Are cast iron skillets nonstick? Can you wash cast iron with soap? And more quandaries, explained.
Myth #1: “Cast iron is difficult to maintain.”
The Theory: Cast iron is a material that can rust, chip, or crack easily. Buying a cast iron skillet is like adopting a newborn baby and a puppy at the same time. You’re going to have to pamper it through the early stages of its life, and be gentle when you store it—that seasoning can chip off!
The Reality: Cast iron is tough as nails! There’s a reason why there are 75-year-old cast iron pans kicking around at yard sales and antique shops. The stuff is built to last and it’s very difficult to completely ruin it. Most new pans even come pre-seasoned, which means that the hard part is already done for you and you’re ready to start cooking right away.
And as for storing it? If your seasoning is built up in a nice thin, even layer like it should be, then don’t worry. It ain’t gonna chip off. I store my cast iron pans nested directly in each other. Guess how many times I’ve chipped their seasoning? Try doing that to your non-stick skillet without damaging the surface.
Myth #2: “Cast iron heats really evenly.”
The Theory: Searing steaks and frying potatoes requires high, even heat. Cast iron is great at searing steaks, so it must be great at heating evenly, right?
The Reality: Actually, cast iron is terrible at heating evenly. The thermal conductivity—the measure of a material’s ability to transfer heat from one part to another—is around a third to a quarter that of a material like aluminum. What does this mean? Throw a cast iron skillet on a burner and you end up forming very clear hot spots right on top of where the flames are, while the rest of the pan remains relatively cool.
The main advantage of cast iron is that it has very high volumetric heat capacity, which means that once it’s hot, it stays hot. This is vitally important when searing meat. To really heat cast iron evenly, place it over a burner and let it preheat for at least 10 minutes or so, rotating it every once in a while. Alternatively, heat it up in a hot oven for 20 to 30 minutes (but remember to use a potholder or dish towel!)
Myth #3: “My well-seasoned cast iron pan is as non-stick as any non-stick pan out there.”
The Theory: The better you season your cast iron, the more non-stick it becomes. Perfectly well-seasoned cast iron should be perfectly non-stick.
The Reality: Your cast iron pan (and mine) may be really really really non-stick—non-stick enough that you can make an omelet in it or fry an egg with no problem—but let’s get serious here. It’s not anywhere near as non-stick as, say, Teflon, a material so non-stick that we had to develop new technologies just to get it to bond to the bottom of a pan. Can you dump a load of cold eggs into your cast iron pan, slowly heat it up with no oil, then slide those cooked eggs right back out without a spot left behind? Because you can do that in Teflon.
Yeah, didn’t think so.
That said, macho posturing aside, so long as your cast iron pan is well seasoned and you make sure to pre-heat it well before adding any food, you should have no problems whatsoever with sticking.
myth #4: “You should NEVER wash your cast iron pan with soap.”
The Theory: Seasoning is a thin layer of oil that coats the inside of your skillet. Soap is designed to remove oil, therefore soap will damage your seasoning.
The Reality: Seasoning is actually not a thin layer of oil, it’s a thin layer of polymerized oil, a key distinction. In a properly seasoned cast iron pan, one that has been rubbed with oil and heated repeatedly, the oil has already broken down into a plastic-like substance that has bonded to the surface of the metal. This is what gives well-seasoned cast iron its non-stick properties, and as the material is no longer actually an oil, the surfactants in dish soap should not affect it. Go ahead and soap it up and scrub it out.
The one thing you shouldn’t do? Let it soak in the sink. Try to minimize the time it takes from when you start cleaning to when you dry and re-season your pan. If that means letting it sit on the stovetop until dinner is done, so be it.
Now do you know how imagic your cast iron? come with us!
Post time: Jun-01-2021