4 Things You Should Never Cook in Cast Iron

Most people who cook with cast-iron pans love them with the heat of a thousand suns. After all, they’re fantastic for making one-skillet meals and can be used for everything from breakfast to dessert. However, cast-iron cooking does come with a few rules, including several things you should never cook in cast iron.

Things You Should Never Cook in Cast Iron

Smelly foods

Cast iron is porous, especially before you’ve had a chance to thoroughly season your cast-iron skillet. Smelly foods like garlic, peppers, fish and stinky cheeses tend to leave aromatic memories in your cast-iron pan, and they’ll reveal themselves with your next cooking session. That’s fine if you always use it to cook savory foods, but it’s not ideal if you’re making cast-iron desserts.

You can clean your cast-iron skillet with soap and pop it in a 400°F oven for about 10 minutes to remove the odor. However, it’s best to avoid cooking foods that would be ruined by those lingering aromas for the next few cooks.

Eggs and other sticky things

For the first few months, I recommend avoiding sticky foods like eggs and pancakes. Once the pan is well-seasoned, you can make cast-iron egg recipes without any problem at all. But when it’s new, sticky foods may present a problem. Unless you like brown eggs and a gunky pan, relegate them to a regular nonstick pan for a while.

Delicate fish

Cast iron retains heat well, which is good news for something like cast-iron steak. However, the same heat retention that gives steak a beautiful brown crust will probably be the end of a lovely piece of trout or tilapia. Save the delicate fish for a nonstick pan and use cast iron for meatier fish, like swordfish and salmon.

Acidic foods

There seem to be mixed feelings on this one. Some people list acidic foods amongst the top cast-iron cooking mistakes. Foods like tomatoes or lemons could react with the metal, they say, causing it to leach into the food. It’s safe to eat, but it may have a metallic taste. Others say they can’t taste a difference but avoid acidic foods because they break down the pan’s seasoning. If acidic foods discolor your pan a bit, a baking soda scrub will take care of it.

One thing to note: This list is for traditional cast-iron pans. If you have an enamel-coated cast-iron pan, you don’t need to adhere to this list—you can just get cooking!