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by moffkalast 1406 days ago
Cast iron pans are such a pain in the ass to maintain and use that I'll rather take the cancer instead.
3 comments

I’m curious, what’s so hard about it? I find they’re much easier because you never have to worry about using stronger tools - soap & a Brillo pad will take care of almost anything in seconds and you can use a metal scraper for the worst whereas I had to throw out our last “non-stick” pot because some fruit adhered hard enough to take the coating off. The main thing I keep in mind is that Teflon is only really better for maybe the first year - it’s so fragile that you’ll spend most of your time with inferior results and bonus health worries.

There is a cult around seasoning cast iron but those people are lunatics. It’s like adding an audiophile for buying advice and then saying a home setup isn’t a good idea because the moonrock needle costs too much. Clean it, cook a pound of bacon every few months, that’s it.

I do nothing at all for mine. I cook eggs, pancake and sausage in it every morning. After, I run it under some water and scrape it with a spatula, then toss it on the burner for a few seconds to dry.

It's significantly easier than dealing with nonstick, which has to be carefully kept from touching anything metal on the inner surface.

It's easier to flip things like eggs on cast iron because I can use a thin metal spatula instead of a much thicker, nonstick-safe plastic one.

If I manage to get something crusty on it I can use the green scrubber pads or even steel wool, which can't ever be used on nonstick.

If you think cast iron is harder you're really doing it wrong.

> After, I run it under some water and scrape it with a spatula, then toss it on the burner for a few seconds to dry.

I still can't get over how you guys think this is in any way sanitary. Not to mention that if any soap touches it you have to re-do the oil burning thing to remake the nonstick layer thing which isn't exactly practical, not to mention the seasoning thing. They're also rather heavy in comparison, not sure what kind of shape you're in that you manage to flip pancakes in one hah.

It's definitely harder than chucking the thing into the dishwasher for it to be washed with zero effort and maintenance. Scratches are also an impossibility with silicone spatulas.

"I still can't get over how you guys think this is in any way sanitary."

Why would you think it's not sanitary?

"Not to mention that if any soap touches it you have to re-do the oil burning thing to remake the nonstick layer thing"

No you don't. This simply isn't true. I use soap from time to time. It's fine.

"not sure what kind of shape you're in that you manage to flip pancakes in one hah."

I'm in pretty great shape, but I use a spatula to flip my pancakes.

I do toss my carbon steel pans. They're quite light.

"It's definitely harder than chucking the thing into the dishwasher for it to be washed with zero effort"

It's not, but you should know that dishwashers break down the teflon bonds and will degrade your nonstick pans. Nonstick isn't dishwasher safe either.

Cast iron pans are less effort to maintain than nonstick pans and last longer, if you know how to maintain them.
Yeah yeah, they'll outlast me yadda yadda yadda.

There's no maintenance to do with nonstick pans. Take off shelf, use, put in dishwasher, put back on shelf, repeat. When all you use are silicone spatulas (because they are frankly the best kind of spatula) then there's also no danger of scratching them.

Have you tried maintaining nonstick pans?
Yeah - all you need is to accidentally use the wrong side of the scrubber and it's "hello scratch".
I made a comparison between the two, so hopefully you can infer that.
Here, I'll help. Having had both, the cast iron was a massive pain in the ass, and the nonstick pan takes literally no effort to not fuck it up. I don't have a cast iron anymore. I still have nonstick pans.