Ask Lemmy

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.

It fits the bill of cheap and reliable, but not "modern"*. The heat retention is very useful, and handling the surface of the pan itself is easy when you're using it to cook constantly.

Non-stick more often than not is going to be cheap and modern, but not reliable because high quality non stick pans are expensive (or people opt for enamel instead because of low quality PTFE/PFAS that both scrapes off easily and can't handle high heat which is dangerous, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-eBmPSqd4g)

I would argue the "upgrade" to cast iron is carbon steel, which is much more common as a wok material. You get a nice balance between affordable, reliable, and modern.

• *By modern, I just mean the underlying technology. Cast iron is pretty old and has its own flaws you have to deal with, and it lacks some of the nice features of newer materials.

gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared…

The tier list is:

• Induction (most responsive heat control)
• Gas (Slightly less responsive heat control
• Infrared (Electric, much slower)
• Electric (direct heating element, as slow as infrared but lacks the heat retention, have not seen these outside bargain basement cheapo units landlords like to put in apartments solely to screw with your ability to cook food normally)

Gas and Induction is always preferable because infrared is slow enough to be at the best annoying and at the worst less forgiving if you mess up the temperature. Induction comes with the great advantage that it doesn't require a special gas line, and you can actually buy single unit cooktops for pretty cheap, but do keep in mind that induction only works on magnetic metals (won't work with pure copper or aluminum).

Ceramic non-stick is pretty great. I've used cast-iron and it's fine, but it's kind of fussy when it comes to cleanup.

I agree with the wife. Cast iron for steaks and searing red meats, non-stick for everything else.

At the end of the day, what you should care about most is the fact that you're lucky enough to have a wife who knows how to cook. In my house, I have to handle all the cooking and dishes. But at least she does the dusting and the laundry—both of which I hate doing—so it evens out I guess.

No one with a cast iron pan would ask this question

I lack the subtlety to tell you if my cast iron pan cooks better or makes anything taste better, but I can assure you it regularly survives abuse that would ruin a Teflon pan in days.

They're all fine with some extendent. It really depends specifically what and how you're cooking. I like cast iron for steak because you can heat it up a helluva lot, even without fat, while trying that with non-stick pans can damage the coating and make some weird smells. Similarly, I prefer it for frying eggs because I like to use a metal slice to flip eggs, and worry about scarcjing my non-stick. But I have both and happily use both.

I love my cast irons, I have a carbon steel one, that is even more work to care for, but gets really hot and is great for searing. I would like a stainless one for more of a nonstick option though.

No

I like it. I got rid of all my non stick pans. They eventually get scratched and at that point they leak toxins. I have two very old pans and a hundred year old lid that I got for nothing. They were being thrown away from a camper that was being scrapped. They work well and after I finally learned the ins and outs of seasoning them they dont stick, much.

what about enamaled pans?

i don’t like the thought that i will be spending more time with my pans outside of cooking then cleaning the regular ones. and i don’t want to manage my pans intake like its a diabetic that can’t handle tomato based foods.

Induction > glass ceramic (infrared) > gas > cast iron electric > fire

Why ceramic over gas? Because gas is a bit more responsive but

1. Needs extra infrastructure
2. Safety risk
3. Not sustainable and climate warming

And btw, why is induction still more expensive than ceramic? It's not that new a tech anymore.

Cast iron flavors the dish some. A seasoned one adds the oils and other stuff used to season it as well.

You can get good sears on nonstick. We've done it for years.

Nonstick is easier to use and clean, but you'll have to buy a new one every year or two, depending on how hard you are on them. Cast iron is practically indestructible in that you can almost always bring it back to usable condition; but keeping it usable takes more care. There's also carbon steel if cast iron is too heavy for you.