Sure, it’ll reach a steady state of even heat eventually, but iron has very low thermal conductivity compared to aluminum. It’ll get there eventually but it takes time, and you have to account for that. An aluminum-core pan is better when you need to quickly control heat across the entire surface.
There’s a place for both in my kitchen. But no place for Teflon.
As my wife found when making pretzels, an alkaline solution will remove the anodized coating and leave you with just a high end aluminum pot. Not the there are that many calls for alkaline solutions in cooking! But, learn from our fail.
I’ve gone into this very same topic before on the bbs, but short story long, Lodge et al. also make carbon steel pans that give you light, maneuverable, fast-heating pans with comparable levels of nonstick and durability of cast iron. Worth investigating, if you’re looking to cut out nonstick.
I like carbon steel too! I have a carbon steel wok. But it also has quite low thermal conductivity. The reduced thermal mass does mean it heats up much more quickly and is more maneuverable than cast iron, but it does not quickly spread heat across the entire pan.
That is a feature, not a bug, in a wok, however.
I hear you, totally.
In my experience, the 10" Lodge carbon steel has been heating quickly and evenly enough that omelettes are easy to turn out, but our standards and expectations might be calibrated differently.
Can I just say PAN SHOT!
Wipe it with a what-now?
Oh, now you’ve done it…
You waste time pretending to cook salt at imperfections in your pan, and you’re satisfied or not. Wow did they use a lot of soap on that pan at first.
I also endorse carbon steel. I bought my DeBuyer pan for ~$60 at a restaurant supply and I cook everything in it other than acidic foods and eggs. I keep a small non-stick omelet pan for eggs, which is replace about once a year. My current is Oxo, but previously they’ve all been T-Fal. Basically I’ll buy anything that America’s Test Kitchen recommends.
I use an old pan that used to be non-stick, but probably isn’t any more. As long as you use enough oil/fat then nothing will stick to the pan.
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