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> Just let it heat up before using it No lol that's the whole point > without the carcinogens. I'll take that trade, I'm not going to spend my 30s sitting ar

> Just let it heat up before using it No lol that's the whole point > without the carcinogens. I'll take that trade, I'm not going to spend my 30s sitting around waiting for pans to heat up because there's some very small probability a pan will harm me.

drakonka 4y ago
For some reason I always thought that for most cooking you want the pan to be at the desired final temperature before throwing in the ingredients anyway to get the optimum taste and texture.
- mgraczyk 4y ago
  Thinner pans heat up faster
  - drakonka 4y ago
    I'm definitely no pan expert, but I think there are now cast iron options that heat up very quickly, so maybe one doesn't have to compromise on that. I've had a Ronneby Bruk "ultra light" cast iron pan for years and it tends to heat up within a few minutes. At this point I don't remember what a regular pan's heat-up time is though, maybe I've just gotten used to the "pain".
    - s0rce 4y ago
      Probably carbon steel made from thinner sheets, there is a limit to how thin you can practically make a cast iron pan due to the brittle nature of the material and the casting process. The resulting properties with respect to seasoning are basically the same if the surface finish is consistent.
      - drakonka 4y ago
        No, I'm pretty sure this is cast iron: "The raw material in Ultra Light Original is exactly the same as for our traditional cast iron. The difference is that with the new technique, the pans are less porous. This explains why the pans responds much quicker to changes in the stove’s power effect, and why they heat up and cool down faster than traditional cast iron cookware." https://ronnebybruk.us/blogs/cookware/ultralight-original https://ronnebybruk.us/blogs/cookware/ultralight-original It isn't near-feather-light like some pans I've picked up in the store for sure. It's just light enough to be a noticeable difference from other cast iron pans I've tried, like being much more comfortable to hold one-handed.
        s0rce 4y ago
        Interesting, I'm not sure why you would bother to do that vs. just stamping carbon steel sheet, the resulting product would seem, at least to my guess, be basically interchangeable. I wonder if there is some difference that matters here.
  - mtalantikite 4y ago
    Carbon steel pans are my current favorite, after having used primarily cast iron for a long time. They are thin, so they heat up extremely fast. They season as good or better than cast iron. They weigh a lot less, so are easy to maneuver. And they clean up as easy as cast iron. De Buyers are more expensive than your regular cast iron, but they’ll last a lifetime.
    - neal_jones 4y ago
      Been thinking about these for a good minute. Seem like the best of all worlds and no carcinogens (I think)
  - jonwest 4y ago
    Carbon steel has similar properties to cast iron with regards to non-stick but at a lower weight.
  - saxonww 4y ago
    They also cool faster and depending on material, don't transfer heat at the same rate. Cast iron pans are actually not great at heat transfer, which is why you see pans like all clad where there's aluminum or copper clad in steel. They are really good at holding heat though, so when you put something cool into them they don't immediately get cold. Most people really don't care about this though. If you're a foodie, you're probably not going to be satisfied with the $5 wal mart nonstick pan, because it's a thing you care about. For everyone else who doesn't care, they either have a completely different definition of what 'good performance' is (and buy accordingly) or they don't cook anyway.
hn_version_0023 4y ago
I cook with cast iron constantly, and I don’t recall sitting around and waiting for the pan to heat. I do other related cooking tasks while the pans heat. There’s really never a point where I’m doing nothing waiting on the pan. Mise en place helps immensely!
- mgraczyk 4y ago
  This is also exactly what I'm pointing out. You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. You have skill and a plan. I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that. In any high-dimensional space, most samples are far from the median on at least one axis. You have cooking, I have coffee, programming, and looking at birds.
  - jjfoooo4 4y ago
    But what are you cooking where there’s no other related prep? If you’re using a pan and not a microwave surely there’s a minute or two of work to do.
    - mgraczyk 4y ago
      Crack two eggs into a pan, sprinkle cheese on top, put a lid on top, wait 2 minutes. Serve with hot sauce. Cheap and delicious.
      - tekknik 4y ago
        And not nutritionally complete. No fiber, processed cheese, and what kind of eggs?
  - lolinder 4y ago
    > You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. My cast iron usage most days isn't anything fancy, it's just cooking breakfast for the family. The "other cooking related tasks" means: * Crack the eggs into the bowl * Season and beat them * Start the oatmeal water boiling * Set the table By then the cast iron is ready for the eggs. You don't have to be making a fancy meal to have other things you can be doing while the pan heats up, and it doesn't take that long even on our slow glasstop stove.
jokethrowaway 4y ago
I don't know what you're talking about. I use cast iron pan because everything I cook comes out 10 times better on a cast iron pan. You can properly sear meat on them. Things don't get cooked on the outside and stay raw on the inside. I thought I was shit at cooking before getting a cast iron pan - I just had the wrong tools. I'm definitely not a chef and I don't cook for pleasure, I just throw chicken, steaks, eggs on the pan and eat when it's safe to do so. Most chefs on youtube are using cast iron pans, you won't get the same results following instructions made for another pan. In regards to heating up, I never noticed the pan taking too long to heat up. Maintenance takes more time, but it's nothing more than rubbing oil on it and throwing it in the oven. You can also get away with not doing it for a long time (you can wait until food starts sticking to it)
- mgraczyk 4y ago
  Easy test. If I can't put the pan in the dishwasher, then it's not for me or people like me. You don't have to spend energy trying to convince us.
  - mellavora 4y ago
    I've heard that you shouldn't put teflon pans in the dishwasher. I'm curious what pan is safe for the dishwasher? Pots yes. Pans not so sure.
    - mgraczyk 4y ago
      It probably degrades them, but I wash each pan maybe once a month so it seems fine.
      - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
        You only clean your pans once a month? Won't you have rancid fat in all your meals?
        mgraczyk 4y ago
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jedberg 4y ago
If you really care about your time and have a lot of money, get an induction cooktop. It will heat your cast iron super quickly.
- ericd 4y ago
  Yeah, surprisingly quickly. I guess partly because they’re super magnetic?
lolinder 4y ago
> I'm not going to spend my 30s sitting around waiting for pans to heat up because there's some very small probability a pan will harm me. This strikes me as particularly ironic in the current context. How much time have you spent so far today arguing about pans on HN? How many times could you have heated up a cast iron skillet during that time?
- op00to 4y ago
  Is the pan smoking at any point? Carcinogens. Are you using a gas cooker? They release harmful pollutants into the air. You don’t need to go over the top to convince people to like and do as you do when it comes to pans.
jimmaswell 4y ago
If 30 seconds is too much for you then I don't know what to say. Good luck in life; you're going to need it.

drakonka 4y ago

For some reason I always thought that for most cooking you want the pan to be at the desired final temperature before throwing in the ingredients anyway to get the optimum taste and texture.

mgraczyk 4y ago
Thinner pans heat up faster
- drakonka 4y ago
  I'm definitely no pan expert, but I think there are now cast iron options that heat up very quickly, so maybe one doesn't have to compromise on that. I've had a Ronneby Bruk "ultra light" cast iron pan for years and it tends to heat up within a few minutes. At this point I don't remember what a regular pan's heat-up time is though, maybe I've just gotten used to the "pain".
  - s0rce 4y ago
    Probably carbon steel made from thinner sheets, there is a limit to how thin you can practically make a cast iron pan due to the brittle nature of the material and the casting process. The resulting properties with respect to seasoning are basically the same if the surface finish is consistent.
    - drakonka 4y ago
      No, I'm pretty sure this is cast iron: "The raw material in Ultra Light Original is exactly the same as for our traditional cast iron. The difference is that with the new technique, the pans are less porous. This explains why the pans responds much quicker to changes in the stove’s power effect, and why they heat up and cool down faster than traditional cast iron cookware." https://ronnebybruk.us/blogs/cookware/ultralight-original https://ronnebybruk.us/blogs/cookware/ultralight-original It isn't near-feather-light like some pans I've picked up in the store for sure. It's just light enough to be a noticeable difference from other cast iron pans I've tried, like being much more comfortable to hold one-handed.
      - s0rce 4y ago
        Interesting, I'm not sure why you would bother to do that vs. just stamping carbon steel sheet, the resulting product would seem, at least to my guess, be basically interchangeable. I wonder if there is some difference that matters here.
- mtalantikite 4y ago
  Carbon steel pans are my current favorite, after having used primarily cast iron for a long time. They are thin, so they heat up extremely fast. They season as good or better than cast iron. They weigh a lot less, so are easy to maneuver. And they clean up as easy as cast iron. De Buyers are more expensive than your regular cast iron, but they’ll last a lifetime.
  - neal_jones 4y ago
    Been thinking about these for a good minute. Seem like the best of all worlds and no carcinogens (I think)
- jonwest 4y ago
  Carbon steel has similar properties to cast iron with regards to non-stick but at a lower weight.
- saxonww 4y ago
  They also cool faster and depending on material, don't transfer heat at the same rate. Cast iron pans are actually not great at heat transfer, which is why you see pans like all clad where there's aluminum or copper clad in steel. They are really good at holding heat though, so when you put something cool into them they don't immediately get cold. Most people really don't care about this though. If you're a foodie, you're probably not going to be satisfied with the $5 wal mart nonstick pan, because it's a thing you care about. For everyone else who doesn't care, they either have a completely different definition of what 'good performance' is (and buy accordingly) or they don't cook anyway.

hn_version_0023 4y ago

I cook with cast iron constantly, and I don’t recall sitting around and waiting for the pan to heat. I do other related cooking tasks while the pans heat. There’s really never a point where I’m doing nothing waiting on the pan. Mise en place helps immensely!

mgraczyk 4y ago
This is also exactly what I'm pointing out. You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. You have skill and a plan. I just want to eat and I want to get that out of the way as quickly as possible. For a nice meal, I'll go to a restaurant. I'm not interested in learning how to prepare my own food better, and all of these comments and the OP seems to forget that. In any high-dimensional space, most samples are far from the median on at least one axis. You have cooking, I have coffee, programming, and looking at birds.
- jjfoooo4 4y ago
  But what are you cooking where there’s no other related prep? If you’re using a pan and not a microwave surely there’s a minute or two of work to do.
  - mgraczyk 4y ago
    Crack two eggs into a pan, sprinkle cheese on top, put a lid on top, wait 2 minutes. Serve with hot sauce. Cheap and delicious.
    - tekknik 4y ago
      And not nutritionally complete. No fiber, processed cheese, and what kind of eggs?
- lolinder 4y ago
  > You enjoy cooking, you have other "cooking related tasks", you gather your ingredients before cooking. My cast iron usage most days isn't anything fancy, it's just cooking breakfast for the family. The "other cooking related tasks" means: * Crack the eggs into the bowl * Season and beat them * Start the oatmeal water boiling * Set the table By then the cast iron is ready for the eggs. You don't have to be making a fancy meal to have other things you can be doing while the pan heats up, and it doesn't take that long even on our slow glasstop stove.

jokethrowaway 4y ago

I don't know what you're talking about. I use cast iron pan because everything I cook comes out 10 times better on a cast iron pan. You can properly sear meat on them. Things don't get cooked on the outside and stay raw on the inside. I thought I was shit at cooking before getting a cast iron pan - I just had the wrong tools. I'm definitely not a chef and I don't cook for pleasure, I just throw chicken, steaks, eggs on the pan and eat when it's safe to do so. Most chefs on youtube are using cast iron pans, you won't get the same results following instructions made for another pan. In regards to heating up, I never noticed the pan taking too long to heat up. Maintenance takes more time, but it's nothing more than rubbing oil on it and throwing it in the oven. You can also get away with not doing it for a long time (you can wait until food starts sticking to it)

mgraczyk 4y ago
Easy test. If I can't put the pan in the dishwasher, then it's not for me or people like me. You don't have to spend energy trying to convince us.
- mellavora 4y ago
  I've heard that you shouldn't put teflon pans in the dishwasher. I'm curious what pan is safe for the dishwasher? Pots yes. Pans not so sure.
  - mgraczyk 4y ago
    It probably degrades them, but I wash each pan maybe once a month so it seems fine.
    - pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      You only clean your pans once a month? Won't you have rancid fat in all your meals?
      - mgraczyk 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jedberg 4y ago

If you really care about your time and have a lot of money, get an induction cooktop. It will heat your cast iron super quickly.

ericd 4y ago
Yeah, surprisingly quickly. I guess partly because they’re super magnetic?

lolinder 4y ago

> I'm not going to spend my 30s sitting around waiting for pans to heat up because there's some very small probability a pan will harm me. This strikes me as particularly ironic in the current context. How much time have you spent so far today arguing about pans on HN? How many times could you have heated up a cast iron skillet during that time?

op00to 4y ago
Is the pan smoking at any point? Carcinogens. Are you using a gas cooker? They release harmful pollutants into the air. You don’t need to go over the top to convince people to like and do as you do when it comes to pans.

jimmaswell 4y ago

If 30 seconds is too much for you then I don't know what to say. Good luck in life; you're going to need it.