There are few things in life more satisfying than watching a perfectly cooked egg slide around in your cast iron skillet. Watching that over-easy egg release from the pan and onto your plate with a runny yolk intact makes us do a *chef’s kiss* every time. There’s a reason this excites us – it’s because there’s a voice in our head telling us that this should be hard, that cast iron should be rough, that food should stick, and that only through a hundred years of grandma’s cooking and 57 coats of seasoning can we hope to achieve the type of cast iron surface that will allow our eggs (or bacon, or veggies, or fish) the freedom to slide around. At Smithey, we’re challenging that notion by producing cast iron with a satin smooth interior finish that is naturally non-stick and pleasing to use right out of the box. Creating this smooth surface takes time and precision, but we think you’ll agree that the result is worth it.
Now you may be wondering, if smooth cast iron is better, why isn’t all cast iron cookware smooth?
Good question! Most cast iron cookware starts out ‘rough’ due to the production process. A casting is formed when molten iron is poured into a sand mold. Once the iron has cooled, the mold is broken away and what remains is a raw casting with the grainy surface texture of the sand. While there are variations in the iron formulations and the types of sand used to make the mold the basic method of casting iron has remained remarkably similar over hundreds of years.