Ask Lemmy

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).

I agree with the wife. Cast iron for steaks and searing red meats, non-stick for everything else.

At the end of the day, what you should care about most is the fact that you're lucky enough to have a wife who knows how to cook. In my house, I have to handle all the cooking and dishes. But at least she does the dusting and the laundry—both of which I hate doing—so it evens out I guess.

I have Lodge cast iron and De Buyer carbon steel and I definitely prefer the carbon steel. I do have non stick for things like eggs or pancakes but they don't last forever, I get a few years of use. I recently replaced my old Tfal PTFE with Blue Diamond and I'm quite happy with them.

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

I think that it is a joy to cook with my cast iron pans, but there is a number of caveats that other repliers already mentioned.

One of the points that I did not read yet, is that if you have really acidic foods, your cast iron seasoning will wear out fast. For those use cases, I stick (hehe) with ceramic pans.

You can get good sears on nonstick. We've done it for years.

Nonstick is easier to use and clean, but you'll have to buy a new one every year or two, depending on how hard you are on them. Cast iron is practically indestructible in that you can almost always bring it back to usable condition; but keeping it usable takes more care. There's also carbon steel if cast iron is too heavy for you.

Cast iron is overrated. And people overthink a lot about it being seasoned. Really though, you still have to care for it and it isn't like you can just re-season the pan. Just make sure it doesn't rust.

Better at what? Most certainly better at splitting someone's skull open if they're in your home without an invitation. Hands down.

Go with a carbon steel pan over cast iron. Similar performance but without the weight.

I recently watched a video on the topic of which pans you need, and the only two that were mentioned as important are non-stick and stainless steel