“We love cast iron too, in a nostalgic way. We love its important place in the history of iron cooking. It certainly works. Thing is, this new wrought iron is just so much better at everything important to a cook, so we just don’t pick up the cast iron any more.”
Cast Iron v. Wrought Iron
We’re real mechanical engineers (who cook), and we’ve been developing equipment for chefs for decades, so, yes, we know a lot about cast iron and wrought iron, from modern tech to old history.
We are the world’s only manufacturer with a patented new method for making production seamless 1-piece machine-wrought iron (and stainless) cookware. We manufacture our US-ION cookware in the USA from clean US iron.
Yes, cast iron is also one piece, and has been around for centuries. Wrought iron has been around much longer: for 3,000+ years, since the dawn of the iron age. It was the cookware that dominated for thousands of years, until casting of iron became efficient enough to make much cheaper cookware, not better cookare. Cast iron then became more popular.
Times change. Our new wrought iron pans cook and season the same as cast iron, yet they are around half the weight of traditional cast iron pans.
Not only does our highly conductive solid 1/8” wrought iron heat faster and more evenly than cast iron, our pans also hold that heat very well and can handle searing a big steak without cooling instantly like thinner carbon steel pans. The extra thickness in cast iron pans (for flow during sand casting) is wasted weight.
So why switch from cast to wrought? Similar to the question: 'if you were offered a model T Ford or a new luxury sports car for your everyday driving, which would you choose?' One is nostalgic, and one performs better, in every way.....
FAQ: ‘Cast iron has worked fine for hundreds of years, so why fix it if it ain’t broke?’
We LOVE cast iron, in a nostalgic old way, and respect its important place in history. Cast iron is however becoming obsolete because wrought iron does everything better that is important in an iron pan:
Wrought iron cooks and seasons just like cast iron. Our wrought iron is more iron than cast iron! (99.7% iron versus 96% for cast iron - the difference is largely carbon content - a big barrier to good conductivity!).
The big one: wrought iron pans are around half the weight of cast iron pans. The low weight of wrought iron really suits very young and older cooks, as well as cooks with strength challenges, and chefs!
Pro chefs have never used cast iron as their working skillets. They’ve used French steel pans (or their copies). Now Chefs all around the world are switching to our wrought iron pans, and using them all day long as their working skillets. They simply can not use cast iron all day due to the weight.
Our long comfortable vented handle stays much cooler than fat little cast handles…..
Superior conductivity: conducts heat better (faster and more even) than cast iron
Tougher: wrought iron will never crack like cast iron can, and often does if dropped on a hard floor or thermally shocked. Machined thin cast iron pans are particularly fragile.
It’s quite a shock, we know, for the old-timers to see that list. After reading it we know many will still say, ‘Nope, cast iron is still the best.’ Not a good engineering argument, but if they’re happy they should keep cooking on their cast iron. At least it isn’t toxic/disposable synthetic nonstick!
Despite being around half the weight of cast iron, our pans are also tougher and will last much longer, because our wrought iron can’t be cracked. Even thick cast iron pans regularly crack with impact or thermal shock.
New 'hipster' machined cast iron pans can be as light as 4lbs for a 10” pan, so only about 25% heavier than ours, but they’re also very fragile. Cast iron is already fragile for impact or thermal shock, and machining them thin makes them even more fragile. At some point there will be an accident…..and that’s a shame when you think a pan is tough enough to hand down as a family heirloom. We see the sad stories often on cast iron cooking forums: "I'm devastated. Today I dropped my great grandmother's cast iron pan.....". That will never happen with our pans.
We love traditional cast iron too, in a nostalgic kind of way. Wrought iron performs the same at half the weight.
For a short time we have a ‘Try Me’ special at a price never to be repeated for exactly this purpose: for $49 you can own a rare First Edition 7.5" pan and try the difference for yourself. Like our Australian pans when we first launched 3 years ago, everybody came back to collect the rest of the range, and stopped using their old Teflon and cast iron pans.
You can learn more by clicking through to our Kickstarter project (HERE) and decide for yourself if you would like to add this 'not so heavy' piece of metal to your kitchens artillery - for more FAQ 's click here
We do hope you have the change to try this engineering marvel for yourself!