this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

lol look there's one main benefit of cast iron: it holds heat really well. it is not easier to use or maintain than steel, but if you want something that holds a lot of heat, look no further

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

No, the main benefit is that it is made out of something edible that won't give you cancer

[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Stainless steel is unreactive and is leeching less into your food than cast iron, if that's your main concern. We already know that burned things are a carcinogen so why wouldn't that include burned polymerized vegetable oil?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I think they mean Teflon coating. While Teflon itself is not carcinogenic, the chemicals used in its production are in the PFAS group and not so healthy. The question is then if those chemicals are sufficiently removed in the end.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Iron is literally a nutrient.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The dose makes the medicine though, as usual.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Can you find a source that provides any scale for how much over the recommended daily 8-28mg (men vs. women) is required to cause long-term concerns? All I can find online is for acute iron poisoning which is usually when a kid wolfs down a bottle of supplements.

If you're curious, Wikipedia says iron poisoning happens at around 20-60mg/kg or 1.8-5.4g for a 90kg (200 pound) person. That's like 3/4 of an M&M's worth of pure easily digestible iron which is a shitload.

I've never heard anyone talk about any negative health impact of cooking with iron (which people have been doing for literally thousands of years), so I'm curious.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The one reason professional chefs don't use it is because it doesn't disperse the heat evenly tho

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

If you need even heat distribution, copper pans are the way to go

And they definitely need more babying than cast iron IMO, cast iron pans will take any and all abuse, then you can just clean & season them again and your pan is good as new

If you get cooper too hot, use the wrong utensils or are generally not treating it with kid gloves, it's gonna end up ruined after a few years, especially if it's a tin lined one

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You'd be extremely daft to use copper that wasn't tin lined btw

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Oh yeah, compared to a bare copper pan, for sure

There are some modern ones that are lined with stainless steel though and they don't have as much of an issue with high temperatures

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

you heat it way up then use a low heat after it gets to temp. that's a commercial issue