LodgeColor EC11S33 Enameled Cast Iron Skillet, Caribbean Blue, 11-inch

I recently pulled out and started using my grandmother's old cast iron skillets. I had forgotten just how good cast iron is and decided to start replacing my hard anodized aluminum with cast iron for most of my everyday cooking. A lot of my cooking consists of tomato based sauces and regular cast iron can't be used with the high acidity of tomatoes so I decided to look to enameled cast iron. I first looked to that famous French manufacturer but the sticker shock quickly made me look elsewhere. I decided on the Lodge for price and their reputation for quality. My only real complaint with it is the same complaint that I have with all of Lodge's cast iron cookware,more of a personal preference than an actual flaw in the pan itself. The cooking surface of the pan is rough, about the texture of a good Teflon pan, when it really should be smooth. Because of this foods will have a slight tendency to stick unless you float them in a good oil (being from the South I use good ol' lard). Being enameled there is no "seasoning" and you can't really use metal utensils like normal cast iron because the enamel will scratch. A good quality wood or silicone works great but stay away from any plastic because the cast iron will get hot enough to melt them. This fantastic pan exhibits all of the quality you expect from cast iron. Slow even heating, holding the heat consistently for a long time giving you great even cooking of food. Clean up is a bit tricky because of the rough cooking surface. It will tend to get a bit of a cloudy film and lose that beautiful black sheen that it has straight out of the box. Hot water, a good plastic scrubber and a non-abrasive cleanser like Bon Ami will take care of the film easily. Good old table salt works almost as well. While cleaning takes a little extra work (just like any cast iron cookware) the results are well worth the extra effort.

After months of research into healthy cooking, the bottom line was my mom & grandpa's cast iron skillets. The Lodge people delivered on their promise of a fairly easy to clean cast iron skillet (bless the person who suggested saving junk mail credit cards as the best scrapers, it works!) at a fair price.The 'low' burner method that cast iron requires does take some getting used to, but the extra time you get while not hovering over cooking burgers or chicken makes getting the rest of dinner together less of a rat race. This gives us more time to get caught up with each other's day in the room where all the yummy smells are coming from.After the first few times my husband tried his usual 'high heat' method of cooking his burgers (and the resulting black layer in the bottom of my nice new skillet requiring the impressive combo of junk mail credit card scraper & elbow grease), I made scrambled eggs on low heat with had almost nothing left on the bottom of the pan. Point proved to his satisfaction.Cleanup is fairly easy, soap & water & scraper, rinse well, put back on stove top under High Heat for about 20 seconds to completely dry it and avoid any rust. I do the 1-mississippi, 2-mississippi count out loud so I don't absentmindedly walk off before turning the stove off. Then a light 2 second spray with the coconut oil (or olive oil but coconut has a much higher smoking temp for cooking) and finish up with a paper towel scrunched up (to protect your fingers from the heat) to spread the slight oil film all around the inside and top rim for the next use. Easy Peasy.The only down side to this wonderful skillet is that it is a bit heavy, but then I could use the few minutes of slight weight training according to my doctor ^.^ The smaller (lighter) size would probably be perfect for a single person cooking.

This product is a nice idea but designed and executed poorly. You would be far better off buying a regular cast iron skillet and "season" it. I bought this pan thinking that the inner ceramic finish would make it a breeze to cook with. In fact, the "Use and Care" instructions that come with the pan make no mention of it needing any seasoning. The only recommendation was to use a little oil to prevent sticking. Don't get me wrong; I love my Lodge Dutch ovens. The quality of the ceramic finish on the inside and outside of the Dutch ovens is extremely smooth and provides a very stick-resistant surface. That's how I was suckered into buying this pan. Boy was I in for a surprise. The food surface finish is very rough. In fact, it looks exactly like one of their "pre-seasoned" regular cast iron surfaces, maybe even rougher. The first time I tried to fry some eggs in it (and they were literally floating in oil) the eggs stuck down so badly that I had to rip and scrape them out of the pan. So now I have an expensive, yet worthless frying pan that I have to be really careful about putting into water when it's hot and dare not put over a strong flame (such as a campfire) that has a "ceramic finish" on the cooking surface that is way, way, way, worse than a properly seasoned regular cast iron pan. No thanks. Sometimes you win by buying the cheaper brand (Lodge Dutch oven vs. Le Creuset) sometimes you get stung.

Works as expected. I would say it’s not as good as a well seasoned cast iron skillet but it removes a ton of the hassle that that involves. The inside has a matte finish which I don’t dislike but it may not be what some people are looking for. I personally really like the color and ordered a matching Dutch oven(I got the Caribbean blue) my one gripe that is very small is that it’s a slightly different size than lodges cast iron skillet of the same size class(the mid size) so the lid I have for my ci doesn’t fit on it, but it’s not meant to anyway so that doesn’t really matter). This item seems to not be available direct from lodge. I wonder if it’s been discontinued, I would grab one if it is since I think it’s worth it to have in your arsenal to use on things that you don’t want to use your cast iron on

The quality, an heirloom. Very heavy, but cook well.

I bought this for a good friend and she absolutely loves it !!