I have started cooking more and more with cast iron pans. Any reason not to throw away my other pans ? Seems like almost anything comes out better and cooks more evenly in the cast iron pans ?
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Any chefs, cooks out there ?
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Last: 14 yr ago by PseudonymK
I keep mine to scramble eggs, saute vegetables, and make one-skillet pasta meals.
I use cast iron and stainless steel. No non-stick in this house!
Cast iron doesn't work as well on electric as on gas. I don't use cast iron indoors anymore because I have a smooth-top electric stove and cast is a definite no-no. Much as I liked my cast skillet and griddle, bigger pots are better suited for stainless. I wouldn't get rid of it.
All of the above posts are very correct.
I mostly use my cast iron and have been thinking of getting rid of my Cephalon set of pans. I know they are expensive but the food tastes so much better out of cast iron. Plus, a nurse told me once that if you make a tomato based meal once a week in a cast iron pan, that you would never be anemic.
Usually, cooking acidic food in cast iron is not recommended. From my cursory google searching, it's not clear if this is for the good of the pan, for taste issues due to too much iron in the food, discoloration of the food from iron that leaches out, or health issues.
It seems like there is some controversy over whether cooking acidic foods like tomatoes in cast iron is actually good for you, or if it contributes to iron overload diseases. I vaguely remember being told the latter in my biochem classes as an undergrad, but I'm not finding support for it in my pubmed searches.
Just something to think about. I'll keep looking. As a biochem prof, I should know more about this.
It seems like there is some controversy over whether cooking acidic foods like tomatoes in cast iron is actually good for you, or if it contributes to iron overload diseases. I vaguely remember being told the latter in my biochem classes as an undergrad, but I'm not finding support for it in my pubmed searches.
Just something to think about. I'll keep looking. As a biochem prof, I should know more about this.
OK, I found some more about iron overload(the material at the link may be behind a paywall; I can see it from campus):
So, to translate this: Iron is good for you up to a point, but it is possible to get too much of a good thing. If you OD on iron, it mostly affects your liver, and you can get some nasty effects, including liver cancer. However, the question is how much is too much? Will cooking a lot of acidic dishes in cast iron increase your risk of these things?
Not clear. How much iron will get into the food depends on the food, how well seasoned the pan is, how you cook etc. You probably shouldn't use cast iron for acidic baby food, since babies have so much less body mass. There are also fairly common genetic predispositions to iron overload diseases.
The paper above clears up what I remembered about dietary iron problems from my old biochem class. It wasn't from cooking:
quote:
The liver is the main storage site for iron in the body. Excess accumulation of iron in the liver has been well-documented in two human diseases, hereditary hemochromatosis and dietary iron overload in the African. Hepatic iron overload in these conditions often results in fibrosis and cirrhosis and may be complicated by the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.
So, to translate this: Iron is good for you up to a point, but it is possible to get too much of a good thing. If you OD on iron, it mostly affects your liver, and you can get some nasty effects, including liver cancer. However, the question is how much is too much? Will cooking a lot of acidic dishes in cast iron increase your risk of these things?
Not clear. How much iron will get into the food depends on the food, how well seasoned the pan is, how you cook etc. You probably shouldn't use cast iron for acidic baby food, since babies have so much less body mass. There are also fairly common genetic predispositions to iron overload diseases.
The paper above clears up what I remembered about dietary iron problems from my old biochem class. It wasn't from cooking:
quote:
African dietary iron overload was first described by Strachan in 1929 in Blacks from southern and central Africa [30]. It later became evident that this condition occurs in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where it may affect as many as 15% of Black adult males [4], [5], [6], [31] and [32]. African dietary iron overload occurs predominantly in rural areas [6], [32], [33] and [34], where 80% of the Black population in sub-Saharan Africa lives and where more than two-thirds of adult males consume home-brewed beer. Hepatic iron concentrations comparable with those in HH result from the consumption over time of large volumes of this traditional beer. The beer has a high iron content (46–82 mg/L compared with <0.5 mg/L in commercial beers) that results from the beverage being prepared in cast iron drums or containers [4], [6] and [34]. During the fermentation of sorghum or other locally-grown crops the pH of the ferment decreases to very low levels (3.7 or 3.8), leaching iron from the container into the contents [35]. This iron is in an ionized, highly bioavailable form [35].
I like aluminum to do quick sauces, but I LOVE cast iron cooking!