I have been coveting an enameled cast iron casserole dish for quite some time, so when this Mario Batali lasagna pan went on deep discount at Crate & Barrel, I snatched it up. Well, snatched is the wrong word. I ordered it online, and when I went to pick it up at the store, I found I could barely lift it! This pan is heavy — is it too heavy?
This pan is fantastic for deep dish casseroles and for roasting meat, but I found that it took some extra effort to swing it into the oven, especially when full. My husband washed it a couple times, and began complaining of back problems (just kidding — but he did complain!). I wondered if my little cupboard would even hold the thing, and then I finally decided, on my husband's insistence, to weigh it.
I tried first one kitchen scale, then another. Nope — both said it was "OL" over limit! I had to haul out the bathroom scale to weigh this pan, and it came in at nearly 13 POUNDS! (That's nearly 6kg...) That's over twice as heavy as my heaviest cast iron skillet and much heavier than my biggest Dutch oven.
Heavy pans are fetishized in cooking, and for good reason. A heavy pan usually distributes heat better and has less "hot spots" or places to let too much heat through and burn a dish. A heavy pan is generally less prone to warping and cracking. But what if a heavy pan is great for the food, but too heavy to be maneuvered easily? Is it too heavy?
• If you're in the market for a really heavy lasagna dish, it's for sale at Macy's (although not as discounted as the one I found): Mario Batali Classic by Dansk Enameled Cast Iron Deep Lasagna Dish, $69.99 at Macy's. (Notice that they don't say there how heavy it is!)
Do you have any pans on the edge of being too heavy? What are they?
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I have it in green and it's beautiful. but WOOOOW is it heavy when it's full of a 4" lasagna!
Is it on sale because it weighs 13 lbs????
But it does look purty!
Thanks for the tip! These are beautiful, but safe to say I won't be purchasing a 13lb pan. As it is, my boyfriend calls my beloved cast iron dutch oven "the one that is impossible to clean" - and to be fair, it is quite a feat to navigate the thing into and out of our tiny sink without getting water everywhere. I am thinking this pan would produce a strike in my household. :)
In general, I think, really heavy pans are not so good for cooking in a small space. Being able to move items around quickly and easily on the countertops and cooktops, and placing kitchen items in stacks that can be moved from a cabinet all at once to reach the stack behind it are key to making my small space work.
This is good to know, I'll just stick with my cheapo pyrex pan, as someone with back problems this would probably be a better litter pan for me than useful
Eek, I can't imagine how difficult itd be to get out of the oven when full!
LOL, my mom has a pan like that which I refer to as Fort Knox. The thing is ten pounds not counting the lid!
A heavy pan is great for the stove top since it heats evenly, but I really don't see the point when it comes to a pan that you're pretty much only going to use in the oven. If you can hardly lift it empty, how are you going to lift it in and out of the oven when its full of lasagna or a turkey? No wonder it's on sale.
I really want this one because it's so deep; the deepest I've been able to find thus far.
Maybe the Dansk enamelled steel pan is sufficiently deep and a little lighter...
Build some character! My cast iron dutch oven is 16lbs and it gets used at least once a week. I think of it as allowing me to burn enough calories during the cooking process that I don't have to use skim milk in recipes.
I have the Batali 6 quart dutch oven. It weighs 16 lbs empty!!! Crate & Barrel does not like to reveal that. I once wrote a positive review on their web site about the dutch oven, and happened to mention the weight. C&B took the review off their site.
This pan is definitely too heavy. I've come across it on several occasions in HomeGoods, and I had to pass. My husband already complains bitterly about cleaning my 6qt Staub, so I know he'd be pissed about cleaning this one. But regardless, it was way too heavy for me to lug in and out of the oven. A bit of overkill if you ask me.
I only have one cast iron pan....a griddle. I don't have any enameled cookware because I just can't lift them when they're full of food. I'd love some le crueset, but just can't handle the weight.
I hardly ever use my large All Clad roasting pan, because it's so heavy, add food to it and it's really tough for someone with chronic problems from a neck injury. It mostly sits on my countertop, holding all my room temperature seasonings and condiments, but I often think about reselling it.
Yikes, I would stick with glass. A glass pan filled with lasagna is heavy enough!
I love my cast iron, and it's worth it for the benefits of cast iron (low cleaning, bonus iron in my food etc) but I feel this way about a friend of mine's full set of all clad stove top items. They're not that much better and they're SO heavy it's hard to combine things from two or more pots/pans or dish out food when it's done without making a mess or burning myself trying to use both hands to hold a handle.
well, but that begs the question "is there a good lighter weight lasagna pan that you'd recommend?"
I used to manage a kitchenwares store and I always coveted, but never bought, a cast iron lasagna pan. We had two brands, Batali and Le Creuset, and the Batali was by far the heavier of the two. Not sure why that is really. Seriously, all the Batali cast iron is heavier, but is it ever awesome (I have a few other pieces). And if you're really looking for a lighter lasagna pan that is freakishly non-stick and an even cooker go for the Emile Henry stoneware. The stuff is magic. No joke!
I second the recommendation for Emile Henry! Gorgeous, and really sturdy. My pie dish can go from freezer to oven with no problem -- surprising for stoneware.
What a great tool to chip an enamaled sink when doing dishes. That is just way too heavy.
Dangerously heavy!
Too heavy for a home kitchen. That's a restaurant-grade pan. I would return it for store credit, if possible (they probably won't give you a refund).
I bought mine because it was the deepest pan I could find, by far. Worth the weight for that!
I have it in red and it is my favorite pan. With a full lasagna it is awfully heavy, but the tall walls and even cooking make the best lasagna you could possibly have.
I agree with KatePK, there is no point to cast iron if you're not using it on a stove top. If you're really that worried about even heating you can put a baking stone under it, but most ovens heat very evenly.
I have a porcelain casserole dish from Crate & Barrel that's a lot cheaper ($15), a lot lighter, just as deep, and pretty sturdy (I actually dropped it on my granite counter once by accident).
I have the le creuset version of this, and it is heavy, but i'm healthy and it holds a lot. Haven't had any complaints, but we haven't used it a ton yet.
Last time I roasted a chicken, I was following a Pioneer Woman recipe and she used a thin metal baking sheet with a rim, so without thinking I grabbed mine. What a mistake! It was flimsy and was a royal pain in the butt to get two roasted chickens out without spilling the juice in the oven, much less on my oven mitts. I praised my heavy roaster after that. :)
I have a cast iron pan measuring about 18 x 12-1/2 x 4 inches that weighs in at 22 pounds. I've never seen another one like this--it looks like something I'd imagine out of an old camp kitchen. I bought it at a garage sale for fifty cents and figured on using it for campfire cooking.
Yes it's big and a pain to store, and yes it's heavy and could seriously damage my floor it I were to drop it. But it's a really great pan--makes an excellent pizza, among other things. I was worried that my oven racks wouldn't be able to handle it but I have an older Tappan and it's been just fine.
When not in use in the kitchen, it also doubles as a lethal weapon.
Everyone on this board needs to get to the gym. I have a 13lbs Westie-Poo, and he doesn't seem too heavy to pick up and drag everywhere. Most ovens can withstand a 20lb Turkey. Surely the filled dish can't weigh more than that.