Fantastic product! Excellent quality, easy to cook, easy to clean, no chemicals needed to wash. Can't complain. My personal recommendation when cooking is to remove the silicone grip handle holder because will get very very hot too. I remove and insert it when needed to handle the pan, otherwise I never touch the handle. Be aware that the handle of the frying pan will get very hot, also the silicone grip. Remember when washing the pan don't let air dry otherwise will get rusted, after washed just put few minutes in burner until all water drops evaporate.

This set is a great value. I deducted 1 star because the cast iron is about 1/16th of an inch thinner than that of my grandmother's cast iron pan, and the pre-seasoning seems insufficient. The inner surface is rough rather than smooth as in some cast iron pans. Although I would prefer a smooth cooking surface, the rough surface does not adversely affect the release of food after the pans are properly seasoned and if the food is properly cooked as described below.

As pointed out by other reviewers, these pans need additional seasoning before use. The surface of these pre-seasoned pans are dull and tacky, which indicates insufficient seasoning, using a vegetable oil. As others have pointed out, animal fats, such as lard or chicken fat, are best for seasoning cast iron pans. Since I did not have any lard nor chicken fat on hand, I used butter and followed the included instructions for seasoning the pans.

The use of butter for seasoning cast iron pans is somewhat controversial since butter contains milk solids that brown and burn producing smoke at the beginning of the heating portion of the seasoning process. I just turned on the vent fan for the 10-15 minutes it took for the smoke to dissipate after the milk solids had burned off. After the pans cooled, I just wiped off the excess browned butter, leaving a glossy black well seasoned finish on the cast iron. If you want to avoid the smoke, you can clarify the butter to remove the milk solids before applying it to the pans, but I didn't want to spend the time and effort to do that.

After this additional seasoning, these pans passed the fried and scrambled eggs tests.

However, for any cast iron pans to pass this test, the eggs must be cooked properly. In order for well seasoned cast iron pans to release foods well, you should heat the pan first to medium heat, then add a generous amount of your preferred cooking oil, butter, or fat to cover the entire inner bottom surface of the pan. Then let that oil come to temperature (hint: it is ready when it starts to shimmer, and it is too hot if it starts to smoke.). Only when the oil has come to temperature should you add the food to be cooked. With eggs, let the bottom cook until it releases from the bottom of the pan before trying to remove or flip the eggs. For scrambled eggs this means to initially let the bottom of the eggs cook omelet style before moving them around and breaking them up into curds.

There will always be some remaining stuck on brown bits in a cast iron pan. To clean these up after removing the food, heat the pan to medium high or high, and add water in a slow continuous stream while stirring and scraping the brown bits off with a wooden, rubber, or plastic spatula in the same manner as deglazing the pan when making a sauce. Continue stirring and scraping until the water in the pan boils. Be sure to scrape off the scraps from the inner side of the pan with the spatula as well. Discard the water, oil, and scraps slurry, and wipe the pan dry. Return the pan to the stove and heat it on low until completely dry. With some rolled up paper towel or a basting brush, apply a thin layer of oil to the inner surface of the pan, and heat the pan on high just until it starts to smoke. Remove the pan from the burner and let it cool before storing. (Note that you can skip the deglazing step in cleaning the pan if you already deglazed the pan in making a sauce or gravy, which is a much better use of the left behind brown bits called fond.)

Some people worry about the oil used in seasoning the pans turning rancid, but the heating phase of the seasoning kills microbes preventing the remaining oil from turning rancid by microbial action for a long time.

The other two types of rancidification are hydrolytic and oxidative. The first can be prevented by keeping the pans dry. The second is catalyzed by sunlight. Both types proceed more slowly at lower temperatures. Therefore, keep your pans in a cooI, dark, and dry place. If you are not using the pans for a month or more, you may want to use salt, vinegar, and hot water to scour the pan, and then dry it on a burner on low heat until it is completely dry before storing it. Then store it in an airtight, opaque container with a desiccant like charcoal or baking soda to prevent rancidity and rust. You'll then need to season the pan again before using it when it comes out of storage.

So glad the rubber heat sleeve was included with the purchase. Great skillet.

OK, so I got this for a steal about a year ago. Not sure why the price was so low, but I took a gamble. Gotta' say that I wish I would have purchased one of these years ago! Yes, it takes time to properly "season" it, but well worth the effort. I use it 3-4 times a week now and could not be happier.

To præpareret food