When you care about real food, what you cook it in matters. You can buy grass-fed steak, raw milk, and organic fruit, but if you throw it all into some flimsy non-stick pan with chemicals baked into the coating, you’re cutting corners. Cast iron is the opposite of that. It’s solid, simple, and it’ll outlast just about everything else in your kitchen.
Quick note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. These are products I personally use and support, and sharing them here helps keep Paleo Palette running at no extra cost to you.
Why Cast Iron Wins
Cast iron isn’t new or flashy. It’s been around forever because it works. A good skillet gets hot and stays hot. That means a better sear on steak, eggs that cook evenly, and no cold spots where your food turns out half raw. Non-stick pans might feel easy, but they scratch, flake, and start breaking down after a couple of years. Stainless is safe but sticky. Aluminum? Warps too easy and doesn’t hold heat. Cast iron beats them all.
A Small Nutritional Edge
Cooking with cast iron can actually boost the iron in your food. Acidic dishes like tomatoes pull a little bit of iron from the pan, which isn’t a bad thing if you’re someone who runs low on it. Iron’s a key piece of energy, oxygen delivery, and metabolism. No, it’s not a substitute for eating nutrient-dense foods, but it’s still a small win that stainless and aluminum will never give you.
Simple Care, No Excuses
People love to say cast iron is a pain to take care of. That’s not true. Here’s all you do: rinse it with hot water, dry it off, and rub in a thin layer of tallow or ghee. That’s it. Every time you cook, the seasoning builds and the pan gets even better. Compare that to non-stick, which only gets worse the more you use it.
Why I Cook With It
Cast iron is the one pan I can do everything in. Steaks, eggs, chicken thighs, vegetables, even bread. I’ve tossed plenty of modern pans in the garbage after a year or two, but my cast iron just keeps going. I’ll probably hand it down one day, which you can’t say about a Teflon pan from Walmart.
My recommended affordable option: Lodge Cast Iron Skillet
My ultimate favorite made in the USA: Stargazer 12-Inch Cast Iron Skillet
Cast Iron vs The Rest
Non-stick: easy for a while, then it scratches and flakes. Can release junk like PFAS if you overheat it.
Stainless: safe and durable, but food sticks unless you drown it in fat.
Aluminum: cheap, light, and quick to heat, but warps, cooks unevenly, and doesn’t last.
Cast iron: affordable, naturally non-stick once seasoned, adds a touch of iron, and works on any surface — stove, oven, grill, campfire.
You don’t need ten different pans. You need one that does it all and never quits. That’s cast iron. It makes food taste better, gives you a slight nutritional bump, and it’ll still be in your kitchen long after everything else breaks down. If you’re cooking real food, do it right.
Sources
“Effect of cooking food in iron-containing cookware on blood hemoglobin and iron content in food.” National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), 2021.
Read on PMC → https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8266402/
“Cast Iron Cooking: Tips, Benefits, Maintenance, and More.” Healthline, 2019.
Read on Healthline → https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/cast-iron-cooking-2
“Effect of cooking conditions on iron release from pots and pans.” ScienceDirect, 2024.
Read on ScienceDirect → https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2665927124001564
“Is Stainless Steel or Cast Iron Cookware Best? Is Teflon Safe?” NutritionFacts.org, 2016.
Read on NutritionFacts.org → https://nutritionfacts.org/blog/is-stainless-steel-or-cast-iron-cookware-best-is-teflon-safe/
“Virginia Tech food scientist dispels the myths behind cast-iron.” Virginia Tech News, 2024.
Read on VT News → https://news.vt.edu/articles/2024/08/cast-iron-myths.html
Leave a Reply