Lodge 10-1/4-inch pre-seasoned cast iron skillet

Thanks to something of a renaissance in popularity, there’s no shortage of advice on cast iron cookware on the internet. Hell, I’ve written about my favorite pan, the Stargazer, at least twice (and will probably revisit it in the future). But who the heck am I? Just some Millennial with a cushy job and more guitars than sense. Let’s get an expert to weigh in.

Celebrity chef Alton Brown is, unsurprisingly, a collector of cast iron cookware, so when I sat down to talk with him (mostly about guitars, but we also got into cooking) I asked about this Instagram post, in which he holds up a Lodge 10-1/4-inch skillet above the caption “If I owned just one single pan, this would probably be it.”

…Really? The one I can get for $20 on Amazon?

“I collect cast iron, so I got a lot of really old stuff, stuff that isn’t made anymore,” Brown told me. “If I had to swear what my favorite was, it’d probably be a Griswold from the 1940s — but like I said, they’re not made anymore. From a metallurgical standpoint, Lodge is probably the best around.”

Founded in 1896 in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, Lodge is America’s oldest cast iron cookware manufacturer and is still owned and operated by the descendants of founder Joseph Lodge. Their recent innovations include a line of enameled cookware released in 2005 to compete with European companies like Le Creuset and a line of “Blacklock” light-weight cast iron cookware.

But at the end of the day, Brown still prefers the simplicity of the classic Lodge, both for its utility and its price.

“There are people out there with foundries that are making very, very boutique metal. But for the money, it’s not possible to be a Lodge 10-inch cast iron pan. And once you’ve invested about 15 years into the surface for your lodge, it’s hard to give away — even for fancier stuff.”

When I asked him what meal really illustrates the skillet’s potential, he rolled his eyes.

“I hate to do that! You journalists always want that ‘one thing’ but the whole point of the ‘one pan’ is there isn’t a one pan.”

“But fine, I can’t think of a vessel that makes a better steak. I would rather have a properly skillet roasted steak than a grilled one any day.”

Joshua Sargent is the Senior News Editor, Commerce, for Hearst Newspapers. Before this job he wrote video games and comedy, which probably just made you say "ah, yeah, that makes sense."

Josh can play the guitar solo from Steely Dan's "Kid Charlemagne" almost exactly right and lives in Brooklyn, NY with a cat that "belongs" to him according to the "law."

Email him at josh.sargent@hearst.com.