4 ms·

Blog spam for cast iron cookware periodically appears here and on other forums. Following you will encounter (if you continue here) a seemingly-endless thread o

Blog spam for cast iron cookware periodically appears here and on other forums. Following you will encounter (if you continue here) a seemingly-endless thread of posts from people claiming to have "no problem" with their cast-iron cookware (e.g., "Just rustled up a dozen eggs for my family using my granny's cast-iron skillet from Custer's cooking wagon at Little Big Horn. Wipes clean with a washrag!"). Best to ignore them. This posting pattern will repeat about twice each year. Buy a cheap teflon skillet at your local store. When it becomes worn and no longer operates flawlessly then buy a new one. Never pay $17 for 17 oz. of "flaxseed oil" that becomes rancid two months later. Save hours of time cooking and cleaning! Best of all, avoid buying a cast-iron boat anchor that you will endlessly try to "season". "Try" is all you'll do, b/c nobody knows really what a "properly seasoned* cast-iron pan is (i.e., there is no science here, folks). If you own cast-iron cookware, throw it away and move into the 21st century: get teflon pans. Cast-iron cookware is a sucker's purchase suitable for only one scenario: old cowboy movies depicting cattle drives.

na85 6y ago
>Cast-iron cookware is a sucker's purchase Gotta disagree with you there. Cast iron is great for dishes that you want to sear, or that you want to finish in the oven or under a broiler. Searing on most stainless pans doesn't work nearly as well because the metal doesn't retain its heat as zealously, and if you whack your little teflon pan in the oven you'll ruin it. Sure, there's a lot of mythology around how to season the pans and how you need to baby them, etc. That's all BS. The "secret" is to cook on your pan regularly, using a little more oil/butter than you would on teflon, and don't let your pan soak in soapy water. If you scrape away the memes and the hype on blogs and on reddit from astroturfing accounts they're dependable, versatile cookware and they're not particularly expensive. What's not to like?
xKingfisher 6y ago
A lodge cast iron pan will last forever and isn't that expensive. And maintenance isn't terribly hard. Just rub down with oil after using (I use plain canola) and keep it dry. Serious eats has a lot of information on this. Modern soaps make the whole thing much easier. For some people Teflon isn't an option. Bird owners for example can't use pans with PTFE coatings, cooking with them releases a compound that is toxic to parrots.
- giardini 6y ago
  Pretty desperate move there, warning bird owners! OK, for the bird owners: buy a stainless steel skillet and use it until your bird dies. Then buy a teflon skillet.
kleinsch 6y ago
Blog spam for hammers appears here all the time. Best to ignore it. Buy a cheap screwdriver from Home Depot. If it breaks, buy another one.
permo-w 6y ago
Seems like you’re really quite desperate for people to buy pans covered in a probable carcinogen that, as you note, slowly rubs off into your food Rather like someone trying really hard to get me to fire-proof my house with asbestos
- permo-w 6y ago
  “no, don’t make your house out of bricks, make it out of wood, then fireproof it with asbestos”
vkou 6y ago
I can't disagree more strongly. I paid $40 for a cast iron pan a decade ago. I clean it with water, and scrubbing a metal spatula. I don't do any black magic to season it. I use it for cooking almost everything... And I'll never touch teflon, because of health concerns with it. The only stuff that sticks to my pan is food that I burned into it, because I had the heat too high. A sharp scrape with a metal spatula gets it off.
KozmoNau7 6y ago
The 30 minutes I spent ~15 years ago preparing my carbon steel pan for use doesn't seem like very much in the overall scheme of things, certainly less time than I would have spent getting annoyed at flaking teflon coatings and buying countless new pans. The big secret is that I simply use it regularly, clean it when it's dirty and otherwise don't worry about it. Cast iron and carbon steel are great, I'll never buy a teflon pan ever again. It's the fanatics and over-complicators who ruin it.

na85 6y ago

>Cast-iron cookware is a sucker's purchase Gotta disagree with you there. Cast iron is great for dishes that you want to sear, or that you want to finish in the oven or under a broiler. Searing on most stainless pans doesn't work nearly as well because the metal doesn't retain its heat as zealously, and if you whack your little teflon pan in the oven you'll ruin it. Sure, there's a lot of mythology around how to season the pans and how you need to baby them, etc. That's all BS. The "secret" is to cook on your pan regularly, using a little more oil/butter than you would on teflon, and don't let your pan soak in soapy water. If you scrape away the memes and the hype on blogs and on reddit from astroturfing accounts they're dependable, versatile cookware and they're not particularly expensive. What's not to like?

xKingfisher 6y ago

A lodge cast iron pan will last forever and isn't that expensive. And maintenance isn't terribly hard. Just rub down with oil after using (I use plain canola) and keep it dry. Serious eats has a lot of information on this. Modern soaps make the whole thing much easier. For some people Teflon isn't an option. Bird owners for example can't use pans with PTFE coatings, cooking with them releases a compound that is toxic to parrots.

giardini 6y ago
Pretty desperate move there, warning bird owners! OK, for the bird owners: buy a stainless steel skillet and use it until your bird dies. Then buy a teflon skillet.

kleinsch 6y ago

Blog spam for hammers appears here all the time. Best to ignore it. Buy a cheap screwdriver from Home Depot. If it breaks, buy another one.

permo-w 6y ago

Seems like you’re really quite desperate for people to buy pans covered in a probable carcinogen that, as you note, slowly rubs off into your food Rather like someone trying really hard to get me to fire-proof my house with asbestos

permo-w 6y ago
“no, don’t make your house out of bricks, make it out of wood, then fireproof it with asbestos”

vkou 6y ago

I can't disagree more strongly. I paid $40 for a cast iron pan a decade ago. I clean it with water, and scrubbing a metal spatula. I don't do any black magic to season it. I use it for cooking almost everything... And I'll never touch teflon, because of health concerns with it. The only stuff that sticks to my pan is food that I burned into it, because I had the heat too high. A sharp scrape with a metal spatula gets it off.

KozmoNau7 6y ago

The 30 minutes I spent ~15 years ago preparing my carbon steel pan for use doesn't seem like very much in the overall scheme of things, certainly less time than I would have spent getting annoyed at flaking teflon coatings and buying countless new pans. The big secret is that I simply use it regularly, clean it when it's dirty and otherwise don't worry about it. Cast iron and carbon steel are great, I'll never buy a teflon pan ever again. It's the fanatics and over-complicators who ruin it.