"mike" > wrote in message
. ..
> hello,
>
> lately when i look at our non-stick pans/skillets i notice where some of
the
> finish is scraped and scratched. somehow it must be getting in the food.
>
> thinking of going back to cast iron. the prices are all over the place. i
> saw a 3 piece skillet set by ol'martha stewart for $16 at k-mart and a
> single 11" cast iron skillet for over $100 at a cooking specialty store.
>
> is cast iron "cast iron," if you know what i'm trying to ask? are there
> vaying degrees of quality? anyone here use martha's cast iron stuff?
>
> thanks,
>
> mike

As to cast iron -

While there are a few different types of cast iron, I believe all cast iron
cookware is basically the same class of cast iron.
And IMHO, it's the thermal qualities of iron and the non-stick surface
that make cast iron a desirable cooking surface.

As to thermal qualities:
- you are using the heat capacity and the conductivity of the iron, so a
heavier pan takes longer to heat and longer to change in temperature than a
thinner one, but it also won't chill as fast as a thin pan when food is put
into the pan.
IMHO, a pone pan doesn't need to be as heavy as a frying pan. How heavy
you want probably depends on what you plan to cook/fry in the pan.

As to non-stick - that is from "smooth" and from the coating on the surface.

A recent thread in this NG adressed the seasoning methods and why the
surface coating is what it is, and basically - there may be more than one
kind of "seasoning" when people talk about "seasoning".
(My iron pans are very smooth, black, and dry - and more non-stick for
most things than my commercial teflon-ceramic pans. My pans are "seasoned"
and yet they are without any discernable oil on the surfaces.)

The aspirations (the little points and ridges on the metal surface that
make the metal seem rough) wear away fairly quickly in use, especially if
you scrape the rough surface with a steel spatula after cooking but while
hot, and then clean it lightly-oily and hot with a natural bristle brush and
a very tiny splash of water.

That said - I had a friend who wanted a "good" cast iron pan, i.e., she
wanted a smooth iron pan and lacked the patience to "grow her own".
I bought her a cast iron pan (might have been a Lodge) and used my
oscillating sander with silicon carbide paper (100 grit, then 200, then
320) to smooth it, and then I seasoned and finished it with a few heatings
and "spatula and oil cleaning".
It was as smooth as my 30 year old pans.

Background on the smoothing -
Metal is shaped and formed by cutting (like a file which removes metal)
and by smearing (like a hone or strop, which do not remove metal but rather
smears it).

My theory is that
1) since aspirations are small bits of iron above the rest of the iron
surface,
2) since the tips of aspirations have much less area and thus see much
greater pressure when hit by the spatula,
3) since the tips of aspirations corrode very much faster than the lower
main surface, and when oxidized they become weaker and more brittle,
4) and that when metal is rapidly cooled (looking at the aspiration, not the
whole pan), cast iron being a mass of stress concentrations in its matrix,
the very tips of the apsirations crack

a) thus the steel spatula "bends over" or knocks off any iron tips above
the average plane of the spatula as it strikes them, and
b) the heat of cooking accelerates the oxidation, and the quick clean with
a tiny splash of water contracts the small tips more rapidly than the main
surface, so the very ends of the tips break off over and over, making for
smaller and smaller aspirations, until the tips are stable relative to the
average height,

and the pan is then smooth.

fwiw...
(you get what you pay for :-) )


>
>