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Two years ago, Japanese cookware brand Vermicular released a ridiculously lightweight cast-iron pan that threatened to disrupt the entire category. Weighing just 2.4 pounds, the 10-inch skillet was less than half the weight of similarly sized cast-iron pans from brands like Le Creuset, Lodge, and Staub.
I’ve always understood that if cast iron is too thin, it’s prone to cracking or crumbling when exposed to extreme heat, and generally that’s true. Even the thick stuff can crack under thermal shock. But Vermicular’s pan is made with compacted graphite cast iron which is “a unique material possessing the hybrid characteristics of exceptional heat conduction and durability,” according to Mark Hayashi, a representative for the brand.
A proprietary black enamel is supposed to make the pan rust-proof and promised quicker evaporation of excess liquids for better browning too. But Vermicular’s original pan had one major flaw for American home cooks: a wood handle.
Albeit gorgeous, the hand-carved handle (available in both oak and walnut finishes) wasn’t oven-safe. That’s not really an issue in Japan, where full-size ovens are less common than they are in the US. But if there’s one thing Americans like to do with our cast-iron pans (other than wield them as old-timey self-defense weapons), it’s transfer them from our stovetops to our cavernous ovens whenever we damn well please. And the transfer of such a pan can require some serious heaving, especially when the whole thing is piping hot and holding a whole chicken or a few pounds of pork chops—which is why it was so disappointing that Vermicular’s lightweight pan couldn’t go into the oven.
Luckily, it was a problem with an easy solution, and in October of 2022, the brand released an upgraded version of their innovative pan with a heat-safe handle. Just to avoid any confusion over which pan was which, the company smartly named the new pan the Vermicular Oven-Safe Skillet.
Like the original pan, the oven-safe model is made of the same lightweight cast iron with the same rustproof enamel. Instead of a wood handle, it has a sturdy aluminum handle with its own oven-safe matte black coating to help it stay cool on the stovetop too.
But wait, there’s more! In making its already-rustproof pan oven-safe, Vermicular also made it dishwasher-safe. (The metal part of the original pan would have been fine in the dishwasher because enameled cast iron is dishwasher-safe, but the wood handle was not.)
With a full-time job, a book project, two small kids, and ADHD, I will gladly throw all my money at high-quality cookware I can stick in the dishwasher—even if, like this pan, it sounds too good to be true. So far, though, Vermicular’s Oven Safe Skillet has lived up to the hype. After cooking with it a handful of times, it’s very close to becoming That Pan I Always Keep on the Stove. It browns foods better than stainless steel or the ceramic-coated nonstick pans I use when I want to make something in a hurry, and because it’s so much thinner than traditional cast iron, I can get it as hot as I want it—and fast.
Of course, no single piece of cookware can be the absolute best at cooking and the easiest to clean, and though this pan performs quite well in both categories, there are some things to know before throwing down $200 (or more) for one.
For starters, the downside of this pan’s ability to warm so quickly is that it doesn’t have the same heat retention as thick cast iron. This may not be an issue for most cooking jobs, but you may still want to reach for something heavier when pan-frying. And though it’s enameled, it’s not a truly nonstick cooking surface (it’s not even as smooth as Le Creuset’s signature sand-colored interior enamel). But that texture is part of what makes it so good at browning food since Vermicular’s enamel is meticulously engineered to force evaporation.
Also, if you want a lid for this pan, be prepared to pay up. Vermicular offers both stainless-steel and glass lids, which need to be purchased separately. Stainless is $50 and glass is $45, no matter what size pan you have (7.9 inches, 9.4 inches, 10.2 inches, or 11 inches).
For me, neither of those issues are deal breakers like the wood handle was. So if you’re tired of hauling a heavy cast-iron pan around your kitchen or you’re over the care and seasoning required to keep it (or its other lightweight alternative, carbon steel) in tip-top shape, Vermicular’s Oven Safe Skillet just might be the cast iron pan of your dreams.
