The Lodge Cast Iron 12-inch Skillet and Red Silicone Hot Handle Holder is a multi-functional cookware that works wonders with slow-cooking recipes and all your favorite foods. Fry up a mess of catfish, roast a chicken, or bake an apple crisp in this generous 12-inch pan that features two handles for heavy lifting and two subtle side lips for pouring. Cast iron loves a campfire, a stovetop, or an oven, and can slow-cook foods without scorching. It retains heat well so you can sear meat at higher temperatures and will keep your delicious meals warm for a long time. Whether used in a kitchen or camp, theses virtually indestructible cookware should last for generations. Made of cast iron, this Skillet evenly distributes heat from the bottom through the sidewalls. Sporting a stylish black color, the cast iron skillet looks good in most kitchens and it doubles up as an excellent source of nutritional iron. Cast Iron, like your grandmother used, still ranks as one of the best cooking utensils ever made. It gives you a nearly non-stick surface, without the possible harmful fumes generated by preheating chemically treated nonstick cookware. The American-based company, Lodge, has been fine-tuning its construction of rugged, cast-iron cookware for more than a century. Note the black patina given to the cookware by the factory seasoning process is, in fact, vegetable oil that has been baked into a piece of cookware that has emerged from an individual sand mold. This coating of oil is a functional application and not a cosmetic application. The cookware is hanging as it rides through the electrostatic sprayer and commercial conveyer ovens at very high temperatures. This allows the oil to penetrate deeply into the pores of the iron which creates an easy release finish. As a result of this process, you may see a blister or bubble of oil at the rim, southern-most point or at the end of the handle of the cookware piece. If visible, it will rub or flake off with your finger, leaving a brown spot. Don’t worry, it’s not rust but a seasoned spot that is brown, indicative of the varnish stage of seasoning. As a matter of fact, this is the color of home seasoned iron until it has been used several times. The brown spot will turn black with use