Cast iron is the best. The hardest part of cast iron is all of the nonsense people believe about cast iron, leading them to think it's inconvenient and, worse, that gets them to actively make cast iron problematic.
I still have a cast iron skillet, but I mostly stopped using it once I got some carbon steel pans. In my experience they beat cast iron in nearly every way. I only use my cast iron now if I need a huge amount of thermal capacity (like pre-heating it to make pizza on or something) or for the presentation value.
It’s hard to talk to cast iron zealots. They’re usually people that never seriousky cooked before and went from cheap, thin steal pans to cast iron and assume all pans are like the thin pans they had before.
Cast iron is fine for certain applications but not many others. I’d fry and egg in one but you can’t make a great matter in one due to the thermal capacity properties they have.
Steel lined copper is the king. But yes they are cost prohibitive for some. Carbon steel is nice too.
"It’s hard to talk to cast iron zealots. They’re usually people that never seriousky cooked before and went from cheap, thin steal pans to cast iron and assume all pans are like the thin pans they had before."
Maybe they are the same people who praise Apple and Tesla products for the same reason?
Cast iron is so easy I honestly have no idea why people think it's hard. Even the people who claim you can damage the seasoning. They're not wrong. You actually can. You know whats great though? You just reseason it by cooking in it with a lot of oil.
The pans are magic. I even take my pans camping for cooking on a fire. Truly amazing things
