The AUSfonte 24cm Sauteuse on the new 32cm BIGskillet shows the huge size difference. It's a whole lotta food love!
Horses for culinary courses
Until you see this photo it's hard to imagine just how enormous the cooking surface of the new AUSfonte 32cm BIGskillet really is. It's a full 30cm (12") of cooking diameter, compared with 17cm for the 24cm Sauteuse pan. It's not the rim size that counts for cooking surface, it's the base, and the side walls of the BIGskillet were designed as steep as possible with minimal bottom radius to maximise the cooking area.
They're indeed two different horses for two different courses. The Sauteuse pan was designed with sloped walls and rounded base so it could be used like any sauteuse pan (the classic Lyonnaise sauté toss), but with all the cooking advantages of cast iron and the most comfortable stay-cool handle ever engineered in cast iron.
for Big families and big entertaining
The BIGskillet was designed for big families and home entertainers. You can cook for a lot of people in this BIG pan, either on the stove, in the oven, or outdoors on the BBQ or open pit. Go ahead: it's solid cast iron, and basically indestructible.
The lightest big heavyweight: engineering vs. gravity
But isn't it heavy? Kinda. But, although it's almost twice the weight of the Sauteuse pan, it feels lighter. How can that be? The obvious difference is the BIGskillet has two handles instead of one. That halves the weight felt by one hand.
Less obvious is the way the broad, low-slung 'Love Handles' were designed to assist lifting in a very clever way: if you want to scrape or pour out of BIGskillet, lift with just one handle then pivot off the opposite handle so you have a spare hand for scraping out. As the angle of lift increases the weight carried by the bench or stove top becomes much more than half, and thus weight carried by the hand becomes much less than half.
The Love Handle touches down on the bench/stove early in the lift, so the pan can be raised high over a plate or tray with very little lifting effort. The wide handle allows for a strong grip for lifting/twisting. SOLID Aussie engineering innovation!
So, for intrinsically heavy solid iron, the BIGskillet actually feels like a smaller pan made of lighter materials. Which is a good thing, because now cooks can have all the added benefits of cooking with BIG cast iron, while not needing an active gym pass to 'handle' the cooking!
AUSfonte BIGskillets are available now by pledging on Kickstarter, to help SOLIDTEKNICS fund the expensive production dies through crowdfunding. For a pledge of $149 (plus shipping) you receive a limited and collectible Australian-made BIGskillet pan. If the campaign greatly exceeds it's target, the DEEPan (a dutch oven/casserole which the BIGskillet fits as a lid) will be offered as an extra pledge option.
Why is the pan called 'limited and collectible'? Each BIGskillet is cast underneath with 'FIRST EDITION' (where this pan says 'Prototype') and the actual casting date, to reward Kickstarter backers for helping fund the BIG Australian moulds. (Retail versions of the BIGskillet will be released in April 2015 for around the same price, but cast with 'CAST' instead of 'FIRST EDITION'.)
Those proud Aussie engineers have cast their love of Australia and food in iron......
