[UpstandingUser]

Cast iron's real strength is the huge amount thermal mass and the relatively low rate of heat transmission. You preheat it, throw whatever you're cooking in it and the residual heat alone will brown it perfectly, even a huge slab of meat. It holds tons of energy and releases it relatively slowly. Steel pans will sometimes have all the heat sucked out of them before you're done searing (lower thermal mass, higher transmission) and it doesn't come out right, especially if you have a low output stovetop because it can't keep up with the cooking and maintain proper temperature.

Cast iron is kind of the opposite of a wok, which is made so you get about as close as you can to cooking with the flame and no residual heat from the cooking vessel. Note that woks are designed to be cooked on crazy output stoves that you don't really see in Western homes. This allows you to sear with much more control of the thermal transmission at the cost of a blazing hot kitchen and a hefty gas bill.

[SergeAx]

I thought about challenging you with writing a thermal energy transfer equation, but will stop at writing two constants: heat capacity of cast iron vs stainless steel: 540 vs 500 J/(Kg*°C). So just buy a stainless steel cookware 7.5% heavier than cast iron - and you are all set.

[renlo]

Aren’t cast iron skillets usually made heavier though? Ie, sure heat capacity is similar per kg but if one is almost always 2-3x heavier than the other then it’s going to retain more heat

[jasonwatkinspdx]

But see, noting that banal fact would get in the way of their very impressive nerd sniping...

That said, if you do a lot of baking a nice thick sheet of steel is definitely the tool.

[timecube]

Good luck finding a stainless steel pan that even weighs as much as a cast iron, let alone more.

[balfirevic]

I think it's just that cast iron pans usually come heavier. My relatively heavy 28 cm stainless steel pan (Ikea Sensuell) is 1.7 kg, while my 29 cm cast iron is 3.1 kg.

I wish there were heavier and affordable stainless steel pans for searing, as I can just chuck those in the dishwasher.

[basch]

Where is the company selling clad (copper or aluminum) steel cookware (dutch ovens, everyday pans, deep frying pans) with the steel part 7.5% thicker than common cast iron pans. Sounds like an untapped market.

I did once melt the hood of a gas grill by putting a piece of steel in it. Held heat so well the cover and front of the grill warped.