Cast Iron Experimentation

[autococker04]

So I’ve always heard that cast iron pans heat up more evenly, don’t have hot spots, are superior in every way, blah blah blah.

I have this pan that Ive had for years and use all the time. I also have this high temp thermometer that I use for work, and I had to bring it home to solder on a new 9v holder. So I tore apart a DXS pulse to scavenge a 9v holder (p.s. if anyone wants most of a pulse, it’s yours for shipping costs) and had to test my work.

I put a thermocouple on the handle, side, center of cooking surface, edge of cooking surface, the air temp above the pan, and outer wall of the pan and heated it up till it started smoking. Then cut the heat (around 3:30) and let it cool for a while.

Anyway, it looks like the cooking surface does heat pretty evenly. I think that the walls heated up way faster because they’re a thinner gauge metal.

[markdem]

Youll also hear that cast iron cant be welded, which is false.

Im glad you put it to the test, instead of just relying on rumors. Good job!

[SignOfZeta]

You can skip rumors and testing both when you’re talking about something science explained 100 year ago.

[JeepDVLZ45]

I always assumed that the benefit of cast iron was more of the thermal reservoir that it provides (and their self defense capabilities).

[Chuck E Ducky]

It’s definitely the self defense capabilities. 😆

[Nish]

By self defense he means you didn't get the hint when Mom used the wooden spoon.

[Chuck E Ducky]

Honestly I never really noticed that they heat more evenly. But I love my cast iron pan I cook everything in it. I got rid of all my non stick about 10 years ago and never looked back.

I love searing stuff then throwing it in the oven, or sous vide and use the cast iron to get a killer sear on the meats. It cooks everything to perfection.

[OpusX]

I'm with you. I am a heavy user of the cast iron under the broiler cooking method.

[SignOfZeta]

If it’s heavier it will heat more evenly since the heat from the burner moves into the pan more easier than into the air, and heat from the bottom of the pan moves to other areas of the pan more easily than into the air. That’s the main mechanism at work, although other factors apply.

Alloy pans are lighter, less massive, fewer electrons to spin up, meaning they absorb heat easily but also work great as heat dissipation to the air. They will heat up faster but shed more, taking heat from the food in theory.

An interesting question would be to compare which uses more electricity/gas. The alloy pan wastes heat in rejection, the iron pan wastes heat by taking forever to heat up. Anyone who has owned both a gas and a diesel VW Golf knows how much longer the iron block takes to heat…that’s obviously a much more complex system but the principle is the same. So which takes more watts to cook an egg?

[Embier]

An interesting question would be to compare which uses more electricity/gas. The alloy pan wastes heat in rejection, the iron pan wastes heat by taking forever to heat up. Anyone who has owned both a gas and a diesel VW Golf knows how much longer the iron block takes to heat…that’s obviously a much more complex system but the principle is the same. So which takes more watts to cook an egg?

I can't do an apples/apples comparison, but one of the benefits of cast iron is that alloy pans don't work with induction tops. I have a "duxtop" standalone induction burner that I bought on Amazon for ~$50. It absolutely heats up faster than the traditional top and is supposed to be more efficient. If it makes sense - cast iron "unlocks" the extra efficiency of an induction cook top and my feeling is that that's enough of a gain to beat out alloy pans that have to use a traditional burner.

For reference:
2 same sized thick steel bottom old-style pressure cooker pots with no lids (same brand and presumably metal - one is a bit taller than the other, but otherwise are identical)
2 cups of room temp water into both of them

The induction top comes to a full boil in 3:10, the regular stove a minute later at 4:15. Wattage meter at the outlet for the induction top shows it at around 1600 watts.