A Chef's Guide to Cast Iron: What to Buy and Why

Why cast iron browns better than anything else

A pan does not cook food. Heat does. When a cold steak lands in a thin pan, the metal gives up its heat instantly and the surface temperature crashes, so the meat sits there releasing water and steaming itself grey.

Cast iron is thick and heavy, and it holds a large amount of heat. The temperature drops far less when food goes in, so the surface stays hot enough to brown. That is the whole argument, and it is the reason restaurants still use it.

What to buy first: one skillet, 26cm

If you buy one piece, buy a skillet around 26cm across. It fits two steaks, four chicken thighs or a tray's worth of roast potatoes, and it still lifts with one hand when full.

A 30cm is better for a family and heavier than most people expect. A 20cm is for eggs and little else.

Pre-seasoned is fine

Almost every cast iron pan now comes pre-seasoned, which means the factory has baked oil onto it already. That coating is not finished, but it is a start, and it means you can cook the day it arrives.

Ignore anything that tells you to strip a new pan back to bare metal. You build the surface by cooking on it, not by sanding it.

The enamelled question

Enamelled cast iron, the heavy coloured casserole, is a different tool with the same body. The enamel means no seasoning, no rust and no worry about acid, so tomato sauce and wine are fine. It cannot take the same dry, screaming heat as bare iron, and a chipped enamel edge is permanent.

Buy bare iron for searing. Buy enamelled for braising, stew and bread. If money only stretches to one, bare iron does more.

What you actually need alongside it

A pan this hot needs one thing more than anything else: something that lets you pick it up. The handle gets exactly as hot as the pan.

The second thing is a chainmail scrubber. It takes off stuck food without soap, without scratching the seasoning, and it replaces every brush you have ever thrown away.

How to stop it sticking

Sticking is nearly always one of three things, and never the pan's fault.

The pan was not hot enough. Cast iron heats slowly and unevenly; give it a few minutes on a medium flame before anything goes in. Hot pan, then oil, then food.

The food was not ready to turn. Meat and fish stick to hot metal and then release themselves once a crust forms. If it does not move, it is not ready. Wait.

The seasoning is thin. It builds with use. Cook bacon, fry potatoes, roast chicken thighs in it. Every fatty thing you cook makes the next thing easier.

Washing it without ruining it

Hot water, the chainmail or a brush, and a quick dry on the hob so no water sits in it. A small amount of washing-up liquid will not destroy modern seasoning, despite what the internet says; leaving the pan wet overnight will.

Then a few drops of oil, wiped round with kitchen paper until it looks dry rather than greasy. That is the whole ritual, and it takes less time than arguing about it.

What to ignore

Cast iron with a rough, pebbled cooking surface is harder to cook on than a smooth one, but it smooths out with years of use. Not worth paying extra to fix.

Pans sold as "lightweight cast iron" give away the one property you are buying. Decorative ridged grill pans make stripes, not crust. And no pan needs a special seasoning oil sold in a small expensive bottle.