Cast-iron cookware is versatile, offering high surface heat for searing steaks alongside a delicate nonstick patina if you care for and season it properly. While cast-iron is a good candidate for cooking many foods, there are ingredients that will damage the cookware, ruining its slick, flavorful coating and making subsequent recipes more challenging.
To ensure we’re not killing our favorite pans, we asked a pro for specifics. Eric Rowse is the lead chef-instructor of Culinary Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education, and shared his best practices for using cast iron safely.
According to Rowse, there’s nothing that needs to be avoided when cooking in cast iron, though this depends on the age and quality of the seasoning. That said, some foods react poorly to cast iron if it’s not done properly, leading to compromised cookware or food with a metallic taste.
Tomatoes, vinegar-based sauces, citrus, eggs and fish are a few foods that require special attention when cooking with cast iron. If you’re new to cast-iron cooking or not familiar with its nuances, you might consider stainless steel or nonstick cookware for the following.
4 foods that can ruin cast-iron cookware
Tomatoes
“Highly acidic foods, such as tomato and tomato-based dishes can be problematic on raw iron, poorly or underseasoned cast iron,” Rowse says.
“Cooking these foods in neglected cast iron can lead to a metallic taste in the food. If the pan is well seasoned and cleaned out after each use, it isn’t a problem.”
To be safe, cook bacon in your skillet afterward to give the seasoning extra protection. As a bonus, you’ll have bacon on hand. What you don’t want to do is leave the acidic food just sitting in the pan which can eat away at the seasoning.
Vinegar and vinegar-based sauces
For the same reason as tomatoes, vinegar can eat away at your carefully seasoned and maintained cast-iron skillet sending you back to square one. Vinegar-based foods like adobo or Carolina-style BBQ sauce are good examples of acidic foods that shouldn’t sit in a cast-iron pan for long.
If you do use vinegar in a recipe and cook it in cast-iron, be sure to give the pan a good cleaning with hot water and salt or a small dash of gentle dish soap immediately after.
Read more: Clean Your Cast Iron Skillet Easily With This Common Kitchen Staple
Citrus juice
While they’re may not be a ton of reasons to put citrus in a cast-iron skillet, certain recipes call for a fair amount of lemon or lime juice. A squeeze of lemon at the end probably won’t destroy your cast-iron pan but don’t let citrus juice simmer inside of it for long or you’re precious patina won’t survive the night.
Wine-based sauces
Cooking with wine is almost always a good idea. In fact, we have a list of recipes that thrive with a few ounces of red or white. But letting acid-heavy wine braise or simmer in a cast-iron pot or pan for too long could cause the slick patina to erode, leaving you with an unseasoned skillet that food will stick to.
Can you cook eggs in cast iron?
While they won’t damage your pan, eggs are a tricky food to pan-fry without having a sticky mess to deal with after. While cast-iron cookware isn’t as nonstick as chemically coated pans, it’s still a fine candidate for scrambling or frying the morning staple.
“I love cooking eggs in cast iron,” Rowse told us. “I have a small 5-inch one that I cook fried eggs in. Cast iron is able to get super-hot and precise control is harder because it retains heat for longer, and therefore it is more difficult to make small adjustments to the temperature.”
What about fish?
Likewise, many varieties of fish are flaky and tend to stick to surfaces if not managed properly. If your cast-iron’s patina isn’t properly slicked or is too hot when the fish goes down, you may end up scraping half of your halibut from the bottom of the pan.
How to avoid a cast-iron cooking conundrum
First and foremost, you’ll want to properly season so you can cook even the stickiest foods without worry.
When cooking acidic foods in cast iron, avoid slow-braising or simmering on the stovetop for long periods. When the food is finished cooking, remove it and wash your cast-iron pan immediately with hot water, a drop of dish soap and a sprinkling of kitchen salt for extra stuck-on foods.
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