The difference between having the right tool for the job and the wrong tool is often the difference between getting the job done well and not getting it done at all. Even if you manage to get the wrong tool to work, the job often takes longer and produces shoddy results.
For just about any cooking situation, cast-iron cookware is the best tool for the job. You can use it on a stove-top, in an oven, over a fire, on coals, or with just about any other heat source. Properly maintained, it will last for generations. Even if it’s not been properly maintained, you can restore a cast-iron piece to working order without too much difficulty. And the best part of cast-iron is that the more you use it, the better it gets.
Some of the benefits of cast-iron include:
- Extreme durability
- High heat retention and inertia
- Even heating across surface
- Ability to withstand high temperatures
- Non-stick surface (if properly maintained)
- Increased dietary iron intake
- Completely non-toxic
- Unparalleled versatility
The non-stick properties of cast-iron are particularly remarkable. This is a selfie that I took off of the bottom of my cast-iron pan shortly after cooking with it. After rinsing off the excess food with water and seasoning it with a touch of olive oil, it’s as shiny and clean as a mirror—literally! The reflection is so good, I could use it to shave.
In my experience, cast-iron has a far better cooking surface than teflon or any other supposedly non-stick piece of cookware. When I fry up hash browns in my cast-iron pan, I can let the potatoes turn brown and crispy and still have virtually no problems lifting them off. With teflon, I get a giant mass of burnt starch all over the bottom. And I have never had any problems with eggs sticking to my pan at all.
Teflon pans are not nearly as durable as cast-iron. In just a year or two, the teflon begins to peel off and get into your food. That stuff is nasty—I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it.
In contrast, the only thing from a cast-iron pan that will get into your food is iron, which your body needs anyway. It’s safe to say that if you cook regularly with cast-iron, you will never be anemic. Also, cast-iron is durable enough that it will probably outlive you—no need to buy a new pan every few years. Investing in cast-iron is an excellent step towards self-sufficiency.
What are the disadvantages of cast-iron? Honestly, I can’t think of many, and when you dig down a little deeper, they aren’t disadvantages at all. The big ones include:
- Cast-iron is heavier and more difficult to handle.
- Proper seasoning requires large amounts of fats and oils.
- It’s inconvenient to properly maintain.
The first point is undeniable. Cast-iron is heavy, and there’s no way to get around that. This is the main reason why my mom switched away from cast-iron and gave me the old family pan (thanks Mom!). But even though it’s heavy, it’s not impossibly heavy. I would chalk it up as a minor inconvenience, not a serious drawback.
The second point is also undeniable, though whether or not it’s a drawback is open to debate. I’m not a trained nutritionist, but there’s a lot of evidence coming out nowadays that our cultural obsession with low-fat diets is actually quite unhealthy. Our ancestors ate a lot more fat and a lot less sugar than we do, and on the whole it seems that they were much, much healthier.
In my own personal experiments, I’ve found that when I eat more fats (butter, lard, olive oil, bacon grease, etc), I tend to eat less, stay full longer, have more energy, and lose weight. Just now, I cooked up two strips of bacon and made an omelette in the grease. The meal was high in fat, but it had no added sugars, and in my own personal experience, that’s the important point. Ever since I made a conscious effort to replace the added sugars in my diet with fats, my health and fitness have improved.
So yes, you will have to use large amounts of fats and oils to properly season a cast-iron pan. If you’ve been eating a low-fat diet all your life, this may make you a bit squeamish. But is it unhealthy for you? In my experience, no.
The last point is just plain stupid. Yes, it takes a little bit of effort to properly maintain a cast-iron pan. So what? It takes a lot of effort to write a book, but that’s no reason not to do it. And believe me, it’s much, much easier to maintain a cast-iron pan than it is to write a book—even a bad one.
Seasoning
The most important part of maintaining a cast-iron pan is to keep it properly seasoned. An unseasoned pan will rust when it makes contact with water, since that’s what happens when you mix iron with water and oxygen. Seasoning produces a thin layer of oil over the surface of the iron, which repels the water and keeps it from getting in (kind of like the oil on your skin).
You season a pan by heating it and applying some sort of fat or oil. The heat causes the iron to expand slightly, widening the pores. When the iron cools and contracts, the lipid strands get caught in the pores. Thus, you get a thin layer of oil attached to the surface of the pan.
I’ve read all sorts of stuff on the internet about how to season cast-iron and which kinds of oils to use. Most of these sites recommend coating the cast-iron in oil and putting it in a preheated oven for several hours. With my pan, though, I never did that—after cleaning off the rust and scrubbing it thoroughly with salt, I simply started cooking with it.
The truth is that seasoning your pan is a continuous process, not a one-time event. Every time you cook, you should wipe it down with a little bit of oil or fat, and wait until the pan is fully heated before you begin to cook your food. I usually heat the pan up a little warmer than what I’m going to need, apply the oil, then turn down the heat and wait a couple of minutes before I start cooking. Using this method, I haven’t had any problems.
When you cook, a small amount of the seasoning layer comes off and gets into your food. This is normal and healthy. A little bit of iron flakes off with it, which is also healthy. Over time, this causes the bottom of the pan to become smoother, improving the quality of the pan. So the more you cook with your cast-iron pan, the better it gets.
Washing
Some cast-iron aficionados never wash their pans, ever. They prefer to cook with dirty pans, claiming that it “adds flavor.” Personally, I think that’s gross. I don’t always wash my pan, but if I’m going to make something like bacon and eggs after cooking stir-fry, I definitely wash it first.
The most important thing to remember when washing cast iron is to avoid using soap. The problem with soap is that it removes oil, so scrubbing your pan with soap will remove the layer of seasoning that protects your pan from rust. Some people say it’s okay to use dish soap if you wipe it down with oil after you dry it, but I’d rather not risk it.
If your pan is properly seasoned, you probably won’t have to use soap anyway. I’ve only ever used warm water and a rag, and it always cleans things up nicely.
The other thing you want to be careful about when washing is temperature shock. If you add water while the pan is still hot, it will put out a lot of steam and briefly cause the water to boil. This can make it easier to clean, but it also makes the iron contract rapidly, which may cause it to crack. For that reason, never use cold water on a hot pan: always use warm or hot water.
Metal Cookware
The last big thing to remember with cast-iron is to never use plastic cookware. Plastic melts, and because iron is porous, that plastic will get into your pan and into your food. I’ve also noticed that plastic will melt on other pans, which is really kind of gross and makes it a bad idea to use plastic cookware in general. But with cast-iron in particular, there’s simply no need.
The reason we use plastic cookware nowadays is because metal cookware damages teflon. But with cast-iron, that isn’t a problem. No matter how hard you scrape your cast-iron pan with a stainless steel spatula, you will destroy the spatula long before you cause any damage to your pan.
In short, cast-iron is amazing. It requires learning some new habits and possibly making a few lifestyle adjustments, but the benefits are totally worth it. If you want to become more self-sufficient, investing in cast-iron is an excellent step to take.
