My mother does much of her cooking on enormous, weighty iron skillets. She does this because she believes most every other kind of pan will slowly poison her in some way. However, these are old pans, and while an aluminum pan may or may not leave invisible fragments of aluminum in food, these iron skillets undoubtedly leave great big specs of black iron. My mother says this is okay because people need iron and most don’t get enough anyway. I’m understandably skeptical. Anybody here have the straight dope?
I have iron skillets that are pushing forty years old, and my mother has pans that are pushing sixty and I really hope that as the eldest child I inherit her perfectly seasoned pans. There’s nothing wrong with iron pans and the more seasoned they are the better they are. Don’t worry about it–your mom is right to be skeptical of certain types of pan, especially non-stick ones. Those can outgas such toxic fumes it will kill parrots and other pet birds if overheated.
Are they corroding badly? It seems unlikely. Absent severe corrosion why are they falling apart? I think it more likey that any black specs are burned on food residue falling off.
Among collectors and enthusiasts of cast iron, the oldest pans are the most sought after. If they are seasoned properly, they shouldn’t be shedding “flecks” of anything. A little transfer of iron, sure - not on the level of visibility though.
On a lazy research note, a googling of “cast iron pan poisonous” results largely in websites advocating the switch from Teflon to cast iron, for the reasons that **SmartAleq **noted previously.
I am not an expert on the matter but it appears to be a well-documented fact that cookware iron finds its way into your food:
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1991.tb05331.x
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2621.1988.tb09320.x
As far as I can tell, this is generally considered a good thing. The abstract of the second article notes:
Iron itself doesn’t seem to be a problem, but I’ve found a paper about stainless steel:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t64638657362479h/
Here, the problem is nickel; iron and chromium are considered as desirable contaminants. (IANAD but it seems that at these concentrations, nickel is only a problem to those who are allergic.)
No, I’m quite serious about the specs. You can pick them up with your fingers and see the sharp edges. I don’t know what a properly cared-for antique iron skillet looks like, but much of the area around the lips of these looks like bubbling paint on an old house, or that gnarled look of a reeeally old wrought-iron fence. The specs problem is worst when scrambling eggs; all the scraping seems to knock bits loose. It’s all black though- if it’s rust it’s black rust.
If these things are so desirable, then can someone link me to a good guide to their care and feeding? It’s quite possible that my mother picked them up somewhere and just started using them without ‘restoring’ them first, or whatever it is they need. She’s that sort of person.
The specks sound like carbon to me…
Most likely.
Cast iron doesn’t flake; and rust, if it forms on a poorly seasoned pan, tends to appear in thin powdery layers.
On the other hand, twenty years of cooked on oil and egg bits looks black and bubbly around the edges, exactly as Strain of Thought describes.
If the specks are carbonized food remnants a scrubbing with a wire brush should take care of that. You may need to reseason them afterwards.
I have a two hundred year old iron kettle. It’s not shedding any flecks. It’s black, and kinda shiny from oil on the inside, and black and not shiny on the outside. I use it, and do not find black flecks in my food.
None of my ancestors died in circumstances likely to arise from metal poisoning, and I don’t have any symptoms of it, nor do my sisters, and brother, after sixty years of eating spaghetti sauce, and stew cooked in it. (And black iron fry pans of undetermined age, certainly near a century.) Don’t recall finding black flecks in my food, except when it was immediately present from burning something. (yeah, we tended to eat it anyway, unless it was burned bad.)
Tris
Well, there seems to be some evidence that excess iron is a health risk in men and post-menopausal women. But the articles that come up in a Google search seem a bit over the top, so I’m not sure if this is accepted medical wisdom based on solid research or not. For example, this guy seems to blame iron overload for just about every conceivable disease.
Of course, if you want to play it safe and still eat Mom’s delicious home cooking, you could always have yourself bled once in a while. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if the medieval barbers were onto something there?
I think something spectacularly unusual would have to be happening in order for you to be ingesting excess iron from the pan.
The biggest significant health risk is that it might fall on your head from a tall shelf.
Here it is, right from the pinnacle of cast iron cookware.
http://www.lodgemfg.com/usecare1.asp
There is a genetic variant that gives rise to a condition called hemochromatosis in which the body absorbs more iron than usual. It is most commonly found among those of Northern European ancestry but it’s not limited to them. Carriers appear to be largely unaffected, but those with two copies of the gene are suspectible to iron overload which can damage the organs and lead to an early death. The exception is women of childbearing age who menstruate or give birth regularly. There are a couple of other iron overload disorders, although apparently not so common
So yes, there ARE people for whom this is a problem when the diet is amply supplied with iron, as is currently the case in most of the industrialized world (obviously, if the diet is iron-poor this can become an advantage which might account for the high rate of it in some locations). They are a minority of people, however, and nowadays one can be tested for it. Since it’s genetic you either have it or you don’t, and if you don’t have the trait eating food cooked in iron pans will not induce the disorder.
Treatment involves regular bleeding - so yes, it may be the medieval barbers were on to something, except that the amounts of blood they drained were sometimes more than enough to cause death.
My father has that and has to be bled every couple of weeks. The docs don’t want him to eat red meat or anything high in iron.
Yes, I would agree. It’s either burned-on food that’s flecking off, or bits of the seasoning (which is burned-on oil, basically).
I have a cast iron dutch oven that I use for things like chili. One time, I got distracted and did not clean it until the next morning :eek: :smack: :smack: :smack: . This meant the coating got damaged and bits of it started flecking into the food the next time or two I used it. I now need to scrub it down to the bare metal and reseason it before I can use it again. Basically the flecks looked like black bits of oregano in the spaghetti sauce. I’ve quit using it because it’s unappealing until I can restore it, but I doubt I poisoned the family during those few uses.
In the case of the OP’s pan, you should probably scrub yours to the metal (various ways of doing so; we bought a brush attachment for the drill; I just need to find the time to do it.
I have the same issue with a cast iron griddle. In the center where the pancakes or whatever cooks, it is slick as a whistle. Over at the edges where the food does not cook, over the years, the oils and such have built up, burnt on, and are now flaking off.
Not really a concern, health wise.
As for seasoning goes, I think these beat what Lodge recommends all to hell.
I’ve found that scrubbing with wire brushes seems to absolutely destroy the seasoning, but using a metal spatula scrapes off the carbon layer and leaves you with a nice, slick surface–assuming a halfway decent seasoning underneath. Were it my pan, I’d fill it about halfway full with water and put it on the burner on high. Bring it to a boil and scrape the junk off with a metal spatula as the water is boiling. Once everything’s loosened up, carefully dump out the water into the sink, put the pan back on the burner to dry it out, and then give it a good rub with some bacon grease or shortening and a towel.
Should be good as new!
I just want to state for the record, if Tris is found dead and his kettle is missing, I had nothing to do with it. Because I have one that is identical. I just never showed it to anyone.
Regards,
Shodan
Remember, some of those old kettles have decorative designs on the backside which leave an identifiable mark when swung against someone’s skull.