The obsession with cast iron like it is some kind of magic ritual is honestly really weird. After you cook with it, wash it with water and dry it with some paper towels, that's it, no need to make it more complicated than it really is.

If things are sticking to your pan, use more oil in your pan; with enough oil, you can cook on a rock and make it nonstick.

The reverence and fear of cast iron cooking pots and pans is stupid on both sides. People have been using cast iron under every condition from the big fire place in a castle's kitchen to a fire pit in a peasant's hovel to open fires outdoors to Michelin Star restaurants in Paris and London. And they cooked EVERYTHING in it because it's what they had and all they had. There is no mystery to seasoning and care of cast iron. Just like there is little to fear from cooking with it.

Those that do worship in the church of cast iron-- just cook in it. There is nothing sacrosanct about it. If your Great Grandmother didn't worry about it, why should you? Any damage you can do it can be repaired quickly and easily. So get over yourselves.

And those that fear cast iron cookery, get over it.......They are often the same ones that are fearful of micro plastics getting ingested and yet have no care or concern while cooking with plastic cutting boards and utensils in plastic coated cookware.

It’s insane to me that people don’t wash them and call it seasoning.

It’s apparently a different story when someone seasons their underwear.

¯\(ツ)/¯ wouldn't kill it. Just scrub any flakes off and re-season. The abuse they can take is almost unreasonable.

You... hate cast iron? Of all things people could hate, cast iron is the choice here. Mmaight.

I wash my cast iron with normal dish soap and steel wool, and if I'm too lazy, I put it in the dishwasher. I've been doing this for 20 years. I don't "season" it. It's a pan, no more, no less. The main advantage is that you don't need to worry about scratching the shit out of it.

Needs a tiny little bit more fat than a non-stick if you want to make an omelette.

As long as you don't leave it sitting in water you'll be fine.

Unseasonably mad

Everyone acts like enameled cast iron doesn't exist...

You baby your cookware and debate the differences of each type.

I don't even know what type of cookware I have.

We are not the same.

I bet I’d get this joke if I had ever used a dishwasher in my life

I use the washer and then let it sit wet over night to bring out its natural paprika seasoning.

even putting it on the top rack, instead of the bottom where the pots go. Masterfull attention to detail in trolling.

In this thread are people trying to use one tool for everything.

You don't use a screwdriver for everything.

Likewise, in the kitchen, you don't use the same utensil for everything.

And I'm sorry, for the people that have one fork, one knife one knife, one pan. No. Unless you live on shit food, you can't cook with just that.

If you actually want tasty food, you'll need some hardware. There's just no way around it.

Disclaimer, I'm French, and an actual cook (non practising).

Cooking has been a hobby of mine for decades now. I have gone through a lot of phases in cooking, especially early on.

I have used cast iron, carbon steel, stainless steel, and a dubious flirtation with all aluminum.

16 years on now and this is what I reach for 100% of the time:

Skillet/sautee: cladded stainless. Both standard side and high sided.

Dutch Oven: Enameled cast iron.

Pots Pans: Cladded stainless steel. For smaller 1qt to 2qt I like All Clads D5 for its heat retention. Larger than that I like the D3 for its lighter weight

Grill Pan: cast iron. Hate the excessive weight though

Non-stick: Ceramic coated aluminum. What ever Americas Test Kitchen recommends that year. I consider these disposable items. I stopped using TEFLON a long time ago.

I used cast iron skillets for several years. I found them to be finicky. Heat retention was stupidly high and that's not always a good thing. Excessively heavy and god forbid you attempt any sort of tomato based sauce or anything acidic for that matter. Circumstances forced me to use stainless steel and I just found it matches my needs in a kitchen much better than cast iron. It gets used, it gets cleaned and I put it away. No having to have the vaginal juices of a thousand virgins on hand to make sure it doesn't destroy the next egg I try to cook.

I consider cast iron skillets like safety razors. They had their day, but continue on because of a dedicated set of die hard users. Nothing wrong with that, just not my thing.

The above goes for carbon steel as well, although it usually isn't nearly as heavy.

Gets angry over the fact that you have a dishwasher

Seasoning is a polymer, which is known for its strong resistance. It is unlikely to breakdown just with one dishwasher wash.

The seasoned surface is hydrophobic and highly attractive to oils and fats used for cooking (oleophilic).

The protective layer itself is not very susceptible to soaps, and many users do briefly use detergents and soaps.[28]

Unless you are dish washing it everyday and refuse to dry/reseason it, you will be fine.

However, cast iron is very prone to rust, and the protective layer may have pinholes, so soaking for long periods is contraindicated as the layer may start to flake off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_(cookware)

You son of a-

Carbon steel > cast iron. Lighter, basically the same heat properties, and you don't get peer pressured into unnecessarily babying a lump of solid metal.

Seriously no reason to dote on either of them so much. Only real care you need to take is that they can rust, so don't leave them wet. And don't needlessly scrub them with chain mail or angle grinders, or you might need to take a few minutes fixing them with cooking oil and the oven.