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Originally Posted by glotjoe  Are cast iron pots and pans that much better than the regular stainless steel? I'm considering buying some cast iron, but don't know if it's worth the investment. And if so, anyone know where the best brands and places is to buy some? |
Well, it's not so much a question of better as better for certain things. The disadvantage of cast iron is that it weighs a ton, and if it's not enameled cast iron you have to season it instead of regular washing. The advantage is that it heats very evenly and thoroughly -- enormously better in this respect than stainless steel. So if you make a steak, for example, stainless steel loses a huge amount of heat when you put the steak in, so that you don't get a great crust without cooking it longer than you might otherwise wish; in cast iron, this is a non-issue, because it just holds on to its heat and you get a beautiful crust. I could go on, but in essence anything that requires high, steady, even heat will do wonderfully in cast iron. One disadvantage is that very acidic ingredients, like wine and tomatoes, will tend to remove some of the patina on the pan and give a slight metallic flavor that some find objectionable.
On the whole, non-enameled cast iron is less expensive than good stainless. An excellent standard brand is Lodge, which has been around for donkey's years. Supposedly the older Lodge pans were better than now, and there are collectors around who snap up old pans for a lot of money, but I can't say I've had any negative experiences with my recent-vintage Lodge pans.
Enameled cast iron can be very expensive indeed. The best-known brand is Le Creuset, which costs a small fortune but has the immense advantages that (a) you can serve your dish directly in the pan because it looks nice, and (b) you can give it to your grandchildren because it'll last forever.
If you are not familiar with seasoning a pan (which is unnecessary with enameled), there are a number of posts around here that tell you how to do it, common difficulties, and so on. But suffice it to say that after initial seasoning, which is just a process you do, the point is that you don't really wash these pans -- certainly you don't scour them. When you've finished cooking, you wipe everything out with hot water, a soft sponge or brush, and maybe a little soap. Then you put it over high heat until it's dry, turn off the heat, and add a dab of oil and sort of wipe it around with a couple paper towels or a crumpled newspaper or the like, and you leave the pan to cool off by itself. This takes very little time once you're used to it -- no more than serious scrubbing, really, and it's easy work. Over time you develop a patina on the pan by doing this, and that makes the pan more nonstick than any nonstick pan ever developed.
I would say that the principal disadvantages of cast iron for those really unfamiliar with them are (a) the weight, which is considerable; (b) the washing/wiping process, which can freak out people who are used to scrubbing everything to the bone; and (c) the appearance of a really well-seasoned pan, which can be kind of unsettling if you're used to everything being shiny all the time. My mother won't touch them because of b and c: she wants everything to shine always, and she scrubs and scours at the drop of a hat. If you're not bothered by b and c, just go to a big hardware store and heft a 10" or 12" skillet and see if the weight is OK with you, bearing in mind that you're not going to toss this pan like you might a lightweight skillet -- it's not a great thing for stir-fry: you just leave it sitting on the burner and cook in it, mostly. But obviously if it's going to kill your back pulling it out of the cabinet to cook with, that's a problem.
Once you've gotten a cast iron skillet reasonably well seasoned, you will quickly find that almost any kind of searing, sauteeing that doesn't involve tossing the pan, all that will be much easier and produce better results in the cast iron than in stainless.