stick cooking).
The 'smooth surface' I create still has bumps. It still has that pebble-grain factory Lodge surface and my eggs and food very rarely ever sticks and when it does it's only roughly 5% of the sticking level you're talking about. Most times food glides across the skillet.
People say they have seasoned their cookware with numerous applications of the seasoning process, yet I will bet the house that one person's 'seasoning' may be vastly inferior ot another person's seasoning process and the former person doesn't realize that.
You sure sound like you're trying to replace the necessary/vital seasoning process altogether with some kind of 'magical high end skillet' that somehow would be the first to not require any seasoning process/maintenance at all. That's a ficticious and failed path.
There are so many variables to the process of seasoning that you (or anyone) can't just say "my pan has been through a few rounds of seasoning" because that is as vauge as you can get. Very detailed specifics are required to really know the level and quality of one's seasoning.
The seasoning process is also necessary on 'high end' or 'old Wagner' cast iron cookware, so it does undergo the same effect that you are putting the spotlight on my seasoning process, as if it was something unneeded to be done on your 'high end' cast iron cookware, which is untrue.
The fact is... there are boatloads of ppl that have cooked only once or twice on $200-$300 Stargazers, Finex, and other polished baby-butt smooth 'high end' cast iron skillets and have immediately returned them as the food stuck miserably. That alone proves that it's not the 'high end' OR the baby-butt smooth surface that ensures a non-stick cooking experience.
A true cast iron amateur will ALWAYS blame it on "cheap cast iron cookware" and never accept the reality that it's in the one holding the skillet's handle.