The Case for Cast Iron Cookware

After my grandparents passed away, I inherited a heavy, black, crusty and well seasoned cast iron skillet from the estate. At the time, I didn't think about it much and it eventually got shuffled to the back of the cabinet where it was never seen.

One day I was cooking and needed an extra frying pan. All of our other frying pans were in use. I reached into the cabinet and pulled out the cast iron skillet. As I was using the skillet, I remembered my grandmother using this very pan. I then realized that it had been around for a very long time. It was solid. Sat flat on the burner and cooked evenly.  I wondered how many non-stick aluminum pans we have ended up discarding over the years because they rocked on the stove and/or were no longer non-stick. Yet this pan remained, still in excellent shape. I began looking at that pan in a different light after that day.

Since that time, the old cast iron skillet has become my favorite frying pan and I have added two other cast iron pieces to the collection, as well. I use the cast iron almost exclusively now. There are five good reasons for my abandoning the non-stick skillets.

1-  Non-stick pans eventually lose their non-stickiness. Where does all that Teflon go? My guess is that we’re eating our fair share of it. Teflon is not in one of the four major food groups and I would prefer not ingesting it.

2- The longer you use a non-stick pan, the worse it gets. The opposite is true with cast iron. The longer you use it, the better it gets – as long as it’s well cared for. Even when it's not well cared for, it is possible to rehab it and make it useful again.

3- Thin, aluminum, non-stick pans warp over time. Eventually, they no longer sit flat on the burner. I hate a pan that rocks on the burner. Cast iron remains flat.

4- Aluminum pans just don’t seem to heat evenly. The part touching the burner is always way hotter than the parts that hang off the side of the burner. This problem is compounded further if the pan is warped. The cast iron skillets conduct heat better throughout the entirety of the pan.

5-  Unlike Teflon coated pans, cast iron cookware can be scraped with metal. This means you don’t have to be picky about which cooking implements you use in the pan. (note: There are some warnings on the Internet that using a metal spatula can lead to damage of the seasoning of the pan. In my experience, a metal spatula, used reasonably, will not damage the seasoning of the pan.)

OK. Cast iron cookware is not without it's drawbacks. It's heavy, it's not perfectly stick-proof making it hard to clean at times, and it can rust if not cared for properly. These drawbacks seem small compared to the drawbacks of a non-stick pan. When presented with an option, I will reach for the cast iron every time.