Cast Iron

I can second every word of this article on cast-iron cookware, including this excerpt:

Since cast iron is made from the same stuff Hephaestus used in his forges for side projects like his automata delivery service to Olympus, you can use it just about anywhere. Stove top, in the oven, out over an open fire camping, cast iron don’t care. It’s the honeybadger of cookware.

Bought a large – 10″ or so – skillet to cook on, and while it gets less use than it otherwise might due to weight, glass cooktops, and elderly family members still trying to help in the kitchen, every word in that article matches my experience.

Yes, it took a few tries to season – with one time me deciding to scour it down with steel wool because of how badly stuff got stuck on it. That said, it only took a few tries, and once I got the “knack” the two other times I retreated it “just because” went very smoothly. Now, I can fry an egg in it with nothing sticking as long as a little butter or bacon grease sits in the bottom of the pan, it takes far more heat for searing steaks than a teflon pan, it can be put in the oven to finish a “bake” dish, and if I can’t simply scrub it off with a stiff-haired brush, some kosher or rock salt handily scrapes off whatever baked on. Lightly oil it back up and stow it.

One further advantage of “takes more heat” is “can’t mess it up by overheating it like teflon”

Going forward I intend to replace all my teflon with either cast iron, or in the cases of stock/soup pots, stainless.