Expensive Cast Iron Is Worth It | The Strategist

Where someone with years of hard-won personal experience, and lots of trial and error, shares everything they’ve learned. Read more here.

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Where someone with years of hard-won personal experience, and lots of trial and error, shares everything they’ve learned. Read more here.

Cast-iron skillets are workhorses that can last a literal lifetime and then some. My favorite one, from Yeti, lives on my stovetop, a go-to piece because of its versatility. The material gets really hot and it retains its heat with gusto. It can go from the stove to the oven and even to the grill. It holds a fairly nonstick surface if seasoned properly. (Most of the picks on this list, and most cast-iron skillets in general these days, come pre-seasoned — and I’ve also written a guide to cleaning, maintaining, and when necessary, re-seasoning the surface.) The only thing you can’t do in them is cook acidic foods, for which you need a stainless-steel or nonstick surface. Still, they’re great for searing, sautéing, toasting, braising, frying, and even baking.

But figuring out which model will serve you best can be a bit of a funny pursuit. This is because most cast-iron skillets fall into one of two categories: very cheap or very expensive. There’s not much in between (at least from the most respected and ubiquitous brands). So here — with months and years of using various models, and the additional input of my discerning cast-iron-using colleagues — I’ve pulled our favorites across price points, getting into the details of why you might want to invest more (or not).

I have become an expensive cast-iron skillet convert. I could say sorry for making the case that you should spend around $200 on a pan when there are still-very-good but significantly less expensive options out there — but hear me out, if only for a moment.

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This is the skillet that did me in. (Yeti actually bought another cast-iron company, Butter Pat Industries, in early 2024, and now produces the skillets under its own name.) The primary reason I love it is that it’s so smooth out of the box. If I rub my fingers across the surface, it’s slick as can be. And it easily — as in, without any effort — stays that way.

I’ve been cooking on the Yeti for just under a year now and every single time I’ve used it, it releases food with ease. This is the case when I sear steak, crisp chicken skin, toast croutons, fry eggs, or anything else. It doesn’t matter if it’s on the stove over a high flame or a low flame, in the oven, or on the grill (I’ve done it all). You can visually see that smoothness, too — more so than with the under-$50 options I’ve tried. To write this piece, I even bought a new Lodge and a new Victoria (another storied maker of cheap cast iron) to remind myself exactly what those look and feel like brand-new (more on them below), and there’s just no comparison.

Ever since I got it, I’ve been cleaning the Yeti with water and a gentle dish soap, followed by a rinse and thorough dry with a kitchen towel or over a medium flame on the stove (water is the enemy of cast iron since it will cause it to rust, so this is actually the most important step). As I said, it’s rare that anything sticks. The couple of times it did were user error (once, for example, I let caramelized onions get too hot and the burnt bits clung to the bottom). But even still, the surface wiped up totally fine with a heavier scrub using the rougher side of my sponge. After a thorough dry and a thin wipe of olive oil or neutral oil across the surface, it was back to perfect the next time I cooked. I’ve also used metal utensils many times (tongs and a fish spatula, mostly) to absolutely no detriment.

Beyond how the material itself is treated, there are small factors that give the Yeti an edge. While all cast iron is heavier than nonstick, stainless steel, and carbon steel, this model is lighter in weight than the cheaper options below, a nice thing when you have to lift it or clean it. For reference, I’m comparing slightly different sizes, since that’s how they come between brands. My Yeti is 11 inches in diameter and weighs 4.8 pounds. By comparison, the Field Company below — another option on the pricier side — is a bit larger at 11 ⅝ inches, but weighs six pounds. (Both of these models are the somewhat confusingly designated number “10,” from the traditional sizing used for this type of cookware, and both brands have larger and smaller options to choose from, too, so just make sure you don’t go off of the name, but look at dimensions before buying.)

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I’ve only been using Field Company’s skillet for a couple of months at this point, but it’s apparent to me that the positive features — how smooth the surface is, and how easy it is to maintain — are the same as with the Yeti. (It heats very evenly, too — though all the options on this list, including the cheaper ones, share this feature.)

Strategist senior editor Winnie Yang has one, as well, and notes all those same attributes. “I also really like the seasoning wax they sell, which I’m now also using to season all my carbon-steel cookware too,” she says.

If you’re looking to compare the Field Company to the Yeti, there are just a few differences. The most notable is the heavier weight of this one. It also has ever-so-slightly higher walls (nice for helping to prevent splatter). And finally, there are no pour spouts on the Field Company, whereas the Yeti has two. (Quite frankly, I don’t personally mind this too much, as I don’t tend to make super saucy dishes in my cast iron, but take note if you want to be able to easily pour liquid out of your pan.)

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After all that, this is where I tell you that if you don’t want to pay so much, a Lodge skillet is still a great bet. There’s a reason for its ubiquity, and a reason why many of my colleagues — ten to be exact — have used their Lodges for years.

I myself cooked on this cast iron for more than a decade. I’ve actually since given it away, but it saw more wear than probably any other skillet in my collection before that. Without anything to compare the pan to, I had no complaints about its performance. Just like the Yeti and the Field Company, it heats evenly and retains that heat, and is just as durable — a reliable, long-lasting pan through and through.

So what’s the knock? Even pre-seasoned, the Lodge has a subtly rough and pebbly texture at the bottom. To put it bluntly: It just doesn’t release food quite as easily as the Yeti or Field Company. Yang, who bought a Lodge in 2010, was never a fan. “With all the scrubbing and scraping I had to do and the many attempts I made at improving the seasoning, using the Lodge just felt like too much work,” she says. “Honestly the pan itself felt like a real albatross.”

In my experience, the oil I used for cooking prevented sticking, and helped add to the seasoning over time. And I found it helped if after each clean, I would immediately dry, heat, and rub it down with some extra oil. This is not the end of the world by any means, just a noticeable amount of upkeep as compared to the Yeti and the Field Company pans. And even still, every so often, foods would stick, whether bits of seared chicken skin or the edge of a baked cornbread.

The Lodge is also heavier than both options above. The sizes are a bit different, but the 10.25-inch weighs 5.7 pounds and the 12-inch (which I think is more comparable in terms of the amount of food you can fit) weighs 7.7 pounds.

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I don’t have too much to add about the Victoria that can’t be said about Lodge’s classic cast iron. It’s ever-so-slightly lighter in weight (5.5 pounds for the ten-inch and 7.5 for the 12-inch) — though I don’t think that would be much of a noticeable difference. The surface is also subtly rough.

It has a slightly more curved handle and more pronounced pour spouts, which can be helpful if you’re tilting out, say, a butter pan sauce over the steak you just seared. The first few times I used it, it held onto browning more than the Lodge on the bottom (you can even see some remnants on there now), though it can be slicked with oil and heated to help get rid of the discoloration.

Another type of cast-iron skillet worth discussing is a vintage one. As I’ve said, these things are indestructible, and when damaged, can be restored — which is why they’re floating around estate sales, antique stores, and resale sites like Etsy and Ebay. The most common brands you’ll find are Griswold and Wagner.

The prices for these range drastically. Spotting a good-condition skillet in the wild is certainly possible, though you’re more likely to find ones that need some TLC. Online, if you buy one that has already been restored, it will likely run you a couple hundred dollars — not far off from a Yeti or Field. If you buy one that needs work, you can snag it for supercheap — again, a similar price to a Lodge or Victoria.

Yang has a vintage Griswold that she bought restored from Etsy in 2022 for $260. She says it’s quite similar to the Field: It has a smooth surface that releases food easily and is much lighter and thinner than the Lodge and therefore easier to get out and put away and cook with. “The other important thing about the Griswold is that the bottom is flat and smooth, so it sits steadily on my stove grates or induction plate,” she says. Overall, she finds it to be a bit less bulky than the Field Company skillet, and she appreciates that this one has two pour spouts, too.

At the end of the day, opting for vintage won’t necessarily save you money, but if you’re dedicated to buying secondhand, or if you enjoy the hunt of finding a skillet that’s been around for decades, it’s a totally viable option.

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Enameled cast iron — the material used to make most Dutch ovens — is exactly what it sounds like: cast iron with an enamel coating over the surface. It’s just as good at evenly heating, searing, and braising as regular cast iron, but acts even more nonstick without any upkeep at all. And it allows you to cook with acidic foods, like lemon, vinegar, and tomato sauce, without damaging the surface. In general it’s hard to damage, as the enamel coating is really strong. But if you do, it can’t be restored. And it’s even more expensive than the Yeti and Field Company skillets above.

If you’re going to go this route, I can highly recommend Le Creuset’s version, which I’ve been using for years (and it’s no surprise that it’s so high quality, given how tried-and-true its Dutch oven is). It has nicely sloped sides and two pour spouts and comes in many lovely colors. Yang also owns and regularly uses a Le Creuset enameled cast-iron skillet, and hers is now at least 20 years old but still going strong. Staub, whose Dutch oven is my personal favorite, makes a similar version, too.

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