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Cast iron pans are cheap, will outlive you, and work nearly as well with enough seasoning / butter :)
by daveyjonezz 4y ago
Cast iron pans are cheap, will outlive you, and work nearly as well with enough seasoning / butter :)
- dsr_ 4y agoIf you spend the time sanding them down to glass-smoothness before seasoning them, you won't need that much fat -- although fat is tasty.
- MisterBastahrd 4y agoYup. Chefs rarely use nonstick cookware outside of baking or specifically making omelettes. For the majority of their uses, it's either stainless, cast iron, or enameled cast iron. Non-stick got its foothold when the feds went on their "fat is bad for you" kick. They took all the fat out and added sugar to products to fix the texture. Proteins stick to steel when the steel isn't sufficiently hot before food is placed on it. If you toss a bead of water into a pan and it doesn't dance along the surface in the Leidenfrost effect, your pan isn't hot enough.
- Aachen 4y ago> Chefs rarely use nonstick cookware outside of baking or specifically making omelette. Citation needed? It sounds implausible to me that a majority of professional cooks seek to make their own job harder when they've got seven other dishes to make by tending a nonnonstick pan.
- surfpel 4y agoThese pans are only not nonstick if used incorrectly. Carbon steel is often used in professional kitchens which develops a nonstick coating called “seasoning”. And if stainless is hot enough, it’s also not very prone to sticking.
- squeaky-clean 4y agoThe main reason I know of is that a nonstick coated pan will not survive long with the bulk way they wash their dishes. You'd also have to keep a separate set of non-metal spatulas and such.
- ip26 4y agoAs a college student with no idea what I was doing, I tried to stir-fry everything at maximum heat and would quickly burn food to a regular pan. After I learned to be a halfway competent cook, I discovered most cooking methods don't stick at all! Caramelizing, braising, roux, simmering, on and on- mankind learned to cook with ordinary cookware, and all the classic recipes and techniques reflect it. It's not a matter of being a great cook - you simply don't need nonstick to braise or simmer, for example. So I'd phrase the exercise of learning to cook with steel pans as simply "learning to cook".
- jbotdev 4y agoCast iron is also very heavy, and hard to clean if you get anything stuck to it. You can’t really soak or wash it with soap/water without re-seasoning it or it’ll rust. It has its upsides if you put in the work. I’ve given up and opted for mid-range non-stick (coated steel and/or copper, not anodized aluminum) or high end stainless.
- jimmaswell 4y agoI barely have to clean mine anymore. When something does get a bit stuck, I just boil a bit of water in it and it comes right out with a light swipe of some chainmail.
- surfpel 4y agoCarbon steel builds the same coating but isn’t all that heavy. > hard to clean if you get anything stuck to it Easy fix, just don’t get anything stuck to it. If you learn how to use these correctly, this becomes essentially a non issue.
- germinalphrase 4y agoI frequently soak and wash my cast iron. It retains seasoning and won’t rust so long as I dry it after. I also will typically coat them with a very thin layer of oil, but haven’t found it to be strictly necessary. That said, I have mostly transitioned to stainless.
- pier25 4y ago> if you get anything stuck to it We bought these Lodge scrappers and they remove anything stuck to it. https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/pan-scrapers?sku=SCRAPERPK https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/pan-scrapers?sku=SCRAP... Hot water and this kind of brush is all you need to clean cast iron: https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/scrub-brush?sku=SCRBRSH https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/scrub-brush?sku=SCRBRS...
- xeromal 4y agoThose scrapers are made of plastic. I wonder if that has some forever chemicals. lol
- guelo 4y agoThe burnt oil coating of a seasoned pan is also cancerous. Is it more or less cancerous than PFAS? We'll probably know in 20 years.
- nemo44x 4y agoI love cast iron for certain things but keep in mind you can’t cook acidic foods in them. They also don’t allow for much finesse.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y agoHave you checked the your cast iron pan's seasoning for potential carcinogenic chemicals? Organic chemicals when exposed to heat can turn into bad things (see nitrates, acrylamide).
- moffkalast 4y agoCast iron pans are such a pain in the ass to maintain and use that I'll rather take the cancer instead.
- dymk 4y agoCast iron pans are less effort to maintain than nonstick pans and last longer, if you know how to maintain them.
- postalrat 4y agoHave you tried maintaining nonstick pans?
- dymk 4y agoI made a comparison between the two, so hopefully you can infer that.
- DangitBobby 4y agoHere, I'll help. Having had both, the cast iron was a massive pain in the ass, and the nonstick pan takes literally no effort to not fuck it up. I don't have a cast iron anymore. I still have nonstick pans.
- callmeal 4y agoYeah - all you need is to accidentally use the wrong side of the scrubber and it's "hello scratch".
- moffkalast 4y agoYeah yeah, they'll outlast me yadda yadda yadda. There's no maintenance to do with nonstick pans. Take off shelf, use, put in dishwasher, put back on shelf, repeat. When all you use are silicone spatulas (because they are frankly the best kind of spatula) then there's also no danger of scratching them.
- throwaway09223 4y ago
- sudosysgen 4y agoThe issue is that I want to cook with far less fats, not enough for cast iron to be viable. On top of that, it's easy to get cast iron to leach with acids and in some cases the seasoning can also be toxic.