I have Lodge cookware, some fairly old, and some of which has been purchased in the past year or so. I've been very happy with it. It does take quite a bit of use before it will become really slick. You also have to use some oil or fat when you cook with it, especially when new. My eggs slide right out, but I cook them in butter. Contrary to what we've all been brainwashed, good quality butter, organic virgin coconut oil, and organic lard is good for us. You could try putting a little oil in the pan with some salt, and then use a nylon dish brush to clean the pan. Then take a paper towel and wipe all of it out, after which give it a quick rinse with hot water. Towel dry it and warm it a little on a burner. It should take any odors or stuck on food residue out of it. I would not use steel wool on your pan. You risk scrubbing off what little bit of seasoning you are trying to build. I also very seldom use soap. Sometimes I use a diluted bit of unscented Seventh generation dish soap, but rarely. Usually a good rinse with hot water and a nylon brush if necessary is all it takes. Rub a bit of oil or fat on the pan when it's dry and you're good to go. Making popcorn in a Dutch oven helps speed up the process. Make some yummy fried potatoes in your skillet. I found my best seasoned cast iron ever was after I took it along camping and cooked over a fire with it. I've also purchased a couple of the Lodge carbon steel pans and I love those for eggs. For everything else I love cast iron. My main cookware is the old fashioned basic Lodge seasoned cast iron and Le Creuset and Staub enameled cast iron pieces. The only thing I use stainless for is to boil water for pasta and making huge batches of stock. The only bread pans I will use are the Lodge cast iron bread pans. I gave all my Pyrex, aluminum, and stoneware bread pans away. I feel Lodge basic black cast iron cookware is very good quality, and it's the only cast iron cookware still made in the U.S.A. Some people don't care for the rougher texture of Lodge versus Griswold, but I have both and the Lodge will sometimes take and hold seasoning better than the super smooth Griswold. It just takes a little longer. (Griswold is no longer manufactured and commands high prices now). If you give the Lodge people a call they will help you with all sorts of advice. Their website is Lodgemfg.com. Once you get past the learning curve I think you will really enjoy cooking with cast iron. Some people will keep a skillet ONLY for cooking fish, and have another one for other foods.

Lou - no, I've never seen Maggio's around here. I'm HORRIBLE with names lol!! I can see the containers of the two most popular brands we have here, the label designes and everything, but can I think of the names? No!! It'll come to me. I haven't had a chance to deal with my Lodge pan yet - I usually have to cram everything in on the weekends. I never have time after work to get much done and now with gardening season here, if I do get anything done, it's usually in the garden! I plan on taking care of it this weekend tho. And I'm going to check out ebay as well. Besides the nice way they cook and all, I really like that if you need to, you can take the cast iron from the stovetop to the oven. They're just so versatile. And not having to replace pans a couple times a year because they're ruined will be great as well!! I hope I can find some of these older pans everyone else is talking about! I go to flea markets all the time, but I was never looking for cast iron before so I never paid attention to what's available! Hopefully the cat isn't quite out of the bag yet on how great these old pans are and there's still a lot out there to pick from!! Lisa

I've seen cracks in CI stay stable for years, and other times the crack grew. It depends on what stresses are on it. Taking out a section of CI can be a tricky prospect. CI is heavy and the section above is, at least partially, being held in place by the section below. Taking out a section does away with that support. (There's also a vent involved somewhere.) Not usually a task for a beginner. JM$.02W

I'm not sure I can answer the sloppy joe kind of gal question. There are as many different flavors to it as there are to burgers. I've always loved them. My mother would sometimes make me sloppy joe instead of the burgers she was making for the family, just to be nice. I haven't figured out how to replicate her recipe and she doesn't even remember doing it. I know that the dregs of the ketchup bottle and wine to get it out with were involved... Re satisfaction, I like 'em, so find them satisfying. Maybe figure out why you're unsatisfied? First off, are you eating enough? Sloppy joe started as a way to extend meat, because you can fill the bun with less and not have it seem so meager. It's hard to pile high. I often make them open face on thick homemade whole grain bread, meant to eat with a knife and fork and a good third of a pound per. Or I'll use One Buns, which are sliced flat buns, same diameter, but thin, so both pieces together are worth one slice of bread, and make portions of two per person, with a more usual amount of filling. If it's not the portion of meat, is it the flavor/seasoning/meatiness? Or not getting enough of a chew on to stimulate your alimentary system? (If the last, maybe serve with crunchy raw vegetables?) I also had a hard time figuring it out and tried a bunch of recipes before finding something that suited me enough to use it as a starting point. It calls for a lot of sauce. Basically, a cup of condiments (ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce (the kind that's good on french fries, not the kind that has to caramelize on the meat), etc.). Pick your poison. That's to more or less 1.25 lb. of meat. Now that I have it down, I don't use nearly that much, and I just squirt. In this, however, is my liking for hamburgers with ketchup and yellow mustard on them, so ketchup and mustard sloppy joes is fine with me. You could use soy sauce and wasabi, though obviously in different proportion. I've used adobo and Mexican pepper sauce. Whatever you use, just make sure to make it strong. I guess that's the most important thing. With loose ground beef, especially (since Amazon, I can't get the good ground bison I prefer), you need to up the flavor to match the exposure of surfaces. If you're using something strong, add water or stock or beer or wine to make enough volume of sauce (back to that one cup thing). Remember that half the joy of sloppy joes is the sauce soaking into the bread (and the misery when it's too greasy is the sauce soaking through the bread and making a gross mess). It also requires courage with the salt for the same reason, and basic generosity with all seasonings and flavorings. So, this is what I do: I start with very lean meat. Greasy sloppy joes are icky where on a grilled burger you might want that fat basting it. I used to have to drain the meat on paper towels. With less than 10% fat, I don't have to. My other "secret" is dried vegetables. I've made sloppy joes with proper chopped onions, peppers, etc., but they have to be sautéed and dried out enough not to screw up the sauce. With not draining the meat, I have the bit of fat and water it sheds, which rehydrates the dried veg. Sloppy joes are for not actually bothering to cook something, IMHO. That meat could be meatballs, or meat loaf, or pirouski, or whatever. Sloppy joes are throw it in a pan and turn it into a sandwich, without even stopping to form it into a burger. I use a generous handful each of It's Delish dehydrated chopped onions, mixed vegetable, and parsley, and sometimes some dried chopped jalapeños from Penzey's. Other times, I'll use some spicy barbecue sauce. Brown the meat, add S&P and the dried veg. Add generous squirts of ketchup and mustard. Adjust flavoring. Toast or steam bread/bun, or if really really lazy, make sandwich and zap for half a minute to steam the bun with the steam from the filling. If not feeling lazy, add sliced tomato, pickle chips, or whatever moves you. Mixed baby lettuces are particularly good with hotdogs and sloppy joes but they must be at least room temperature. Lightly steamed just until barely softened is better, but not a lazy thing to do. So...do you think now that you just don't like 'em?