I see no need to own a cast iron pan

[progressive hunter]

Yup. Same here. Except both round .

I found the square one in a stove in an apartment I was cleaning out when I did apartment maintenance,,

turned out to be a real good skillet,,.
I also found a really cool broiler pan made of cast iron with channels for the grease to drain,,

 

[progressive hunter]

Food doesn't stick to a seasoned cast iron pan IF you heat it FIRST....Then quickly put in oil followed by food. Learned that from a Chinese chef cooking in a cast iron Wok.

bet that sucker was heavy,,

 

[Leo123]

Okay.

Could just be more even heating.

 

[Leo123]

bet that sucker was heavy,,

Sorry, I edited that I think Woks are made of pounded steel but some are made of cast iron and, yes, they be heavy for sure!

 

[progressive hunter]

Sorry, I edited that I think Woks are steel.

they do have them in cast iron,, but most are steel,,

 

[Muhammed]

It seems cast iron has had a resurgence in popularity and some folks are borderline cult-like over it, but I've yet to have anyone give me a good reason to own one instead of stainless steel. They are heavy (I like to flip food), take longer to heat up, aren't responsive, react with acidic ingredients, and you can't just soak the pan to clean later since it will rust out. I don't get the appeal.

Cast iron pans are simply better for some things like steaks, eggs or burgers. They are also cheap and tough. They have a lot of thermal mass.

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

It seems cast iron has had a resurgence in popularity and some folks are borderline cult-like over it, but I've yet to have anyone give me a good reason to own one instead of stainless steel. They are heavy (I like to flip food), take longer to heat up, aren't responsive, react with acidic ingredients, and you can't just soak the pan to clean later since it will rust out. I don't get the appeal.

Cast iron is by far the best way to cook.
If you gotta flip food you have the option to use other pans.

 

[Winco]

Food tastes much better in a cast iron pan. If you wash it, you really destroy it. I had a cast iron pan for years. Water never touched it.

Then WHY don't you still have it?

Who throws away a perfectly good fry pan?

It's just as easy to maintain the integrity of the pan and don't rust it out.

 

[Innocynioc]

I have an assortment of cast iron cookware, most of which my dad who was a molder in a cast iron foundry made for the family back in the 1930s.
Before I read this thread I didn't know it was even possible to bake corn bread in anything other than cast iron.

 

[1srelluc]

I've eaten plenty of meals prepared in cast iron pans, and didn't notice some magical flavor imparted by the vessel.

I notice a big difference when frying-up squirrels in a cast iron skillet. I much prefer a cast iron griddle too.

Hell, I carried around a old National Tin (pressed carbon steel) frying pan for years in my old provender box.

Once seasoned it was the cats ass for a quick fry-up on the tailgate of my PU if I did not feel like driving back to hunt camp.

LOL....I've wiped it out with leaves before.

 

[1srelluc]

Good point, it is my understanding that cast iron (and enameled dutch ovens) make better bread-type things than stainless steel.

Easy No Knead Skillet Bread

The easiest no knead skillet bread. Just mix all of the ingredients together, let the dough rise, pan and bake. You won't get your hands or counters messy!

bakerbettie.com

Thank me later.

 

[AveMarica]

Cast iron is by far the best way to cook. If you gotta flip food you have the option to use other pans.

It seems more efficient to own a stainless steel skillet that can do both things instead of needing to switch to compensate for shortcomings.

Cast iron pans are simply better for some things like steaks, eggs or burgers.

Searing meat is about the same between cast iron and stainless steel. I can cook eggs on stainless but usually use a nonstick pan I have just for eggs.

that means its easier to take care of not harder,,

How? The stainless steel pan I can throw in the dishwasher, or hand wash and put on the drying rack, or put water in to soak if I want to clean later. Easy. Cast iron you can't soak it, you can't put it on a drying rack, there are people in here talking about oiling or salting it after every use. That is not easier.

I use cast iron skillets because they heat more evenly.

This isn't true, cast iron is notorious for uneven heating. Clad stainless steel pans distribute heat far more evenly than cast iron. Copper is the best of course, but good copper pans are out of my budget.

Where cast iron shines is retaining heat because the pan is so thick.

 

[AveMarica]

By the way Isaac Toups agrees with the "clean it with salt" crew...

 

[Leo123]

It seems more efficient to own a stainless steel skillet that can do both things instead of needing to switch to compensate for shortcomings.


Searing meat is about the same between cast iron and stainless steel. I can cook eggs on stainless but usually use a nonstick pan I have just for eggs.


How? The stainless steel pan I can throw in the dishwasher, or hand wash and put on the drying rack, or put water in to soak if I want to clean later. Easy. Cast iron you can't soak it, you can't put it on a drying rack, there are people in here talking about oiling or salting it after every use. That is not easier.


This isn't true, cast iron is notorious for uneven heating. Clad stainless steel pans distribute heat far more evenly than cast iron. Copper is the best of course, but good copper pans are out of my budget.

Where cast iron shines is retaining heat because the pan is so thick.

I have never experienced uneven heating with cast iron. Actually heat retention is a function of even cooking.

 

[progressive hunter]

It seems more efficient to own a stainless steel skillet that can do both things instead of needing to switch to compensate for shortcomings.


Searing meat is about the same between cast iron and stainless steel. I can cook eggs on stainless but usually use a nonstick pan I have just for eggs.


How? The stainless steel pan I can throw in the dishwasher, or hand wash and put on the drying rack, or put water in to soak if I want to clean later. Easy. Cast iron you can't soak it, you can't put it on a drying rack, there are people in here talking about oiling or salting it after every use. That is not easier.


This isn't true, cast iron is notorious for uneven heating. Clad stainless steel pans distribute heat far more evenly than cast iron. Copper is the best of course, but good copper pans are out of my budget.

Where cast iron shines is retaining heat because the pan is so thick.

I have found stainless to be a pain in the ass,, one mis step and everything sticks and has to be scrubbed off even if you had a dishwasher,,

also I dont have a dishwasher so thats not an option,, they are to expensive to run and maintain,,

 

[progressive hunter]

I have never experienced uneven heating with cast iron. Actually heat retention is a function of even cooking.

a lot of times I will turn off the fire long before I am done cooking,, the heat alone finishes the cooking,,

 

[progressive hunter]

I notice a big difference when frying-up squirrels in a cast iron skillet. I much prefer a cast iron griddle too.

Hell, I carried around a old National Tin (pressed carbon steel) frying pan for years in my old provender box.

Once seasoned it was the cats ass for a quick fry-up on the tailgate of my PU if I did not feel like driving back to hunt camp.

LOL....I've wiped it out with leaves before.

thats a great skillet you got there,,

thats the type the mountain men carried into the NW,,,

 

[AveMarica]

I have found stainless to be a pain in the ass,, one mis step and everything sticks and has to be scrubbed off even if you had a dishwasher,,

For me 90% of the time the dishwasher is fine, otherwise just let it soak in water for awhile then come back later with BKF. Meanwhile there are people in here talking about scrubbing cast iron with salt after every use, then oiling it.

I have never experienced uneven heating with cast iron. Actually heat retention is a function of even cooking.

Regardless it is a fact that a clad stainless steel pan distributes heat far better than cast iron.

From SeriousEats:

The Theory: Searing steaks and frying potatoes requires high, even heat. Cast iron is great at searing steaks, so it must be great at heating evenly, right?

The Reality: Actually, cast iron is terrible at heating evenly. The thermal conductivity—the measure of a material's ability to transfer heat from one part to another—is around a third to a quarter that of a material like aluminum. What does this mean? Throw a cast iron skillet on a burner and you end up forming very clear hot spots right on top of where the flames are, while the rest of the pan remains relatively cool. The main advantage of cast iron is that it has a very high volumetric heat capacity, which means that once it's hot, it stays hot.

In thermal images of different pan materials you can see how cast iron and carbon steel are much hotter exactly where the flame is, and much cooler where it isn't:

 

[progressive hunter]

For me 90% of the time the dishwasher is fine, otherwise just let it soak in water for awhile then come back later with BKF. Meanwhile there are people in here talking about scrubbing cast iron with salt after every use, then oiling it.


Regardless it is a fact that a clad stainless steel pan distributes heat far better than cast iron.

From SeriousEats:

The Theory: Searing steaks and frying potatoes requires high, even heat. Cast iron is great at searing steaks, so it must be great at heating evenly, right?

The Reality: Actually, cast iron is terrible at heating evenly. The thermal conductivity—the measure of a material's ability to transfer heat from one part to another—is around a third to a quarter that of a material like aluminum. What does this mean? Throw a cast iron skillet on a burner and you end up forming very clear hot spots right on top of where the flames are, while the rest of the pan remains relatively cool. The main advantage of cast iron is that it has a very high volumetric heat capacity, which means that once it's hot, it stays hot.

In thermal images of different pan materials you can see how cast iron and carbon steel are much hotter exactly where the flame is, and much cooler where it isn't:


View attachment 844081

salt and oil takes about 3 minutes and its ready to go,,of course there are a lot of things you d.ont want to cook in cast iron,, but it my go to for most things,,

 

[EvilCat Breath]

Then WHY don't you still have it?

Who throws away a perfectly good fry pan?

You could not possibly imagine "what I used to have". I have moved dozens of times. Sometimes I packed. Sometimes others did. I have walked out and left some behind to everything behind. I have moved in an out of storage units. Once I unpacked to find that I acquired 5 rice cookers but the blender was gone. Who knows what happened to the fry pan, aebelskeiver pan, any the hair dryers, or indeed any of what was lost stolen or just left behind.