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Nice to know somebody has (maybe?, yet again?) found the secret to seasoning cast iron pans. I'm beyond trying to use cast-iron cookware now, thankfully. I thr

Nice to know somebody has (maybe?, yet again?) found the secret to seasoning cast iron pans. I'm beyond trying to use cast-iron cookware now, thankfully. I threw out most of a second complete set of cast iron cookware. I kept a Dutch oven, fantasizing that I'll someday carry it afield for camping. But I probably won't. Instead its heavy burden, like that of most cast iron cookware, will be passed to the unlucky fool who inherits it. I have no doubt that in whatever future time that occurs, there will be people posting articles like this anew on the internet, encouraging the use of one of the most cantankerous and frustrating iron-age technologies that ever existed. Once upon a time I might have, as the article suggests, paid $17 for 50 cents' worth of flaxseed oil in order to perform yet another tedious failed organometallic chemistry experiment. But instead I'll save my money for a new T-fal frying pan, which works flawlessly, perfectly, year in and year out, without seasoning and without a hitch. If Armageddon comes and there are no more T-fals, then I will cook with sticks and stones before I attempt cast iron cooking again.

dogma1138 9y ago
Stainless is a good alternative to cast iron as long as it’s thick enough. Cast iron has only one major advantage and that is due to its mass it holds a ton of heat which makes searing on it very easy. This is important as the vast majority of thin and light cookware basically goes cold when you dump food on it regardless of how hot it was. So cast iron allowed you to control the temperature well and cooking or searing food on low heat after a long pre heating period. With good mass stainless steel cookware and a good induction cooker you can easily achieve the same results as a good cast iron even better as a good induction cooker would allow you much finer control over the temperature of your cooking surface.
- SippinLean 9y ago
  Good stainless and induction cookware has a much more even distribution of heat than cast iron, as well. http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-science-of-cast-iron-cooking/index.html http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-scie...
  - dogma1138 9y ago
    Yes cast iron doesn’t really heats up that evenly it just hold a lot of heat. The problem is that a lot of cookware these days is made super super thin as a cost saving measure and to provide fast heat transfer. This means that you lose a lot of control as thin cookware overheats easily and has hot spots, especially on direct transfer electric or gas stoves. I do still own a large cast iron skillet and use it to sear large chunks of meat but I actually polished the hell out of it with a few polishing heads on a drill. For seasoning I used vegan lard/cooking fat which is made out of pretty high smoking point oils and it still holds up for 2+ years. It took like almost a day to get it done with 8 layers of seasoning, if I’ll have to completely redo it I would likely just say fuck it.

dogma1138 9y ago

Stainless is a good alternative to cast iron as long as it’s thick enough. Cast iron has only one major advantage and that is due to its mass it holds a ton of heat which makes searing on it very easy. This is important as the vast majority of thin and light cookware basically goes cold when you dump food on it regardless of how hot it was. So cast iron allowed you to control the temperature well and cooking or searing food on low heat after a long pre heating period. With good mass stainless steel cookware and a good induction cooker you can easily achieve the same results as a good cast iron even better as a good induction cooker would allow you much finer control over the temperature of your cooking surface.

SippinLean 9y ago
Good stainless and induction cookware has a much more even distribution of heat than cast iron, as well. http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-science-of-cast-iron-cooking/index.html http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/02/16/heavy-metal-the-scie...
- dogma1138 9y ago
  Yes cast iron doesn’t really heats up that evenly it just hold a lot of heat. The problem is that a lot of cookware these days is made super super thin as a cost saving measure and to provide fast heat transfer. This means that you lose a lot of control as thin cookware overheats easily and has hot spots, especially on direct transfer electric or gas stoves. I do still own a large cast iron skillet and use it to sear large chunks of meat but I actually polished the hell out of it with a few polishing heads on a drill. For seasoning I used vegan lard/cooking fat which is made out of pretty high smoking point oils and it still holds up for 2+ years. It took like almost a day to get it done with 8 layers of seasoning, if I’ll have to completely redo it I would likely just say fuck it.