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…
Non-stick chemicals have been historically poisonous, don’t know about the modern stuff though.
Also, cooking with cast iron increases iron intake.
Cheap “modern” stuff? Still toxic. Though there are plenty of coatings that are less toxic and more robust. Not to say any, including a seasoned cast iron pan, are abuse-proof. Use metal utensils on anything, and you will damage any coating.
I use a metal spatula on my cast iron all the time.
There’s no [edit: manufactured, not easily replaced] coating on cast iron (unless enameled)
You seasoning is a coating
Yes there is, it is polymerized fats and oils that build up over time.
Technically the truth, but using a metal spatula will not have much impact.
Also It is technically plastic.
I’ve got a super thin metal spatula, with the perfect amount of flexibility, and I’ve been carrying it with me from place to place for decades. It is absolutely my favorite kitchen utensil. I know it didn’t cost much, but I’ve never found another one as perfect for my needs, so it is priceless to me.
I use it on everything, even when it says no metal utensils. I’m just really careful with it. I love the thinness of it, and how it slips right under the edge of anything. Trying to catch the edge of an omelette with a thick plastic spatula is infuriating.
Unwise regardless of how it can be ‘replaced’ on cast iron.
Cast iron can take a fair amount of abuse.
The method some people use to clean super stuck on bits it literally a square of chain mail. I just use salt, I don’t think the chain mail works that well.
Yeah, grandma’s been sending me those ‘good luck’ chain mails since the nineties, and I’ve still not seen any luck at all.
Stiff handled brush cleans them right quick.
The pan coating itself is inert and isn’t harmful. It is the precursor chemicals which bioaccumulate and cause issues.
Yeah, PFAS or forever chemicals like Teflon are not all equal. The bigger “fluffier” molecules can pass through the body way easier than the smaller ones.
If people are in the US they should check their drinking water first since that’s the majority of PFAS that stay in the body weirdly enough.
Teflon itself is harmless, it’s the by-products in its production (PFAS) that are dangerous. Here’s more in the topic: https://youtu.be/SC2eSujzrUY
Non-stick is teflon. Not harmful unless you burn it (at over 300°C).
Not sure why you are down voted, you are right. Teflon molecules are really long chains, your body doesn’t interact or store it, you just shit it out as it entered. The issue is the molecules used in it’s production, that are dumped in rivers and end up everywhere.
Yea, and if you burn them they break down into shorter molecules that accumulate in the liver or something.
Would be surprised how many people used scratched Teflon pans. I watched one friend of mine put the empty non-stick pan with no oil or anything on maximum heat to “pre heat the pan” before adding oil. Very sketchy.
i have a nonstick with a ceramic coating. has lasted a lot longer than teflons
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Metal hot. Make food hot.
Think a bit deeper. How quickly is that heat transferred, and at what peak temperatures? Does the metal keep any heat of its own and impart that into the food, or does it just convey the heat from the burner to the food? And how quickly does it do that?
but my wife seems to think cast-iron is necessary for certain things (searing a prime rib roast, for example.).
Look at the thermal mechanics of this.
Take the cast iron pot. You can throw that on the stove and let it get ripping hot, like the metal itself is carrying a ton of heat energy. When you put the prime rib in it, the metal dumps its heat into the meat much faster than a flame alone would. This helps you get a strong sear on the outside, without dumping in too much total quantity of heat to cook the meat on the inside more than you want.
then I gotta figure out gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared…
Heat can be transferred 3 ways- conduction (flows between two touching objects), convection (hot object heats air, air blows against cold object, air heats cold object) and radiation (hot object radiates energy through space and it warms cold object).
Electric- coils get hot, the pan touching the coils transfers heat by conduction. Downside is uneven heating- neither the pan nor the coils is perfectly flat so you get hot spots.
Infrared- coils under the glass get hot and radiate heat through the glass. This works pretty well.
Induction- coils under the glass but they don’t get hot. Instead they create a magnetic field modulated at low radio frequencies (15-150 KHz). This fluctuating magnetic field interacts with any ferrous metal close to it, creating small but powerful eddy currents inside the metal and thus heating the metal up. So the stove doesn’t create any heat at all, it’s the pan that actually gets hot. This by the way is neither conduction convection nor radiation, because heat isn’t being transferred, it’s created inside the pot.
Gas- flammable gas (usually propane or natural gas, which is mostly methane) burns creating high temperature exhaust gases that rise against the pot and thus heat the pot. Many chefs like this. Gas stoves should ideally be used with an overhead hood as gas stoves have been proven to drastically reduce indoor air quality.
Of the options- induction is usually the best these days, because it’s the most efficient, cleanest, and also in many cases has the highest output (in terms of watts of heat pumped into the pot).
When cooking, you want a stove capable of very high output. The more output you have, the faster it will boil water for example.
/thread
All technically true & correct.
I’ll add that cast iron consistently works better for longer: My ceramic or PTFE pots start great, but after a while become so terrible they’re useless in spite of silicone spatulas etc. I cook almost daily, so I found the new tech pans fully degraded within a year or less.
Cast iron, I’ve car camped and daily stove topped, no problem. I season it once every couple of years, works great.
This is true.
My partner and I are currently having a laugh because a couple years back I bought a fancy expensive set of ceramic coated pans. Best ones on offer in the store at the time. Coating applied with plasma vapor at 40,000°F or some such nonsense, hard as diamond, good for use with metal utensils, coating guaranteed for life, yada yada. Good brand too (Calphalon). I said the tech on these is amazing and the coating has insane hardness and it will last forever. Partner laughed and said I fell for marketing BS, all non stick pans degrade.
Guess what happened? The nonstick ceramic coating started rubbing off in some places. I’m quite annoyed. Partner laughs at me.
Meanwhile go on YouTube and there’s videos of people restoring cast iron skillets from the 1800s to like-new condition.
😬 damn, sorry homie. I guess if it’s lifetime warranted, resell the replacements?
Not particularly relevant, but it’ll help you see through marketing dreck no matter how it evolves: Plasma arcs can go that high in temp, but has no effect on what makes something “hard” or “soft”: interatomic bond strength. I’m certain you know this, but carbon (as in the diamond) holds hands really strongly with other carbon, more strongly than iron to iron as in a steel spatula.
In theory, an actual diamond surface (not sprayed on, but grown) would be impervious to steel implements. But in reality, making a fully uniform diamond coating is extremely difficult, and thus tear-jerkingly expensive.
Spraying chunks of diamond onto a surface as the mfgr has done really means there’s a thin sticky coating on the pan before they start, so that these hot pieces of diamond partly melt into it and are “glued”. Safe bet that later is PTFE. That means when your pan is hot on the stove, the layer softens and you wind up eating little bits of diamond with each meal. One day, food sticks, as you’ll have found a spot missing too many diamonds, it’s just the substrate with a bunch of tiny holes to make food stick even worse than a smooth plastic surface.
Pretty good post, I learnt something - thanks 🙏
Glad to help :)
Induction gives you the speed and control of gas, without the exhaust gases. Induction is more efficient than infrared, because you’re heating the pan directly. The cooktop only gets hot from the pan resting on it.
Get induction, it’s by far the best!
i also want to add that you should avoid ones with capacitive buttons. they suck, and imagine cleaning them…
Also against the capacitive buttons my cat has accidentally turned on my stove so now I need to turn on the cleaning lock whenever I am done using it
same here, i just always make sure there’s nothing metallic on the stove. it will just turn off after a while if my cats turn it on. don’t understand why the controls can’t be similar to the oven: knobs in the front panel that can be pushed in
Induction also requires specific pans, right? So a regular cast iron pot won’t work?
If it’s sticking to a magnet, it will work. Cast iron works. Induction is great, i’ll never go back to gas!
Thanks! Sorry for spreading the FUD
I have induction; anything magnetic will heat, pans sized to your elements work best. Pans with too much aluminum and not enough iron (or other ferro magnetic material) won’t work very well. Getting induction was a great excuse to dump the cheap pans I’d wanted to replace anyway. When shopping the discount racks like Home Goods, Marshalls, etc. I always grabbed some fridge magnets and tried them on the bottom of any prospective purchase; the stronger the pull, the better it will perform with induction. The only item I really missed was my moka pot (stovetop espresso, usually all aluminum casting), but I was able to find one with a stainless steel base that works great. Your pots and pans will also need a flat bottom to react to the induction elements, so woks and such built with a slope or curve to encourage flames to lick up the sides don’t work so well compared to gas. Finding a Teflon coated pan that works with induction was difficult (I don’t often use it anyway, but SO insisted we have one for their use). I’m looking into replacing the Teflon pans with nitrided carbon steel soon.
Cast Iron and induction are a match made in heaven though. The cast iron heats fast and evenly and the induction means you can be very precise about how much heat you apply and when. When you turn off the element, the only heat left in the whole system is what you’ve already put into the pan, which is a big deal in my tiny kitchen when I don’t always have room to move a pan off to the side to rest or cool. The cast iron and stainless pans I have heat fast enough that I can basically cook starting from a cold pan for most things. Heating an empty pan takes seconds. I can bring a pot of a water of a couple quarts/liters to a roaring boil in about 4 minutes, then back down to a gentle simmer in seconds.
If gas is cooking with fire, induction feels like cooking with science. As may be clear from the rant, I love my induction range.
Small note on induction.
Since power setting works by turning the element off and on quickly, having a really thin pan with little thermal mass will result in some really weird uneven heating (basically just a hot circle).
Two ignorant questions for you:
Do you see any benefits to teflon over carbon steel?
I’ve been using airbnb a bit and sometimes the tops are some form of electric (but I’m ignorant enough not to know what type of electric) and by far the most brittle part seems to be the touch buttons that many have. Do you have any pointers on shopping around for stovetops without issues with the buttons?
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Probably answered below:
All will work with induction, except for cheap aluminum nonstick pans
I thought it was more involved than that but after a quick search online I’m wrong
You do still need a fair amount of mass on the bottom for it to be efficient. Anything ferrous will work, though.
Pure copper pans will not work for the same reason as aluminum.
A very slight clarification here:
cheap to make alumin
spoiler
i
um nonstick pans. Mine doesn’t work AND it wasn’t cheap : (.
It’s also just better for the environment
It lasts forever, you wont scrape whatever “non-stick coating” they use off. If you want a pan that will outlive your grandchildren and is permanently non-stick once it’s seasoned, for most things a cast iron is perfect. If you have that, some pots of various sizes, and a wok, youre set.
I prefer induction or infrared stovetop. We dont need to burn more gas.
Imo, the main advantage to cast iron vs literally everything else is how you can abuse it as long as the one rule you follow is to clean it after use.
Teflon and other nonstick coatings are too easily damaged by things like scrubbing pads or metal utensils.
Cast iron don’t give a single fuck.
Teflon will eventually flake off even if babied. The problem is thermal stress between the aluminum and Teflon. Repeated heating and cooling will eventually cause it to fail.
I picked up a cheap cast iron frying pan a couple of years ago, having finally gotten sick of paying £50 every couple of years for a decent non-stick pan.
That cast iron pan still looks basically new. I don’t do anything particularly exciting with it, I just use it, then I wash it with whatever scouring sponge I have. Best £12 I’ve spent on something for my kitchen.
You can absolutely scrape the seasoning off a cast iron pan through aggressive use of metal utensils, but you can also re-season it by applying a little cooking oil and getting it hot for an hour or so.
You also don’t have to worry about getting Teflon flu if you overheat the pan. The worst thing that can happen is that you ruin your pan, not that you poison yourself.
Get a thick bottom stainless steel pan and don’t be afraid to use butter, it’ll take care of all your needs and doesn’t require special or gentle treatment.
I’ve tried to love cast iron and just couldn’t. Stainless is the way to go for my money. Just make sure it’s hot before you add oil/butter to it, that’s the key to not making things stick. If you do it right you don’t need much at all either. And you can scrub the shit out of it with steel wool too.
Cast iron gets jerked off over a lot but it has its merits. All of the ‘no soap’ talk is from the old days of lye based soaps and detergents. It still has the advantages of heat retention, durability, and low cost. Keep it dry and oiled when not in use and it’ll still outlive your grandkids.
Stainless steel is nigh invulnerable to just about everything, doesn’t require seasoning, and can be put away soaking wet without a concern. I’m not knocking cast iron, but cast iron is more of a hobby than it is practical everyday cookware. It’s the cooking equivalent of preferring vinyl records over other music formats that are literally just as good if not better.
For sure. Most of my cookware is stainless. I have a mix of that, cast iron, and high carbon steel.The right tool for the right job.
I would rather cook my steak on a cast iron over stainless steel any day.
Ok.
The reason cast iron is useful for searing a big cut of meat is that it has a reasonably high specific heat capacity (less than aluminum, more than copper, similar to steel) combined with considerably more mass than typical cookware made of other materials. It takes longer for the meat to cool the pan, so more heat transfers into the outer surface of the meat.
Cleanup of properly seasoned cast iron should be about as easy as non-stick pans because the seasoning (polymerized cooking oil) is, in fact a non-stick surface. Contrary to popular belief, it’s fine to use soap on it, but aggressive abrasives can strip the seasoning. Fortunately, that’s not hard to fix.
This. A cast iron pan just stores so much more heat than anything else. IDK the sciency chef-talk but if you like meat to look crusty and golden on the outside but tender on the inside then this is the way.
I basically just completely disregard any bullshit “seasoning” advice, and I’ve never had any rust or whatever. I don’t scrub it with steel wool or whatever but I don’t scrub anything with that. Sometimes I put a few cm of water in it and let that boil off any crusted on whatever.
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.
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
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
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
Stainless steel is made with chromium, not carbon.
Carbon steel makes good knives, but will definitely rust.
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.
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.
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
Yea that’s the part that keeps me from cast iron.
Not being able to wash it normally just sounds weird and nasty to me.
And two the whole having to season your pan… God damn I’ve got a million things to worry about and barely time to make food, I don’t have time to be giving a hot oil massage to my pans…
Your wife sounds smart, listen to heerrrrrr.
Also I don’t know, but since hearing about non-stick pans leaking cancer into your food (if you scrape them with a fork, etc), I just like to use a normal pan.
Yes. Our house only has cast iron and stainless.
There’s a small learning curve with cast iron, but the less you worry and over think it, the easier it gets. I fry eggs every other day in mine, and it’s about as non-stick as anything else. Preheat the pan or griddle, that’s all. Cleanup is a wipe with a paper towel or a rinse and quick scrub.
Cast iron works 95% of the time, but acid can strip the seasoning. So anything simmered an hour or more in tomato or win,e or sauted with lemon juice, get stainless. Don’t put it in the dish washer. Not a lot of rules, really. My pan is 15 years old. My Mom uses ones that might be older than her.
When I travel and have to use someone else’s non-stick pans, I hate the delicate little snowflake pieces of shit. Flimsy, toxic, someone else showed it a fork once so now it has damage and sticks anyway in a line across the middle, can’t go on the oven, can’t sear, handles all wobbly. Generally just disposable trash. Why would you love trash?
I have a non-stick, and I use it rather infrequently. I have read about the effects of damaged coating, and GOD I would throw it away immediately as soon as I see ONE flake in it. Maybe I’m just overreacting it, but I treat it like it was a delicately covered layer of asbestos.
It’s great and smooth NOW, but I’m only using it until I see a noticeably hard scratch. Until then, I get rid of the oil and juices with a paper towel immediately after cooking (and I’m already slightly worried that the dry paper could be too abrasive on the dry bits of the pan), and I leave it to cool down before I wash it to prevent it from heat stress.
I might be overthinking it. But I’m playing with the thought of getting a cast iron or carbon steel already.
Please consider how many decades it took for lead in the atmosphere from leaded gasoline to be considered bad enough that we got rid of it. PFAS and other toxic chemicals that are ubiquitous are known to be toxic in lab conditions, so just imagine how bad that shit is in the wild.
I agree don’t waste money, but might as well get the cast iron now, keep it in training mode for 2-3 months, and just wait for the cast iron to get bumped up to the big show.
Totally agreed, that’s the p(l)an.
Everyone else in the comments are saying Teflon is harmless to consume. Who do I believe?
Scientists are your best bet, I guess. I wish I could cite you studies, but I would have to search, as well. I might soon.
UPDATE: This far all I got was ‘best to be careful’ or ‘staying away never hurts’:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389425031759
These findings challenge the assumption that PTFE particles are biologically inert, highlighting hazards arising from their physical interactions, especially at the nanoscale. Given the relevance of the co-culture in vitro model of intestinal barrier to human intestinal physiology, the results underscore potential intestinal health risks from PTFE-MNPL exposure. Future studies should focus on chronic, low-dose exposures to elucidate the specific cellular pathways activated by PTFE-MNPL exposure.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28913736/
Due to toxicity concerns, PFOA has been replaced with other chemicals such as GenX, but these new alternatives are also suspected to have similar toxicity. Therefore, more extensive and systematic research efforts are required to respond the prevailing dogma about human exposure and toxic effects to PTFE, PFOA, and GenX and other alternatives.
Thanks. So it sounds like it probably has the same effect as other microplastics? Chemically inert, but can physically cause damage.
I believe the harms that are well known are the environmental impacts and that on people involved in its production. Weighing all of that together, I’ll maintain my policy that I’d never buy a non-stick, but if I happen to have one, I’m not going to toss it and create more waste than is necessary. I mainly keep mine around because other people (e.g. parents) like to use them sometimes when they visit.
We could choose to believe that same folks who previously told us that cocaine, asbestos, lead, and tobacco smoke were
healthy/perfectly safe/ not really harmful.So throw all caution out the window in the absence of evidence? What kind of logic is that?
Haha. I didn’t say we should. I’m just pointing out that it’s an option, again.
Nonstick pans are amaaaaazing the first few months. After that, they get non-non-stick in places.
because you’re buying cheap non stick stuff.
Stainless steel can be plenty nonstick but you have to get it good and hot. Seasoned cast iron is a little more forgiving, but heavy. Carbon steel may be the best of both world because it’s similar in weight to stainless, but takes a season, but I don’t have enough experience with it yet to say for sure.
I use my cast iron for non stick operations and my stainless for fond sauces and acidic dishes.
Next time with stainless try this: bring a little oil to smoke point, wipe the pan dry, back on the heat. Then add cold oil and your food. It’s pretty nonstick, but it only lasts for one use.
I bet this works nominally better, but I just heat the pan with oil. I can’t be arsed to wipe screaming hot oil out of a pan only to reintroduce new cold oil and have to contemplate whether it could possibly make a difference and either feeling like an idiot for blindly following such an absurd direction, or like an idiot for not understanding the scientific grounds for which it works.
Under certain conditions, thin layers of oil polymerize and bond to a surface. It’s the same mechanism as cast iron, but smooth stainless steel holds onto the coating more tenuously than cast iron.
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.
Non-stick is terrible for anything that needs real frying, because the non-stick coating breaks down at high temperatures (generally manufacturer recommendations are to keep the pan under 400f / 204c. I’ve had the coating start browning and changing at lower temperatures than that.
I have cast iron pans, but I can’t be bothered to maintain them so they mostly sit in the cabinet. I need to sand and re-coat mine currently, as they’ve got some rust spots, and I don’t really use them.
I swear by steel pans. They work great on any stove type (gas, electric, induction, doesn’t matter), have enough heft but are lighter than cast iron, and they can handle high heat and even be baked so long as the handle is also steel. The trick to stainless is making sure it’s hot enough for water to dance on, and nothing will stick. I tend to use a bit of oil and then a bit of butter when cooking in them and they’re practically non-stick that way anyway, just give it a rinse and wash while it’s still hot and everything comes right off.
Plus, there are some foods you actually want to stick a bit sometimes, like when you’re searing meats and later using the glaze from the pan for a sauce.
If you’re using steel and accidentally leave it and stuff is stuck to it, no need to panic, just put some water in the pan, heat it up (preferably with a lid on), and once it’s hot, everything should come off easily.
Edit - one trick to cooking with a stainless steel pan that I’ve found specifically when cooking with oil (olive oil generally) - When the oil becomes thin and moves around the pan easily you’re generally good, but if you leave it sit on medium heat until the oil makes a sort of sine wave pattern where the edges of the pan start to curve up, you’re set, nothing will stick.
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.
Their issue might be that carbon steel can be expensive. Meanwhile you have some great cast iron for reasonable prices and are much more likely to find “heirloom” pieces
While I’ve been tempted to try carbon steel, I invested in cast iron and am very happy with that. No reason to spend more money.
I’ve never tried ceramic non-stick because
- Aluminum pans don’t sear well
- I read reviews questioning the durability of the surface
So I’m at
- cast iron skillets
- 5 ply stainless steel set of pans
- a couple non-stick skillets for company or my kids who want to cook with it
- bakeware: glass, stainless, non-stick, porcelain
Next
- when I need to replace my rice maker, I’ll trade up to a stainless pot
I got started when I inherited my grandmothers Le Creuset dutch oven. She purchased it in the 1950s and it’s still going strong…
Then I found they had an outlet store near me…
Non-Stick, no matter what brand, will need to be replaced every 3-5 years. So, yes, enameled cast iron is more expensive, but when you compare 1 set of cast iron to 15 to 25 sets of non-stick… yeah…
Cast iron also retains heat better than non-stick, carbon or stainless steel, aluminum or copper.
But it is HEAVY AS SHIT. You aren’t hand flipping pancakes in cast iron.
can’t handflip pancakes with cast iron
yeah dawg I’ll be real here, that’s a skill issue. do some weights, and wrist exercises, and then you too can hand flip pancakes in a pan like this:
~(imperial measuring tape for scale)~I’ve used cast iron for about 15 years now, and flipping pancakes in this thing is downright easy these days. (yes I know my kitchen is a bit dirty, I literally just made dinner, and am posting on Lemmy as I eat)
I cheat and use an æbleskiver pan. 😜 No flipping required, you just rotate them with a skewer.
https://youtube.com/shorts/pCQCW5NS2jg
Danger is in eating too many without realizing it. LOL.
hahahahahaha that is true! I’ve got canadian maple syrup, duty free from some family in CA, and booooooy do those flapjacks taste GOOD with butter and syrup.
æbleskiver look astoundingly similar to another dish - takoyaki; as well!
~~…dangit now i’ve got a hankering for takoyaki, and the only good place is an hour away, and also closed for the night. ~~
Pull a Tampopo and break in to cook them yourself (and clean up so no one knows). >:3
100% agreed on skill issue. I have one of those same Lodge pans, and it goes airborne as I like.
If the weight is a problem, you can always try carbon steel. It’s similar to cast iron in it’s use (seasoning and all that), but it is lighter.
Yeah, that’s what I did for a wok. They make cast iron woks, but the weight defeats the entire purpose.
