Pioneer Woman Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet (Walmart)

• Cooking evenness: This model was fair at evenness. A thermal imaging camera is used to evaluate the heating evenness of the frying pan.
• Baking: This model was good in baking cornbread.
• Searing: This skillet scored excellent at searing steaks.
• Browning: This frypan scored fair for browning which gauges how well the frypan can brown foods.
• Ease of cleaning: This frypan was good in cleaning, which gauges how easy the frypan is to clean after cooking steaks, cornbread and eggs. If wiping was all that was required or if hot water or salt was needed to clean the residue from the pan, then re-seasoning.

The Pioneer Woman Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet (Walmart) is part of the Cookware test program at Consumer Reports. In our lab tests, Frying Pans (Cast Iron) models like the Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet (Walmart) are rated on multiple criteria, such as those listed below.

Baking: We made cornbread in the frypan which gives an indication of how well the frypan can bake. We looked at moistness, volume and how evenly golden brown the cornbread was on both the top and the bottom.

Browning: We browned scallops to give an indication on how evenly the frypan can brown foods. Those scoring Excellent can brown food evenly; those scoring Poor could not brown foods evenly.

Searing: How well the cast iron frypan was able to sear New York strip steak.