It's good to see this! TH-cam is full of unboxings and egg tests on brand new pans. So it's always good to see somebody talk about their pans a year or so on. And everybody can see how nicely they've seasoned up. It just takes time. I've seen people commenting online that their smooth pans "won't hold seasoning." But my Butter Pats and old Griswolds hold it fine, and your Smitheys are obviously doing well. It just takes time, and they're pretty nonstick right out of the gate anyway.
You maintain your CS and CI beautifully! Nice and dark patina, but smooth. You’ve discovered, as I have, the chain-mail scrubber is really key; I used to be scared of the chain scrubber-fearing it would remove patina. But I’ve discovered that just the opposite has happened. It does remove more chunky raised patina when attacking recent stuck on food bits, yes, but it smooths things out and any “removal” is quickly darkened with future use. Your pans are shining examples of this process. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
Very pleased to hear you enjoy your farmhouse skillet. I am excited for mine to arrive tomorrow. I have the 8 in chef skillet and it is great for small omelets and my wife loves her 14 in dual handled skillet. If you like bread, then you will love making bread in your dutch oven.
I went with the 10” chef skillet only because my omelettes are never less than 3 eggs. My farmhouse is the workhorse of the kitchen. I will probably get the 14” because the 12” always has me wanting more for stuff like cornbread. I’m super interested in their new 17” Carbon steel party pan. I wish it was 18” or I would have bought it already. I have an aversion to odd numbers.
You will love the Dutch oven if you like the other cast iron products. I’ll sear a meat, throw in veggies and stuff and do a slow braise low heat and it blows away a typical crock pot meal. Also, great for artisan breads and so much more. I look forward to hearing your reaction
I’ve actually tried to buy just a cast iron lid for my skillet/s, but they said they wouldn’t sell just a lid. Cheers for you getting an extra, even if it’s weird
your smithy looks amazing seasoned! ive seen some complaints about the seasoning. Do you have or can you share a video of how you care for the smithy 12 cast iron? Im interested in investing in a set.
I've had the 12 inch for almost a year and it takes a little too long to heat up, and it's too large for a 3 egg omelet. Otherwise it's more useful than a smaller pan because you can fit more in it.
Any problems getting the cast iron to season correctly? I was about to buy the 3 pack of cast irons but there's a lot of people online saying they have issues with getting the Smithey to season. Now I'm on the fence. I own a few cast irons and I've never had an issue seasoning (just followed TH-cam videos). The pan you're using looks great, but I still wanted to know if you went out of your way to season the pan or if you season just as you would any other cast iron pan. Thanks in advance for your input, I appreciate it.
My initial seasoning on their 14 in stripped the first time. Put it through the opening season process a couple of time and used it to make pancakes a few times and it’s been solid since. The 8 in chef skillet has been perfect for my eggs on day one with no issues.
I've had zero issues seasoning the pans. I find that stovetop seasoning has worked best for me. It takes longer to get them to turn black compared to say Lodge. However Lodge pans come black or close so that makes sense. I just seasoned mine and cooked on them. I love all my Smithey pans. My Lodge pans are like backups and just something I want to keep because it was my first set of cast iron.
I’ve been eying these for a couple of years because they look like a fantastic product, but I do love my affordable Lodge as well. Curious on your comparison of the two after a year of use? Does it cook better than the lodge?
Their pans are awesome, but on the expensive side . But I do have plans to buy the Chef pan and the Dutch oven very soon. I have several Lodge cast iron pans and dutch oven as well as Field pan and a Lancaster pan .
Hi I have got Smitty cast iron pans they are good pans no doubt but I think butter Pat cast iron skillet or the original Griswold and Wagner ware killer because they are casted and left in the die for 21 days they bring it out no machining is done or grinding and they do not use recycled material
I'm sure the quality from back in the days when stuff was intentionally made to last forever is superior. However I think Smithey is as about as quality as you can find these days. I love all the stuff I have purchased from them and they have a customer for life out of me.
I honestly see no for any nonstick cookware anymore. I do have a stainless steel skillet that I bought specifically because I like to cook tomato sauce fairly regularly, but otherwise carbon steel and cast iron pans work well for everything else.
why did Smithey give you a different cover for a replacement? I just worried they are going to do the same thing to me. can't they give the original one?
No clue why my cover was replaced with an even more defective one. With all that being said their stuff is worth paying full price for and then you can be as picky as you want. I will only buy full price from here on out, but I’m probably a bit OCD. Their seconds sales are a good deal.
I've been using the second lid as a top to my skillet. Eventually I am going to be getting more items from Smithey and planned to do a giveaway of some of my current items. That doesn't help you now but in the future...
If you don't want to clean it, worry about it, turn any cast iron / carbon steel surface into totally non-stick right out of the box with a simple sheet of baking paper, after your done, toss the paper, light wipe with flaxseed oil, stack it, forget it, job done
Good idea. I’ll try that out today. Might be able to just use my nonstick cookware and use parchment paper. Could be a perfect light weight solution instead of all this heavy expensive cast-iron.
You just guessed my secret, I use parchment in my Korean double pan grill, and my non-stick bacon grill plate that wore through the surface after years of use, instead of tossing it out, new lease on life
Shoot now you can save all your veggie scraps and bones to make some killer broths in that Dutch Oven. Low heat, walk away and let it go all day, super easy.
The seasoning on your Smitheys is the best I have seen. Beautiful!
It's good to see this! TH-cam is full of unboxings and egg tests on brand new pans. So it's always good to see somebody talk about their pans a year or so on. And everybody can see how nicely they've seasoned up.
It just takes time. I've seen people commenting online that their smooth pans "won't hold seasoning." But my Butter Pats and old Griswolds hold it fine, and your Smitheys are obviously doing well. It just takes time, and they're pretty nonstick right out of the gate anyway.
You maintain your CS and CI beautifully! Nice and dark patina, but smooth. You’ve discovered, as I have, the chain-mail scrubber is really key; I used to be scared of the chain scrubber-fearing it would remove patina. But I’ve discovered that just the opposite has happened. It does remove more chunky raised patina when attacking recent stuck on food bits, yes, but it smooths things out and any “removal” is quickly darkened with future use. Your pans are shining examples of this process. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
I just bought my first Smithey, no. 12. I'm excited to try it. I wanted opinions and tips and ran across this video. Thanks for posting. Subscribed.
Very pleased to hear you enjoy your farmhouse skillet. I am excited for mine to arrive tomorrow. I have the 8 in chef skillet and it is great for small omelets and my wife loves her 14 in dual handled skillet. If you like bread, then you will love making bread in your dutch oven.
I went with the 10” chef skillet only because my omelettes are never less than 3 eggs. My farmhouse is the workhorse of the kitchen. I will probably get the 14” because the 12” always has me wanting more for stuff like cornbread. I’m super interested in their new 17”
Carbon steel party pan. I wish it was 18” or I would have bought it already. I have an aversion to odd numbers.
Dude thanks for this, I def want this set up! Cool to see the farmhouse turns black. I like it.
You can’t go wrong with their cast iron or carbon steel. I have switched over to almost exclusively using their cookware.
You will love the Dutch oven if you like the other cast iron products. I’ll sear a meat, throw in veggies and stuff and do a slow braise low heat and it blows away a typical crock pot meal. Also, great for artisan breads and so much more. I look forward to hearing your reaction
I’ve actually tried to buy just a cast iron lid for my skillet/s, but they said they wouldn’t sell just a lid. Cheers for you getting an extra, even if it’s weird
What do you use for seasoning/cleaning your Smitheys?
Thank you very much for the review. It will definitely help in my decision to purchase a Smithy
Smithey have sales?? I never knew. Do you think they’ll have one for Independence Day? Also the seasoning on your pieces are *chefs kiss*
your smithy looks amazing seasoned! ive seen some complaints about the seasoning. Do you have or can you share a video of how you care for the smithy 12 cast iron? Im interested in investing in a set.
Have you tried the wok? I’m debating on the wok or larger carbon skillet.
Could you explain your technique for seasoning your skillets! I like that dark black texture. I've seen others seasoning that looked very blotchy.
The 12 looks like a beast! Can't decide between this and the 10. Might do the 10 and eventually get the 14' dual handle.
If you can't decide between the 10 and 12, Smithey recently released an 11. It's deeper than a typical skillet and comes with a glass lid.
I've had the 12 inch for almost a year and it takes a little too long to heat up, and it's too large for a 3 egg omelet. Otherwise it's more useful than a smaller pan because you can fit more in it.
I wonder how you keep the coals on top of the lid when baking 😮
Thanks for the review! Buy products made in the USA!
Any problems getting the cast iron to season correctly? I was about to buy the 3 pack of cast irons but there's a lot of people online saying they have issues with getting the Smithey to season. Now I'm on the fence. I own a few cast irons and I've never had an issue seasoning (just followed TH-cam videos). The pan you're using looks great, but I still wanted to know if you went out of your way to season the pan or if you season just as you would any other cast iron pan. Thanks in advance for your input, I appreciate it.
My initial seasoning on their 14 in stripped the first time. Put it through the opening season process a couple of time and used it to make pancakes a few times and it’s been solid since. The 8 in chef skillet has been perfect for my eggs on day one with no issues.
I've had zero issues seasoning the pans. I find that stovetop seasoning has worked best for me. It takes longer to get them to turn black compared to say Lodge. However Lodge pans come black or close so that makes sense. I just seasoned mine and cooked on them. I love all my Smithey pans. My Lodge pans are like backups and just something I want to keep because it was my first set of cast iron.
I’ve been eying these for a couple of years because they look like a fantastic product, but I do love my affordable Lodge as well. Curious on your comparison of the two after a year of use? Does it cook better than the lodge?
Their pans are awesome, but on the expensive side . But I do have plans to buy the Chef pan and the Dutch oven very soon. I have several Lodge cast iron pans and dutch oven as well as Field pan and a Lancaster pan .
Hi I have got Smitty cast iron pans they are good pans no doubt but I think butter Pat cast iron skillet or the original Griswold and Wagner ware killer because they are casted and left in the die for 21 days they bring it out no machining is done or grinding and they do not use recycled material
I'm sure the quality from back in the days when stuff was intentionally made to last forever is superior. However I think Smithey is as about as quality as you can find these days. I love all the stuff I have purchased from them and they have a customer for life out of me.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that farmhouse skillet is carbon steel, not cast iron.
How do you season your cast iron and what kind of oil do you use?
How do you season your smithey??
I honestly see no for any nonstick cookware anymore. I do have a stainless steel skillet that I bought specifically because I like to cook tomato sauce fairly regularly, but otherwise carbon steel and cast iron pans work well for everything else.
Just wanna ask how you season and take care of you carbon steel pan? Out of all the ones I’ve seen your looks amazing.
I’m a fan of stovetop seasoning. It’s faster and eventually easily gets incorporated into the cooking process.
Sold!
Hell yeah
why did Smithey give you a different cover for a replacement? I just worried they are going to do the same thing to me. can't they give the original one?
No clue why my cover was replaced with an even more defective one. With all that being said their stuff is worth paying full price for and then you can be as picky as you want. I will only buy full price from here on out, but I’m probably a bit OCD. Their seconds sales are a good deal.
love a good unboxing!
Thank for watching :)
@2:30 the pan you're talking about is Carbon Steel, not Cast Iron.
Would you be interested in selling the second lid? I could use one for my pan, but I don’t think I’ll need a whole Dutch oven.
I've been using the second lid as a top to my skillet. Eventually I am going to be getting more items from Smithey and planned to do a giveaway of some of my current items. That doesn't help you now but in the future...
If you don't want to clean it, worry about it, turn any cast iron / carbon steel surface into totally non-stick right out of the box with a simple sheet of baking paper, after your done, toss the paper, light wipe with flaxseed oil, stack it, forget it, job done
@tomkarnes69 just baking paper?
Yup yup, parchment works like a charm
Good idea. I’ll try that out today. Might be able to just use my nonstick cookware and use parchment paper. Could be a perfect light weight solution instead of all this heavy expensive cast-iron.
You just guessed my secret, I use parchment in my Korean double pan grill, and my non-stick bacon grill plate that wore through the surface after years of use, instead of tossing it out, new lease on life
Very interesting. Going to try this thing out and will report back
"Trying to get away from [non-stick cookware]..." - why try and not just do?
Shoot now you can save all your veggie scraps and bones to make some killer broths in that Dutch Oven. Low heat, walk away and let it go all day, super easy.
Mostly using it for tallow but I will be expanding its use. Love my cast iron!
I just wanna come see your bourbon collection 🤓
Me too and all his cooking amenities