SolidTeknics AUSfonte Tough Love 10" Cast Iron Sauteuse Pan w/Long Ergonomic Love Handle

It is machined, smooth deeply pre seasoned, a quality pan. The handle remains cool for quite a while thanks to a cooling gap and, let's be honest the handle is quite long. What about a cast iron piece that actually looks like it was designed in this century not in the 1800s. I am 40 minutes away from the U.S. manufacturer, lodge's, factory in TN where I can buy a 10 " second fry pan for 5.00 and I choose this over the lodge. The Lodge is not machined smooth. The handle is short. It gets flaming hot right now. Whereas this has all the cast iron advantages yet it was designed for this century's cook/chef.

This pan has quickly become a workhorse in my kitchen due to it’s versatility. I’ve successfully stir fried , baked small potatoes , scrabbled eggs, and made soup. The handle stays cool and pan stays warm after coming of the heat , keeping food at a pleasant serving temperature for quite a while. The one criticism is, as another reviewer noted, is the rough and deeply pitted casting. It causes me to question the overall quality. Also, I don’t see cast iron offered on the company website any longer. Maybe this will be a collector’s piece one day.

Solidteknics AusFonte Tough Love series of cast iron is quite excellent. At a first glance it appears that the surface is rough. However, if you touch the bottom (cooking surface) it is smooth. It gets smoother once you start cooking in it. I got an entire Tough Love line with an exception of one piece. The only reason I am missing one it was not available anywhere. This is a high quality cast iron with thoughtful design. The Sauteuse is quite deep. But it is expected from the Sauteuse. You cannot see it on the pictures, but per specifications the Sauteuse is 5.1" deep. It is definitely waaaaaay better than Lodge. Not sure how anyone can compare this beautiful piece of cast iron to Lodge. In my book it is head and shoulders above. This series was a kickstarter, and unfortunately got discontinued. I am glad that I was able to get Solidteknics AusFonte Tough Love items while those were available.

I agree for the most part with the previous two reviews, and in many ways I really like this pan, but:1. It's a very rough piece of cast iron. Granted, the bottom has been sanded smooth, but there are still a lot of pits and fissures from the casting process. The inside walls of the pan are extremely rough - much more so than a Lodge pan. Yes, lots of seasoning, usage, and proper care will eventually smooth out the rough spots and fill in the fissures, but if you're expecting something on the quality level of a Griswold you're going to be really disappointed. I'm a little baffled why they didn't go the extra inch and machine/sand the whole interior to a nice glassysurface. Their pricing and claims would certainly warrant that! Which leads to my second gripe:2. Price. This pan is unique, has a really nice heat resistant long handle, but at 5 times the cost of a Lodge piece it should have 5 times the quality, and it doesn't. A Lodge actually has a somewhat smoother overall interior surface, and requires less seasoning than this one. For all the money paid SolidTeknics should have gone the extra step and smoothed the whole interior. They didn't.

Nice shape. Can use it as a mini wok. Too many deep pits, a lot of them. I have at least 5 different brands of cast iron cookware (about 30 Lodges) and non of them have rough pitted surface as