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Why I Love Cast Iron for Cooking

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Margaret Boyles

Benefits of Cast Iron Cooking

Margaret Boyles
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I have five pieces of cast-iron cookware: two frying pans, a flat skillet, a biscuit pan, and a popover pan. I love looking at them and cooking with them. What’s not to love? But for all the newbies, here are some benefits of cast iron cooking.

Cast-iron bears the heft and weight of history (and feels like it, too). The Chinese developed cast-iron foundries 2500 years ago, and probably the first iron cooking utensils. The cast-iron kettles, cauldrons, spiders, and Dutch ovens of my Colonial ancestors produced much of the cuisine we call American. They look good on my wood-fired kitchen stove, a stove of Amish design, which is plain, simple, and black, with a cast-iron cooking surface.

Here are more benefits of cast iron cooking:

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  • Cast iron cookware conducts, distributes, and retains heat evenly, cooking at a lower temperature than pots and pans made from other materials.. There are no hot or cold spots in your pans.
  • They are oven proof, containing no wooden or plastic parts, important when cooking on a woodstove, which I do throughout the colder months. They also go from stovetop to oven with no melting, cracking, or warping.
  • They’re versatile: I can use them for various egg dishes, vegetables, stir-fries, flatbreads, English muffins and baking-powder biscuits.
  • Properly seasoned, they offer a non-toxic, (almost) non-stick cooking surface.
  • They’re inexpensive. You’ll often find cast iron in thrift shops.
  • Cast iron is extremely durable and will last forever. 

And for me (and many of us), the price is right. Two were handed down from my mom, two came from the “free mall” at the town dump, and one was salvaged from a thrift store. All five pieces were old, well-used, and relatively well-seasoned—black with a rich patina—when I got them. The seasoning self-maintains itself with regular use of the cookware.

Recently I wondered if a couple of my cast iron pieces might benefit from a complete re-conditioning. When I started searching the Web for information, I discovered that cast-iron cookware and cooking with it is something of a cult. Who knew?

People collect it, both vintage and modern pieces, and designate their collections to specific heirs. They argue over which brands are best and which size and shape of iron cookware best serves a particular recipe. There are whole books written about how to cook with it, and hundreds of online articles and spirited discussions about the best way to season it, and about whether it’s even safe to use.

Cast iron does leach some (relatively non-absorbable iron) into the food as it cooks, although apparently less from older, well-seasoned items than from newer ones. This can be beneficial for folks who suffer from iron deficiency. There is a condition called hemochromatosis, usually inherited, in which the body absorbs and stores too much iron, with toxic consequences. People with this condition, readily diagnosed by blood tests, are advised not to cook with cast iron.

After decades of cooking with cast iron (not to mention regular blood testing), I don’t worry much about getting an iron overdose from it. It’s a matter of balance. I will say I don’t cook tomatoes or fruit dishes in my iron cookware (it imparts a metallic taste to the food), and I don’t deep-fry any foods, so I don’t worry about concerns with deep frying.

I will admit, hefting hot, heavy iron pans is tough on my increasingly arthritic thumbs and wrists. But I’ve just discovered the virtues of compression wrist-support gloves. Perfect!

Taking care of cast iron is easy if you know the basics. See how to clean and season your cast iron skillet.

Cooking & Recipes
About The Author

Margaret Boyles

Margaret Boyles is a longtime contributor to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. She wrote for UNH Cooperative Extension, managed NH Outside, and contributes to various media covering environmental and human health issues. Read More from Margaret Boyles
 

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Comments

Belkin Vanderspuds (not verified)

2 years ago

I love cast iron cooking and recently I have started a youtube channel dedicated to showing how to use cast iron skillets and pans to make delicious meals.

You can see some of the videos at https://www.youtube.com/@lovecastironcooking

Jeff Hill (not verified)

3 years 6 months ago

I inherited several pieces from each of my grandmothers and also picked up a few at yard sales. I use them almost daily, and love their versatility, even heating, heat retention, and durability. Nothing beats cast iron for making cornbread!

susana (not verified)

3 years 6 months ago

i always cook on cast iron, When one of my sons married i gifted the newlyweds with a Griswold, my daughter in law was pleased, she was a believer in cooking with cast iron.

patrick diamond (not verified)

3 years 6 months ago

When I was in high school I would go over to a friends Grandma's house, where we would fish all night for bullhead. then in the morning Nancy's grandma would cook them in a cast iron skillet with bacon grease and eggs ( sounds yucky - but it was delicious ). All this was done on the wood cookstove. She believed that everything was better from the old cookstove and cast iron, than an electric range. What a grand lady. All those meals were priceless and tasted the absolute best.

John Paul Garrison (not verified)

3 years 6 months ago

Anybody out there know how to "season" a cast iron teakettle, in a way that doesn't impart grease into the water? I bought a Wagner Ware kettle in 1987, thinking my mom (born 1922, now deceased) would know, since she grew up using them. She didn't, her mom's kettles had what seemed to be a white mineral deposit. I'm not referring to a cooking pot, but a kettle with a spout, used for heating water. (Wagner seems to have gone out of business decades ago.) Thank you!

Bob McConnell (not verified)

3 years 6 months ago

I have a growing collection of cast iron cookware and am always on the lookout for more. I found my first dutch oven at a yard sale, and have been buying more as I can. I can get Lodge products at Walmart and Target, or even Cracker Barrel, while Big Lots and Ollie's occasionally have some of the lesser known brands. Even some of the celebrity cookery lines have added a few iron pieces. Some of the dutch ovens are enamel coated, but I prefer the raw iron and wish I could find some of the flat lid ovens. My wife's chili works extremely well in them. But my biggest problem right now is finding the self-basting lids. Most of the stores have switched to glass lids. I do have a marginal level of hemochromatosis, but the VA doctor I see regularly says that dietary iron has a very limited effect on it. He believes it is genetic, so I made sure to have my children get tested for it. By the way, he claims that the most effective treatment he can prescribe is to regularly donate blood.

dee h (not verified)

6 years 2 months ago

During both my pregnancies we lived in the country. Our water came from a spring and we cooked with cast iron skillets. My midwife and I concluded that my iron count when I was pregnant was higher than a non-pregnant women because of these two facts in my life. As a side note I never heard of cast iron until I married my husband 33 years ago and now I can bake biscuits and cornbread over a campfire. He is very proud of that fact and when any conversation turns to camping he is very happy to praise me to the person he's talking to.

Martha Howell (not verified)

7 years 2 months ago

I have several pieces of cast iron cookware: 3 skillets, 2 Griswold muffin pans, & biscuit & corn stick pans. I love to make bread so my loaf pans are special to me. I cherish all pieces including those I have purchased & heirloom pieces I have inherited.from my Mother & Great Aunt.

Gregory T. Sarafin (not verified)

10 years 5 months ago

There are some things that only cast iron will properly cook. Years ago I invested in a set of stainless cookware at a cost of about $200 a pot. They cannot cook a steak, fry chicken, make venison bourgnione or accomplish any of the specialized tasks that cast iron can. In addition, what other cookware can go from stovetop to oven to broiler or to camp?

Roy Ivey (not verified)

10 years 11 months ago

Cast iron! From my childhood to now, I use cast iron. My wife and I have around 25 pieces of all shapes and sizes. I cook on nothing but. We are trying to inspire our 6 children to use cast iron also but they just don't get it yet. I love all my pieces..some for cornbread, some for apples, even an old dutch oven and bean pot! Most are made in the USA but one or two are from overseas. Thank you for your article.