Black Cast Iron Frying Pan

15 cm

$97.99 $165.99

Black Cast Iron Frying Pan

$97.99 $165.99

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15 cm, 20 cm or 25 cm — what are you actually cooking in it?

Cast iron works by holding heat, so the wrong size isn't just awkward, it changes the result. Crowd a small pan and the food steams instead of browning; use a big one for a single egg and you scorch the empty half.

Choose	If this sounds like you
15 cm	One or two eggs, toasting spices, a single piece of fish. Also the one people buy when they want a small pan they can lift one-handed off a hot hob.
20 cm	Cooking for one or two most nights. Two chicken thighs with space between them, or a proper omelette. The default if you only ever buy one.
25 cm	Feeding a household. Four pieces of meat that all get a crust, or a pan of vegetables that roast rather than sweat.

Buying one pan for a family and hesitating between 20 cm and 25 cm? Take the 25 cm. You can cook small in a big pan; you cannot cook big in a small one.

Is cast iron going to rust on you?

It rusts when bare iron sits wet, and it doesn't when there's a layer of polymerised oil over it — that layer is called seasoning and it's built by using the pan, not by buying the right one. Everything below is about protecting or rebuilding it.

Works	Avoid
Hot water, a stiff brush or chainmail scrubber, no soak	The dishwasher, and leaving it in the sink overnight
Drying it on a low burner for a minute until no steam comes off	Air drying on a rack — the film of water you can't see is the one that rusts it
A few drops of neutral oil wiped over the warm pan and buffed until it looks dry	Leaving a visible pool of oil in it, which goes sticky and rancid
Cooking bacon, chips and steak in it early on	Simmering tomato sauce or wine in a new pan before the seasoning is established

The step almost everyone skips: the minute on the burner. Towel-drying feels like enough and it isn't — that one habit is the difference between a pan that lasts thirty years and one that has orange spots by spring.

The pan that gets better the longer you own it.

Non-stick pans are on a timer from the day you unbox them. The coating is perfect for a year, patchy by year two, and by year three you're pushing eggs around a scratched grey surface and thinking about replacing it. Cast iron runs the other direction entirely. The first month it's a bit sticky and you're careful with it. Six months in, the surface has darkened and food releases cleanly. Ten years in, it's the pan you'd grab first, and it's worth more to you than it cost.

Black Cast Iron Frying Pan detail of the cooking surface

Why thermal mass is the whole point of cast iron

Put a cold steak into a thin aluminium pan and the pan temperature collapses. The surface drops below the point where browning happens, moisture comes out of the meat, and you end up simmering it in its own juices and wondering why there's no crust. That's not a technique problem, it's a physics problem: there isn't enough heat stored in the metal to survive contact with cold food.

Cast iron holds a large amount of heat for its size and gives it up slowly. Drop the same steak into a properly preheated cast iron pan and the surface barely dips, so the crust forms in the first thirty seconds instead of never. The same property is why cast iron is forgiving on a domestic hob with hot spots — the metal evens out the heat before it reaches the food. And because it's ferrous, it works on induction as readily as on gas, which is not true of most of the pans in a typical kitchen.

The three sizes, on a stove

15 cm — the breakfast pan. Small enough to heat quickly and light enough to move around with one hand. Excellent for eggs, for toasting whole spices, for melting butter properly. Not the one to cook dinner in.
20 cm — the everyday pan. Fits a standard burner without overhanging, holds two portions with enough gap between them that things brown rather than steam. If cast iron is new to you, this is where to start.
25 cm — the family pan. Enough floor area for four pieces of meat or a full pan of vegetables in a single layer, which is the only way roasting works. Heavier to lift, so give it a permanent home on the hob rather than in a low cupboard.

Black Cast Iron Frying Pan in use on the stovetop

What You're Getting

One cast iron frying pan in your chosen diameter
Three sizes: 15 cm for eggs and spices, 20 cm for one or two people, 25 cm for a household
High thermal mass — holds temperature when cold food hits it, so you get a crust instead of a simmer
Evens out hob hot spots before the heat reaches the food
Ferrous cast iron, so it works on induction as well as gas and electric
Seasoning improves with use — the surface gets better every year rather than degrading like a coating
Hand wash hot, no soak, dry on a low burner, then a thin wipe of neutral oil
Repairable for life — even a rusted pan scrubs back and re-seasons, which is not true of anything non-stick