Peanut Butter Stuffed French Toast

Lodge has been making cast-iron skillets for over a century, and there’s a reason they’re found in kitchens across generations. This 10.25-inch cast-iron skillet is pre-seasoned, which means you can start using it immediately. It heats evenly, can be lifted with one hand (it’s a little over four pounds), and is less expensive than comparable models. There’s a shorter helper handle on one side and a longer handle with a red silicone sleeve.

Three words. Blistered shishito peppers. Whether it’s on a grill or your stove, the AmazonBasics 15-inch Cast Iron Skillet can add that welcome char or crisp crust to pork chops. Fit a brunch’s worth of eggs, bacon, and hash browns in this pre-seasoned pan with flared edges; but keep in mind that it is 10.8 pounds before you add your breakfast to the skillet. There’s also a 12-inch model.

The Stargazer 10.5-Inch Cast Iron Skillet is a choose-your-own adventure pan, in that you can opt for either a pre-seasoned or bare version. Its design echoes vintage pans with higher, sloped sides and a flared rim that makes up for the lack of pour spouts. The forked handle, shaped to make it cooler than other wider handles, was a bit harder for the Good Housekeeping Institute testers to grip. The pan comes with a lifetime warranty.

Cast-iron skillets don’t need to have a high price tag to earn a spot in your kitchen. The Utopia Kitchen Pre-Seasoned 12.5-inch Cast Iron Skillet has a lot to offer without putting a huge dent in your wallet. The hefty pan—it weighs in at eight pounds—has a pair of pour spouts for adding the cream-based pan sauce to your steak au poivre. A helper handle makes it easier to lift on and off the stove, and pre-seasoning means your pork chops should slide out of the pan too.

If any pan was going to take up permanent residency on your stove, it would be the Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron 10.25-Inch Skillet, which comes in 15 different colors. The enamel coating acts like a non-stick coating and is easier to wipe clean. You do need to be more careful with the skillet to avoid chipping or scratching the coating. While the pans are dishwasher safe, hand washing is a safer bet. The Le Creuset is also available as a 9-inch or 12-inch pan.

With a smooth, polished surface, the Butter Pat Heather Skillet is a nonstick pan that makes it easy to cook up a cornbread to go with your chili. The sleek, hand-cast pans are made in America and come with a 100-year warranty, which helps to offset the fact that it was the most expensive pan tested by the Good Housekeeping Institute. The kitchen test experts appreciated the lightweight pan (it’s 4.8 pounds) and the helper handle that made it easy to maneuver the skillet in and out of the oven. You can also purchase a glass lid, which is perfect if you’re melting cheese on a smash burger.

Cast-iron skillets can make you feel like you’ve just spent an hour pumping iron (get it?) at the gym. But at 4.3 pounds, the Field Company No. 8 Cast Iron Skillet was the lightest 10-inch skillet reviewed by the Good Housekeeping Institute. That was important because the pre-seasoned pan doesn’t have pour spouts, so you’ll have to use the two handles to pour out your bacon grease into a caddy or yogurt cup. The Field Company also offers a cast-iron care kit (seasoning oil, chain mail scrubber, and brush) if you’re new to using a cast-iron skillet.

The key to getting a great sear on a steak is cooking at high temps. And the Delish By Dash 12-Inch Lightweight Cast Iron Pan is oven safe up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re new to cast-iron cooking, it also comes with a set of recipes from pancakes to pasta developed by Delish. The enameled pan—it’s available in blue, black, or red—also comes in three sizes: 8-, 10- or 12-inch.