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Comment by woolvalley | Hacker News Reader

It's about saving time and work. Cast iron takes a lot of work compared to even plain old stainless steel plans in prep and cleaning. They are very heavy to handle and can't use such foods as tomatoes because they are too acidic.

An informal survey as to why you would use a cast iron is "it make meat taste better" and it "heats more evenly".

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I will say, the only work my cast iron requires is cooking a really fatty food in it once a month.... my stainless pans require scouring if I do some searing (even with a good deglaze) which is a huge hassle. My cast iron, I just wipe out lightly and never scrub. I have never noticed adverse effects from this and it's well seasoned.

I do hear the weight complaint - I'm a big guy so it's not too bad but my girlfriend needs two hands.

Same here - I have a bigger stainless steel skillet that always needs steel wool to get some pesky things out of it after any frying, but my cast iron cleans up much easier. Though, I make liberal use of dish soap and the scouring side of my sponge. Never had a problem with seasoning other than roommates messing it up a bit here and there.

I used to believe that cast iron were more work, but I moved house, got a (cheap, $20) cast iron pan - and it's less work. I t sticks less than non-stick pans. Very notable when frying eggs. I hadn't have an egg stick yet, while I had it all the time in the non-stick. Also, you can be rough with metal tools without worrying about damaging the non stick coating. And can overheat without damaging the pan.

It's also easy to clean, if you get over the impulse to use detergent. Just clean it in hot water and then a towel or paper towel. If one uses detergent, it needs to be oil coated and heated again, which is annoying.

I'll never use anything but cast iron again. It is heavy though.

I feel like you must cook a very narrow range of food and/or have very little space / money for more pans. Cast iron is lovely and versatile (see my sibling post) but there is a tool for every job and cast iron is not always that tool,

I have very little space AND when I moved house I got super annoyed over sooo many annoying trinkets. I don’t want more stuff.

So the whole you can’t use soap on cast iron is incorrect. It used to be, when soap was made wit lye, but normal dish soap is not nerely strong enough to remove the coating on cast iron.

I have 5 cast iron pots and pans and use a little soap on all and have no issues with removing coating.

You can certainly use a little dish soap, but not with anything abrasive. I used to use a stiff-bristled brush on mine, but these days I'm actually using a little square of stainless steel chainmail intended for cleaning cast iron. There are no sharp edges to dig into the finish, but it's hard enough and flexible enough to get a good scrub going.

You can cook tomatoes in cast iron. I wouldn't spread tomato paste around the pan and leave it in the sink with water in it for a week, but that's no reason to avoid cooking with tomatoes in cast iron.

It's not because it damages the pan, it's not good for you. A significant amount of iron breaks down from the acid and leaches into your food.

It's not the iron either - it's because if you cook too much with acidic liquids in cast iron you'll get some of the seasoning coming off and it may turn your food blackish and unappealing. If you do a lot of cooking like that or don't have it properly seasoned you'll eventually have problems with going all the way through the seasoning and then you'll get rust.

If you want to use cast iron for soups, stews, braises, chilis, etc. that you're going to be cooking a long time, get an enameled cast iron pan - that'll get you a lot of the heat retention but with a more durable (but not nonstick) finish.

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