this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2025
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I mean if you want to use a cast iron pan more power to you but they are objectively worse for 90% of cooking tasks.
Why do you think if you go into literally any restaurant in the entire world 99% of the pans are either stainless steel or carbon steel woks with the occasional cheap nonstick pan thrown in for a crappy cook that sucks at doing eggs and fish
But if you go onto like a cooking subreddit, twitter thread, youtube post, etc I guarantee any post about cookware will have a bunch of cast iron zealots that are like “just get a cast iron pan, season it, end of story, no other pans, other pans are stupid, anyone who recommends another pan is an idiot”. It’s a goddamn cult of people who bought a lodge at target.
Also fwiw I do have a cast iron tamagoyaki pan and I have a 16” carbon steel wok. I highly recommend the (awesomely named) powerflamer wok burner if anyone is ever into wok cooking and has outdoor space. 160k btu and my Chinese food finally has that wok hei
Hmm. Well i only have 8 years of experience in professional kitchens so i cant speak for every kitchen in the world, but there are tasks where cast iron is objectivelly better, like tarte tatin, pann pizza searing meat is better and they can be nifty looking when serving the dish from there.
The reason why i use steelpans in work is in fact that they are lighter and i can toss them in to dish pitt. But when im cooking at home i dont need to juggle with six pans and it does not make any difference if waiting for the pan to cool and washin it takes few minutes longer. Also steel pans are generally cheaper so many restaurants buy them.
You really cant compare home kitchen and professional kitchen on same metrics. Things like deep fryiers are abnormal at home and can be a real nuisance, but those are excelent tool at the professional kitchen.
By the way. If you like out door cooking you should take a gander at "muurikka" i have two at home. The older one is from my parents and its close to be 40 years old (older than i am) they can be used on gas or open fire and are borderline impossible to break.
I don’t have 8 years but I did about 5 during college and grad school before I diverted into my current career path, though tbf that was like over a decade and a half ago now (oof). And agreed, like I said it’s not that cast iron is useless. It has a role, it’s just that the role is greatly overemphasized by the cookware zealots.
Cost is pretty negligible - a lodge 12” skillet is $30, the first result for 10” steel pan on webstaurant is $21. Though there’s an aluminum 12” for $15 (yuck). Though again tbf at least where I worked the owners would def penny pinch over $9 haha
FWIW I would absolutely love a proper deep fryer in my house. I unironically looked into this once bc I regularly go to restaurant auctions to get gear super cheap (ask me about the deli slicer I got for $50. Having a deli slicer rules) and one had a super cheap single basket deep fryer. But it needed a dedicated 220 line and as I looked into it more it turns out I would potentially be violating all sorts of building codes and invalidating my homeowners insurance. At a minimum I would’ve had to disclose it to my homeowners at get a bunch of paperwork to get the policy changed, which likely would’ve required me to have a ton of work and documentation in terms of ventilation, fire suppression, possibly inspection from local fire authority, etc. not worth the hassle even for the insane fries.
I am not familiar with the muurikka. I am looking at the website now. It is intriguing. My outdoor setup at the moment is the wok burner and a small charcoal grill. I was considering getting really into pizza and depending on my approach this could be a good fit. My other idea was to build a small brick oven. I am historically not great at building things like that but I am also dumb
Deep fryer is one of those things that sound much better than it really is. It takes a lot of room, its hard to keep clean, its messy and its dangerous if you have kids/ drunken people running around.
Muurikka has also lid that turns it to a makesift oven. Its not perfect, but its best pizza i have made on open fire in the middle of nowhere.
About pan. If i was forced to pick one pan that i would need to use in my home kitchen for the rest of my life i would choose cast iron.
Its unbreakable, i like the way it sears meats and veggies, it can be used on everything from open fire to induction. And i love how well it works if want to slow loock something in oven.
Homeowner’s insurance agrees with you
It looks interesting (muurikka). The cost is very reasonable too which is surprising given tariffs and shipping. I could see this being a very good option for camping and fire pit. I am intrigued
I look at pan this way: I have a stack of 3 steel pans, a cast iron skillet, and a cheap nonstick. 90% of the time I’m grabbing a steel pan because it’s the easiest to use for most things. If I need to get a pan ripping hot to do a reverse sear? I’ll bring out the cast iron
I suppose the agreeable thing here at least is hexclad is stupid
Agreed hexclad is stupid.
As for muurikka. The bigger oner are heasy as sin, so i cant recomment those if there is lots of trekking on the camping trip.
Have a sympathy upvote for your wok hei. I love my cast iron. And my enameled cast iron. And my carbon steel. And my copper. I love my Japanese santoku and my German steel. Different tools for different jobs my friend.
That said, if you had to populate a kitchen, from scratch, on a budget, cast iron as your main skillet is a good idea.
I really need a new wok
Do you live near a city with a Chinatown? Carbon steel 14” wok about 2mm thick is perfect for home use imo. The 16” is more if you’re cooking for several people at once. Either one should be 30-40 dollars. I have both and I use the 16 more because I like the space but I should probably use the 14 to control portions better for my health haha
I wanted to take a trip out to New Wok myself.