Chef Willis is certainly not alone in her love of cast iron cookware. We love cast iron so much that we wrote a complete guide to owning it and have plenty of cast iron skillet recipes you may want to try. To find the best cast iron skillets, we rigorously tested over 20 pans to observe their heat conduction, retention, and distribution. Read on for our top-rated picks, plus a few helpful insights on cast iron cleaning and care.
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Willis uses her skillet so often that she washes it and puts it right back on the stovetop after use. "Mine is so old and well-seasoned that it can cook anything," she said. "It's a great metal, it heats up fast, and it holds an even heat. It's fairly inexpensive, whether you get a brand new Lodge pre-seasoned pan or find one at a garage sale or a thrift store. It would be one of the first pans I would suggest to anyone building a kitchen.”
A cast iron skillet is an affordable kitchen workhorse that lasts, and many cooks have owned their cast iron skillets for years. James Beard Award-winning Southern cookbook author and chef Virginia Willis inherited her grandmother's skillet, which she estimates is 100 years old. "When I moved from New York and drove the car down, I put the jewelry, the unreplaceable art, and the cast iron skillet in my car.”
Any food, however, was easily cleaned with warm, soapy water and a sponge. We recommend hand washing while you can put it in the dishwasher. The handle stays cool initially but will heat up as the skillet retains heat through use. We loved the two pour spouts, which make pouring grease and scraping food bits out of the skillet effortless.
We love everything Le Creuset, and it dominated in our enameled cast iron skillet testing. Available in the brand's rainbow of colors, the skillet is built like a tank. When we tested, it gave great sear with fatty beef but ran into some issues with eggs and cornbread sticking. We still found it up for any task, including crepes. We did think this pan was a bit too shallow since grease spattered everywhere during seasoning. We used a splatter screen to mitigate any mess.
It wasn't hard to clean the skillet, and it just needed a thin coating of oil once dry to keep it seasoned. This skillet is at the higher end of the Lodge cast iron price range, but we still say it is a reliable, lightweight pan that performs well for most cooking tasks.
The Lodge Blacklock Triple-Seasoned Cast Iron Pan is the brand's higher-end cast iron skillet. The aesthetics match the traditional Lodge look with an homage to the brand's roots. We found this pan incredibly lightweight, and the width and sturdiness of the main handle made it easy to hold with one hand. Although a helper handle is included with this pan, it’s quite a bit smaller and thinner than other models tested and didn’t provide much support when inverting cornbread. We also found the pour spouts to be a bit too small to promote a smooth and consistent pour. We found the pork searing capabilities to be lesser than those of its competitors as it was uneven and not golden.
Still, we found this an incredibly versatile and top-performing cast iron skillet during testing and recommend this for home cooks who want a fancy pan that gets the job done. Just make sure you keep it seasoned so it stays in good shape.
The Stargazer 10.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet was easy to use and control. The large helper handle with a wide opening makes the skillet sit nicely in hand, and the curvature makes it easy to use one-handed. The smooth, flat bottom of the pan allowed any stuck-on debris to release quickly with soap and a scrubber. In our tests, the cornbread was cooked evenly and released from the cast iron pan with one tap, though the searing on the pork loin was uneven in sections. The temperature would be even at first but then unbalanced as time passed. We found differentials as much as 20 degrees between some areas of the pan.
Given its performance, we also loved the value since this was the most inexpensive cast iron skillet on our list. This skillet also provided even heating, with consistent temperatures throughout the center and edges of the pan. It's an overall sturdy cast iron skillet that cooks evenly. And it's also super easy to clean with no seasoning required.
We found the regularly sized handle on Camp Chef’s 10-inch Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet to be comfortable to hold thanks to its curvature, though the helper handle was a bit too small. The handle came in handy when flipping out cornbread and taking the pan out of the oven. We called it the easiest to use out of all the tested models. During testing, we achieved a consistent sear on both sides of the pork, and the color of our cornbread was the same throughout. We found it maintained its nonstick capabilities throughout testing.
The skillet provided a consistently even sear on pork, and the color was an even golden brown.
The skillet's helper handle and spout make easy work of pouring off any liquid from the pan during cooking. It's easy to clean, and any debris left inside the pan was wiped away easily with warm water. The price point makes this skillet affordable for most households and a great housewarming gift for anyone starting a new chapter.
Lodge's Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet continues to be our benchmark for cast iron pans. This skillet provided the most even browning across the board, and cornbread was easy to turn out during our tests thanks to the included silicone handle. Neither pork nor cornbread got stuck in the Lodge, and we're always pleased with its consistent heat distribution and searing capabilities. We loved how golden the cornbread got on top and bottom, and it was very easy to turn out, thanks to the silicone handle that came with the skillet.
The pour spout on the skillet is relatively tiny, and there were small drips when pouring.
We love the large helper handle and how easy it is to control the skillet.
Our Favorite Cast Iron Skillets
Our Best Overall winner was the Lodge 10.25-Inch Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet, which is no surprise given the brand's reputation for inexpensive, quality cast iron skillets that stand the test of time. We also loved the versatility of the Stargazer 10.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet.
How We Tested Cast Iron Skillets
In our tests, we sought to evaluate each skillet based on its heat conduction, heat retention, and heat distribution. We assessed how quickly and evenly they heated on the stovetop and then measured the temperature at the center and edge of the pan. We seared pork loin pieces to observe the cast iron's performance when searing at high heat to evaluate consistency in temperature and more. The color was a consideration in the results. We also looked at the color when testing baked cornbread. We wanted evenness and also evaluated how easy it was to release out of the pan.
To test the cast iron skillet’s pour spout performance and the maneuverability of its design and handles, we made cornbread. We also noted how easy each skillet was to clean, season, and handle since cast iron pans are notoriously heavier than other everyday skillets. After cooking, we cleaned and stored the pans to see how easy they were to integrate into everyday use.
Factors to Consider
Type
Buying a standard frying pan is definitely a little different from shopping for cast iron, which comes in various finishes, such as bare, seasoned, and enameled finishes. Most of our recommendations are pre-seasoned, but others may require a seasoning process. The texture of cast iron pans is also a consideration, as some are finished smooth, and others are rougher. Also, ensure that your cast iron is safe for glass or induction stoves if you have one, as some are not. There are also cast iron skillets with different handle materials, such as wood, so make sure yours is oven-safe if that is a consideration.
Size
Cast iron skillets come in various sizes, ranging from 5-inch miniature pans to 15-inch options. Chef Willis recommends a 10-inch cast iron skillet for most households, as it provides enough diameter for everyday tasks like making pancakes, frying chicken, and baking cakes. "I like something I can use to make tried and true buttermilk cornbread but can also use to roast a small chicken or sear two pork chops," she said.
Care and Maintenance
Wash your cast iron with water and soap after each use and air dry. It's good to get into the habit of oiling your cast iron after it is washed and dried after use. Neutral oils rather than olive oil are preferred. A cast iron chainmail scrubber is another easily washable tool you can reuse and pop in the dishwasher to remove stubborn bits. If your cast iron rusts or you have other issues, we've got an article to help.
Some may think cast iron is indestructible, but Willis reminds us it is not shatterproof. In her experience, she's had cast iron pans crack from stress fractures during use and suggests treating your pans very carefully. "It is a molten thing, and it's not stainless steel," she said. "If you look at its durability, it's just not as strong as stainless steel. A cast iron pan can crack and shatter."
Ease of Use
Maneuverability is a consideration when choosing cast iron. You want to pay attention to features that help make cooking a cleanup easier, such as handles and pour spouts. The length of a handle and the addition of helper handles are all key considerations. If you have a smaller hand, for instance, shorter handles are a better choice. A helper handle you will be doing anything that requires you to pour ingredients out of the cast-iron skillet. And it is important to pay attention to how well the pour spout performs. We considered all of these factors during testing to ensure these cast iron skillets perform.
Do I need to pre-season a cast iron skillet?
It depends on the manufacturer, so check the specifications. Most skillets come pre-seasoned, but you need to keep it up after repeated use. Even when it is pre-seasoned, cast iron is not nonstick, despite some misconceptions. "Cast iron won’t provide the kind of nonstick like the infomercials you see, but it can be virtually nonstick if you use oil," Willis said. (You will likely also need to reseason your cast iron periodically, too).
Can I use soap when I wash my cast iron skillet?
There is some debate about whether or not you should use soap on your cast iron. "I wash mine in hot soapy water and then thoroughly dry it with a cloth,” Willis said. "That's the way my grandmother did it, and I just think not washing the skillet is unsanitary." If the pan looks dry, she’ll apply a light coating of mineral oil and place it in a cooling oven to ensure any residual moisture is gone. If she finds caked-on bits, she uses salt as a natural scrub.
What foods should not be cooked in a cast iron skillet?
Willis recommends avoiding slow-cooking acidic items in cast iron, though she sometimes uses a squeeze of fresh lemon to finish a dish of pork chops. Willis recommends using an enameled cast iron skillet if you want to make something super acidic, like a slow-cooked tomato sauce.
Other Cast Iron Skillets We Tested
Strong Contenders
Marquette Castings Skillet ($250 at Marquette)
This cast iron is a professional-grade pan that can handle any tasks you throw at it, from searing, braising, cooking vegetables, and cornbread. Its price is the only thing that may deter home cooks. However, it is so well-made it should last a long time with great care.
Cuisinel Cast Iron Skillet ($23 at Amazon)
This is an excellent skillet for a home cook who wants the most value for their money without many bells and whistles. Though the small handles might not be for everyone, it's excellent for cooks with smaller or weaker hands who may struggle with more cumbersome pans.
Calphalon Cast Iron Skillet ($50 at Calphalon)
We found this pan to be nonstick, and it is straightforward to clean. Plus, it comes seasoned, so there is no prep involved. It performed well in all of our tests, and it's an excellent price for a utilitarian pan.
Utopia Kitchen Cast Iron Skillet ($17 at Amazon)
While the pan is inexpensive, the comfort and design could be better. However, we found its performance helped to bring that up a notch in the end. It's a good starter pan for a college student or burgeoning cook that you won't feel guilty throwing out if it gets ruined.
Field Company Cast Iron Skillet ($145 at Field Company)
While we found this to be a beautiful pan, it was uncomfortable to use, and it could have been designed better as its performance was subpar. It's also costly for a pan that was not in good shape after we tested it.
What Didn't Make the List
Not every cast iron pan we tested passed muster. Many failed with heat evenness, and others were destroyed after a few cooks. Some skillets didn't make the list because of excessive heft, and others were awkward to use during tests, like pouring oil from the pan.
Our Expertise
Jennifer Zyman is a Senior Commerce Writer for Food & Wine and a former restaurant critic with a culinary school degree and over 15 years of food writing experience. Her work has appeared in Atlanta Magazine, Bon Appetit, Eater Atlanta, The Kitchn, Local Palate, National Geographic, Simply Recipes, Southern Living, and Thrillist. To write this story, she used research and expert advice from James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and chef Virginia Willis.
After testing, our favorite cast iron skillets are the Lodge 10.25-Inch Skillet and Lodge Blacklock 10.25-Inch Skillet. You can read about the best ways to maintain them below.
If you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of cast iron. When I packed up my apartment last spring and had to live for a full month with only two pans in my kitchen, you can bet your butt that the first one I grabbed was my trusty cast iron skillet.
I use it for the crispest potato hash and for giving my steaks a crazy-good sear. I use it for baking garlic knots or cornbread or the easiest, best pan pizza you'll ever bake (just kidding, this might be the easiest pizza). I use it for a complete chicken dinner with insanely crisp skin and for crispy, creamy pasta bakes.
The point is, it's a versatile workhorse and no other pan even comes close to its league.
But there's also a mysterious, myth-packed lore when it comes to cast iron pans. On the one hand, there are the folks who claim you've got to treat your cast iron cookware like a delicate little flower. On the other, there are the macho types who chime in with their my cast iron is hella nonstick or damn, does my pan heat evenly!
In the world of cast iron, there are unfounded, untested claims left, right, and center. It's time to put a few of those myths to rest. Then, check up on our cast iron skillet review to make sure you're cooking with the best pans (we tested 22 of 'em) possible.
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Myth 1: Cast Iron Is Hard to Maintain
The Theory: Cast iron is a material that can rust, chip, or crack easily. Buying a cast iron skillet is like adopting a newborn baby and a puppy at the same time. You're going to have to pamper it through the early stages of its life, and be gentle when you store it—that seasoning can chip off!
The Reality: Cast iron is tough as nails! There's a reason why there are 75-year-old cast iron pans kicking around at yard sales and antique shops. The stuff is built to last and it's very difficult to completely ruin it. Most new pans even come pre-seasoned, which means that the hard part is already done for you and you're ready to start cooking right away.
And as for storing it? If your seasoning is built up in a nice thin, even layer like it should be, then don't worry. It ain't gonna chip off. I store my cast iron pans nested directly in each other. Guess how many times I've chipped their seasoning? Try doing that to your nonstick skillet without damaging the surface.
With competitive price and timely delivery, siao sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
Myth 2: It Heats Evenly
The Theory: Searing steaks and frying potatoes require high, even heat. Cast iron is great at searing steaks, so it must be great at heating evenly, right?
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
The Reality: Actually, cast iron is terrible at heating evenly. The thermal conductivity—the measure of a material's ability to transfer heat from one part to another—is around a third to a quarter that of a material like aluminum. What does this mean? Throw a cast iron skillet on a burner and you end up forming very clear hot spots right on top of where the flames are, while the rest of the pan remains relatively cool.
The main advantage of cast iron is that it has a very high volumetric heat capacity, which means that once it's hot, it stays hot. This is vitally important when searing meat. To really heat cast iron evenly, place it over a burner and let it preheat for at least 10 minutes or so, rotating it every once in a while. Alternatively, heat it up in a hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes (but remember to use a potholder or dish towel!)
The other advantage is its high emissivity—that is, its tendency to expel a lot of heat energy from its surface in the form of radiation. Stainless steel has an emissivity of around 0.07. Even when it's extremely hot, you can put your hand close to it and not feel a thing. Only the food directly in contact with it is heating up in any way.
Cast iron, on the other hand, has a whopping 0.64 emissivity rating, which means that when you're cooking in it, you're not just cooking the surface in contact with the metal, but you're cooking a good deal of food above it as well. This makes it ideal for things like making hash or pan-roasting chicken and vegetables.
Myth 3: Cast Iron is Nonstick
The Theory: The better you season your cast iron, the more nonstick it becomes. Perfectly well-seasoned cast iron should be perfectly nonstick.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
The Reality: Your cast iron pan (and mine) may be really, really really nonstick—nonstick enough that you can make an omelet in it or fry an egg with no problem—but let's get serious here. It's not anywhere near as nonstick as, say, Teflon, a material so nonstick that we had to develop new technologies just to get it to bond to the bottom of a pan. Can you dump a load of cold eggs into your cast iron pan, slowly heat it up with no oil, then slide those cooked eggs right back out without a spot left behind? Because you can do that in Teflon.
Yeah, didn't think so.
That said, macho posturing aside, so long as your cast iron pan is well seasoned and you make sure to pre-heat it well before adding any food, you should have no problems whatsoever with sticking.
Myth 4: Don't Scrub With Soap
The Theory: Seasoning is a thin layer of oil that coats the inside of your skillet. Soap is designed to remove oil, therefore soap will damage your seasoning.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
The Reality: Seasoning is actually not a thin layer of oil, it's a thin layer of polymerized oil, a key distinction. In a properly seasoned cast iron pan, one that has been rubbed with oil and heated repeatedly, the oil has already broken down into a plastic-like substance that has bonded to the surface of the metal. This is what gives well-seasoned cast iron its nonstick properties, and as the material is no longer actually an oil, the surfactants in dish soap should not affect it. Go ahead and soap it up and scrub it out.
The one thing you shouldn't do? Let it soak in the sink. Try to minimize the time it takes from when you start cleaning to when you dry and re-season your pan. If that means letting it sit on the stovetop until dinner is done, so be it.
Myth 5: No Metal Utensils
The Theory: The seasoning in cast iron pans is delicate and can easily flake out or chip if you use metal. Stick to wood or nylon utensils.
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
The Reality: The seasoning in cast iron is actually remarkably resilient. It's not just stuck to the surface like tape, it's actually chemically bonded to the metal. Scrape away with a metal spatula and unless you're actually gouging out the surface of the metal, you should be able to continue cooking in it with no issue.
So you occasionally see flakes of black stuff chip out of the pan as you cook in it? It's possible that's seasoning, but unlikely. In order to get my cast iron pan's seasoning to flake off, I had to store it in the oven for a month's worth of heating and drying cycles without re-seasoning it before I started to see some scaling.
More likely, those flakes of black stuff are probably carbonized bits of food that were stuck to the surface of the pan because you refused to scrub them out with soap the last time you cooked.
Myth 6: Vintage is Better Than New
The Theory: Metal is metal, cast iron is cast iron, and the new stuff is no different than the old Wagner and Griswold pans from the early 20th century that people fetishize.
The Reality: The material may be the same, but the production methods have changed. In the old days, cast iron pans were produced by casting in sand-based molds, and then polishing the resulting pebbly surfaces until smooth. Vintage cast iron tends to have a satiny smooth finish. By the 1950s, as production scaled up and was streamlined, this final polishing step was dropped from the process. The result? Modern cast iron retains that bumpy, pebbly surface.
The difference is more minor than you may think. So long as you've seasoned your pan properly, both vintage and modern cast iron should take on a nice nonstick surface, but your modern cast iron will never be quite as nonstick as the vintage stuff.
Myth 7: No Acidic Foods
The Theory: Acidic food can react with the metal, causing it to leech into your food, giving you an off-flavor and potentially killing you slowly.
The Reality: In a well-seasoned cast iron pan, the food in the pan should only be coming in contact with the layer of polymerized oil in the pan, not the metal itself. So in a perfect world, this should not be a problem. But none of us are perfect and neither are our pans. No matter how well you season, there's still a good chance that there are spots of bare metal and these can indeed interact with acidic ingredients in your food.
For this reason, it's a good idea to avoid long-simmered acidic things, particularly tomato sauce. On the other hand, a little acid is not going to hurt it. I deglaze my pan with wine after pan-roasting chicken all the time.
How You SHOULD Use Your Cast Iron Skillet
Serious Eats / J. Kenji Lopez-Alt
These are the only rules you need to know to have a successful lifelong relationship with your cast iron.
There now, was that so hard? Now get out there and start cooking!
FAQs
What's the best cast iron skillet?
After extensive testing and comparing 22 pans, we named the Lodge 10.25-Inch Skillet and Lodge Blacklock 10.25-Inch Skillet the best cast iron skillets. We think you'll be very happy with either of them and, with care, both will last forever.
Do you have to spend a lot to get a great cast iron skillet?
Nope! Our favorite cast iron skillets are $20 and $40 and we found that they performed the same as pans that cost hundreds. The key is to find a cast iron skillet that fits your budget and your needs, and for most people that will be the Lodge 10.25-Inch Skillet.
Are smoother cast iron skillets better than rough ones?
Modern forging practices have made cast iron skillets cheaper and easier to make, but it also leaves them with rougher cooking surfaces than ones made decades ago. While expensive cast iron companies like to advertise the smoothness of their surfaces, using a Lodge 10.25-Inch Skillet continuously will build up more layers of seasoning until the cooking surface is smooth and more nonstick.
Why We're the Experts
The company is the world’s best Preseasoned Cast Iron Cookware Set supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.