Sorry to disagree... Aluminum displaces heat very quickly so you will have very uneven area's of heat unless you have a wide flame. the thought here "I" think is, how heavy would it be if it "were" cast iron. The other thought here is the manufacturing process. It's much easier now to cast and clean aluminum than iron. My next thought here is, I don't want anything that has a "NON" stick coating... I'll take Pam, Crisco or oils over that anyday.
Aluminum!!!! I missed that. Had I known, I wouldn't have posted it in this link. My bad. Being aluminum just changed my mind about it. I rather keep with cast iron.
I'm not an engineer, but I think it's the opposite. Cast iron absorbs and emits the heat quickly, resulting in a hot spot over the burner. Aluminum absorbs the heat but doesn't give it up as easily, with a more even temp across the cooking surface. I currently have a typical electric range, but I would always use the high output burner on my gas stove because it was a larger diameter. That burner cranked all the way down was about perfect for most frying tasks. The big burner on the electric range heats the cast iron more evenly because it's about the same size as the bottom of the pan. Frequently moving and rotating the pan around helps too. Our gigantic Griswold griddle only cooks on the ends. Even after an hour of cooking potato pancakes, they barely cook in the middle. Even on the ends, it is noticeably hotter directly over the burners. This thing must weigh 30+ pounds, and one would think after that much time the whole thing would be pretty evenly heated, but it's not. We'll probably use it next weekend, and I'll try to remember to take my IR. I don't have anything aluminum of comparable size, but there is a heavy aluminum non-stick skillet there. Don't know the proper term. Emissivity?
Jeff, Three things come to mind; The electric range coils are horrible when it comes to cast because depending on how old the coils are, they will not produce the heat necessary for the cast due to internal break down, coils will get hot and cold spots in them. If you take a sample of cast and a sample of aluminum the same size, heat them to the exact temp, the cast will heat slower but also cool slower. The aluminum being non-ferris will dissipate the heat faster. You noted the gigantic Griswold; of course it heated slower, you have much more area to heat then the aluminum pan. You need more BTU's. In theory, it's like trying to move a tractor trailer with a VW engine. The electric coils can also have "dead" spots in them, we had an electric range for years and a gas range is far superior for cooking. Being that the cast pan is much more dense it is going to take much more to heat it up. Thats why engineers went to aluminum radiators in autos they displace the heat quicker. Emissivity; Correct, being the coefficients of materials. Why don't we have aluminum wood stoves?
Oh man. I'm gonna put my IR in my car when I get home, so I don't forget it next weekend I got no science, just observation. 'Course, it's been so long since I cooked on aluminum that my memory might be a little fuzzy. I hate cooking on electric, but that's what I have and there's nothing else wrong with it. Can't justify replacing it right now.
Not trying to trump you my friend, I taught metals for years, and there is science, theory and fact. They played around with aluminum cook ware for years and it was iffy. They still due, but they warp, twist, bend, and basically are junk. Aluminum "will" grab heat fast but disperses it just as fast, that's why some think it's "even" cooking. "In my opinion" aluminum is only good for one application, aviation! It sucks with boats and salty water, maintenance is the biggest pain in the A$$, welding it is ok as long as you have clean metal to get to, and once it's bent it really never recovers correctly.
Cover in oil and bake in over for a half hour or so. Be sure to put alum foil or pan on the lower rack to catch the drippings.
I have not read this entire thread, but I had to chime in an say how much we love our cast iron. We use ours eveyday, and do not own a single non-stick pan. A well used and seasoned skillet can fry an egg better than any modern pan. I mostly maintain them by scrubbing in hot water, and then rubbing dry with a kitchen towel. I don't often wipe them with oil for storing because we use them multiple times a day. If a pan was used for some kind of wet sauce based cooking, I will need to wipe it with oil after but rarely. I even use a drop of Dawn dish soap if a pan was used to cook a strong smelling fish, oh my! We absolutely love our black iron, and I am trying to hoard more for the kiddos when they fly the coop. My kids are not gonna cook with modern non-stick poison! P.S. I even have the Griswold bible, cataloguing all their cast iron goodies... some day I will find a BIG skillet.
Got a Cast iron score coming home from work! Saw a yard/tag sale on way home and stopped, the lady had marked all pans at $10 each. I asked her if she'd take $30 for the five and she said sure, "they been sitting there all day" …. I said thank you very much and went about my way with over $250.00 worth of cast iron pans. Yes, that's a Griswold # 8 and a Wagner chef's square skillet, along with a #10 Wagner , #6 and Griddle
You lucky dog!! We went to a yard sale a couple weeks ago looking specifically for cast iron and I found some old kettles but the guy wanted $50 for them and they were in terrible possibly beyond repair shape.
Yes, your right! I usually find one at a time, not 5 Although when we made our trip out to Wisconsin this past winter, I did come back with 7 pans, I found 4 in one flea market and 3 in an antique store. I gotta say, I've found more pans at yard sales than most places and usually a lot cheaper! The antique stores troll e-bay and base their prices off of that.
I had wagner from the early 70's including the square one, lost them in the divorce.... I really loved the square one best.....Nice score....
