Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!
Today, I’m continuing my exploration of the Smithey 10″ cast iron chef’s skillet. Today’s challenge: fried eggs.
The last time I put a new piece of iron through its paces, I went for the nuclear option and fried up some bacon on the first cook. I knew what would happen, and it did: stripped the seasoning right off. Apparently there are sugars in the bacon that can caramelize and be hard on seasoning. It took me a while to build up a good seasoning layer on my pan again, so this time, I decided to go a little gentler on the seasoning, but not the test, by frying eggs.
At this point, I should say that I paid for this hunk of iron with my own money and the opinions are my own.
Smithey pans come pre-seasoned, but I had given my new pan a quick rinse with hot water, a thorough drying and then a quick seasoning before using it. For its maiden voyage, I made a frittata, which came out beautifully with crispy edges, a creamy center and absolutely no sticking whatsoever:
I gave the pan a good steam cleaning and then seasoned it with pecan oil immediately after the cook…or at least just after breakfast 😉
This morning, I fried up some eggs. I began by heating the pan on medium-high heat, and added a knob of butter (probably 1.5 tbsp) when the pan was hot, but not fully heated–I wanted the butter to melt, rather than sizzle:
The pan heats up pretty quickly, so I adjusted the temperature on my gas range down a little. When the butter was bubbly and hot, I added the eggs and seasoned them with salt and pepper:
Just look at those bright yellow double yolks! From my favorite egg ladies at the farmer’s market–they have the happiest birds in the business and more often than not, they lay double-yolk eggs!
Next, using a silicone spatula, I carefully scooted the blade of the spatula under the egg and to my delight, it received negligible resistance and I was able to turn both eggs cleanly, with little to no sticking:
So far, this pan is a real standout. I’m going to cook steaks in it tonight and see how they do, but I’m expecting another good experience.
The handles do get hot (and did get hot even during the short time I was frying the eggs) but that’s nothing that I don’t expect and I have plenty of handle cozies to take make sure I don’t burn myself. Lodge makes pretty good ones:
But even they won’t insulate from the heat when the pan is fully up to cooking temperature, so just make sure you’ve got adequate heat protection from those handles when using this pan.
Here is the pan after it’s been cleaned and seasoned:
As you can see, the pan is starting to take on a patina in places. It will take a while before the layers of seasoning build up to create the even, dark coating that is the hallmark of a well-seasoned cast-iron pan, but I really like that it’s already starting to take the seasoning.
Overall, I am very impressed with this offering from Smithey so far. The pan is well-balanced, handles well and I do like the longer handle; at 6 1/4″, it is about as long as the handle on my Smithey 11″ deep skillet, which is plenty of handle to keep hold of the pan in both cases.
For tomorrow’s post, I’ll put the pan through its temperature tests and report back. I am also going to cook some little filets in this pan for dinner tonight. Time permitting, I’ll report back on that, also.
Until then,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
