This is the Lodge 8-inch round grill press — a heavy cast iron disk with a wood handle, built to sit on top of food as it cooks. The weight presses food flat against the pan surface, which is the mechanism that makes smashburgers crust properly, keeps bacon from curling, flattens paninis so the cheese melts through, and browns chicken breasts evenly.
It’s the piece that turns an ordinary skillet into a flat-top press — the weight is the whole point, and cast iron gets the job done where lighter metals don’t. 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.
