To me, someone who celebrates a bit more of the spectrum than most: Metal hot. Make food hot.
Non-stick means easier cleanup, but my wife seems to think cast-iron is necessary for certain things (searing a prime rib roast, for example.).
After I figure those out, then I gotta figure out gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared…
Different tools for different jobs. There’s a ton more variables at play. Oversimplifying does just that.
Play with it all. Try to do both. Then you will have a better idea. Or post on lemmy asking everybody and read a lot of incomplete and possibly misleading explanations that might help you find the detail(s) you lack to edge your mind into a wider hunger for deeper understanding.
Mine? Cast iron is just different. Like using a truck vs using a car.
In real life, nothing is clear. So, when people give you clear explanations, they may be making the decision to not invest a lot of energy trying to get you to understand or know more. Like right now, I know that spectrum people take a lot of explaining sometimes, and I am really tired and going to bed, so my best advice is to understand they’re different. Learn by doing if you can, and learn from others if you can. But, if it means anything, I use two cast iron skillets, three types of stainless steel pans, some of them tri-ply, and an aluminum with a nonstick coating. I have my preferences not just for different things, but styles of certain things, and even times for different things (like just cooking for me, or one other person, or multiple other people).
Also, generally with non-stick, using high heat or metal utensils on it will ruin it and expose you to pretty bad chemicals basically immediately. But also so does any smoke in general.
Literally pick your poison.
Reddit has a fucking hard-on for cast iron. I’m not really a fan.
I don’t use teflon non-stick but have had good results with ceramic-based non-stick. My second choice would be carbon steel, which has a similar “seasoning” process as cast iron, but I find carbon steel easier to work with compared to cast iron.
Define “better”.
It’s heat- when preheated properly- is much more even and it holds it quite a bit better. This of course, requires preheating (and that takes a long moment.)
when properly seasoned and oiled, the pan is genuinely nonstick to the same degree as most PTFE pan out there (without all the nasty plastics flaking off, and able to be get up to a proper temperature for searing in the first place…) But of course, this means keeping your pan properly seasoned.
I’m not a fan of lodge cast iron, though, IMO its too much work to develop and maintain that level of seasoning (because of it’s surface. Victoria is a better inexpensive option if you’re looking to buy new.) But I also rock a lodge when camping (Because I don’t want to subject my really nice, inherited stuff to campfire cooking.) but cast iron can take the abuse of cooking right on coals and other campfire torture (like being cleaned with sand.)
Of course, you have to clean up/care for that camp pan after the fact.
The point being made is that everyone has a different understanding of what is “best”, cast iron does require a significant investment in maintenance and care. For me, the effort is worth it. for many it’s not.
for what cast iron does well, it’s amazing. And really, the biggest problem is that it’s not so good for acidic things (which eats away the seasoning, but that’s more like ‘don’t try and make a pasta sauce’ rather than “don’t splash in some citrus.”
I recently got an induction stove (not even one of the expensive ones) and am so blown away by how fast it can heat up cast iron pans. It’s seconds, not minutes.
I mean I’m sure it’s pretty much instant with pans of lower mass, but instant isn’t what I need.
Oh yeah. actually have to be careful to not heat it too quickly, though. I’m not sure what that threshold is, though. Inductive cooktops are lovely, though. Much better than electric cooktops, and lacking in all the unpleasant pollution of gas.
My family uses our cast iron skillets daily. We have one that is almost exclusively for eggs, and one for meat.
Cast iron wants to be used often and if you really like cooking, will eventually become your go-to. But not everyone gets there; for a lot of people it is counterintuitive to have a pan that you only scrub any bits off and rinse with plain water. Actually, our egg pan only gets wiped out with paper towels because its so slippery now. I don’t think I’ve scrubbed it in months.
If you really want to use your pans:
- Best: cast iron
- Better: stainless steel or enameled
- Good: high quality nonstick like HexClad
- Never: cheap non-stick
We use the absolute hell out of our cast iron and our stainless steel. They all get scrubbed with a metal Chore-Boy scrubbee. Only the stainless gets soap.
I mean honestly you should be using soap and water on it and not just wiping it out. It doesn’t hurt anything to you soap and water. I use cast iron daily I’ve got six odd pans or something like that that I use and not ever had one issue with utilizing the soap and water on it.
Cast iron has a crap ton of mass compared to other pans you mentioned, so if you’re searing a stake you’re going to have a more consistent temp as the temperatures of the pan and the steak equilize. Enough to make a difference? No idea but it could possibly have something to it there
Metal hot. Makes food hot. Yes.
But!!
Cold food makes hot pan cold.
Cast iron has a lot of thermal mass, so when you put a cold piece of meat on it it doesn’t immediately get cold and stop cooking for a bit. Thin pans without it don’t keep hot, hot so they don’t sear long enough and you don’t get the maillard reaction and the tasty brown crust.
This is exactly what I was going to say. More hot stuff means the temperature spikes get flattened.
Very useful for electric ranges.
Cast iron is vastly superior to non stick. You can get it hotter, it stays hot when you put food in it, you can use metal utensils, no horrible chemicals like pfas.
they also last significantly longer. I’m using pans I got from my grandma. She got them from her mom. and If i had kids, they’d probably get them after I was done with them.
My favorite pan is from the 70s and I got it out of tge trash.
Glad you rescued it and gave it a better home!
what about enamaled pans?
i don’t like the thought that i will be spending more time with my pans outside of cooking then cleaning the regular ones. and i don’t want to manage my pans intake like its a diabetic that can’t handle tomato based foods.
I use stainless for acidic foods. Most of the advantages of cast iron are irrelevant when you’re making a sauce anyway, since the water adds mass, distributes heat and deglazes the bottom.
Enameled cast iron is very good, but I find it’s not quite as nonstick as a properly seasoned not-enameled cast iron. Enameled pans are rockstars for acidic sauces, though, and that makes them amazing for braises.
Watch a video on how to cook properly on a stainless pan. Changed my outlook on from how I thought they were trash to they are my favorite to use in daily stove cooking.
Also I use steel wool to clean them when it’s needed.
Carbon steel is great as well and to be treated like cast iron on the seasoning side of things. The woks usually heat up really quickly and pretty non stick like iron and it’s totally ok to use metal cooking utensils.
I stay away from chemically non stick just from how toxic that stuff becomes after it ages past it’s prime.
realistically, whichever one your most experienced with (and your cooktops are made for) is best
they’re all basically the same, the issue is when recipes/directions assume one type of cook setup and the cook doesn’t know any better
This is a HUGE “Yes, but.”
Entering adulthood, I got cheap run of the mill non stick pans, they work until they dont.
Then we tried cast iron. Gotta oil it, cure it, and don’t use soap to wash it. Some extra work, but it worked great.
Now, I’m rocking stainless steel. Less work than the cast iron, but you need to preheat the pan before you put anything in it. If you do this, it’s just as nonstick as the others, and it’s a lot lighter and easier than the iron, and I think they are less expensive than cast iron, but I haven’t compared in a very long time.
FYI, you can wash cast iron with soap.
Not using soap is a hold over from when soaps were more caustic (e.g. lye soap).
FYI, you can wash cast iron with soap.
Only if you re-season it afterwards. Otherwise it starts to rust because the seasoning is what protects it from oxidation
If your seasoning rinses off with mild soap and water, you might want to try some different seasoning methods. That might mean using a different oil, different temperature, longer heat time for the seasoning, etc. Or you might want to season it with thinner layers of oil multiple times in a row.
Really not. See the lye comments.
I generally wash with dish soap and a chainmail scrubber, then dry with a paper towel. If I remember I might spread a tiny amount of oil.
Yeah I could do better but the point is I’ve done almost nothing to care for them in years.
Pure iron oxidizes without the high carbon content to make it stainless and will absolutely rust if you don’t at least oil it after washing with soap, but seasoning it properly definitely makes a difference in how it cooks.
I own 4 different size/shape cast iron and I speak from experience. Any decent dish soap will still strip the oils that are acting as a barrier to the open air and oxidation, doesn’t have to be lye-based
Stainless steel is made with chromium, not carbon.
Carbon steel makes good knives, but will definitely rust.
Cast iron is extremely forgiving of improper treatment. And even if it eventually rusts, you can fix it. I’ve been using cast iron as my primary skillets since pandemic. I know I don’t treat them like I should, but they’re not yet rusted, still have an easy to clean surface that food doesn’t stick to. I’ll probably have to reseason eventually but if that’s not until I’d normally have to replace non-stick, I’m way ahead without putting in any extra work
Edit: sure, standard three cast iron skillets, and cast iron Dutch oven. I also have a set of stainless pans, and some induction ready non-stick for company
It only oxidizes when water can reach the iron. If you have a good seasoning on it, mild dish soap can’t lift it off, and water can’t reach the iron.
Making sure it’s completely dry (I dry mine with heat on the stove) and adding a thin layer of oil is a good idea too. There are often parts of the pan that aren’t well seasoned. On mine, it’s the part that touches the stove that’s most likely to rust.
Thanks for the tip. I saw many people saying both sides, so I figured I’d just avoid soap and not find out for myself.
If you wash your cast iron with eg Dawn dish soap, you can definitely clean it down to bare metal and it will rust. I usually will clean the cast iron pan last and use the sponge that just has a small amount of soap left in it. Just watch it as you clean, if the shiny hard coating seems to be going away, rinse out the soap and make something greasy next time you use the pan to replenish it.
If you have a good seasoning, it won’t wash off. “Seasoning” is the process of polymerizing oil. That hardens the oil and binds it to the surface. You’re more likely to burn the seasoning off or to scratch the seasoning and have it flake off than take it off with dish soap.
Whether you use soap or not, dry it on the stove and give it a light coat of oil after you clean it.
Thank you for helping to dispel this myth. It is truly disgusting the state that some people leave their cast iron pans in, the fact that people eat the food from them after not having washed it for years is terrifying.
The pans regularly get above boiling temperatures. They’re sterile
Sterile and clean aren’t the same thing.
Then wipe it with a paper towel when it’s cool like a normal person
No. It’s more versatile than most pans, but that starts and ends with “you can put it in the oven”.
The cast iron cult is just as other weird subculture that developed from people who are online too much. They’re pans. They’re fine.
- You can use metal flippers.
- you can scour
- you can sandblast
- you can stack them inside each other without eating teflon flakes
And most importantly they can last a lifetime. I got frustrated replacing non-stick pans every decade or so, now I expect not ever to do that again
I love my cast irons, I have a carbon steel one, that is even more work to care for, but gets really hot and is great for searing. I would like a stainless one for more of a nonstick option though.
Do you not season them? Mine let’s eggs go as soon as they start to maillard.
For me, cast iron are by far my most used pans. You know how flannel starts out sort of awful but gets better and better as it gets older? That’s cast iron. Starts out sticky PITA but over time becomes satisfying satiny nonstick surface. I’ve always used them a lot so that’s how my cooking style evolved.
We also have one steel pan we call the Stick pan, sometimes you want food to stick so you can deglaze. My kids use it for potsticker dumplings, and they like it also because it’s lighter, cast iron is heavy. And of course a rice and pasta pot, those are steel.
I don’t buy “nonstick” pans, they don’t last and I’m not convinced they are safe.
Cast iron is pretty good at almost everything, but isn’t the best at anything.
For searing meat at high temps, I’ve settled on stainless steel. It’s easy to clean and maintain, and the typical 3-ply or 5-ply cladding has much better heat transfer characteristics than cast iron (which is a mediocre heat conductor masked by the fact that it’s so heavy and thick that it takes on a lot of thermal mass to aid in searing). You don’t have to worry about metal utensils or harsh scrubbers scratching the surface. And you don’t have to worry about acidic ingredients messing with the surface, either.
For things that need nonstick characteristics, like eggs, I cycle through nonstick on a short replacement cycle (once every 2 or 3 years). I might get a carbon steel one day but I’m not in a hurry.
Eggs tend to cook rather well on cast iron so long as you use butter/tallow/fat/etc. and aren’t scrambling them.
Unfortunately I scramble my eggs nowadays so I don’t have much reason to use my cast iron pan anymore :(
I scramble eggs in my cast iron all the time. No issues. What issues are you having with that?
The 5 ply stuff is really good. The ones I have are just as heavy as the cast iron but they can go in the dishwasher so that makes them my favorite. They cost way more than cast iron though
