What’s Cooking in My New Spun Iron Pans

By Garrett Wade

There are so many reasons to love cooking in cast iron. Cast iron pans retain heat exceptionally well, thanks to iron’s high volumetric heat capacity, and the pans themselves are versatile, easy to clean and fairly inexpensive when compared to, say, copper. But cast iron pans do have one major disadvantage: their weight. Cast iron pots and pans are heavy—for some, tooheavy—especially once you add the food.

Well, here’s some good news for your back and shoulders: Spun iron pans have all the same excellent cooking qualities as cast iron, and are only half the weight!

Made literally by spinning iron on a lathe, spun iron pans offer the same excellent heat conduction as cast iron pans, and are visually timeless, too. They are also naturally stick-resistant, especially when properly seasoned, and incredibly easy to clean. Try one once and you might just retire your cast iron skillet forever. (I certainly did.)

Here is what’s cooking in my new spun iron pans.

Perfect Pizza

If you think you love your pizza stone, just wait until you try a spun iron pizza plate. Nothing could result in a better or crispier crust! Thanks to the even heat retention of the iron itself, this plate cooks pizza perfectly—and it’s naturally non-stick and durable.

This heritage-quality spun iron pizza plate can be used in the oven, on the grill, or even over an open fire. Over the holidays, I love to use mine to make seasonal flatbreads as an easy, delicious horsd'oeuvre.

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Delightfully Crisp Cookies

Once you try baking on spun iron baking sheets, you’ll never go back to traditional aluminum ones. Because not only do spun iron cookie sheets result in superior cookies—thanks to their heat retention and the consistent baking that retention makes possible—but they are gorgeous, durable and able to tolerate high heat.

From chocolate chip cookies to biscotti, linzer tarts to snickerdoodles, the right spun iron cookie sheet will elevate your baking and save you lots of clean up time.

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Beautiful Bread

Just like cast iron, spun iron pans are attractive and durable enough to be passed down from one generation of bakers and cooks to the next. This spun iron loaf pan is one pan, in particular, that will stay in my family forever.

Use yours to make everything from banana bread to babka, whole wheat to rye, and be amazed at how beautifully it crisps up the edges of the loaf, and how effortlessly it just slides right out of thepan once it’s done baking.

Looking for a great gift idea? Make your own ‘quick bread’ mix, type up the baking instructions, and place both the mix and instruction into the pan. Then all you need is a gift bag and you’re set.

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Sizzling Stir Frys

Weeknight dinners always present a challenge. After working all day, you’re hungry andtired. Who’s in the mood to cook an elaborate meal? Not me.

Treat yourself to a spun iron ‘prospector’ cooking pan, named after its handles that recall the image of a prospector’s gold pan. I love this pan for its versatility most of all. It is the perfect shape and size for everything from fruit pies to omelettes, paella to pasta. I like to use mine mostly for superior stir frys. Whether I’m cooking fish, poultry, beef, or vegetables, this spun iron cooking pan heats up evenly and, as a result, cooks evenly, as well.

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Comforting Casseroles

I’m just going to say it: this handspun iron casserole is the most beautiful piece of cookware in my kitchen. And it looks just as stunning in my modern, all-white kitchen as it would have looked in my great-grandmother’s rustic Italian one. But, of course, this casserole is more than just a pretty face. It is a total workhorse either on the stove or in the oven.

I’ve used mine to make everything from sourdough bread to chicken pot pie, deep dish pizza to short ribs. With its excellent ability to withstand even the highest heats (up to 840-degrees Fahrenheit), this casserole is the perfect vessel for cooking ‘low and slow’ or ‘fast and furious’ or broiling.

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Quiches, Pies and Cobblers

And finally, meet the MVP of my kitchen these days: this spun iron classic frying pan. This pan has single handedly replaced my beloved cast iron skillet, as it cooks and bakes just as well as it ever did, without breaking my wrists, shoulders or back.

Pre-seasoned with flax oil to lend it a naturally non-stick coating, this spun iron frying pan has even helped me cut back on cooking oil. And I use mine for everything: quiches, pies, cobblers, entrees, side dishes, and more.

Most recently, I used my spun iron classic frying pan to make Christmas Morning Quiche—a festive twist on the traditional Quiche Lorraine—and was so impressed yet again not only by its performance, but also by how beautifully it looked on my festive holiday table. Our family lovedit. I hope yours does, too.

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Shop Full Netherton Pots, Pans & Cookware Collection

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Here is my recipe.

Christmas Morning Quiche

Serves 6-8

Ingredients for the Pastry:

1.5 cups flour
1.5 sticks salted butter, cut in small cubes
6 tablespoons ice water

Ingredients for the Quiche:

1 cup spiral ham, diced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup swiss cheese, cubed
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups heavy cream
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash sea salt
1 dash black pepper, freshly ground

Directions:

Add flour and butter to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles lightly wet sand.
Add ice water one tablespoon at a time. Pulse again until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out dough onto the counter, shape it into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (This dough will keep perfectly in the fridge for up to 3 days; it will keep in the freezer indefinitely.)
Once chilled, remove dough from the refrigerator and roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Continue rolling until the dough makes a 15-inch circle. Then, transfer to your spun iron classic frying pan.
Preheat the oven to 370-degrees and return the dough-lined pan to the refrigerator for one hour.
Remove the pan from the refrigerator and fill it with ceramic pie weights. (If you don’t have ceramic pie weights, dried beans are a fine substitute).
Blind-bake the crust for 20 minutes. Once baked, remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack while you prepare the quiche filling.
Heat the butter over medium heat, then add the onions. Cook the onions, stirring often, until they are see-through and evenly browned.
Evenly sprinkle the ham, onions and cheeses over the inside of the crust.
Combine the eggs, heavy cream, salt and pepper in a medium-sized bowl. Pour the mixture over the ham, onions and cheeses.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted two inches from the center of the quiche comes out clean. Then remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

NOTE: This quiche can be prepared up to 3 days in advance, if kept stored in the refrigerator. Before serving, just remove from the refrigerator and bake at 300-degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.

Well, here’s some good news for your back and shoulders: Spun iron pans have all the same excellent cooking qualities as cast iron, and are only half the weight!

Here is what’s cooking in my new spun iron pans.

Perfect Pizza

Sold out

Delightfully Crisp Cookies

From chocolate chip cookies to biscotti, linzer tarts to snickerdoodles, the right spun iron cookie sheet will elevate your baking and save you lots of clean up time.

Sold out

Beautiful Bread

Sold out

Sizzling Stir Frys

Weeknight dinners always present a challenge. After working all day, you’re hungry andtired. Who’s in the mood to cook an elaborate meal? Not me.

Sold out

Comforting Casseroles

Sold out

Quiches, Pies and Cobblers

Sold out

Here is my recipe.

Christmas Morning Quiche

Serves 6-8

Ingredients for the Pastry:

1.5 cups flour
1.5 sticks salted butter, cut in small cubes
6 tablespoons ice water

Ingredients for the Quiche:

1 cup spiral ham, diced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup swiss cheese, cubed
½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups heavy cream
1 dash nutmeg
1 dash sea salt
1 dash black pepper, freshly ground

Directions:

Add flour and butter to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles lightly wet sand.
Add ice water one tablespoon at a time. Pulse again until the mixture forms a soft dough. Turn out dough onto the counter, shape it into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. (This dough will keep perfectly in the fridge for up to 3 days; it will keep in the freezer indefinitely.)
Once chilled, remove dough from the refrigerator and roll out onto a lightly floured surface. Continue rolling until the dough makes a 15-inch circle. Then, transfer to your spun iron classic frying pan.
Preheat the oven to 370-degrees and return the dough-lined pan to the refrigerator for one hour.
Remove the pan from the refrigerator and fill it with ceramic pie weights. (If you don’t have ceramic pie weights, dried beans are a fine substitute).
Blind-bake the crust for 20 minutes. Once baked, remove the pan from the oven and cool on a wire rack while you prepare the quiche filling.
Heat the butter over medium heat, then add the onions. Cook the onions, stirring often, until they are see-through and evenly browned.
Evenly sprinkle the ham, onions and cheeses over the inside of the crust.
Combine the eggs, heavy cream, salt and pepper in a medium-sized bowl. Pour the mixture over the ham, onions and cheeses.
Bake for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted two inches from the center of the quiche comes out clean. Then remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

NOTE: This quiche can be prepared up to 3 days in advance, if kept stored in the refrigerator. Before serving, just remove from the refrigerator and bake at 300-degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.