Cast Iron, the choice of real men and grandmothers

The facts on Cast Iron, it's awesome and cheap. There is no denying this. Cast Iron pans are like the cockroaches of cookware. Think about it, did Viggo Mortensen cook his last can of beanie weenies in All-Clad in that horribly depressing movie before eating his son? Of course not, that crap isn't going to survive a nuclear fall out. (was any of that a spoiler?)


Let's clear some misconceptions;

• Is Cast Iron hard to clean? No, in fact you hardly ever clean it, Rinse it out, give it a little scrub and dry it off. Done. No soap required.
• What about all that seasoning business? Is it really that hard to wipe it down with oil and stick it upside down in a low oven for a few hours twice a year?
• Doesn't it stick? You can't exactly fry an egg in them but for just about anything else when well seasoned it does the job.

Here's the awesome part;

• If you're used to some aluminum or stainless steel pan then get ready to wait another minute for the temp to rise enough for a good searing. How is that a good thing? Cast Iron holds onto that heat, other cookware gives you a quick shot of heat then it cools off after the meat (or tofu) hits the pan.
• You can't hurt it. Use whatever fancy metal scraper you want to your hearts content, you never have to worry about scraping off some titanium laden flecks of who-knows-what into little johnny's food that we find out years from now causes Alzheimer's. 
• The stuff is cheap, as in you could outfit an entire kitchens' worth of gear for the price of one fancy pan. Not to mention you might be able to convince your grandmother to give up the good stuff, she probably got it from her mother.

I've used my pans to make home made tortillas, flatten butterflied chicken on the grill and even to bake cornbread (once). Give them a shot, you won't regret it. You might even win some points with your grandmother you never call.