Why people love cast iron pans (and why I'm on the fence) 

Hey everybody, here's a point I make in the video, but I wish I had made a little earlier on (judging by the comments): The easiest way to maintain cast iron is to cook with it all the time. Our great-grandparents didn't obsess over polymerization blah blah blah. They just cooked in the damn thing. They cooked most meals they ate (unlike a lot of us today), and most of those meals they cooked in their cast iron. Cooking in it constantly will maintain a decent seasoning, and iron pans generally only start to rust if you don't use them. So, as I said, if you're gonna use it all the time, I think cast iron is great. That's why you have people commenting here saying, "I never worry about any of this stuff and my pan works great!" That's probably because they're cooking with it all the time, which is awesome. But if you're not gonna cook with it all the time, I do think there are better options, assuming you can afford them.

Also, cast iron can make a cartoon character's head mold to the shape of the pan, producing a very comedic effect. This is probably the most important reason to own a cast iron pan.

"Graduate student, please figure this out" Yep, sounds like a university professor.

As someone who has used cast iron pans for 20 years, I can tell you most people shouldn't use them, and he's absolutely right with his conclusion. I got rid of some of my unusual cast iron pans that I had for specific purposes because I just didn't use them enough. They become a huge headache if you leave them oiled and put away for too long. Next level sticky, hard to clean, and hard to work with. Now I have 2 that I use almost daily and it's exactly right for me.

I am using my grand mother's cast iron skillet almost exclusively for all my pan frying. My dad used it all of his life, and now that he is gone, I am continuing the tradition. It's an amazing feeling to know that I am using the same skillet as two generations back. I also still use my grand mother's set of fine china, but that's a different topic. Love the video.

Another thing to remember is that cast iron is heavy. This means that if someone breaks into your house while you are cooking dinner, you can hit them with a cast iron pan and it will be far more effective then stainless steel.

"Electrolysis is really popping at this point." THAT'S a sentence you don't hear every day.

I actually find a sharp flat surface to be a great thing to use with cast iron. Even teflon isn't entirely nonstick, and when something does stick you can't easily scrape it off. With cast iron a sharp steel spatula can remove pretty much anything without damaging your pan. In fact, using a sharp flat surface smooths out the surface of your cast iron over time, giving it a much nicer finish.

I’ve been cleaning my cast iron like this for over 30 years, much to the consternation of housemates and family members. I’ve been vindicated. Thanks, Adam.

Here before all the “why I season my cast iron pan, not my steak” comments

When spreading the oil, use a coffee filter instead of a paper towel. It spreads just as well, but leaves no paper lint.

As an avid outdoorsman and eagle scout, I developed my love of cast iron cookware through decades of camping and cooking. I just love the way that meat is cooked on it more than steel pans, and its far easier to cook with in a fire too.

I keep mine on the stove 24/7 and use it 2-3x a week. The main tricks using cast iron to make it non-stick: Go a little high on the heat. Lay down some oil or butter and as it preheats. Make sure the food being cooked is at *room temperature*. Eggs, steak, burgers, etc. Can't stress this enough. The oil used in cooking your last meal just adds to the patina. My cast iron skillet is tied for first place with my air fryer for my #1 cooking vessel.

The reason I love my cast iron: it is nearly 130 YEARS OLD!! History being made every time I cook.

My mom has some cast iron that came with her family over the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon. We use it for everything.

I've been using one for 20+ years by now, сooked most of the fried food on it. At some point the "polimerization" layer got very thick, so I just put it on the gas stove, heated it well, then cleaned and seasoned. I can imagine how many teflon pans I would need for all these years))

Watching your Teflon video and then this one after made me realize pfas and Teflon coatings are just a modern version of the patina, created from fatty acids by polymerization. However this patina is not only mantained by cooking in oil but it’s components, fatty acids are not an environmental concern, in contrast to Teflon coatings. That makes the case for cast iron for me. There is also carbon steel which is similar to cast iron and can be made thinner and lighter. And I wouldn’t worry with acidic foods, because if you have a good patina then there is no way the acid will go through that and even touch the iron. My grandmother cooks all her life in cast iron, used tomatoes and wine and the pans didn’t corrode. For the same reasons I think PHAs coatings from drying oils can be a very good environmentally friendly replacement for PFAs.

i'm anemic and my doctor actually recommended cooking with acidic ingredients in cast iron to take advantage of the iron leaching.

I’m a materials science student and my master’s project is next year so I might consider this EDIT (05/08/21): So many people are asking what's happened but I don't start my next year at uni until October 2021. I am soon to be selecting my master's project but I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to do this project as I need to be supported by an academic. If I'm not able to I may consider trying to do the experiment myself at home though, I'll try to keep ppl updated EDIT (10/11/21): Sorry, I kept meaning to write an update but I kept forgetting. The bad news is that I decided not to go through with it as a project. The main reasons for this are as follows: 1) I don't know which academic I could go to/if there is an academic available to supervise the project (aside to this if I picked my own project I would likely get less support and therefore my final degree grade would be more at risk). 2) It's not very relevant to my career path I want to go down, and I would like to be able to use my project to help me get a job. I am still quite interested in this topic though and since this is getting so much attention, I have been thinking about starting a series of RU-vid videos following an investigation into this. Only problem with this is I probably won't have the time or facilities to do this sort of thing until I graduate. Sorry to disappoint everyone :/

I own a forged steel pan, which is my favorite for frying steaks. It's a lot easier to maintain than my cast iron pans.

I have had my cast iron pan for over 40 years, and it was used when I got it. I love it. When my daughter or I find an old rusty cast iron pan, we clean it by soaking it in vinegar. No harsh chemicals for us.

I inherited my cast iron pan from my grandfather's older brother when he died, and it wasn't even new when he got it. These things last forever if taken care of.

I don't season my cast iron pans, nor do I hesitate to use sharp implements. I don't avoid cooking acidic things in them or using soap to clean them. Stovetop or oven they are indestructible. They have extended my life, I believe. They are extremely old; in fact I have the 19 cast iron pans that were created by the Noldorin Elven-smiths of Eregion in the Second Age, led by their ruler Celebrimbor. Also I have the master pan that Sauron secretly forged to control all the other Pans. Cast iron my preciousss. Unless you throw them into the cauldron at Mount Doom you literally have nothing to worry about.

I didn't like my cast iron pan initially, then I Iearned how to use it. Now the cast iron pan is the most versatile, durable, and low maintenance cookware I have. I do everything from baking bread, pizzas, steaks, to frying delicate eggs. All of this in a couple of $25 skillets and $50 Dutch oven. I have basically eliminated everything else in my kitchen except a couple of pots. I have no problem with "teflon", I used to use them, but they lose effectiveness quickly. My cast iron skillets are the best non stick surface I have ever had. If that surface ever loses effectiveness, I know how to fix it quick !

We've always had at least 2 cast iron pans. They still get used on a regular basis. In our early marriage, we supplemented those with Teflon. In the last 5 years, those have been replaced with carbon steel pans. The carbon steel pans are what we most often reach for.

Don't use paper towels to season your pan. It leaves little fibers in the pan use a old shirt or something like that. That's a tip from cowboy Kent. He knows what's up with iron cookware Have a good life everybody

For anyone cooking with cast iron on a natural gas powered stove, I recommend getting copper diffuser plates to help the cast iron heat more evenly, instead of your food cooking too quickly in a ring, and not enough around the edges. Cast iron retains heat very well, but it doesn't diffuse it very well.

My oldest cast iron pan used to belong to my great-grandmother. It still works great! Also, regarding toxicity in Teflon- if you have pet birds it is deadly to them. A pet bird can die in minutes, a few rooms away, if you’re cooking with products containing PFOAs/PTFEs. I switched to cast iron and stainless steel when I got my first pet bird.

Found a rusted old pan in my grandfather’s barn. Restored it and found out it’s an Erie PA pan from 1895. Still cooks perfectly

They make a really excellent weapon hit people who season their steak, that’s why people love them. Edit: I mean instead of their cutting board.

Glad to know I follow the exact same technique to maintain my cast iron pan because this is what seemed to work after lots of trial and error. I'm from India and some food that we make just tastes much better than when cooked on thin nonstick pans. Also over time I've learnt how to maintain the surface really well and can make it as nonstick as nonstick coated pans. After cooking some foods the surface does lose it but it can be easily restored once you know how.

I cook with cast iron almost exclusively, some very old & some newer (bought in last 15 years or so). I pre-season by 24hr vinegar soak then swipe on solid Crisco, if cool weather it goes outside on bbq to not stink up my house. I even brought one pan to a MX Carribean Island & rust has not been a problem even when I'm gone months at a time. I store in my oven here. Love CI!

My cast Iron pan never leaves the stove top. My favorite thing to cook with. My grandmother's cast iron pot is decades old and still a champ.

In case anyone's interested, most of the cast iron that was shown in the video was Lodge. Adam's skillet he was holding was an old number 8 Lodge skillet which is at least around 25+ years old.

Don't have a cast iron pan myself, but I do have two carbon steel woks and they have some of the same pros and cons. I love my woks, they are basically indestructible, you can use whatever tools you want without worrying about getting teflon in your food, and if you use them a lot they basically maintain themselves. I should probably get a cast iron pan as well l'd probably like them. Edit: A personal tip for seasoning (at least for woks): Just cook with it. Heat it up first before putting oil in, as described in the video, then put in some oil, swirl it around and chuck your food in, it's not gonna stick if the wok is hot enough and the seasoning will build up over time making it even more non-stick... and then I watch another minute of the video and he literally says the same thing -.- (should really watch the video first before commenting) xD

I wash my cast iron. I’ve had people tell me my whole life that you shouldn’t do that. It’s funny, that you brought this up. I’ve never done any research for how I use my cast iron pans, but I literally use hot water and a touch of dish soap with a scrub enough to get rid of the nasty bits, then I dry and rub the pan with olive oil. My girlfriend had pans that were in rough shape and I brought them back to glory by using this practice. My cousin hiked the PCT and stopped at our house in Portland Oregon, I made steaks for us using one of those pans and he said it was the best steak he ever ate! And the pans themselves never seemed out of order. Keeping them freshly seasoned seems to be the trick and I never knew that anyone else used them the way I do. I’m a chef of 17 years and my openly cast iron experiences are personal.

I've been using cast iron to cook with almost every day for the past 6-7 years. I've never had to re-season it since the initial seasoning. Once you work your pan in it's more non-stick than teflon, easier to clean, and browns your food better than any other type of pan. You can also use it in the oven and even the camp fire, which is super convenient. And best part of all, you don't have to replace it every few years like you do with the teflon pans. I really can't imagine using anything else to cook with. One thing cast iron taught me is that new technology isn't always an improvement. Sometimes it's just about getting you to open your wallet.

I'm from South India where we use cast iron extensively at home to cook things like Dosas on. We actually season our cookware (flat, round griddles similar to a plancha) on the stove by frying bits of onion on them until they are burned black. At this stage, fine salt is added on to absorb excess oil residue and then the surface is wiped clean. This process seems to create a really good patina on on the pan and allows the thick, fermented dosa batter (rice and lentils) to slide off easily with an almost glassy surface-indicating that the seasoning is fairly even. EDIT: eggs work really well too with the prerequisite thin coating of oil wiped on before cooking!

Very informative episode. To get the cast iron skillet to not burn the food, simply heat the skillet on low heat so that it takes time to heat up. Don't start on high heat and then lower the flame. Rather, start with a low flame and let the skillet heat up gradually. Depending on the size of the skillet it may take as much as 20 minutes to reach the goal, but it's worth it.

Good objective review. I really liked the fact that the host directly acknowledged that there is not enough reliable and proven data behind all the advice one finds on the net. This is how reviews should be made!

Cast iron also cooks meat differently. When i cook a steak in my cast iron, the steak sticks to the pan for the first few seconds and then slowly releases as the fat from the steak is rendered. But because of that sticking, you get full contact between steak and pan. In Teflon pans, little pockets of juice form under the steak where it doesnt have direct contact with the pan and you get a grey spot rather than golden brown

I switched to cast iron a few years ago, and now I do everything with it. Even stuff with tomato in it, and no problem, no stick, nothing

idk much about cooking, but my mum had this lil cast iron pan and idk why but i liked using it more than the others, i always cooked fried eggs and omelettes in it :)

I switched to all cast iron and enamel. It was a great decision. My favorite one is a 15 in pizza tray that I got. I make margherita pizzas from scratch and if I let that tray preheat to 525F it only takes like 5 minutes to cook each pizza.

My household uses cast iron daily, two things to note, we've used steel spatulas and spoons all the time without Any issues, any sharp edges can mess up the seasoning, but something in good shape that isn't intended to cut or stab will be fine. Second, I used a bigger pan as a substitute pizza stone yesterday with excellent results.

I have a cast iron pan that has been passed down in my family over 100 years. We wash it and dry it on the stove and have from the time when the stove was wood.. You "season" it by USING IT. That's it. Use it to cook. Fatty or oily stuff. All the time. That's it. It's the easiest thing to care for if you use it.

Man the quality of your videos are off the charts! You rock!

Cast iron is my jam! I only have one stainless sautee pan for acidic foods and one large and one small stainless pots for boiling water (you never want to boil water in cast iron). But 90% of my cooking is done in cast iron. It makes everything extra AMAZING and YUMMY! As long as you cook on medium heat, it just sort of does all the cooking for you. A little butter in the skillet, and everything comes out crispy to perfection. Regarding maintenance, I let it cool off, and then I scrub it out with some mild dish soap and water and pat it dry. Put it back on the burner to evaporate excess (just like Adam demos in the vid) and then rub a little coconut or olive oil on it. I use lint-free towels (the blue paper towels that mechanics use or cloth bandannas). My skillets never rust, even the ones I only use infrequently.

Adam looks like John Wick's cottage core brother.

I've always used Dawn. It has never hurt my pans, which were my mother's. The only thing that did was my Aunt. She left the pans in the dishwater until they rusted through. Once or twice was easy to fix, but she did it every single time until it was falling apart. That's some serious neglect. And my sincere regret for not being there to prevent it.

I am pretty crazy about my cast iron and was amazed how much I learned with this video. Thanks and great videos in general!

I have 3 cast iron pans (one round, one griddle, and one grated), and once you've built up the seasoning, they're the best. The nonstick coating gets better over time instead of worse, unlike with Teflon, the thermal mass is unrivaled, and they last forever. The only real downside is cleaning, but even if you mess up the seasoning when cleaning it, an hour in the oven with a light coat of oil is all it takes to fix it up.

Basically, cast iron pans are the perfect zombie apocalypse weapon. Heavy and can smash heads in, you can’t bite through it, lasts years, and you can use it to cook!

Got tired of the "non-stick" scam; throwing out cookware after 6 months, 1 year, whatever, when they lose their "non-stick".

Finally a RU-vidr who makes their stance known in the first 45 seconds of video

EXCELLENT video! So well, and clearly explained with a complete lack of fluff. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

"Cast iron pans are cheaper " French brands like Staub, Le Creuset: *looks at each other uncomfortably*

Nobody: Adam: *pulls out a whole Carbon Block in the middle of his kitchen*

My grandfather passed down a pan he had got from his grandfather. It was stamped eoth the number 9, made in 1888. That thing will very likely be around cooking food in my grandkids kitchen after I'm long gone. For me, its the only thing I'll cook on while camping. Its kust so good at heat regulation that its amazing to cook on over some nice coals.

adam you’re a champ at distributing relevant usable life information ❤

In my youth I loved my cast-iron pan, but when I got a stove with a ceramic top, it seemed too greasy, so I put the pan aside and it rusted. Quite recently, my children discovered the pan and rescued it, apparently inspired by someone like your friend David. I'm now about to start using again, and I'm quite excited about it. I've also bought a carbon steel pan, and the idea is to phase out non-stick pans - not out of health concerns, but environmentally they make no sense. Having to replace a pan every couple of years is totally ludicrous.

Me, a CS graduate: I should totally do thesis about cast iron pans.

Worth mentioning that flax is a drying oil, meaning that with enough coats +time, you could season your pan at room temp. So no need to burn the shit out of it. Just a little heat to accelerate polymerization before the oil gets totally absorbed by and diffused in the cast iron.

Thanks for explaining the heat regulation of cast iron. I didn't realise until you mentioned electric hobs, while its regulating its temp, the pan stays hot. Great video thank you from Australia 🇦🇺

I restored one of my family’s cast irons because of this video, we called it the pancake pan when I was a kid because my mom always made pancakes on it (original, I know) but it looks AMAZING. Shiny, blacker than ever, I use it almost every day for veggies, meats, French toast, pancakes of course, and anything else that won’t leak. Love cast iron.

My primary cast iron pan is almost 100 years old and still cooks to perfection. It was owned by my grandmother's parents originally and was passed down. Makes the best steaks. Cook with it regularly and there is essentially no maintenance needed.

My parents have a few cast iron items that are used exclusively for camping twice a year at the end of summer. Every single dish that is cooked over the fire is cooked on cast iron with the exception of stew and pasta. When these items are not in use they sit in the garage untouched until we go camping again. We don't "season" them, we cook with them then scrape them with sharp metal spatulas. I don't think any of them have ever been washed with anything more than a damp rag.

Most informative cooking video I have seen on the web so far. Ty. Now I know what to do w all those skillets n pots I bought 15 yrs ago

Hi Adam, would you ever make a list of all the research you’d like done that hasn’t been done yet for students to possibly take inspiration from?

From what I can tell, what that article refers to as "carbon deposition" has to do with why seasoning turns black, w/c isn't just because of the polymerization of oil. Polymerized oil is primarily dark brown. It turns black because as you cook with it, tiny particles of the food burn and turn to carbon black, which mixes into the oils that get polymerized. This happens naturally to cast iron, especially since a lot of people don't wash their pans with soap, leaving a lot of those burnt food particles to season into the pan along with the oil. Presumably, the article is saying that thick applications of oil will make a smaller proportion of carbon black into each layer of seasoning. I'm not entirely sold on how much the carbon really helps with the integrity of the seasoning, but I do believe that it is what makes seasoning deep black as it accumulates. Indeed, thick applications of oil risk making the surface of the pan sticky because the oil didn't polymerize completely. It leaving it under heat will eventually harden everything, but by then the layer will probably be very uneven, counteracting the non-stick properties of the seasoning. Those are my observations. I may not have controlled every variable and published my work in a journal, but I've done this obsessively over the past few years and it's what I know, even if I may not know everything about the process definitively. That's really what we mean these days when we say lived experience.

stopped by target the other day and saw they had a sale for a 12-inch cast iron skillet for $10. Never came to a spending decision so fast. When I seasoned it further, just getting to the oil's smoke point was enough. Added three layers, 2 in the oven and one by caramelizing onions until they almost burnt. Pretty sweet pan, although some residual sugars from a different batch of onions did stick, but boiling some water on the stovetop got it clean pretty quick

We've used cast iron for years. It is my favorite and what I use 90 percent of the time. ..essentially non-stick and perfect for almost everything I cook!

As someone who regularly cooks with and restores cast iron, I would like to point out a few incorrect points. First, you can cook with acidic foods, you simply don't want to do so often and you need to renew the seasoning a bit usually after doing so. That leads into my next point, seasoning isn't nearly as complicated and difficult as people make it out to be. Yes your initial seasoning is a picky, and smelly process. However once that process is done, it usually doesn't need to be repeated. If you strip away some of the seasoning, simply heat the pan up on med-high and use a low smoke point oil like olive oil to restore it. Do not use something like olive oil for the initial seasoning as it isn't nearly as durable as Avocado or Flax seed oil. Yes Flax seed oil is technically the best oil, but it is frankly expensive and Avocado oil is so close and so much cheaper that Flax isn't worth it.That said, even if all you do is wipe a thin layer of oil on the cast iron and don't bother with the heat, just simply bake something in it next round. Generally what I recommend to people in general if they want to get a real high quality seasoning without stinking up the kitchen, just bake lots of high fat dishes. Cornbread is a great example of this. As to the specifics of what temps to create your initial seasoning. 400 degrees is more than hot enough. I've seasoned hundreds of pans and never once taken it above that. As for soap, yes the guy is correct If your seasoning is done properly you can wash with soap and water. Now you shouldn't need to do so with any regularity, but it will not hurt it unless you are scrubbing hard. That said, the plastic scrapers are terrible, chain mail scrubbers are overwhelmingly better. Now honestly most of the benefits of cast iron are trumped by any decent carbon steel skillet. They season easier, they cook at higher temps and they have enough mass that they sear as well. I just about never use my cast iron for searing or skillet type things anymore. I use them for baking and that is about it. I love my cast iron, but carbon steel is just as good or better. Comparing against stainless is comparing apples to oranges. Stainless has its place and doesn't do the same things as carbon or cast iron. I use stainless on any dish where I need to develop fond.

"You can't use hard sharp objects on them" Me who has beat my cast iron to hell and back: uh oh

I bought a cast iron pan 6 months ago. I havent used any of my teflon coated pans ever since. The point adam makes about electric burners is absolutely true. I use it at least twice a week for everything, including immersion frying.

I've been using a black steel pan for the last few months with great success, I love it. It's pretty much non-stick now, just by gently cooking with olive oil.

I'll pass on my great grandmother's advice. Use table salt and a tiny amount of water to scrub your cast iron. It's abrasive, but at the same time it also polishes. You remove a small amount of seasoning, but your final season is glass-like and almost 100% non-stick. Once you reach that point, you scrub less and maintain the perfect seasoning. I'm still using all of her old cast iron plus a host of others I've bought over the years. Nothing beats good cast iron.

Someone : you have to season the cast iron all the time Adam : My time has come

As someone who has tried quite a few cast iron brands and vintage pans...I have to say, if you are buying new, Stargazer is my favorite. The handle design is awesome. The machining the interior is a must. They make it super smooth and once seasoned, food slides off. As I look forward to going induction, cast iron is induction ready!

I found a way to clean my cast iron pans which means I rarely need to fully re-season them. Straight after I remove the food, I pour half an inch depth of boiling water into the pan, and leave it on the hob as it cools, and I eat. Then I rinse the pan with more hot water, and wipe it with a paper towel. Add a splash of oil and wipe it around with the paper towel. Back on the hob to heat to smoke point. Done. Bytheway best to use rapeseed oil, because the hot water doesn't strip it all off.

Every pan has a different use. My cast iron is good when I want good, consistent heat. Nonstick is good for eggs. Stainless steel is when I WANT stuff to stick.

Video is 100% accurate. I got a “pre-seasoned” cast iron and then seasoned it myself in the oven a couple times and it’s basically the only pan I use now. The maintenance is actually much lower than I expected: it’s easy to clean you just have to make sure not to leave it sitting in water or wet and “re-season” with that little bit of oil (I use avocado oil).

So much of my attachment to cast iron is that I inherited them. It’s good for cooking and has sentimental value as well

I use my cast iron pans once a week or so. One of my favourite kitchen tools, especially to cook steaks and other proteins. I got them for free because someone was moving and they never used them, so they were a teeny bit rusted, but a good amount of elbow grease and seasoning, and they are perfect! I generally tend to use wooden tools when cooking, but I've had no issues with metal, tbh.

Started using cast iron 10 years ago. At that time my wife was anemic since we started using cast iron it leaches iron into all of our meals and she never had that issue again! Even during pregnancy!

My 3-set of iron skillets has been passed down longer than anyone really knows. My great grandmother got it from her mother, that's all we know.

I have my great grandmother's cast iron 10in pan. The first thing she bought in 1928 when she came from Italy. It's almost 100 yrs old and the history of it is so cool.

My brother got me a cast iron grill pan (just has raised grill ridges in it), and while it may smoke the crap out of my house, my steaks are now easily as good as what I get at steakhouses. I'm definitely on team cast-iron!

Im a long time cast iron user, and have tons of experience with stainless and carbon steel pans as well. So this was very interesting! I wanted to add/support a few things you said, because like you ive done a lot of looking online, and reading various cooks takes on it, and its super duper not clear. For me, cast iron is the sweet spot compromise (in terms of cooking quality) between stainless and carbon steel. I avoid teflon because i always scratch them and have to buy a new one 2 years later. So wanted to break it down a bit. Stainless steel, like you said, is a lot easier to maintain, and more consistent overall. however, there are just some foods thats its very ill suited too, and this cannot be considered your 'one size fits all pan". Two examples of this--any kind of egg, whether its scrambled or fried, and other sticky gooey items like pancakes. For these, sticking to the pan is the deal knell of the dish, and can ruin a lot of good ingredients. Half the pancake sticks to the pan, then when you flip it, the other side wont brown because of all the stuck on gunk. And especially with fried eggs, its REALLY easy to break a yolk with a stainless steel pan. So essentially, i think they are not very good for American breakfast food. I also agree that if you got a good one, these side effects would be decreased and the pan wouldn't burn as much. But regardless of how nice, it just wont be nonstick at all. The only way to achieve nonstick is to really sear something, like a steak or burger. Then these work just great, because the meat releases once its browned. With more gooey ingredients this doesn't always work. Cast iron, if seasoned, is absolute magic for these breakfast foods like eggs and pancakes. It also works for cornbread, biscuits, sweet rolls.....basically all of the American goodstuff breakfast foods that stainless sucks at. If you maintain a patina, then its pretty non-fussy to cook with. Just heat it up, add oil, throw on stuff. You can even put bacon on cold and it wont stick. You can also transfer to the over or broiler and it wont burn on there either. The handles are usually too short, and the big ones can be a challenge to toss food with--but as long as you don't need to toss it around it works great. It can also get really hot with extended use, and ive burned myself like a million times on one of these. But thats a minor issue. For caring for it, its exactly like you said. heat it up till smoking, add some flax oil (this stuff reallllly works better than normal oil. 10x better IMO), and spread it around until thin. The only other thing id say is that once you apply oil, if you just leave it there till smoking and then turn off the stove, then it can form little droplet patterns from the oil collecting. What ive found is that the metal contracts after you apply the oil, and if you wait 1-2m you can see these droplets forming. So the way to solve this is to wipe it a second time to again wipe off the droplets that form from heating. Lastly, carbon steel is my favorite way to achieve nonstick, as i think the patina is superior to cast iron when seasoned and prepared. You can practically flip an egg without a spatula, and searing steaks in a dream. They are lightweight, you can toss ingredients, and the handle is longer and doesn't heat up and burn you. You can do everything you can with a cast iron, including putting it into the oven or broiler. Seasoning method is near identical. The thing that really busts my balls about these though is that you HAVE to heat them up before applying oil. If you apply oil before is smoking, then it won't achieve nonstick. You simply have to heat the thing up, then apply oil, wait for it to cool, and then proceed with the searing. This is almost identical to a carbon steel wok, where you have to heat it up before stir frying. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but there have been so many times when either i forget, or when someone else is cooking and doesn't know to do that and complains about my nice carbon steel pans. Also, there are some foods you want to add on cold, like duck breast or shoulder bacon, so that the fat renders better. Sometimes, if you do this on a carbon steel, it can stick a bit. With cast iron, its way less finicky because i think the patina is just much more baked into it. The carbon steel's patina is a lot more transient, if not superior at the end. I just wanted to add this to point out that there is an additional benefit to cast iron other than price and nonstick--its the ease of use factor. So long as you are willing to clean and season it often. I use mine 5-6 times a week and its a dream at this point. So you are also correct, if you don't use it often, then its benefits decrease. Love the videos, especially these more recent information laden ones. As a nerd, these are awesome.

When I started working in the machine shop at 19, I took my mother's well seasoned (caked on, dirty as hell) pans and dunked them in the caustic tank to clean. It did super clean them, looked like brand new cast iron. If i knew then what I knew now... lol

In India we usually use Ghee (Clarified Butter) as it has very high smoke point or Mustard oil. No soap as the soap and smell soaks in the pores of the cast iron. I use Earthen Pots and cast Iron both are seasoned the same way with Ghee

Excellent video and thx for waiting till the end to do your sponsor ad👍🏼

Absolutely love your channel - just found it, and now I'm binge-watching. Very minor correction to something you said: The reason cast iron pans are black isn't their carbon content. When they are first cast, they come out a dull grey, and you can see this in your video where they are making the pans and pre-seasoning them. It's the seasoning process that turns them black.

One of the best videos on cast iron. Thank you

I learned how to cook with cast iron from my grandmother, so I've never had a brand new cast iron pan. But, she taught me to wash it after every use (she didn't use detergent, but I'll use a small dot of dish soap if the pan is really greasy) and then heat it on the stove until smoking hot. Then, just like you showed, a small amount of oil or Crisco rubbed all over and then let it cool. They're heavy. But, they'll last forever if you take care of them.

A tip for any rust: white vinegar! Leave it in a vinegar bath overnight if it’s really rusty. Everything will spray off! Metal smiths use it to clean their stock before forging 👍👍

12:42 Saying "FWIW" is actually more work than saying "for what it's worth"

Thanks for explaining the heating properties. It all makes more sense now.

I've been using the same set of Lagostena stainless steel pots and pan since my university days about 23 years ago, and they are still like new. The only thing I use non-stick pans for are things that are delicate and stick, like eggs or pancakes, so they last for ever basically. I also love my porcelain coated cast iron Dutch oven and braiser for long baked stews and such. I really don't like cast iron for the general maintenance issues...perhaps I'm just lazy?😊

Quick answer: Meat sears way better