The best cast-iron skillets will stay with us for a lifetime—so finding the right cast-iron pan is important. They're true workhorses, and every kitchen should have one of these relatively inexpensive, super-heavy duty pans that boast a natural nonstick coating when properly seasoned. They're great for sautéing, frying, and baking. Sure, they can be a pain to maintain, but with proper care, they can last a lifetime.

We thoroughly tested leading cast-iron skillets, looking at a variety of different brands and styles, including new models and cult favorites. Ahead, you'll find our top choices, as well as the specifics of how we tested and what we looked for in a cast-iron pans.

The Best Pre-Seasoned 12-Inch Cast-Iron Skillet: Victoria

The straightforward, dependable nature of this cast-iron skillet is what earned it our top spot. Right out of the box, the coating held up to our tests, yielding fluffy scrambled eggs that didn't stick at all and an evenly browned seared potato. According to Victoria's website, the pan is pre-seasoned with 100% non-GMO flaxseed oil, and the seasoning only improved the more we worked with and added to it. Commerce editor Emily Johnson has kept this skillet in her home kitchen, maintaining it and building up its seasoning for the past two years, and has reported that it has held up to near-daily use and only grown better as a non-stick surface over time. (Note that in this review update of the best cast-iron pan, we chose only rough cooking surface options as our winners, forgoing the smoothed-surface options that try to emulate the design of vintage cast-iron pans. We found that the rough surface was better for building long-term seasoning, as the oil can cling to the spaces around the rough surface. We included more on the two styles of cooking surfaces below.)

Feature-wise, this skillet's long, thin handle stayed cooler longer than the handles of the other cast-iron pans we tested, and the two pour spouts are exemplary—they were the largest we saw, which allowed us to pour cooking oil out of the skillet with less risk of dripping. For roasting a whole chicken or searing four pork chops, we think 12 inches is the perfect width, though it might be slightly too wide for your favorite skillet cornbread.

The Best Pre-Seasoned 10-Inch Cast-Iron Skillet: Lodge Blacklock 96

We didn't expect there to be notable differences between the 12-inch and 10-inch skillets we tested from the same brands, but it turned out that the Victoria 10-inch cast-iron skillet doesn't have a helper handle on the side, whereas the 12-inch Victoria—and all the other 10-inch cast-iron skillets we tested—does. Cast-iron skillets are heavy, and the helper handle affects how easily you can maneuver one (even a small one!) into and out of the oven, or from the stovetop to the table. This felt like a deal-breaker, so we looked beyond Victoria to find our winner in the smaller diameter category.

The standard Lodge 10.25-inch cast-iron, which previously held the top spot, was usurped this year by a newer model: the Lodge Blacklock 96 skillet, also 10.25-inches. The Blacklock 96 was made to commemorate the very first Lodge foundry, which opened in 1896; it looks similar to the classic version but differs in a few critical, useful ways. First, it's lighter weight, cast in what the website calls a "thin design" that weighs 4.6 pounds, compared to the classic's 5.2. It's also easier to maneuver, with a longer, thinner handle and wider helper handle. We found that the Blacklock "triple seasoning" created a more effective nonstick layer than the average Lodge as well. Most of all, we loved how easy it was to clean this pan, likely because of its great seasoning, which repelled stuck on food better than other models we tested.

How We Tested Cast-Iron Skillets

Frying and scrambling eggs is an effective way to test the level of nonstick coating on a pan, because eggs have a tendency to really stick. First, we fried and scrambled eggs (using oil) in each skillet straight out of the box. The purpose of these first two tasks was to test the efficacy of any pre-seasoning. If a pan didn't have a factory seasoning, we didn't judge its performance in this round—we simply took the opportunity to help build up their natural seasoning. Then, also with a bit of oil, we seared half a potato in each pan, cut side down, for four minutes. This test allowed us to assess how evenly the cast-iron skillet browned food and how quickly it heated up, and it allowed us to put a pan's nonstick capabilities to the test one last time.