Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This pan never leaves the stove. I use it at least once a day, it is so versatile. A little history: for years I had a 10 1/2" antique cast iron skillet, but with six people to feed, it was too cramped. Plus, the tall sides made it difficult to do some cooking, like sautéing. So I gave it to a friend from church and bought a 12" Lodge skillet and an All-Clad sauté pan. I loved the big cast iron pan when cooking for the whole gang, but I could never get used to the stainless steel sauté pan. It doesn't radiate as much heat as cast iron does, and I was always burning stuff with it. So I threw that one into the cupboard with all the other stuff I own but don't use. I'm sure I'll give it away someday. This Lodge Chef's Skillet was what I was looking for. The sloped sides let me sauté just like with the stainless steel pan, plus I can judge whether it's too hot just by putting my hand near it. What can't I cook with this thing? I sauté veggies, make grilled cheese sandwiches, fry eggs, reheat tortillas, make omelets, sear steaks, and make sausage gravy to go over biscuits. This is a real workhorse of my kitchen. You can see why it never leaves my stovetop. It's big enough to handle most jobs, but not so heavy that my kids can't use it. (Can't say that for the 12" one.) I reseasoned it a bunch of times with flax oil in a 500-degree oven. The factory seasoning is nice, but it's not bulletproof like I want. I've found that we use this skillet, the 12" skillet, a 6-quart enameled dutch oven, a 2-quart saucepan and a half-sheet pan for almost all of the cooking we do in our kitchen. The other stuff knocking around our cupboards (like the stockpot or the roasting pan or the big griddle that covers two burners or the muffin pan or the pizza stone) only gets pulled out for special occasions. I could give away half of it and probably never notice. I hope this helps you make a good decision about what skillet to buy. IMHO, go with cast iron; you'll never regret it.