Advantages Of Cast Iron Skillet Over A Common Teflon Pan?
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I've seen a lot of recipes lately that insist on a a cast iron skillet. Why? My cheap Walmart Teflon pans seem to do the job just fine.
“Iron” is added to the food whenever using an iron skillet. Also using an iron skillet is more versatile with regards to it’s ability to be used upon the stove and then placed into the oven. For instance “Roasted baby peppers w/feta”". Requires peppers be blanched first then roasted in oven. This pan can be used for both. Authentic Southern Corn Bread should be made in an iron skillet. This pan gets hot and keeps the heat and can be used for cooking at lower temps while cooking as though it were set upon higher temps.
Also, there is some concern that teflon may not be as healthy for use anymore.
Teflon can chip, but some of the teflon pans have a thicker coating than others. Cast iron is a very good conductor of heat, but you’ll have to ‘season’ the pan regularly so you’ve always got a non-stick coating on it. Seasoning a pan means you wipe a thin coat of oil on it and burn the oil onto the pan –when you wipe it clean you’ll have an excellent non-stick coating. It isn’t perfect –teflon is better for non-stick, but it works great.
Incidentally, a copper-bottomed pan is even better at conducting heat, but they can be expensive. Other than the usual seasoning I explained above, I’m unsure if there is anything special you have to do with one.
personal preference really.
cast iron is a great pan, teflon seems to chip so that is one advantage to having cast iron, but you have to maintain cast iron to keep it’s non stickness which can be a pain for some.
use whatever you want really, most of the chefs seem to swear by cast iron, but there isn’t much difference
When cornbread is baked in a cast iron skillet, there is nothing like it. That’s mostly what I use mine for.