What is a Skillet Pan and How Do You Use It?

When you are in the UK, translating recipes from the US is something you get used to.  A cup for me was something you put coffee in until I found out it was a proper measurement – now I have a little set of measures that have cups on them!  The same could be said of the skillet pan.  They were everywhere but I wasn’t really sure what a skillet was.  Robert knew, being a chef.  But for me, the curiosity was piqued.  What is a skillet pan, do I need one and how do I use it?

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What is a skillet pan?

One of the first things I learned on my introduction to the skillet pan was that there is a lot of overlap between skillets, frying pans and sauté pans (of which we have two of one and one of the other).  This made me wonder if there was any point in investing in a skillet but there are some differences.

Top of the list is that a skillet has slanted sides, unlike a frying pan or a sauté pan.  Skillets have a slightly smaller surface area than a sauté pan.  The shape of the skillet makes it great for things like stir-fry dishes where you are moving the food around a lot as well as stuff that is served straight from the pan such as omelettes and frittatas.

You can get skillets in lots of different materials but one of the most popular is cast iron.  Now, this is a little different to the standard non-stick pans I’ve always used.  You need to make sure the pan is pre-seasoned before you use it and you can’t dishwasher clean it.  The one I ended up buying (more on that in a moment) had care instructions with it and I put them on the kitchen noticeboard.

Why would you want one?

If you have a small kitchen like we do, every time you add something from a pan to a gadget or anything, you end up asking if you really need it because you need to make space for it.  So what is the case in favour of getting a cast iron skillet pan?

1.       Inexpensive

For starters, there are some seriously expensive skillets out there but there are also some very budget friendly ones.  The one we ended buying from Amazon, the VonShef Black Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet Pan, was less than £15 ($20) and was pre-seasoned with natural oils.  This one from Lodge was a similar price and had a silicon handle cover with it.  There were more expensive options, but we decided to stick with this one until we saw how much we can do with it – if needs be, I can always get a bigger one later (this one is 25cm diameter).