Unleash Your Breakfast Skills: Top 10 Omelette Pans for Perfect Eggs Every Time

So mine just arrived today, I haven't used it yet...HOWEVER, I am a big user of cast iron cookware, so I feel confident I can judge this piece just by holding it and looking at it. First thing I noticed is that it has nice heft. That means the iron is dense (i.e. has fewer air bubbles in the casting). The surface is no more or less rough than modern Lodge brand cast iron, and to be honest a rough starting surface produces superior seasoning results down the line because the roughness acts like a fingerprint to hold on to the seasoning. I like the fact that the handle is not assembled completely because it shows to the purchaser that the handle can be removed from the pan for a seasoning exercise in the oven. As for all new pieces of cast iron, I recommend re-seasoning the pan. If you don't know how to do this, then do a web search and read more than the first entry or two, there are right ways to season and there are wrong ways to season that work, but aren't as durable and can force you to re-season again down the road. The basics, remove the handle and put aside. Put pan into oven, and set oven for a short self-cleaning cycle (2 hours is usually enough), let the pan cool enough to be able to handle it with bare hands or just a dry dish towel. It will rust FAST because of the heat. Rinse the pan in fresh cool water, and scrub the pan with scotch bright pad to remove the rust. Put back in the warm oven to let it dry. Because the oven is not so hot anymore it shouldn't rust too quickly. Once dry, grab a good seasoning oil (I prefer peanut oil, but veg oil is fine enough as a 3rd or 4th choice, just don't use olive oil). Pour a teaspoon into the pan, and with dry clean paper towel, rub the oil onto every surface of the pan (including the handle tang). I mean the whole thing, leave no surface uncovered. After that, grab another dry clean paper towel and dry the pan off. Keep replacing paper towels with new paper towels until the paper towels no longer get any oil on them. Then set your oven for 385 deg F, place you pan in there upside down. Place a cookie sheet underneath to catch any drips that may occur. Check the pan in an hour, if it looks dry it's done...if it looks like it has wet spots or bumps, leave it in for another 30 minutes. Once the pan is dry, let it cool down below boiling. Take your scrotch bright and lightly rub the inner cooking surface of the pan. Rinse and dry the pan in the warm oven again (you want to drive out ALL moisture, not just surface moisture). Now you have two choices at this point. Either repeat the seasoning (don't strip it with a cleaning cycle again), or just oil it down all over and wipe off. Either way will work, and your pan will naturally build up seasoning over time if you are careful not to remove the seasoning while cleaning. Since this pan is meant for eggs, you should never have to do anything more than wipe the pan out with a paper towel WHILE it is still HOT. Once in a while you may wish to oil the outside of the pan again since the oil is not being naturally refreshed like the inner cooking surfaces are.

My daughter decided she wanted to make tamagoyaki for her bento, so we ordered up this pan and made 8 tamagoyaki this weekend to practice our technique. The usual advice is to start with a Teflon tamgoyaki-ki and that's probably good advice, which I ignored. This cast-iron pan requires more precision with heat to avoid sticking. But it's very usable if you're careful and of course is more durable in the long run than a coated pan. Iwachu is considered the best of Japanese cast-iron, but you'll pay nearly as much for an Iwachu (if you can find one) as you would for a professional copper tamagoyaki pan. In comparison, this pan is a great value for less than $30. The casting seems a bit rough in texture (rougher than a modern Lodge skillet), but it should smooth out over time as it becomes better seasoned.

Upon receiving it, I washed the pan thoroughly and gave it three seasoning coats with Crisbee, which I highly recommend for all cast-iron seasoning and maintenance. As far as heat, remember that cast-iron has a much higher heat capacity than either Teflon or copper pans, so you need to be careful not to apply too much heat from the burner when cooking. After a weekend of experimenting, we found the following works best... 1) Pre-heat the pan over low heat for about 10 minutes, rotating occasionally to avoid hot spots. 2) Oil the pan and increase heat to medium. 3) When a few drops of egg sizzle convincingly but not too aggressively, *drop heat to low*, then add an egg layer. 4) After you've formed and rolled each layer, re-oil and increase heat back to medium, dropping back to low before adding the egg for each new layer. What you want is for the bottom surface of the egg to cook immediately on contact to avoid sticking and then let the residual heat in the pan do the rest of the work. Lowering the heat prevents burning the bottom. It will take a solid minute+ for the pan to come back up to temp between layers, so be patient. Proceeding this way, only a thin film of oil is required for each layer and I expect performance will improve as the pan seasons further and smooths out.

As far as capacity, this pan seems a bit too small for the common 4 egg tamagoyaki recipe. The shallow front edge (which is helpful for rolling and plating) reduces the effective capacity compared to completely rectangular pans. But using a 3 egg recipe is also a little awkward - when you get to the third layer, making it standard thickness will leave you with too little egg left over for a full 4th layer but too much egg to dump in all at once. I think it's best to make a 4 egg recipe but expect to have a little leftover egg after 4 layers. So it's like a 3.5 egg tamagoyaki pan.

Overall, a fine little tamagoyaki-ki for an excellent price. A Teflon pan would definitely be easier to get started with and I'd recommend that for those without experience cooking on cast-iron. But I think this pan will be more durable and be a better performer than a Teflon pan in the long run.