Are cast iron skillets really safe?!

[voultsi]

I was searching for a cast iron skillet to buy as i have never had one in my life, and after some research , all i read about them was super positive things .Health benefits from the iron of the skillet , no bad substances that non stick skillets have and how easy to cook on them .

But today i bumped into that article that got me thinking : Think Cast Iron Pans are Safe? Why You May Want to Reconsider I dont know if they exaggerate or not , but i am now really skeptical and kind of afraid to buy one . I just started cooking seriously at home and i wanted something that the actual chefs use. Whats your opinion about cast iron cookware?


P.S i have no connection with the website
P.S 2: check also this : The Health Hazards of Cast Iron Pans | The Healthy Home Economist

 

[GotGarlic]

Hi, and welcome to Discuss Cooking

Neither of those two articles has citations that say cooking in cast iron pans is dangerous. I looked at the references at the end of the first article and they relate to the facts about how the body uses iron, how much iron is leached into food from cooking in it, etc., but nothing about it being dangerous.

I've been using cast iron cookware for decades and have no worries at all about it.

 

[Dawgluver]

I agree with GotGarlic. I too have used cast iron for decades, it's perfectly safe.

 

[Oldvine]

One of my cast iron frying pans has been in continuous use for over 57 years. There was nothing in that article that made me think I should toss it. I'm sure if the search is long enough and deep enough, some toxicity could be found in almost anything. I am aware that there are different standards used in the manufacture of all cooking vessels including cast iron frying pans. Who knows what pans the testers used to come up with their findings.

 

[Andy M.]

I consider the links you posted to be unreliable. Once seasoned, there is a barrier between the food and the iron. There is no risk of over consumption of iron. The first site appears to be promoting an "organic over inorganic" agenda and using CI pans as a target.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Ya know, this whole organic verses inorganic thing makes me a bit crazy. It seems that society calls anything used without ferilizers, and made with teh least processing - organic. But what does the word really mean. We are, after all, organic life forms, as are most living things on this planet. Organic simply means carbon based. Or DNA, RNA, cell structures, and most activities in the body require, or are based upon carbon. Ever wonder why burnt items leave a carbon mess afterward? most of the other materials combine with oxygen in the process and either turn to ash, or go away as smoke particulates, leaving much of the carbon behind.

Iron, as stated in the OP's linked article, is indeed FE, or elemental iron. Whether it's in plants, in a steel or cast iron pan, or as a steering linkage on your car, it's still elemental iron. It may be combined with other elements to form a compound, or an alloy. But it's still elemental iron. Nothing will change that.

It may be that in plants, the iron is joined with other molecules that help the body assimilate and use that iron, a catalyst of some sort. But I do know that a well seasoned cast iron pan, where the oil has polymerized on the cooking surface, does not release much iron at all into the food. To support this idea, I offer the following. If I scrub the seasoning from my cast iron, get it wet, and let it sit for a few minutes, the iron begins to join with oxygen molecules to create iron-oxide compounds, or rust. On the other hand, I have at time abused my pans by washing the, then letting them sit wet on a counter top, and sometimes (gasp) have even left them sitting on the stove, with no heat, and with some acidic food in them, and had no iron flavor in the food, or in the empty pan, no rust, and with the empty pan, they've even sat in water for a few days with no corrosion evident.

Properly seasoned, the seasoning is an effective barrier to other elements comming into contact with the metal.

I firmly believe, until proven otherwise, beyound a shadow of a doubt, that cast iron is one of the safest cooking vessels around, along with carbon steel (wok, mineral pans). And not being an organic chemist, this is my humble opinion. It is based on anecdotal evidence only, and a bit of common sense.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Aunt Bea]

I use mine everyday, they are older than I am!

The only thing I don't cook in them is acidic food e.g. foods containing tomatoes. The acid can hurt the seasoning on the pan and in some cases it can cause the food to discolor.

I do not store any foods in my cast iron pans. If you need to store the food in the pan then I would choose stainless steel.

 

[Steve Kroll]

Before long, I expect the "experts" will proclaim the only safe way to cook food will be on a stick over a fire.

...or maybe not, as the sticks will undoubtedly be deemed too sharp and the fires too hot. And then there's the problem of the pesky secondhand smoke.

 

[sparrowgrass]

They are safe as long as you don't drop them on your toe.

 

[taxlady]

They are safe as long as you don't drop them on your toe.

Yup, or the danger that came to my mind:

 

[CWS4322]

Welcome to DC. I can appreciate your questions about using CI pans, however, I have CI skillets my grandma used...I've had them for 40+ years. She had them for 60+ years before I got them. And other CI pans that I've had for 30+ years. One would think that by now I'd be experiencing side effects from using them. Not so. CI pans have been around a long time. I have no concerns about health issues (other than dropping one on my toe or burning my hand because I forget to use an oven mit). Of course, none of my CI pans were made in China...those I might have concerns about...

 

[CWS4322]

Before long, I expect the "experts" will proclaim the only safe way to cook food will be on a stick over a fire.

...or maybe not, as the sticks will undoubtedly be deemed too sharp and the fires too hot. And then there's the problem of the pesky secondhand smoke.

That would be a green stick and it would have to be a weanie roast or s'mores...not that s'mores are bad for you.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

They are safe as long as you don't drop them on your toe.

I once heard that one of my ancestors clobbered her husband with a cast iron skillet, and he was never the same afterward. That make cast iron a very dangerous cooking vessel.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[GLC]

What an utter bunch of baloney. I love this line:

" Our bodies cannot easily break down this form of iron because it is a metal." Oh, yeah. As opposed to that other iron, the one that's not a metal? And...

"... like all minerals, has two forms – organic and inorganic. Both forms of iron have the same chemical composition (Fe)..."

Well, I suppose a single element is a "chemical composition." But someone should n't have spent chemistry class writing boys names on book covers. Iron, Fe, atomic number 26, is an element, a form indivisible without the application of forces not found in kitchens. But readily oxidized and so not naturally found in a pure state.

We also don't seem to have the slightest notion of what "organic" means. (Except knowing that it means the author wants to sound all natural and healthy.) Chemically, organic means a compound is formed combining carbon and other elements. The carbon makes it "organic." Or do we mean organic as in "organic matter," meaning something that was or is alive. Been watching too much transformers if you think iron was or is alive or is or was the product of a living organism. Or organic farming methods, which has nothing at all to do with iron or metals or pots and pans or even organic chemistry.

Oh, and it's strongly implied that cast iron is a hazard because inappropriately ingesting iron supplements is bad. Might as well claim that cast iron is bad because you could hit yourself over the head with a cast iron pan. (Although there are apparently some for whom that might be a workable therapy and certainly couldn't harm their thought processes.)

The subtitle of the article is "You May Want to Reconsider." Yep. You sure might want to do that. But what you may want to reconsider is reading ignorance pretending to knowledge and committed to writing solely to fill provide some web content. This just happens to be one of more sad examples of the genre.

 

[taxlady]

Bravo GLC. I had my suspicions, so I didn't bother to read the article.

 

[GotGarlic]

Well-said, GLC.

 

[Zagut]

"Are cast iron skillets really safe?! "

Yes, They are safe.

The exceptions have already been noted here.

Do not drop it on your toe.
Do not piss off your SO to the point of making them want to conk you on the head.
Remember that metal on the stove gets hot and will burn you if you forget this fact and grab a hot pan without protection.


My grandparents used cast iron for almost everything. They lived into there late eighties. This is before the miracles of modern day medicine.

I have and use there cast iron cookware some of which is over 100 years old. I'm getting up there in years myself. I only hope I live as long as they did.

Perhaps using cast is a benefit rather then a detriment?

Steve, Not only will the sticks be deemed too sharp. The species of wood will have to be determined for which food it is being used to cook. Multiple tests will need to be preformed for each combination of wood type and food stuffs.

 

[CharlieD]

Before long, I expect the "experts" will proclaim the only safe way to cook food will be on a stick over a fire.

...or maybe not, as the sticks will undoubtedly be deemed too sharp and the fires too hot. And then there's the problem of the pesky secondhand smoke.

or only eat raw foods

 

[Zagut]

or only eat raw foods

I think that's why cooking was invented.


And if we didn't cook then this site wouldn't exist.


Well I guess it could be called "Discuss Raw Chow".

 

[Caslon]

Cast iron pans have been cooked in for hundreds of years. If there was any increase in kidney or hardening of the arteries or gall stones, enough people have used them that some proof of it would have shown itself, just by the shear millions using them. It would have become well obvious by now.