This $20 Pan Will Last You a Lifetime

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You’ve been lied to when it comes to cast iron. I don’t know when it started, but it’s some sort of Big Cookware psychological operation. Someone said cast iron was difficult, and it needs to be cared for gently. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I think of it this way. Iron cookware was made popular in European kitchens in the 1600s and 1700s. Think of scenarios it would’ve been used in since that time: trans-Atlantic voyages, front lines of war, and any trip West in the 1800s. Do you think a mother on the Oregon Trail would read a 500 words about how to care for a pan? No, she was worried about keeping her children alive. Cast iron is made for that, to be abused unlike more expensive modern cookware that’s unusable after a few years. It’s older and more resilient than anything nonstick, steel, or aluminum. My Lodge skillet costs less than $40, and I’ll have it until the day I die. Can’t say that about the rest of my fancy cookware.

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It’s actually so easy to care for.

Let me start by tackling the whole care situation. It’s not hard. Cast iron has three rules 1) Be wary of high-acid liquid like wines or anything vinegary; tomatoes are fine, just don’t simmer them for over an hour. 2) Don’t leave it wet. 3) Keep it well-seasoned; this is most important. My grandma would regularly break rules one and two because her skillet was so well-seasoned.

As for seasoning, it’s easy. I’ll spare you the science and say that when oil reaches its smoke point some of it bonds to the pan and creates a protective layer of seasoning. On the surface of the pan, that happens just about every time you cook. Unless your pan rusts badly, you can let seasoning happen naturally. You cook everyday, and all those oils leave a residue that becomes seasoning. When I’ve needed to re-season, I’ve never done the thing where you cook it upside down in the oven. That’s for Redditors. My mom taught me to season by shallow frying something—potatoes, green tomatoes, fish, anything—with pretty high smoke point fat like vegetable oil. (I’ll use tallow sometimes like one of those Mormon trad influencers.) By the end of the cook, that oil is hitting the smoke point on the surface of the pan. That’s seasoning. Is it as bulletproof as the way it comes from the Lodge factory? No, but it’s enough for any normal home chef. People who say otherwise are overcomplicating the whole situation.

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It’s consistent to cook with.

The funny thing about cast iron is it’s actually not a great conductor of heat. Copper, aluminum, and steel all heat more quickly and evenly. But cast iron stays hot better than any of them, so it’s more consistent. Plus it can go anywhere. The stovetop, oven, grill, pizza oven, or over a campfire, it’ll do it all. That makes it my favorite option for pretty much everything.

The key is just keeping a mental note for how hot to get it. On the gas stove in my current apartment, it’s just above medium for frying, hard medium for most meat, mid-way to low for veggies and sautés, and low for stuff prone to smoking like bacon. On the electric range in my old place, those were slightly different. That actually protects you, as a home chef, than cheap aluminum or nonstick pans that heat and cool ridiculously fast. Cast iron requires a bit of knowledge, a little trial and error. Once you do that, you’re already twice the cook you used to be.

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It will last multiple lifetimes.

I hate cheap stuff, and cheap stuff makers have conditioned everyone to believe things have a short cycle that ends in a landfill. Nonstick pans are unusable after a few years; that shouldn’t be normal. No matter how bad you fuck up a cast iron, it can be revived. A little bit of rust can be scrubbed off with salt and steel wool. Serious rust can be removed with a vinegar solution. Cast iron comes from a time when things were made to last; you bought one pan and used it your whole life. If you have any sort of environmental conscience, you’d realize this is the way.

My dad has a cast iron skillet and Dutch oven that belonged to my grandma, and as the most culinarily inclined child, I’ll probably get them when he’s done. So someday I’ll have two of these skillets and one pot. That means my kids will have even more pieces to inherit. If there’s any problem with cast iron, this is it. It’s made to outlive the people that use it. Not a bad problem to have.

Photographs by Florence Sullivan