Irons Reviews

We recently purchased the VillaWare Mickey's Waffler as a replacement to a similar unit we had bought in 1995 and used for many years. This unit is similar in design and has a nice, deep waffle mold that makes consistent, thick Mickey waffles. The only problem I have encountered is that the red light on the top of the unit (tells you when waffle is done) is poorly designed and arrived broken out of the box. The light is a comprised of a white lamp covered by a small red lens. The lens clips into the stainless steel cover and arrived broken from the vendor. We reported the defect and sent it back. Amazon quickly sent us a replacement unit and when it arrived... that one had a broken lens, as well! I would assume that ALL the units will have this same problem. The good news is that it does not affect the operation of the waffle maker as long as you are careful when cleaning the surface and do not get any water in the lamp area. The only thing broken is the red lens that covers the lamp. The lamp actually works fine without the red lens.

It really works good and it's fun to use. The waffles come out just right and I love it.

This is such an awesome waffle maker. It is very easy to use and mickey comes out perfectly every time. My kids love having Mickey Mouse for breakfast. Well worth every cent.

too heavy.
too much trouble in maintanence.
but a great wok if you are really serious about cooking (and you need a kitchen outside your house to avoid too much smoking contaminating your beautiful painting)

This wok is truly great. I've had it for over two years now and it is one of the most used pieces of cookware in my kitchen, even over most of our All-Clad and Calphalon pieces. It is heavy, but it is cast iron, man! It is supposed to be heavy. Well, my wife does not like how heavy it is but she too loves to cook in it. We use it for everything imaginable; stir fry, deep fry, soup, browning...you name it. This is a great buy!

I am totally thrilled with this cast iron wok. After proper seasoning I find it cooks very well and with each seasoning the slickness of the pan improves.

Fortunately, I didn't toss my old 8-inch straight-sided cast-iron skillet when this one arrived. This pan works as well as you'd expect, but the sloping sides reduce the cooking surface of the pan. The slope makes it easier to get a spatula under an egg and cleaning the rounded corners inside the pan is probably marginally easier. The flat handle doesn't seem to get so hot. Overall, though I don't think the loss of cooking surface is worth the benefits of the pan.

I have replaced all my cephalon cookware with cast iron and stainless steel.

The general consensus is that these pans are a bit harder to take care of. For me, this is not true.

I use skillets for sauteing and cooking eggs, and with a coating of vegetable oil or butter, sauteed vegetables and eggs clean up with hot water and a quick scrub with a brush. It took a little more effort to clean the nonstick pans from the day they came out of the box, and a lot more effort within a few months as the coating began to deteriorate.

If you are considering replacing all of your non-stick pans, you'll want to get a stainless steel pan or two for tomato products and liquidy soups, which can dissolve the "seasoning" off of a cast-iron skillet. Of course, it's easy to build the seasoning back up again, but why bother?

I bought this skillet over one month ago. It is wonderful. It makes perfect omelettes and fried eggs. This is my new everyday pan. I used to be a fan of nonstick pans, however, after noting the nonstick coatings coming off my pans, I went back to the basics with cast iron.
Cast iron cookware needs more care to prevent rust. That is the only drawback.
I have the surety of knowing that this pan will last forever and not worry about chemicals coming off onto my food.

This was not a purchase for myself, it was for a wedding gift that Macy's did not have in stock, so I honestly cannot rate the item, but I can say that it got to my house in the time frame stated.

I bought this as a Valentine's Day gift and it is great. The only issue is that the handle gets a bit hot. It is really non-stick, the color code works great for telling you when the waffles are done. The waffles do break apart into the heart shaped pieces as soon as you take it out of the maker, so bigger waffles are not too easy to make. It cleans up really fast except for batter and crumbs being stuck in the hinge area.

We really like the waffle maker. It is very fast and cooks the batter very evenly. Would not think of getting anything differnt.

I really like this griddle. This is the first time I used a Cast Iron griddle and it works like a charm. The heat is distributed very evenly. It is great that now I don't have to worry about the non stick surface and keep buying new griddles everytime the non stick surface gets bad. It works great for pancakes, sandwiches for everything.

Great for frying eggs, but I prefer a pan with higher sides for omlets. Every grilled sandwich I've made on this griddle has come out perfect. My kids use it to make pancakes and they swear by it. I've found that pre-heating the griddle in the oven first helps it heat more evenly and avoid the hot spots that can occur when cooking on a stove top. The pre-seasoning works great.

I'm a lousy cook and I love pancakes. I've always had to go to a restaurant to get a decent pankcake because I never figured out how to make them right.

But when I got this Griddle I started turning out perfect pancakes every time! There must be something about iron. I've never had any iron cookware before. And the size is just small enough so it's not too heavy, but the flatness allows me to make a "short stack" of pancakes all at once.

This is the most joy that $12.00 has brough into my life in a long time. And, I'll save a ton of money over the rest of my life not going to restaurants to get pancakes!!

I have a couple of different cast iron pans. This is my first dutch oven. My only 'complaint' if you can call it that is it isn't seasoned very well.
Yes, it is technically seasoned, but after one batch of spaghetti sauce, (acidic tomatoes) and the seasoning was just about gone.
Fortunately, cast iron is easy to reseason. (Just smokey is all) Other than that, it's a great pot. I've done whole chickens, cajun cooking, and other great stuff. It heats evenly on the stove or in the oven. If you're considering it, buy it. You won't regret it.

I purchased this dutch oven to be used in my home - we no longer go camping. It was too heavy before I even mixed up a recipe so I did return it. If I were 20 years younger & a lot stronger, perhaps I would have kept it!

Unlike the previous reviewer, my pot was black and the pre-seasoning finish seems to be in fine shape. In fact, it went straight from the box to hosting a pot roast. Later, a lentil soup. Since both recipes start with oil, I didn't think it'd make a difference to lay on additional seasoning. I have seasoned since then, though. Nothing but excellent results and at an excellent price.

I agree with other regarding the wall thickness but I can't imagine this pot being any heavier. It seems to me that the lid is even heavier than the pot itself!

I was thrilled with the idea of being able to make waffles at home, and I believe the excitement and novelty of it is what kept me satisfied with this waffle maker for the first few months despite the consistant fact that half of every batch of waffles would remain stuck to the plates and have to be pried, poked and scraped out with a fork or butter knife. However, as time went on my patience grew thinner and the percentage of botched waffles grew higher. I received this waffle maker as a christmas gift, and believe me I am not proud to say that I threw it out three weeks ago.

This did make good waffles but after only light use, it stopped working in about six months...currently searching for another one b/c I won't buy this one again.

I just love the waffle maker. This one is the best!

I enjoy the pan. The steaks that were cooked on the pan looked great for serving. One downfall is how heavy the pan is. If you can get by its weight you will be happy. Be careful the handle gets very hot during use!!!

Purchased this pan to sear roasts before transferring to the oven. I am very happy with the size, the design, and the heft.

The pan measures 12 inches square and includes grill ridges that extend almost to the edge of the cooking surface. The cooking surface has a 3/4-inch tall lip surround. The main handle and assist handle are well sized for the pan and seem sturdy. This pan is heavy.

The pre-seasoning on this pan is pretty decent, but is not as smooth as the type of seasoning you would get after years and years of use. However, it's a good start -- I figure it'll smooth out over time.

When I use this pan, I toss in some salt between the ridges before I put the meat on the pan. The salt helps to absorb and prevent juices, etc. from sticking between the ridges (makes for easier cleanup). And since the salt is between the ridges, the meat never gets salty. Also, I let this pan heat up for a good five minutes before searing.

Cooking with Cast Iron is great, but only if you use it under the correct circumstances.

One of the reasons Cast Iron still has a use in the kitchen is that it has an extremely high heat capacity -- higher than any other metal used in the kitchen -- once you get the pan hot, it stays hot (even if you drop in a cold steak). If you need a pan that can quickly respond to changes in temperature, I'd recommend getting a Stainless Steel pan.

Another point to remember is that Cast Iron is not truly "non stick" -- no matter how much you season it, or how "pre-seasoned" the pan is (or how much the manufacturer claims it is). It is, however, "stick resistant" provided the pan is seasoned and you use enough fat (butter, oil, lard, etc.) while cooking. If you require a non stick surface, then you're probably better off with an Anodized Aluminum pan.

The only down side to using Cast Iron is cleaning it. Cast Iron should never be washed with detergent and should NEVER be washed in the dishwasher. The reason for this is simple -- detergents cause the seasoning to disintegrate. The seasoning on a Cast Iron pan is nothing more than polymerized fat (fat that is solidified in the presence of heat) -- it sounds gross, but its perfectly normal.

I use salt to clean my Cast Iron. After I'm finished cooking, I let the pan cool a bit (to the touch), scrape/wipe out the residue, then rinse it under warm water. Then I pour in a thick helping of table salt and use the backside of a (rinsed) scour sponge to grind the remaining residue out (the salt works like sand paper and doesn't destroy the seasoning). I rinse the pan and repeat with the salt until the salt crystals stay relatively white. Once the cleaned pan is rinsed and dried, I warm it for a few minutes on the stovetop and apply a little oil with a paper towel. The pan is now ready for storage.

the salmon I grilled on this pan was superb - crisp outside and moist inside. I especially like the dimensions of this pan, it would fit 5 or 6 portions of chicken or fish easily.

However, I wouldn't recommend this for use in kitchens that do not have a high speed fan, as it does throw a lot of smoke. I have a 900 cfm rangemaster fan which handles the task quite well.

the finish on this pan is very rough, like sandpaper . i do not like it for that reason . the plus is it's sq size . this is a size that is better for 2 people many pans are for larger size families . i would not reccomend this witout feeling it in perso in a store .

This grill pan made my turkey burgers taste as though I had grilled them outdoors.

I went through about three non-stick, very expensive pans from the major players, and every time the story was the same. I would really like the pan until I used it about six or seven times, then the non-stick coating would wear off and they would stick like mad. This is because proper grilling can only be done under high heat, in a preheated pan. Doing this to a non-stick pan heats it up well past its tolerances, and destroys the coating.

So finally I tried a cast iron grill pan from Lodge. It was excellent, and took to high heat well. It is pretty hard to clean, the food sticks a bit, and the grill marks are not as crisp as I would like. Still, it was much better than anything aluminum.

When I saw this one, I decided to try it since I like my other Emeril pans. It is even better than my other one. Interesting, as I strongly suspect these Emeril pans are also made by Lodge. The little tweaks he made to the pan are well thought out. The ridges are tapered such that they almost come to a point. The result is clear sear lines with no sticking. It is also heavier than my other pan, so it holds heat better, and has much higher sides to help contain spatters.

There is one thing to be aware of, however. This pan is smaller than its Lodge counterpart, so it is well suited to grilling for two or three (even if the things you are making are large). If you are doing more than that, it'll get a little tight in there. I keep my Lodge pan around for the times I need more cooking space, but I can see this one is going to get a lot more use as normally I do two things at a time anyway.

The first time you use it, spray it lightly with cooking spray oil inside and out, then put it on a high heat burner until it smokes. Turn the burner off and let it cool off on the burner slowly by itself. This will help season it a bit (even though it is preseasoned) and make sure that you won't get any sticking the first time you use it.

If you are even thinking of experimenting with grilling, get this pan and give it a try.