Ask Lemmy

Non-stick chemicals have been historically poisonous, don't know about the modern stuff though.

Also, cooking with cast iron increases iron intake.

It lasts forever, you wont scrape whatever "non-stick coating" they use off. If you want a pan that will outlive your grandchildren and is permanently non-stick once it's seasoned, for most things a cast iron is perfect. If you have that, some pots of various sizes, and a wok, youre set.

I prefer induction or infrared stovetop. We dont need to burn more gas.

Induction gives you the speed and control of gas, without the exhaust gases. Induction is more efficient than infrared, because you're heating the pan directly. The cooktop only gets hot from the pan resting on it.

Get induction, it's by far the best!

The reason cast iron is useful for searing a big cut of meat is that it has a reasonably high specific heat capacity (less than aluminum, more than copper, similar to steel) combined with considerably more mass than typical cookware made of other materials. It takes longer for the meat to cool the pan, so more heat transfers into the outer surface of the meat.

Cleanup of properly seasoned cast iron should be about as easy as non-stick pans because the seasoning (polymerized cooking oil) is, in fact a non-stick surface. Contrary to popular belief, it's fine to use soap on it, but aggressive abrasives can strip the seasoning. Fortunately, that's not hard to fix.

Yes. Our house only has cast iron and stainless.

There's a small learning curve with cast iron, but the less you worry and over think it, the easier it gets. I fry eggs every other day in mine, and it's about as non-stick as anything else. Preheat the pan or griddle, that's all. Cleanup is a wipe with a paper towel or a rinse and quick scrub.

Cast iron works 95% of the time, but acid can strip the seasoning. So anything simmered an hour or more in tomato or win,e or sauted with lemon juice, get stainless. Don't put it in the dish washer. Not a lot of rules, really. My pan is 15 years old. My Mom uses ones that might be older than her.

When I travel and have to use someone else's non-stick pans, I hate the delicate little snowflake pieces of shit. Flimsy, toxic, someone else showed it a fork once so now it has damage and sticks anyway in a line across the middle, can't go on the oven, can't sear, handles all wobbly. Generally just disposable trash. Why would you love trash?

I got started when I inherited my grandmothers Le Creuset dutch oven. She purchased it in the 1950s and it's still going strong...

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Then I found they had an outlet store near me...

Non-Stick, no matter what brand, will need to be replaced every 3-5 years. So, yes, enameled cast iron is more expensive, but when you compare 1 set of cast iron to 15 to 25 sets of non-stick... yeah...

Cast iron also retains heat better than non-stick, carbon or stainless steel, aluminum or copper.

But it is HEAVY AS SHIT. You aren't hand flipping pancakes in cast iron.

Stainless steel can be plenty nonstick but you have to get it good and hot. Seasoned cast iron is a little more forgiving, but heavy. Carbon steel may be the best of both world because it's similar in weight to stainless, but takes a season, but I don't have enough experience with it yet to say for sure.

This is a HUGE "Yes, but."

Entering adulthood, I got cheap run of the mill non stick pans, they work until they dont.

Then we tried cast iron. Gotta oil it, cure it, and don't use soap to wash it. Some extra work, but it worked great.

Now, I'm rocking stainless steel. Less work than the cast iron, but you need to preheat the pan before you put anything in it. If you do this, it's just as nonstick as the others, and it's a lot lighter and easier than the iron, and I think they are less expensive than cast iron, but I haven't compared in a very long time.

Depends on what you're doing. Yes, it's better for most things where you'll need to sear.

Carbon steel frying pans good as well.

I like carbon steel, mainly for two reasons

1. Heats up insanely fast
2. Super easy to clean

Teflon and certain ceramic non-stick pans can't handle the heat needed to sear a steak. You can look up the heat range of your pans, but generally if it isn't cast iron or steel, it's going to warp or degrade the coating. That means they won't last as long.

On the other hand I've never had to toss a cast iron pan. Sometimes I've needed to scrape off seasoning and redo it, and it's rare to ruin a cast iron pan to the point it can't be redeemed. But I've just bought my first carbon steel wok because it's much lighter than cast iron

For me, cast iron are by far my most used pans. You know how flannel starts out sort of awful but gets better and better as it gets older? That's cast iron. Starts out sticky PITA but over time becomes satisfying satiny nonstick surface. I've always used them a lot so that's how my cooking style evolved.

We also have one steel pan we call the Stick pan, sometimes you want food to stick so you can deglaze. My kids use it for potsticker dumplings, and they like it also because it's lighter, cast iron is heavy. And of course a rice and pasta pot, those are steel.

I don't buy "nonstick" pans, they don't last and I'm not convinced they are safe.

Alternative to cast iron: carbon steel.

Same seasoning process, better heat conduction, lighter, cheaper.

Non-stick has to be cleaned by hand, whereas stainless steel can go in the dishwasher, so for me that's easier to cleanup.

Non-stick has Teflon on top, which shouldn't be heated above a certain temperature, and to sear steak you need to leave the pan in the stove for long without anything on it so it gets extremely hot (which would damage the Teflon coating of non-stick and release poisonous gases on your kitchen, not enough to kill you, but still can't be healthy).

So, in short, stainless steel is a good middle ground, easier to clean and maintain than non-stick and cast iron.

As for gas/electric/induction it's about efficiency, induction heats the bottom of the pan, electric heats the glass where the pan is resting, and gas heats everything. There's a video from a YouTuber that measures time for a pot of water to get to 100° in all 3 (I don't remember who, I thought it was technology connections but can't find it), and in short induction is the fastest, electric takes a while longer, and gas melted his thermometer before the water boiled (which shows you just how much heat you're putting in a place that's not the pan).

That being said there's certain stuff that is easier to do on gas stoves, possible on electric and impossible on induction. Namely anything that requires the pan to be heated at an angle. It's very niche, I would say most people wouldn't even notice or care about this limitation, but professional chefs sometimes prefer gas because it allows to be used like this.

Cast iron is fairly cheap and reliably buy it for life. Non stick pans are so delicate that you can't even use metal tools with them and their handles are usually plastic so melt if you put them in the oven, and even then they won't last more than a few years.

All of my pans are cast iron. For saucepans I have stainless steel. Never really had a problem with cleanup, what are you doing?

Cast iron is pretty good at almost everything, but isn't the best at anything.

For searing meat at high temps, I've settled on stainless steel. It's easy to clean and maintain, and the typical 3-ply or 5-ply cladding has much better heat transfer characteristics than cast iron (which is a mediocre heat conductor masked by the fact that it's so heavy and thick that it takes on a lot of thermal mass to aid in searing). You don't have to worry about metal utensils or harsh scrubbers scratching the surface. And you don't have to worry about acidic ingredients messing with the surface, either.

For things that need nonstick characteristics, like eggs, I cycle through nonstick on a short replacement cycle (once every 2 or 3 years). I might get a carbon steel one day but I'm not in a hurry.

I have Lodge cast-iron skillets, Le Creuset and Staub ceramic-coated cast-iron dutch ovens, Le Creuset stainless saucepans, and one non-stick frying pan (which I bought for my wife).

I use the skillets for pretty much everything that isn't going to be simmered in tomato. Had them for years and they are non-stick. I happily fry eggs in them with no worries whatsoever.

I bought an carbon steel pan about 5 years ago, best pan ever! Highly recommend 😊

Thin hot pan get cold fast when big meat on it.

Thick hot pan get cold slower when big meat on it.

Thick pan good for make big meat hot fast.

Thin pan good for make thin meat hot or thick meat hot slow.

Metal hot. Makes food hot. Yes.

But!!

Cold food makes hot pan cold.

Cast iron has a lot of thermal mass, so when you put a cold piece of meat on it it doesn't immediately get cold and stop cooking for a bit. Thin pans without it don't keep hot, hot so they don't sear long enough and you don't get the maillard reaction and the tasty brown crust.

Cast iron sears better for sure.

I use decent stainless steel for everything else. Non-stick scares me.

Just about everything is better than non-stick pans. Like others pointed out the non-stick chemicals will eventually flake off into your food so you're eating that stuff. And non-stick pans sort of have an expiration date, they will eventually lose all their non-stick abilities at which point you'll wonder what's the point of using it anymore.

Beyond that the other stuff is maybe more personal preference. Stainless steel is great keeping in mind you'll always have to oil it and always have to clean it well. On the other hand cast-iron is essentially always oiled and ready to go so you typically don't worry about that part of the cooking.

re: your other question I was forced to use something electric at my current home and ended up getting an induction stove after a lifetime of using gas stoves. I love the induction stove so much I'm not sure I'd want to go back to something else. It heats up so fast that I had to re-learn some of my cooking since the pan always reaches the desired temperature in a few seconds. Induction stoves are also safer, there are no open flames and no gas fumes hanging around.

Everything has it's pros and cons. There is no 'better'. A stocked kitchen will have variety of different cookware types, a professional kitchen will have more than one heat type as well. most people for whatever reason, only use one cookware type and convince themselves it's the 'best', but that isn't true at all. i've taken professional cooking classes and they use every type of cookware and tell you to but certain types for certain styles/dishes.

choose your heat source first, then your cookware. non-ferrous cookware won't work on induction stoves.

personally i have non stick, stainless steel, cast iron, and ceramic. i don't bother with carbon steel because i don't do high heat cooking that works best with it. i have a couple of basic alloy stock pots too, because they are lighter.

We were told that the teflon coating is "inert", implying it's harmless. But, now we have microplastics in every cell in our body, of which, teflon is one. I'm not sure that chemically inert equals harmless.

Cast iron is great once you learn to cook with it. Food does stick sometimes, even in a "seasoned" pan. But, it's not a big deal. Also, you can clean and polish it with power tools, if you need to. It's virtually indestructible.

Induction stoves? You WILL break the glass, and the glass is expensive to replace. If I got electric, I'd go with an old-school coiled heating element type, literally buy an old, used stove, because new appliances are crap construction quality. You can get them refurbished, and they're easy to fix if anything goes wrong--very simple machines.

If you choose gas, you NEED good ventilation, a hood that vents to the outside. At least, you need to open a window while you're burning the gas.

Cast iron is nice because it's lower conduction rate means you can get a lot more radiant heat without burning whatever's on it. (Also I guess the "seasoning" adds flavor but eh.)

All day every day I vastly prefer cooking with stainless. It's infinitely tougher than any coating can be, sheds no flavor to the food when cooking with acids, you can scrub the shit out of it, and it doesn't warp like aluminum.