Few kitchen items improve with years of heavy use like the cast iron pan. With the rise of enameled options, consumers now have more choices than ever to find the perfect fit for their cooking needs. But the age-old debate remains: to season or not to season? The Good Housekeeping Institute's Director of Editorial Commerce Jessica Teich and Kitchen Appliances & Innovation Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou are putting enameled and classic cast iron pans to the test in a head-to-head comparison. Discover everything you need to know before deciding which one deserves a spot in your kitchen.
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00:00The way that this is lifting up without sticking right now.
00:03It's so beautiful.
00:04Blowing my mind.
00:08I'm Jess Teich, Deputy Editor at Good Housekeeping,
00:11and today we are diving into all things you need to know about cast iron.
00:14I am joined by the Director of the Kitchen Appliance Innovation Lab at Good Housekeeping
00:18and my good friend, Nicole Papantonio.
00:21Hello, thank you for joining me today.
00:22Of course, I'm so excited to talk about pans.
00:24One of my favorite topics.
00:25Me too. I know it is.
00:27Okay, so out of all the pans that you've tested, what are your top performers?
00:30This is our Lodge, and this is our best overall,
00:33and this is actually the one that I've been using at home for probably 10 years.
00:36It's a really good value.
00:38And then here we also have a Lake Crusay, which is different from the Lodge because it's enameled.
00:43Enameled cast iron pans are easier in the sense that you don't have to season them.
00:47It's so beautiful, and it's a really good way to start using cast iron
00:51if you're a little bit worried about how to keep up with it.
00:54Okay, should we break this down?
00:55Let's do it.
00:56Let's start with price. How do these compare?
00:58This Lodge costs you around $30, and then this Lake Crusay one is around $100.
01:03In general, there's a really wide span of how much cast iron pans cost,
01:07and they both work really well.
01:09Okay, so you can still get really great performance at a low price point.
01:13Absolutely.
01:17So typically you have your traditional cast iron pans, and they're usually uncoated.
01:22And what that means is that you need to build up that seasoning on your own.
01:26And the way to do that is you basically wash it first, make sure it's very, very dry.
01:32A lot of people recommend actually heating it on the stove to make sure that all the moisture is gone completely.
01:37So once it's cooled, what you're going to do is add some oil,
01:41a very, very thin layer, to the entire pan inside and on the outside.
01:46Once you have that even coating, you're going to wipe away as much as you can,
01:50and then you're going to pop it in your oven at 350 for 20, 30 minutes, even an hour.
01:54And that's going to seal it.
01:56And that is going to help it prevent it from rusting.
01:59But over time, the more you use it and the more fat you use,
02:02it's actually going to become nonstick on its own.
02:05So if you take care of it properly, this thing can last you for years.
02:09It's because the more you cook in it, the more food oils it absorbs,
02:13and it actually helps season your food too.
02:16Okay, how often should I be seasoning my pan and how will I know when I should be seasoning it?
02:20If you are washing it and it feels a little dry and it doesn't feel slick and smooth,
02:26then I would suggest re-seasoning it.
02:31So tell me more about the testing that you do and what kind of foods you cook in cast iron.
02:35Cornbread is one of the foods we test in cast irons.
02:37Earlier on today, we went ahead and prepped a cornbread in the Le Creuset
02:41and a gluten-free mixture in the Lodge.
02:43Let's take a look at how we test each pan and taste both.
02:46You know how much I love cornbread and I so appreciate the gluten-free show.
02:49What are some features that you look for in the cornbread?
02:51What we look for is how evenly does it brown?
02:54So we want it to be browned on the edges and in the center.
02:57And we also want to see how level it is,
03:00because that'll give away how evenly it cooked throughout the process.
03:04So you're going to see a really big difference in the coloring.
03:07Right here, we have our regular one and our gluten-free one.
03:10So there's just different oils and seasonings.
03:13This looks like the cornbread that most people are used to
03:16and also the one that you most often use for testing.
03:18And I just have my special cornbread here.
03:20Let's eat.
03:21I'm just going to gently cut into the gluten-free one so you can try.
03:27The way that this is lifting up without sticking right now is blowing my mind.
03:32And you can see, so it's really, really nicely removed.
03:36And this is a pan that we've been using in the lab,
03:39so it's not brand new.
03:41We've used it plenty of times.
03:42And I'm going to dig into this one too.
03:45You can see how much it didn't stick.
03:49Yeah, dig in.
03:50I'll try some of your gluten-free.
03:52Oh, look how crumbly.
03:54And so moist.
03:55Do you notice that?
03:56Which is hard to do, especially with gluten-free.
03:58Okay, cast iron, go off.
03:59One of the nice things about cornbread is that it cooks it gently,
04:03whereas in another type of pan,
04:05you might not get as much of the golden brown color that you see on these two.
04:12So tell me about the first method that you use when it comes to cleaning cast iron.
04:16I like to use just open water when something's not too greasy.
04:19It's just an easier way of cleaning.
04:21Just make sure you dry it and, again, re-season it as needed.
04:24So the seasoning is going to help prevent that rusting over time.
04:27And you don't need to season coated pans.
04:30And now, is there another method?
04:32I always use coarse salt on my cast iron pan.
04:35Wait, salt?
04:37Yeah.
04:38Plain old salt?
04:39Plain old coarse salt, like a kosher salt.
04:41Why salt?
04:42So salt is actually an abrasive.
04:44So when you put it in that layer, it's going to absorb all those oils,
04:47like we were talking about, but it's also rough.
04:50So you can use it to basically scrape the bottom of the pan,
04:53and it'll help just clean it that way.
04:55And make sure you never soak your cast iron pan and never put it in the dishwasher.
05:00So what are some of the pros and cons of each pan?
05:02We're comparing the Lodge and the Le Creuset cast iron pans.
05:06The Lodge is a really good price point.
05:08And then the other thing is, like, the shape and size is really nice and consistent.
05:12One of the cons could be having to season it all the time
05:15and make sure that it's perfectly dry so it doesn't rust.
05:19How about the Le Creuset?
05:20So the Le Creuset, I think one of the biggest perks is it's gorgeous.
05:23It's a gorgeous pan.
05:24It's enameled, so that means that you don't have to worry about how you wash it
05:28or seasoning it because it's going to last long without a lot of extra effort.
05:32So one of the downsides about the Le Creuset is that it's expensive,
05:36but it can be considered an investment piece,
05:38so you'll really have it for a long time.
05:40You'll really get a ton of use out of it.
05:42Nicole, thank you so much for bestowing all of your magical knowledge upon me today.
05:46I feel like I learned so much from you.
05:48Thanks.
05:49Let us know what you want us to test next.