Cookware Materials: A Complete Guide

Why we wrote this

For the last 10 years we've been making cast iron in America. In that time we've answered thousands of emails from people asking us the differences between a Field Skillet and a Lodge, an All-Clad set they got as a wedding gift vs a Caraway pan they bought because their friend had one, or a vintage Griswold their grandmother passed down.

This is the comparison we wish we could have just sent those people. We're not neutral—we make cast iron—but the goal isn't to argue every material into the ground. The goal is to be honest about what each one actually does, so you can build the right kitchen for the way you cook.

All materials at a glance

Our take

If we had to pick one pan to put in a first kitchen—a wedding registry, a college graduate, somebody starting over—it'd be a cast iron skillet. Not as a compromise. Because no other material does as many things well, and no other material gets better the longer you own it.

That's not the answer everyone might be looking for. Cast iron is heavier than a nonstick. It's less responsive than stainless steel. It needs to be dried after washing instead of going in the dishwasher. Those are real tradeoffs. But the tradeoffs go away within a few weeks of regular use, and what you're left with is a pan that's still going to be working ten years later and better than the day you got it.

Most serious cooks end up with more than one material. We have stainless and copper for sauce work, a carbon steel wok for stir-fry, and a small ceramic pan that gets pulled out when somebody wants an over-easy egg in a hurry. But the cast iron is the pan we reach for first, and the pan we'd hand down. That's the case we're making here, and the deep-dive pages get extra specific about why.

Compare two materials directly

Each deep dive compares a different material to cast iron head-to-head: where each material is stronger, who it's right for, and what it costs over a decade of use.

• Cast Iron vs. Stainless Steel—heat retention vs. responsiveness; the everyday pan vs. the sauce pan.
• Cast Iron vs. Carbon Steel—both build seasoning. Which one is right for which cook?
• Cast Iron vs. Nonstick—natural seasoning vs. synthetic coatings; the lifetime pan vs. the five-year pan.
• Cast Iron vs. Ceramic—Caraway, Our Place, GreenPan, and where the "nontoxic" framing falls apart. (coming soon)
• Cast Iron vs. Copper—heat retention vs. extreme responsiveness; everyday cookware vs. specialist tool. (coming soon)
• Cast Iron vs. Aluminum—weight, heat retention, and what you give up for lightness. (coming soon)

What to cook in each

If you're trying to decide what to buy first, determining what you plan to cook is the most useful way to approach this. Don't pick a material in the abstract. Instead, pick a piece of cookware that handles what you actually cook most often.

Reach for cast iron if you want:

• A real sear—steak, pork chops, chicken thighs—the kind where the pan doesn't drop temperature when cold meat hits it
• To fry eggs, hash browns, potatoes, anything that wants steady oil temperature
• To make cornbread, skillet cookies, anything that starts on the stovetop and finishes in the oven
• To cook smash burgers (cast iron is hard to beat here)
• To cook over a grill or open flame (cast iron works on a campfire as well as a stovetop)

Reach for stainless steel if you want:

• To simmer tomato sauce for two hours
• To create wine reductions and pan sauces
• To sauté aromatics where you don't want any browning
• To cook anything where you need to turn the burner down and have the pan respond quickly
• To boil pasta or blanch vegetables

Reach for carbon steel if you want:

• To cook with a wok. Really, this is a great material for high-heat stir-fry
• Crepes and delicate omelets, once you've got the pan seasoned
• Some of cast iron's benefits, but find a 10-inch cast iron skillet too heavy

Reach for nonstick or ceramic if you want:

• A surface to cook on for the first few months while you're still building seasoning on a new cast iron pan
• To cook delicate fish if you haven't gotten the cast iron technique down yet
• To genuinely not have to think about pan care at all and accept that you'll be replacing it in a year or two.

Reach for copper if you want:

• To make caramel, temper chocolate, or perform sugar work—anything where two degrees too hot ruins the dish
• To make Beurre blanc, hollandaise, anything where instant temperature control matters

A note on quality

Within every material, quality varies more than people expect. A $25 stamped stainless skillet behaves nothing like a $200 All-Clad multi-clad. A $30 Lodge and a $160 Smithey or Field skillet are both technically cast iron, but they perform meaningfully differently.

Most of the complaints people have about a given material—stainless that sticks, cast iron that's hard to use, nonstick that flakes—come down to having owned the inexpensive version of it. When you read a comparison, assume we're talking about the well-made version of each.

Field cast iron is machined smooth, the way vintage cast iron from Wagner and Griswold was made, so it seasons faster and performs better than rough-cast alternatives from the start. That's the version of cast iron we're comparing against everything else here.

FAQ

What is the healthiest cookware material?
Bare cast iron and carbon steel are the cleanest cooking surfaces—just iron and the fat you've seasoned it with. No PFAS, no PTFE, no ceramic coating that wears off. Stainless steel is also non-reactive and safe. The materials people worry about are nonstick coatings (PTFE/Teflon) and ceramic-coated pans where the coating degrades over time.

Which cookware material lasts the longest?
Cast iron and copper, by a wide margin. A cast iron skillet made in 1920 still cooks today. A well-cared-for copper pan can be passed down for generations. Stainless steel typically lasts 20–40 years. Nonstick and ceramic-coated pans need to be replaced every 1–5 years as the coating wears.

Is cast iron better than stainless steel?
For the kind of cooking most people do—searing, frying, baking, eggs—yes. For acidic sauces, wine reductions, and anything that needs quick temperature changes, stainless steel is the better tool. Most serious home cooks end up with both. See the full comparison here.

Can I use cast iron on a glass or induction cooktop?
Yes. Cast iron works on every cooktop—gas, electric, glass, induction—as well as in the oven, on a grill, or over a campfire. Glass cooktop users should lift rather than slide the pan to avoid scratching the surface.

Why does my cast iron stick?
Almost always one of three things: the pan isn't hot enough when food goes in, the seasoning isn't built up yet, or you're cooking with too little fat. A properly preheated, well-seasoned cast iron skillet with a small amount of oil should release eggs cleanly. If yours doesn't, it's almost always a seasoning or preheating issue, not a defect in the pan.

What's the difference between modern cast iron and vintage cast iron?
Vintage cast iron from companies like Wagner and Griswold was polished smooth after casting—lighter, smoother, and easier to season than most modern cast iron, which is left rough off the mold. That smoother surface is why collectors still hunt vintage pans. Field is machined smooth in the vintage style, which is why it performs more like a vintage pan than a modern Lodge.

Field Company has been making cast iron in America since 2016. Check out our full collection of cast iron here.