Ask Lemmy

Sometimes it's not about metal hot. It's about how fast or slowly metal gets hot.

A lot of pans are made of stamped sheet metal and quite thin. They get hot very fast, they cool down very fast. With something like a gas burner, you can get a ring of very hot metal where the flames are, and relatively cool metal everywhere else.

Cast iron is thicker, and has a lot more thermal mass. It heats up slower, it evens that heat out, and it hangs onto that heat.

If you were to try to bake cornmeal in a sheet steel pan, it would burn. The metal would get too hot too fast. I prefer cast iron for making rues as well, because you get much more even heat.

Sometimes you do want a lighter pan for concentrated high-heat applications. Woks are designed for cooking over a very hot, very concentrated flame so there's one very hot spot in the pan, perfect for stir frying.

If you know what you're doing, you can cook non-stick in a stainless pan, it just takes some oil. Famously, cast iron pans can be "seasoned" or coated with a thin layer of extremely smooth polymerized oil which forms a non-stick surface, like DIY teflon.

So, honestly, I would recommend having a couple of each and choose the pan for the kind of cooking you're doing.

Yes

Non stick usually implies teflon coating. Throw it out.

I have some cast iron cookware. Fun to use, the end result does feel different, heat disperses well and evenly and keeps warm for longer.

It can be used over nearly any heat source, with similar results, but I do prefer induction. More efficient and less prone no mishaps.

Non stick: alright for eggs and other relatively low temperature stuff. Make sure you only use rubber, plastic, or other soft utensils, and never clean it with a scraper or steel wool. The surface of the non stick is fine as far as I know, but if you go deeper by getting too hot or scraping with something too hard, you can expose the toxic chemicals.

Stainless: my go to. Use whatever utensils you want, and clean it however you want. The main thing to make it non stick is heat the pan up hot enough that when you splash a bit of water on it, it beads up and scatters. Then use plenty of oil. The main downside is you usually can't put them in the oven.

Cast iron: better in use than stainless, but harder to clean. Upside is you can use whatever with them, and you can swap between oven and stove. Downside is you can't clean them the same way as anything else.

Consumer reports does a non-stick pan test where they fry an egg without oil repeatedly until it starts to stick. The point is that normal use degrades non stick surfaces, so every non-stick pan, no matter how fancy, will one day be garbage.

Don't get me wrong, I use both non-stick and metal surface pans. I think they both have their place, but I think of non-stick pans as expendable.

The solution to all this mess is to buy good quality pans that meet your cooking needs and learn how to care for them, I have cast iron that belonged to my grandparents, I also have good nonstick pans,stainless pans and carbon steel they all have their uses. But if someone just wants a pan and doesn't cook alot I would go with carbon steel, it's more expensive, but you will probably only buy it once, (Vimes boots)and it does most thing well enough.

I personally cook with a mix of stainless, high carbon, and cast iron and have moved on from gas to induction, with loving my induction and steel pan combo.

I don't care for non-stick due to its short lifespan, not great a searing, and having to replace them every couple of years creating waste and chemicals.

I've found that cast iron with a properly done seasoning and just a little bit of oil, which come on almost no one is cooking without a little bit of oil, I've got a perfectly great non-stick surface that can do eggs, including omurice, and salmon without anything sticking and cleanup is fine, if I get some stuck bits, just take a plastic scraper and then just clean as normal with or without soap depending (yeah, keep it to yourself purists)

My two cents

I can’t comment on the various toxicities…but I was a high-end chef for 20 years. Stainless (proper stainless, with a high quality underside) and cast iron pans were essential for their respective purposes. Non-stick pans generally weren’t used outside of breakfast in kitchens without a flattop. Copper was a gimmick for homeowners…never saw one in a kitchen. My understanding was the copper was on the outside and the shtick was it was supposed to regulate heat better…BS AFAIK…it just made them look slick and therefore easier to sell.

Stainless are the go-to for searing and sautées…nothing is going to stick if you know what you’re doing and monitor the pan. Cast iron was for things you started on the stovetop and moved to the oven to finish…and/or for things you blacken or crust. In my experience the same effect can be achieved with a stainless pan (never buy a pan with a plastic handle that can’t go in the oven and always cook with a hot-cloth)…but some chefs swear by cast iron for niche purposes and they’re certainly easier to clean and last longer, even if they’re useless for sauteeing (square shape).

Oh…woks can compliment stainless pans for sauteeing if you have people who know what they’re doing with them…you pretty much can’t leave a wok unattended…but they get the best results for what they’re made for (stir fry, fried rice, etc).

Gas is the only choice for proper heat regulation. All the other elements are out of the question for proper cooking.

Stainless is just a piece of metal. Indestructible. No rules. Requires some skill to avoid food sticking, but it is doable. You can cook anything, anyhow and clean it however you want.

Non-stick is... well, non-stick, but there's a ton on rules. No metal, no dishwasher, no stacking, ... However they are really non-stick, no skill required.

Cast iron is like a middle ground. You cannot ruin the pan, but you can easily ruin the coating: no wine, no tomato, no lemon, no soap, no dishwasher, etc. And the non-stick effect is weaker than Teflon or ceramic, it still requires skill to use.

As a hobby cook I have never gotten into cast iron, I use 90% stainless steel and 10% non stick (mainly for pancakes) and for my wife who doesn't want to fiddle with temperatures with stainless.

Define "better".

It's heat- when preheated properly- is much more even and it holds it quite a bit better. This of course, requires preheating (and that takes a long moment.)

when properly seasoned and oiled, the pan is genuinely nonstick to the same degree as most PTFE pan out there (without all the nasty plastics flaking off, and able to be get up to a proper temperature for searing in the first place...) But of course, this means keeping your pan properly seasoned.

I'm not a fan of lodge cast iron, though, IMO its too much work to develop and maintain that level of seasoning (because of it's surface. Victoria is a better inexpensive option if you're looking to buy new.) But I also rock a lodge when camping (Because I don't want to subject my really nice, inherited stuff to campfire cooking.) but cast iron can take the abuse of cooking right on coals and other campfire torture (like being cleaned with sand.)

Of course, you have to clean up/care for that camp pan after the fact.

The point being made is that everyone has a different understanding of what is "best", cast iron does require a significant investment in maintenance and care. For me, the effort is worth it. for many it's not.

for what cast iron does well, it's amazing. And really, the biggest problem is that it's not so good for acidic things (which eats away the seasoning, but that's more like 'don't try and make a pasta sauce' rather than "don't splash in some citrus."

Never buy non-stick unless it's labeled PFAS-free. PFAS, also called "forever chemicals", are persistent organic pollutants which are a great way to fuck up the whole ecosystem

This is not religion. If you don't belong to my exact sect of christianity you are going to hell. However if you use a differet pan than me or even have a mix there is nothing wrong with it. So get and have a mix and learn what each does well / poorly.

i won't fry an egg on anything other than non-stick. I won't sear a steak in that, or my stainless (my stove takes too long to get my thick stainless to temperature - ymmv with different pans or a better stove), so cast iron it is. Most of my cooking is in cast iron because it is cheap and versital, but I use my stainless often enough that I'm keeping them.

Yes. Cast iron is best. It and high carbon steel are the only real "non stick" because thyre the only ones you can season. Dont use "nonstick" pans they are just pollutants and give you cancer. Seasoning cast iron is easy (really... Do less! Stop reaming it and scrubbing it to death... just get it really hot and wipe it). Cast iron last forever... these other things become garbage in 1-5 yrs

No. It’s more versatile than most pans, but that starts and ends with “you can put it in the oven”.

The cast iron cult is just as other weird subculture that developed from people who are online too much. They’re pans. They’re fine.