TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name

Cooking breakfast? Probably not as hot as you'd think. I can fry up some eggs and a couple pieces of sausage and the handle doesn't get hot enough to cause pain, much less injury. It's hot, it isn't comfortable, but it's largely a matter of perception vs reality once you're aware of what level of heat can cause burns.

Now, if I'm frying bacon in a big batch, I'm using something to protect my hand when I move the pan because it hurts, and prolonged contact can give a 1st degree burn in a few seconds, way less than the time it takes to drain grease or move the pan to the sink.

But truth? If your pan is hot enough to cause a 2nd degree burn, you're either running too hot, or you aren't using the range; you're putting it in the oven. Anything over about 350 on a hob is too hot for practical use, and that includes searing meats. Yeah, you can go higher for something like a blue or rare steak, but you'd still be better off with a slightly lower temp and that with either a "reverse" sear, or finishing in the oven. You get more even cooking like that.

Meats where you need well done? You'll end up with a tough exterior rather than that lovely Maillard browning and a tender interior. And anything other than meat will come out poorly over about 350 in a pan. Unless you like burnt exteriors and barely cooked interiors of things.

And at that temp range, you can easily pick up the handle for a second or two without insulation, as long as it hasn't been in an oven so that the handle hasn't had a chance to radiate any heat at all. You won't want to stand there fucking around, it'll be painful after a few seconds, but you won't get injured, and it's a level of pain that's tolerable if necessary.

Which, it's pretty obvious that this pan in the image wasn't hot at all, but that's a separate issue from the comment section debate about cast iron's properties.