4 ms·

Cast-iron is a huge pain to maintain in my experience, but ceramic pans are a good non-carcinogenic alternative.

modzu 3y ago
once cast iron is properly seasoned it maintains very well, and can last for generations! and they are dirt cheap to boot. but yes there is a little learning curve. they are heavy, so use two hands when handling. it must be seasoned (many come preseasoned) and never put it in a dishwasher for example -- but when properly seasoned the nonstick properties are so effective food just rinses off. i encourage everyone who cooks to try one!
- coffeebeqn 3y ago
  I also got a high carbon steel pan which is not as thick and heavy but has all the other properties of cast iron. I had a few “ceramic” pans but inevitably they become scratched (and useless) after a year or two in everyday use
  - stephencanon 3y ago
    If you don’t mind the rather extreme cost, the Sanjo Special Cast pans are delightful. Cast iron, but about the weight of a “normal” pan.
omnicognate 3y ago
Cast iron skillets just take a bit of getting used and are then zero maintenance and last for ever. The problems people have with them are usually due to trying to season them and doing it so badly (due to abundant online misinformation) they'd have been better off not doing it at all.
- basisword 3y ago
  How would you suggest seasoning and maintaining cast iron?
  - JadoJodo 3y ago
    I have several now in various sizes that are in a great place now, seasoning-wise. After each use, I rinse the pan with warm water and a small amount of soap. I use a Lodge scrubbing tool if there are things stuck on. I then dry it with a towel, heat up the pan with Avocado or Bacon grease until it almost starts smoking. I then use a paper towel to wipe out the pan and it stays on the stove until the next use. Of the pans I have now (bought over the past 2 years), 3 are seasoned well enough that they’re effectively non-stick.
  - miloandmilk 3y ago
    I just use mine, always with some oil. I never season it as a separate process. Eggs pancakes, fish, no problems.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - krisroadruck 3y ago
    Literally just cook with it. The main thing with everything except for teflon pans is you need to bring them up to temp before cooking, and you need to use some fat of some kind (olive oil, butter, whatever). The oil itself will provide the "non stick" until it's seasoned, and it'll also do the seasoning. You can waste a bunch of time doing seasoning as a separate step (light coating of oil, bring up to smoke point, let cool, repeat) but this is mostly just a giant waste of time. Just cook on the dang thing, and don't be afraid to toss in a chunk of butter or some oil. It won't kill ya :-)
    - JPws_Prntr_Fngr 3y ago
      > Literally just cook with it. Lmao. Hapless beginner follows your advice, decides to scramble some eggs on day 1 with his badly-factory-seasoned Lodge pan. Egg glue now encrusts his shiny new pan. What do? Wash with soap? BAD NOOB - that's bad for the seasoning. Scrape it off with steel wool? BAD NOOB - that's even worse for the seasoning. (If you do this, fellow noob, I think oil + a scrubber sponge got me out of the predicament)
dontlaugh 3y ago
You might prefer carbon steel to cast iron.
JPws_Prntr_Fngr 3y ago
I feel compelled to back you up on this one. You mention your experience with cast iron, and 20 semi-pro internet chefs jump all over you to gaslight you with "you just didn't season it properly bro" No. I polymerized it with the grapeseed oil. I tried it with sunflower oil. I polymerized until my apartment swirled with smoke. I wiped it down with nothing besides a paper towel and water. I followed youtube guides. Nothing worked, and that goddamn pan would lose slickness in the heavily-used center every other day. Plus, I'd leave it unused for a few weeks while traveling, and upon returning, it'd be covered in rust! This happened with at least 3 different pans from 2 different manufacturers. Low-maintenance my ass.
- mint2 3y ago
  Welp the method that doesn’t slowly poison our environment or kill our parrots is less convenient, guess we have no choice but to layer on the forever Chemicals.
  - BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
    Stainless steel doesn't poison the environment, easily fries sunny-side-up eggs without sticking if you let it get hot first, and can go in the dishwasher.
- bagacrap 3y ago
  I bought a $25 pre seasoned lodge cast iron and it's been very easy and low maintenance. I bought a couple carbon steel pans I had to season myself and they're a constant nightmare. You may want to try again with a different brand.
- omnicognate 3y ago
  You almost certainly left way too much oil on it. If your apartment is "swirling with smoke" you're doing it wrong. Most youtube videos and online tutorials fail to make this point clearly (or are outright wrong, debating what kind of oil to incinerate half a bottle of in their pans). You oil it (with any cooking oil) and then wipe it all off. It needs to look and feel like it hasn't been oiled. Any visible oil or stickiness will burn to black shit that isn't seasoning. There is still oil there. The invisible, microscopic residue is what you want. When you heat it (in the oven around 180C) it will generate a faint smell around the cooker, not fill your home with burning oil smoke. Do the whole thing 3-5 times. But for a skillet this is just a kick start. It is neither necessary nor sufficient. The real seasoning comes from use and is way better than anything you can do by explicit seasoning. Use it frequently. Fry in it. FREQUENTLY. And when you do use use oil, ffs. While it's newish, clean it promptly, dry it thoroughly and give it a thin wipe of oil before you put it away to prevent rust and help it season. (If you're the sort that thinks never letting a single fat molecule enter your digestive system is a virtue, don't buy cast iron. It won't work for you. It'll rust and stick. Use teflon. It's the only thing you'll ever be able make a "fried" egg on. It might give you cancer but at least you won't accidentally ingest some butter. Also, if you cook once every 6 months, don't use cast iron. It needs use. Weekly at least, if not daily.) One of our four cast skillets spent last night in the sink, full of water (see my other comment). We treat them how we please, scrubbing and washing them with detergent if needed, leaving them dirty if we want. They cook wonderfully, don't stick and will probably survive the death of the sun.
stephencanon 3y ago
If you’re cooking pancakes, you just wipe it off with some soap and rinse while it’s still warm, and don’t need to do anything else. For other cooking you sometimes need a quick pass with a nylon scraper or something, but it’s still pretty quick and easy. People mostly really get into trouble when they try to stew tomatoes or something like that (I just keep a steel pan around for really acidic stuff).
m463 3y ago
You know it is REALLY HARD to figure out if a non-stick coating is free of teflon-and-friends. Lots of things called "ceramic" might not be free of pfoa/pfte/etc (this is a pain when you have parrots, because one overheated pan, and all birds in the house - big and small - will die) As one example, I bought some hexclad pans. They had very strong wording about their use of teflon: https://hexclad.com/blogs/posts/pfoa-free https://hexclad.com/blogs/posts/pfoa-free when you try to figure out what their coating is, you are told: "We’ve used a high-grade non-toxic Japanese coating infused with diamond dust for extra toughness." (https://hexclad.com/pages/hexclad-science https://hexclad.com/pages/hexclad-science) and... well keep digging. Finally you can find this: Q: Are your pans free of PTFE? A: Our pans are PFOA free but contain some PTFE. PTFE is in over 95% of all nonstick cookware including our ceramic-based nonstick. PTFE is safe and inert. In fact, it is used in surgical matches meshes, dental implants and heart stents which are all implanted in the body. We do not use PFOA chemicals and other chemicals that gave many other nonstick pans a bad name. Why do we use some PTFE? Sadly, non-PTFE nonstick cookware does not work well for long periods of time. In fact, in our tests, the largest non-PTFE nonstick in the world only held up for 45 minutes of consecutive use. https://hexcladcommercial.com/pages/frequently-asked-questions https://hexcladcommercial.com/pages/frequently-asked-questio... What's especially ridiculous is that the "good" hexclad sets you can get at costco also put this coating on the BOTTOM of the pan, against the flame or burner! High temperature is the achilles heel for these chemicals. took them back. EDIT: also https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/you-cant-always-trust-claims-on-non-toxic-cookware-a4849321487/ https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/y...
autoexec 3y ago
Carbon steel pans aren't as much work as cast iron, but still extremely durable. They're lighter, often come pre-seasoned but are easier to season than cast iron, are naturally non-stick, heats very quickly, and cleans easy. The only downside is that you have to wash them right away, dry them thoroughly. Cooking with a lot of acidic sauces will mean you'll likely have season them again.
bradgessler 3y ago
Cast iron is easy if you only clean with warm water and chainmail, which can be purchased on Amazon for under $10. I only see people struggle with cast iron when they think it must be cleaned with soap until it’s shiny. That’s an invitation for rust and problems.

once cast iron is properly seasoned it maintains very well, and can last for generations! and they are dirt cheap to boot. but yes there is a little learning curve. they are heavy, so use two hands when handling. it must be seasoned (many come preseasoned) and never put it in a dishwasher for example -- but when properly seasoned the nonstick properties are so effective food just rinses off. i encourage everyone who cooks to try one!

coffeebeqn 3y ago
I also got a high carbon steel pan which is not as thick and heavy but has all the other properties of cast iron. I had a few “ceramic” pans but inevitably they become scratched (and useless) after a year or two in everyday use
- stephencanon 3y ago
  If you don’t mind the rather extreme cost, the Sanjo Special Cast pans are delightful. Cast iron, but about the weight of a “normal” pan.

omnicognate 3y ago

Cast iron skillets just take a bit of getting used and are then zero maintenance and last for ever. The problems people have with them are usually due to trying to season them and doing it so badly (due to abundant online misinformation) they'd have been better off not doing it at all.

basisword 3y ago
How would you suggest seasoning and maintaining cast iron?
- JadoJodo 3y ago
  I have several now in various sizes that are in a great place now, seasoning-wise. After each use, I rinse the pan with warm water and a small amount of soap. I use a Lodge scrubbing tool if there are things stuck on. I then dry it with a towel, heat up the pan with Avocado or Bacon grease until it almost starts smoking. I then use a paper towel to wipe out the pan and it stays on the stove until the next use. Of the pans I have now (bought over the past 2 years), 3 are seasoned well enough that they’re effectively non-stick.
- miloandmilk 3y ago
  I just use mine, always with some oil. I never season it as a separate process. Eggs pancakes, fish, no problems.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- krisroadruck 3y ago
  Literally just cook with it. The main thing with everything except for teflon pans is you need to bring them up to temp before cooking, and you need to use some fat of some kind (olive oil, butter, whatever). The oil itself will provide the "non stick" until it's seasoned, and it'll also do the seasoning. You can waste a bunch of time doing seasoning as a separate step (light coating of oil, bring up to smoke point, let cool, repeat) but this is mostly just a giant waste of time. Just cook on the dang thing, and don't be afraid to toss in a chunk of butter or some oil. It won't kill ya :-)
  - JPws_Prntr_Fngr 3y ago
    > Literally just cook with it. Lmao. Hapless beginner follows your advice, decides to scramble some eggs on day 1 with his badly-factory-seasoned Lodge pan. Egg glue now encrusts his shiny new pan. What do? Wash with soap? BAD NOOB - that's bad for the seasoning. Scrape it off with steel wool? BAD NOOB - that's even worse for the seasoning. (If you do this, fellow noob, I think oil + a scrubber sponge got me out of the predicament)

dontlaugh 3y ago

You might prefer carbon steel to cast iron.

JPws_Prntr_Fngr 3y ago

I feel compelled to back you up on this one. You mention your experience with cast iron, and 20 semi-pro internet chefs jump all over you to gaslight you with "you just didn't season it properly bro" No. I polymerized it with the grapeseed oil. I tried it with sunflower oil. I polymerized until my apartment swirled with smoke. I wiped it down with nothing besides a paper towel and water. I followed youtube guides. Nothing worked, and that goddamn pan would lose slickness in the heavily-used center every other day. Plus, I'd leave it unused for a few weeks while traveling, and upon returning, it'd be covered in rust! This happened with at least 3 different pans from 2 different manufacturers. Low-maintenance my ass.

mint2 3y ago
Welp the method that doesn’t slowly poison our environment or kill our parrots is less convenient, guess we have no choice but to layer on the forever Chemicals.
- BugsJustFindMe 3y ago
  Stainless steel doesn't poison the environment, easily fries sunny-side-up eggs without sticking if you let it get hot first, and can go in the dishwasher.
bagacrap 3y ago
I bought a $25 pre seasoned lodge cast iron and it's been very easy and low maintenance. I bought a couple carbon steel pans I had to season myself and they're a constant nightmare. You may want to try again with a different brand.
omnicognate 3y ago
You almost certainly left way too much oil on it. If your apartment is "swirling with smoke" you're doing it wrong. Most youtube videos and online tutorials fail to make this point clearly (or are outright wrong, debating what kind of oil to incinerate half a bottle of in their pans). You oil it (with any cooking oil) and then wipe it all off. It needs to look and feel like it hasn't been oiled. Any visible oil or stickiness will burn to black shit that isn't seasoning. There is still oil there. The invisible, microscopic residue is what you want. When you heat it (in the oven around 180C) it will generate a faint smell around the cooker, not fill your home with burning oil smoke. Do the whole thing 3-5 times. But for a skillet this is just a kick start. It is neither necessary nor sufficient. The real seasoning comes from use and is way better than anything you can do by explicit seasoning. Use it frequently. Fry in it. FREQUENTLY. And when you do use use oil, ffs. While it's newish, clean it promptly, dry it thoroughly and give it a thin wipe of oil before you put it away to prevent rust and help it season. (If you're the sort that thinks never letting a single fat molecule enter your digestive system is a virtue, don't buy cast iron. It won't work for you. It'll rust and stick. Use teflon. It's the only thing you'll ever be able make a "fried" egg on. It might give you cancer but at least you won't accidentally ingest some butter. Also, if you cook once every 6 months, don't use cast iron. It needs use. Weekly at least, if not daily.) One of our four cast skillets spent last night in the sink, full of water (see my other comment). We treat them how we please, scrubbing and washing them with detergent if needed, leaving them dirty if we want. They cook wonderfully, don't stick and will probably survive the death of the sun.

stephencanon 3y ago

If you’re cooking pancakes, you just wipe it off with some soap and rinse while it’s still warm, and don’t need to do anything else. For other cooking you sometimes need a quick pass with a nylon scraper or something, but it’s still pretty quick and easy. People mostly really get into trouble when they try to stew tomatoes or something like that (I just keep a steel pan around for really acidic stuff).

m463 3y ago

You know it is REALLY HARD to figure out if a non-stick coating is free of teflon-and-friends. Lots of things called "ceramic" might not be free of pfoa/pfte/etc (this is a pain when you have parrots, because one overheated pan, and all birds in the house - big and small - will die) As one example, I bought some hexclad pans. They had very strong wording about their use of teflon: https://hexclad.com/blogs/posts/pfoa-free https://hexclad.com/blogs/posts/pfoa-free when you try to figure out what their coating is, you are told: "We’ve used a high-grade non-toxic Japanese coating infused with diamond dust for extra toughness." (https://hexclad.com/pages/hexclad-science https://hexclad.com/pages/hexclad-science) and... well keep digging. Finally you can find this: Q: Are your pans free of PTFE? A: Our pans are PFOA free but contain some PTFE. PTFE is in over 95% of all nonstick cookware including our ceramic-based nonstick. PTFE is safe and inert. In fact, it is used in surgical matches meshes, dental implants and heart stents which are all implanted in the body. We do not use PFOA chemicals and other chemicals that gave many other nonstick pans a bad name. Why do we use some PTFE? Sadly, non-PTFE nonstick cookware does not work well for long periods of time. In fact, in our tests, the largest non-PTFE nonstick in the world only held up for 45 minutes of consecutive use. https://hexcladcommercial.com/pages/frequently-asked-questions https://hexcladcommercial.com/pages/frequently-asked-questio... What's especially ridiculous is that the "good" hexclad sets you can get at costco also put this coating on the BOTTOM of the pan, against the flame or burner! High temperature is the achilles heel for these chemicals. took them back. EDIT: also https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/you-cant-always-trust-claims-on-non-toxic-cookware-a4849321487/ https://www.consumerreports.org/toxic-chemicals-substances/y...

autoexec 3y ago

Carbon steel pans aren't as much work as cast iron, but still extremely durable. They're lighter, often come pre-seasoned but are easier to season than cast iron, are naturally non-stick, heats very quickly, and cleans easy. The only downside is that you have to wash them right away, dry them thoroughly. Cooking with a lot of acidic sauces will mean you'll likely have season them again.

bradgessler 3y ago

Cast iron is easy if you only clean with warm water and chainmail, which can be purchased on Amazon for under $10. I only see people struggle with cast iron when they think it must be cleaned with soap until it’s shiny. That’s an invitation for rust and problems.