Smithey, Deep Farmhouse Skillet

[Acquire from Smithey]

A pan with the hammer marks left in.

Hand-forged in Charleston · Carbon steel, brass rivets · 12 inches, 2 inches deep

Why it's here

Carbon steel is what restaurant kitchens cook on: it heats fast, sears hard and weighs far less than cast iron. Smithey has blacksmiths forge each of these by hand in Charleston, so no two are quite alike and every one shows where the hammer fell. It is a working pan that happens to be handsome enough to carry straight to the table.

The object

The steel is hammered into a twelve-inch bowl with sides two inches high, deep enough to shallow-fry or braise. The long handle is forged, twisted and fixed with brass rivets, and stamped with Smithey's quail. The surface is a dark bronze that turns black and slick with use.

Living with it

Cook with fat, wipe it out while warm, and never leave it to soak. Within a few months food stops sticking. It moves from stove to oven to table, and it is the kind of pan a family argues over later.

Origin: Hand-forged in Charleston, South Carolina
Material: Carbon steel, brass rivets
Size: 12 in diameter, 2 in deep

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