Bottom line, you don't know what you are talking about and can't accept any view which does not comport with YOUR choices and needs. Typical leftard, you must think cookware is a "settled science," same for all, much like climate change and election fraud.
This is yet another comment completely devoid of useful content, bonus points for feeble attempt to make a thread about cast iron pans into something political.
Physics my ass. You are ignorant. Iron has great heat capacity. Maybe you are just a bad cook who doesn't know how to use it.
Yes, physics. The links you googled up prove what I said, which was:
"Cast iron holds heat better because it is thicker, but it is very poor at distributing heat evenly. Physics."
Look at the table in your link, aluminum has a higher specific heat than cast iron, about double. The reason a cast iron pan holds heat so well is it has more mass, not because of the material. The energy it can store is the specific heat x mass. The experiment in your second link doesn't disprove this, the cast iron in the first pan has far more mass than the 1.7mm layer of aluminum in the stainless steel All Clad pan so it holds heat longer. They also observed what I explained to you about how poorly cast iron distributes heat evenly:
"The iron pot, however, began at roughly 375 degrees in the center and around 250-275 at the edges. As the pot got hotter, that differential remained relatively constant—and it did the same as it cooled. In other words, as the pan rushed to get rid of its heat, each area of the pan cooled at the same rate. So the pan was never able to achieve an even temperature."
I'll try to explain it to you again since you seem to be having trouble wrapping your head around this and might be getting frustrated:
1. For two objects of equal mass, aluminum would store twice as much heat as cast iron
2. A cast iron pan has a lot more mass than the aluminum layer in a stainless steel pan
3. Because of the greater mass the cast iron pan will store more heat, not because cast iron itself can store more. See your own table.
If you need more convincing I offer you:
cookingissues.com
"The popular wisdom that cast iron cookware provides even heat is misleading. A cast iron skillet placed on a gas burner will develop distinct hot spots where the flame touches the pan. If you heat the center of a cast iron pan you will find that the heat travels slowly towards the pan’s edge, with a significant temperature gradient between the center and the edge. The pan will heat very unevenly, because cast iron is a relatively poor heat conductor compared to materials like aluminum and copper. An aluminum pan will heat more evenly because heat travels quickly across aluminum. Because of poor heat conduction, undersized burners are incompatible with cast iron cooking. The edges of a large cast iron pan will never get hot on a tiny burner. On properly sized burners you can minimize hot spots by heating slowly, but the best way to evenly heat cast iron is in the oven."
So you see that what I said was true, which (again) was:
"Cast iron holds heat better because it is thicker, but it is very poor at distributing heat evenly. Physics."
Soon as you change the heat of a burner or take an aluminum or steel skillet off the flame it begins cooling rapidly. One of the great advantages of cast iron is that once brought to temperature, it wants to remain at that temp and is slow to change regardless of variations in burner or food placed inside.
What you have to understand is that cast iron isn't better, it is just different. Having it offers you a choice in cooking characteristics, plus, cast iron is very cheap, it lasts forever, food generally doesn't stick, it is easy to care for, and it is great for searing and slow cooking.
Yes, as explained above the cast iron pan has more mass.
I understand 100% that cast iron is different. My point that might have been lost among your insults and bizarre attempts to link me to opinions about climate change remains consistent in this thread: stainless steel pans can do pretty much everything cast iron pans can do, so why do I need a cast iron pan?
People have pointed out corn bread which may be true but I don't cook corn bread, and some keep trying to prove that I need a cast iron pan for searing when there is ample evidence I do not. You can sear great in stainless steel, the fact that cast iron can store more heat doesn't disprove that anymore than an even bigger cast iron pan that holds even more heat proves your 10" Lodge can't sear.
A pan an sear if it can get to a temperature above Maillard reaction and maintain that temperature when the protein is added, and just about any clad stainless steel pan can do exactly that.
