Grill Pan Starter Set

If you are trying to decide which grill pan to get let me make some recommendations. In my opinion, the two best grill pans are:

• Simply Calphalon Nonstick 13-Inch Round Grill Pan
• Lodge Pro-Logic 12-Inch Grill Pan.

The Calphalon is a clad aluminum grill pan that was ranked as the best overall in an evaluation by Cook’s Illustrated (Jan 1, 2006). Cook’s Illustrated does excellent research and their recommendation should be given significant weight.

The Lodge is a seasoned cast iron grill pan that was ranked as the best overall in an evaluation by the LA Times (Oct 27, 2004).  While the LA Times food section doesn’t carry a lot of authoritative weight I fully support their choice because I love cast iron. I love the look and the weight of cast iron.  When I break out my cast iron I feel like I am doing some serious cooking.  “Stand back!  Here comes the Iron!”

I have included an Amazon product wheel below to let you take a look at the two pans.  In order to make a product wheel Amazon makes you have at least six items so I also included some accessories to go with your grill pan.  I can highly recommend the grill brush, it is the one I use myself.  The silicone tongs are an excellent idea to keep you from hurting your non-stick surface.  I really like the Grill Pan Cookbook..it is the best grill pan cook book I have come across so far.

The price on the Calphalon grill pan has been swinging around pretty significantly.  If it looks a bit pricey right now keep checking back, the price has been known to drop.

Some folks just don’t have the time to read through all of my posts.  They just want to know what they should buy so they can hurry up and start grilling.  This page is for folks just like that. By the way, none of these items are very expensive, if you buy two or three together you can qualify for free shipping with Amazon

The two grill pans are both great. If you love cast iron get the Lodge, if you hate cast iron get the Calphalon.

You will also want to get a nice brush to clean your grill pan as well as some silicon tongs to keep you from damaging your pan with metal utensils.

A grill press comes in handy. A foil wrapped brick works pretty good too!

Lastly I am throwing in a grill pan cookbook to give you a little more encouragement.

Now go out there and buy a grill pan so you can start having a little more fun in your kitchen.