5d ago

Ok, honestly, is cast-iron really any better than a non-stick, stainless, copper (anything else?) pan?

To me, someone who celebrates a bit more of the spectrum than most: Metal hot. Make food hot.

Non-stick means easier cleanup, but my wife seems to think cast-iron is necessary for certain things (searing a prime rib roast, for example.).

After I figure those out, then I gotta figure out gas vs. electric vs. induction vs infrared....

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Non-stick has to be cleaned by hand, whereas stainless steel can go in the dishwasher, so for me that's easier to cleanup.
Non-stick has Teflon on top, which shouldn't be heated above a certain temperature, and to sear steak you need to leave the pan in the stove for long without anything on it so it gets extremely hot (which would damage the Teflon coating of non-stick and release poisonous gases on your kitchen, not enough to kill you, but still can't be healthy).
So, in short, stainless steel is a good middle ground, easier to clean and maintain than non-stick and cast iron.
As for gas/electric/induction it's about efficiency, induction heats the bottom of the pan, electric heats the glass where the pan is resting, and gas heats everything. There's a video from a YouTuber that measures time for a pot of water to get to 100° in all 3 (I don't remember who, I thought it was technology connections but can't find it), and in short induction is the fastest, electric takes a while longer, and gas melted his thermometer before the water boiled (which shows you just how much heat you're putting in a place that's not the pan).
That being said there's certain stuff that is easier to do on gas stoves, possible on electric and impossible on induction. Namely anything that requires the pan to be heated at an angle. It's very niche, I would say most people wouldn't even notice or care about this limitation, but professional chefs sometimes prefer gas because it allows to be used like this.
- I don't know if it is a limitation on some (cheaper?) non-stick pans but all I've ever dealth with were dishwasher safe. It's metal untensils that fuck them up
  
  Dishwasher is supposed to be more abrasive than metal tools because it's blasting pressurized water with coarse elements onto the stuff you put inside, same reason you don't put good knives in the dishwasher.
  It's not going to break the first time, but I seriously doubt any non-stick coating can survive a dishwasher for a year.
  
  I have three of just such pans. Dunno if our dishwasher is just delicate. They all say they are diswasher safe. But I think it does shorten their lifespan, but I haven't noticed much of a difference. Like said, maybe my machine is just delicate
- I'm thinking about a wok. That surely couldn't work with induction. Or does it?
  
  It does, I have an induction wok that I used in my previous apartment that had an induction stove. That being said it does have a flatter base than a "real" wok, but most woks you will use on your kitchen also have flat bottoms anyways. But yeah, you can't use it the same way, so if you mainly cook with woks it might be an issue, for me it wasn't.
  
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CzJKxUCKOBg

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