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Carbon steel also contains chromium and nickel, and presumably also leeches those into food as you cook like stainless steel. Cast iron is 100% iron. FWIW, I
by dcchambers 5y ago
Carbon steel also contains chromium and nickel, and presumably also leeches those into food as you cook like stainless steel.
Cast iron is 100% iron.
FWIW, I use all three types of pans happily in my kitchen and won't judge anyone for using any of the three, but this question is kind of hilarious given the linked study about steel cookware.
- sigstoat 5y ago> Cast iron is 100% iron. plenty of cast irons have all sorts of things mixed in them. i don't think anyone particularly cares to use pure iron, because additives make the process easier. if your pan manufacturer will even tell you which kind they used, you can check matweb for the composition. some of them include chromium, nickel, molybdenum, etc.
- smokefoot 5y agoDoesn’t chrome and moly make it stainless?
- kragen 5y agoI think it depends on the amount, though I'm no expert.
- metal_am 5y agoIt’s the chromium. Cookware usually has nickel too. When a pan is advertised as 18-8, they mean roughly 18%Cr-8%Ni. Basically the same as 304 stainless steel. You have molybdenum additions in something like 316 stainless steel.
- dcchambers 5y agoYes that's true, but compared to stainless and carbon steel it may only contain trace amounts of the metals that are the focus of this study.
- lazide 5y agoEverything in the study is trace amounts!
- dcchambers 5y agoI don't think they're really comparable though. For example: Stainless steel contains 10.5%+ chromium. Carbon steel contains up to 10.5%. Steel (with a non-trace amount of chromium in it) ends up leeching trace amounts of chromium into food. Some cast iron probably has trace amounts of chromium in it, but far less than the 10%+ in steel. This may also leech chromium into food, but most likely at an even further insignificant amount. It's not part of the study and I am not a chemist, so I don't want to make a conjecture.
- hvidgaard 5y agoChemistry is complex enough that layman cannot make any assumptions. For all we know stainless steel and carbon steel have higher content than the cast iron, but leach less because it's far more stable.
- mypalmike 5y agoCast iron is not 100% iron. It contains carbon and silicon and usually other alloying agents and impurities.
- dcchambers 5y agoWell true, but compared to stainless and carbon steel it contains trace amounts of the metals that are the focus of this study.
- mypalmike 5y agoCan anyone just admit they were wrong? Ffs.
- paxunix 5y agolol You're on a website catering to people who dislike having others prove them wrong and will stretch "technically correct" as far as possible, in the face of all else. If computers didn't exist, they'd be lawyers. If lawyers didn't exist, they'd be clergy.
- carabiner 5y agoI think you just won HN.
- quantified 5y agoLots do. Not all. Intellectually honest and educatable people hang out here too. But you’re understood. I don’t expect anything to be perfect. Maybe just some metamorphic rocks that have been heated by coals that I can roast my food in.