Want non-stick? Put your teflon-coated, overpriced, part of a matching set skillet away. Try out cast-iron.

Why Cast Iron?

Cast iron has been around for a long time. It fell by the way side when stainless steel and then Teflon came around. Stainless steel came into fashion because it was lighter, didn’t rust, easy to clean, and pretty much just looked pretty. It had some downsides though. Heat retention is much lower in stainless and food stuck to them like a son of a gun. Teflon came around and solved the sticking problem. Teflon, or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), was developed by DuPont accidentally. It’s a slick thermoplastic that basically has a high melting point. This makes it suitable to be applied to cookware, as its stable at all but the highest temperatures. However, its not a good to use while baking as well as with any cooking utensils harder than the coating. You’ll scrape that plastic off quicker than you ever thought. And guess where it likely winds up? In you!

On the other hand, cast iron cookware has the potential to add iron into your food just from cooking. No strange polymers, chemicals, or leeching to worry about. Read more about it here, in a an article published in the Journal of Food Science

How Does Cast Iron Work?

Cast iron has better heat retention and develops it’s own nonstick surface the more you use it. Better yet, you’re encouraged not to wash it! Sound to good to be true? Let me explain.

Firstly, that heavy cast iron pan is heavy for a reason. Cast iron is a dense material with very high thermal mass. What this means for you is that although it make take a bit longer to heat up than stainless (maybe a few more minutes) it retains that heat better and stays at a steady temperature. I mentioned this in my guide to buying a gas grill, but when adding cooler food to a hot surface, the food actually cools the cooking surface considerably upon contact. The lower the cooking surface’s ability to retain that heat, the bigger the temperature drop. This is where sticking loves to occur. Think of putting an egg on a cold pan and heating up, it’s bound to become a sticky mess. Throw that same egg on a super-hot greased surface, it’s going to slide off!

You may have noticed, I mentioned grease. Grease or any good fat is a great way to help build up the “patina” on a cast iron pan. A patina is a build up carbon and flavoring, accumulated from cooking with grease and various foods. Think of a patina as a personality, it changes and grows the more its used. The key is to not wash it off! All a cast iron pan needs, once its developed a patina, is a quick wipe with a paper towel. Much like the food you just cooked, the leftover bits of food will slide right off.  (For extra stuck-on leftovers, boiling a small amount of water and wiping clean usually does the trick).

Oil, along with developing that patina, is also what preserves, protects, and maintains your cast iron. After using it and wiping it clean, a few drops of oil spread around with a paper towel will create a seal between your beautiful cast iron surface and ambient moisture. Even if you’ve wiped it dry, there is still moisture in the air in the form of humidity. There’s also always a chance of water unknowingly splashing or dripping onto the pan wherever its stored.  Iron and water create rust, but the layer of oil separate the two… meaning no rust!

Another benefit of cast iron is it’s versatility for cooking. What other pan can go from stove top, to the oven, to the grill, or to a camp fire? A cast iron skillet can go just about anywhere and accept just about any heat source. I love cooking on the grill with mine, especially when cooking up burgers. It is great way to put the extra burner space to use sauteing onions or heating up sides! I’ve even cooked eggs for breakfast on the grill using a cast iron skillet.

Does the Kind of Cast Iron Matter?

Paul Wheaton over at richsoil.com really opened up my eyes to the different types of cast iron. Please check his lengthy and well done article here.  I’m currently using my second cast iron skillet after the first one broken (from being dropped on a concrete floor). Both my skillets are from Lodge. I was a bit naive to the various brands of cast iron out there. Paul Wheaton expounds on the advantage of older, vintage brands like Griswold and Wagner. Back in its hay day, cast iron skillets were manufactured using a better (but more expensive) means of grinding or machining out the cooking surface after casting. Today, they just pour or cast molten iron in a mold and that’s it. No machining. The machining part led to a glassy, smoother surface, which required less seasoning and breaking in, so to speak. That’s not to say today’s cookware made by Lodge are bad. They just take a bit longer to break in. Skillets made by Griswold and Wager, from the early to mid 1900′s can be found on eBay. They range in price from $10 to $100 (for collector’s pieces).  I’ was planning to buy a Griswold very soon to add to the Lodge skillet I already have. However, my girlfriend’s grandmother kindly gave us 2 Griswold pans a week after I wrote this article. A 6” and an 8” to go with the 10” Lodge!

I hope this article helped you out if you were thinking about using cast iron and were wondering what the benefits are.

Here are some tips to take away:

1. Make sure the skillet or pan you buy lay’s flat and is free of chipping. Sitting unevenly will lead to uneven heat transfer and chipping can result in cracking as well harbor troublesome rust-prone zones.

2. Let the cast-iron, just like any other pan, come up to heat fully before cooking. About medium heat is usually enough heat to get it good for even stir-frying.

3. Fat while cooking is good! But not all fats are good! Butter, vegetable oil, bacon grease, and canola oil are good for cooking. Olive oil is acceptable but can sometimes impart some funky flavors into the pan (Olive oil goes rancid very quickly and will sour the pan when not in use).

4. Rinse, don’t wash. Don’t use dish soap on a cast iron pan, it will strip that lovely patina clean off. And never, under any circumstances run your cast iron through a dishwasher. Along with the soap, the oxidative agents in dish detergent will destroy your pan. Scrape off any stuck on bits and a quick wipe with a damp paper towel is usually all you’ll need.

4. Fat after cooking is good too! Cook with the fat of your choice, but stick with vegetable oil to give the pan a light coating after its clean and dry. If storing pans stacked up, a cloth between each layer helps prevent the pans from scraping against each other and soaks up any moisture that may collect between them.

5. Paul Wheaton recommends using a sharp metal spatula. The sharp steel is good for developing a smoother patina, as it scrapes and levels the surface as you use it. Not only is it harmless to use sharp steel (unlike Teflon non-stick) it’s actually beneficial! I’d recommend it too, merely because a sharp and thin steel spatula is much easier to use than the plastic utensils made for non-stick cookware. Wheaton recommends any of these by Dexter Russel: 2 1/2” mini turner or the larger  5-inch turner

Here are some before and after photos of a second Griswold #6 skillet I got from my girlfriend’s grandmother. I’ve compared this skillet, that hasnt been used in decades against the one we’ve been using constantly for the past year. Our original #6 was in worse shape than this new one, so you can see what a little seasoning and TLC can do to restore that glassy surface!

Old #6

Regularly Used #6

Slant Logo #6 - Regularly Used