This is the Lodge rectangular grill press — a heavy cast iron slab with a wood handle, built to sit on top of food as it cooks. The rectangular shape fits strips of bacon or two paninis side-by-side in a way the round press doesn’t. The weight presses the food flat against the pan, which is what makes smashburgers crust properly, keeps bacon from curling, and melts cheese all the way through a panini.
It’s the piece that turns any flat pan into a flat-top press — the weight is the whole point, and cast iron gets the job done. Pre-seasoned at the foundry with vegetable oil and works on any cooking surface that gets hot enough to transfer heat through it.
Lodge has been making cast iron cookware in South Pittsburg, Tennessee since 1896 — the longest continuously operating cast iron foundry in the United States. Every traditional black cast iron piece in the Lodge lineup is cast, seasoned, and packed at that Tennessee foundry.
