No. It’s more versatile than most pans, but that starts and ends with “you can put it in the oven”.
The cast iron cult is just as other weird subculture that developed from people who are online too much. They’re pans. They’re fine.
this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2025
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Induction > glass ceramic (infrared) > gas > cast iron electric > fire
Why ceramic over gas? Because gas is a bit more responsive but
- Needs extra infrastructure
- Safety risk
- Not sustainable and climate warming
And btw, why is induction still more expensive than ceramic? It's not that new a tech anymore.
It fits the bill of cheap and reliable, but not "modern"*. The heat retention is very useful, and handling the surface of the pan itself is easy when you're using it to cook constantly.
Non-stick more often than not is going to be cheap and modern, but not reliable because high quality non stick pans are expensive (or people opt for enamel instead because of low quality PTFE/PFAS that both scrapes off easily and can't handle high heat which is dangerous, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-eBmPSqd4g)
I would argue the "upgrade" to cast iron is carbon steel, which is much more common as a wok material. You get a nice balance between affordable, reliable, and modern.
- *By modern, I just mean the underlying technology. Cast iron is pretty old and has its own flaws you have to deal with, and it lacks some of the nice features of newer materials.
gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared…
The tier list is:
- Induction (most responsive heat control)
- Gas (Slightly less responsive heat control
- Infrared (Electric, much slower)
- Electric (direct heating element, as slow as infrared but lacks the heat retention, have not seen these outside bargain basement cheapo units landlords like to put in apartments solely to screw with your ability to cook food normally)
Gas and Induction is always preferable because infrared is slow enough to be at the best annoying and at the worst less forgiving if you mess up the temperature. Induction comes with the great advantage that it doesn't require a special gas line, and you can actually buy single unit cooktops for pretty cheap, but do keep in mind that induction only works on magnetic metals (won't work with pure copper or aluminum).
In particular non-stick pans are aluminum and induction-ready ones might be quite a bit more expensive. Just another reason for any other type of pan
what about enamaled pans?
i don’t like the thought that i will be spending more time with my pans outside of cooking then cleaning the regular ones. and i don’t want to manage my pans intake like its a diabetic that can’t handle tomato based foods.
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I love my cast irons, I have a carbon steel one, that is even more work to care for, but gets really hot and is great for searing. I would like a stainless one for more of a nonstick option though.
Do you not season them? Mine let's eggs go as soon as they start to maillard.
realistically, whichever one your most experienced with (and your cooktops are made for) is best
they're all basically the same, the issue is when recipes/directions assume one type of cook setup and the cook doesn't know any better
Nah, honestly, any more than you need to backwards breathe to enjoy wine
Go with a carbon steel pan over cast iron. Similar performance but without the weight.