Cast Iron Skillets

I have recently Two months ago, I acquired a 10-inch Lodge carbon steel skillet. Like my older cast iron skillet, I have quickly developed a fondness for the ironware.

A major difference between the skillet I received and the many you might see online is that the Lodge skillet was clearly cast in sand (like traditional cast iron skillets) rather than rolled and pressed as in typical stainless steel pans. The result is bumpy, rough surface. Unlike the French Matfer Bourgeat or De Buyer Mineral B carbon steel pans, one layer of seasoning was not sufficient for eggs to “slide around like hockey pucks”. The smoother surface and polishing is reflected in a doubled price tag.

What is sacrificed in convenience can be made up for with effort and attention to detail. As I seasoned over and over, I could feel the bumps smooth out, and the sandy feeling become plastic. I can start to see my face reflected on the pan’s walls as I wipe it with canola oil.

On first blush, this process seems largely pointless, repetitive, and laborious. Why go for a sand-cast skillet when I could go for a smoother rolled and pressed pan? And why choose carbon steel instead of stainless steel? I could save so much time, effort, paper towels, and worry about rust.

I draw connections between my obsession with my carbon steel and cast iron pans and other areas of my life.

• I must have hard reset Windows on my old laptop dozens of times, and my current laptop at least a couple times on top of installing several different Linux distros, or the same one over and over to get a clean system again.
• I was obsessed with all things paracord—all the different knots for bracelets of dozens of styles. Quick deploy and non-quick deploy; key fobs, monkey’s fists, belts, necklaces, slings, bottle holders; plastic buckles to one-size-fits-all, ferrocerium rod and steel ring. And with all this variety, it boils down to 90% of your time doing the same repetitive action over and over.

There’s probably meaning to draw from this, but I’m trying to avoid introspection.