I'm seriously considering about switching over to strictly nothing but cast iron for cookware. Is this a bad move? I can't think of any scenarios for cooking on the stovetop where I might need something else but what do y'all think?
I use a LOT of cast iron .......but, I have and use hd stainless saucepans, stewboilers, even a sautée pan or 2. It's a lot quicker to heat, and cool. ( imagine that recipe that says sautée till soft then, remove from heat.) you take a cast iron pan off the fire or stove and it just keeps on cooking/sizzling...because it's cast iron. Whereas the ss will stop quickly or can even be halted by plopping it down on a wet cloth ( which would warp carbon steel or crack cast iron. ). Iron is great for 90% of cooking, but that other stuff has its place too. . Just my humble .02 right?
The only non cast iron I have is a stainless steel pot for boiling pasta. And some glass casserole type things. That’s it.
I'm trying to get the wife to go this route. Getting tired of buying a new nonstick about once a year because once the surface gets a scratch it must go. Supposedly a bad thing when scratched. I say just ditch the chemical laden nonstick pans.
I’m in the Cast/Stainless camp as well. There is a learning curve with cast iron. But it is well worth the effort. I find it satisfying to cook food on a pan that is older than I am.
I was in the same boat, but knowing my girls would never accept the seasoning/handling/maintaince of carbon steel or cast iron (but they eat my cooking like ravenous wolves!! ) I got them a full set of Cuisinart tri-clad stainless steel skillets. Expensive initially but, no coating, no replacement, indestructible, and they can be attacked by steel wool to keep them clean and shiny.
I cook everything using a cast iron skillet or a baking sheet, although honeslty I don't have a wide range of dishes I regularly make. We still have one very small SS skillet that my wife uses occasionally. I'm going to throw it away soon and replace it with a small carbon steel skillet from Lodge.
I do use the few cast irons I do have plus we have a couple of SS pans but I want to phase out the nonstick stuff.
Don't know if I posted this already but here is a great pizza recipe. It does work great. I do have a large thick stone for the oven but we prefer the cast iron method.
Lodge makes a nice Pizza/Baking Pan We use it at 500F-550F with great results. https://www.lodgemfg.com/cast-iron-baking-pan?sku=P14P3 It preheats for close to an hour, before we toss the pizza on it.