I grew up in the South. South Carolina, to be exact. In a part of this country where cast iron is so ubiquitous, it’s almost a cliché. My grandmother, Estee — our all-mighty, no-nonsense family matriarch — always kept a skillet on the stove, seeing her “old black pan” as a nothin’-special, no-frills kitchen tool to be used day in, day out.

And so that’s pretty much how I saw it, too, even inheriting the thing with little fanfare. That is, until years later, when it laid on the ground at my feet.

It was the early aughts. I’d just fried some bacon. And in one fumbling second, I stood on my back porch in Maryland and watched it slip through my fingers, landing on the concrete with a whack. A long, thin crack now lingered across the surface, nearly splitting it in half.

Everything changed, right then and there, on the day that I dropped Estee’s pan. By then, I was already interested in cast iron cookware, mostly by way of gathering up vintage skillets for cooking over open fires with friends. But that was the one I used, and suddenly, it meant something. In that moment, I had broken not just the pan, but also the possibility of passing it on — an otherwise ordinary object instantly transformed into a priceless family heirloom.

At first, I wanted to repair it, for my kids. Then I found myself on an all-out crusade to recreate it. Might say I got carried away.

Back in the day, many of the old classic cast iron companies — the Griswolds, the Wagners, the Favourites (my personal favourite) — made cookware that was light and like, well, butter. But when Butter Pat Industries got started a decade ago, the only stuff on the market was rough and heavy, the kind you’d leave out in the rain or let roll around in the back of your pick-up truck between camping trips. 

We wanted to change that, but it would be a long time coming, as I bounced between more than two dozen foundries, in search of someone who could make cast iron as smooth, thin, and sophisticated as those from my grandmother’s day.

And it was always the same story. “We can’t do that anymore, it’s not possible,” said the foundries, often laughing me out of the room. But talk about a way to make me determined. And sure enough, there I’d stand in the parking lot, asking them, “Well, why the hell not?”

Weeks turned into years as I spent all of my free time with cast iron collectors and other kindred oddballs, asked a million questions, and pawed through every old record out there, ultimately piecing together the answers — as well as the perfect formula for our first pans, based on the style of Favourite and the specifications of Griswold, with a nod to Wapak. Estee’s pan was likely a Wagner.

But it turned out, all those naysaying foundrymen weren’t wrong: the old way, in which it used to be done, actually couldn’t be anymore, at least not like it was during cast iron’s heyday, at the turn of the 20th century. Regulations had changed, as had the industry, as had the consumer, who demanded a pan faster and cheaper than ever before. 

Meaning I had to find a new way.

It might be in this moment that Butter Pat Industries was officially born. 

I was at a fork in the road: I could compromise our standards for the quantity-over-quality of modern machine-made cast iron. Or I could stick to my guns, taking our specifications and setting about starting a novel, state-of-the art process — one previously never used for iron before, as far as anyone can tell.

As an architect by training, I was neither discouraged by the unknowns ahead, nor a Luddite about all of it. It’s easy for folks to wax rhapsodic about old cast iron, but by then, I had learned that every craft is imbued with eras of creativity, and this would be exactly that. Which is why our slogan was long “inspired by the past, innovated for the future.” 

So what makes a YETI pan — made the exact same way as a Butter Pat, and in the United States of America, too — so special? 

First and foremost, straight out of the moulds, the cookware is cast incredibly smooth on all surfaces, which is by and large the most important attribute.

If your car breaks down in the desert and you have nothing to eat but a single egg, will it be easier to fry on the hood or rugged asphalt? The hood of course, because it’s smooth, while the road has tons of tiny divots for food to slide in and stick to.

And even machine-milling that rough surface (as is a common cast-iron practice today) can leave behind microscopic crevices, not to mention uneven thickness, which can cause hot spots — burning the yolk before the white stops running. Our smoothness means even heat, and in turn, even cooking, helping it be more non-stick to boot.

Thanks to our state-of-the-art casting process, there are also exceptionally thin side walls, making for a lighter pan, and an elegantly extended front tab, because there’s no reason to be a hero and try to carry a pan with just one hand.

Together with YETI, we have made minor improvements. Most folks will notice the slightly longer handle, making it more ergonomic. And though it’s most obvious to us iron nerds, an enhanced surface texture yields an even better overall cooking experience.

Even with our modern “bells and whistles,” we still live by Estee’s wisdom. As she knew way back when, cast iron is a tool. It’s meant to be used. It shouldn’t sit on a shelf like a trophy. In fact, her broken pan is the only one that’s allowed to stay on ours, if only as a reminder. I use the rest every day.

So go cook in it tonight, and however you like. On gas, electric, induction. In the oven. Over an open flame. Bake in it, braise in it, sear and sauté in it, and fry and grill in it while you’re at it, too. Then clean the heck out of it. Then cook in it some more.

Take care of it, and don’t let it rust, but otherwise there’s no need to baby it — or believe too much of what you read on the Internet. Like a pair of leather boots or blue jeans, it’ll only get better with age.

Oh, and don’t drop it on concrete, like I did. Then it should last for generations.

Dennis Powell is the founder of Butter Pat Industries. An expert on cast iron cookware, the South Carolina native and Maryland resident has been a part of the industry for well over a decade. In his spare time, he hunts upland and waterfowl birds with his wife and two American water spaniels.