I know aluminum pans are super common in professional kitchens, but for at home cooking since they’re apparently not good for cooking eggs or anything acidic like tomato’s, what are the best things to cook with them?

I’m guessing it’s good at searing meats and making sauces, but so is my cast iron.

Can you make corn tortillas on them or would they stick?

  • Remy Rose@piefed.socialEnglish
    7·
    12 days ago

    I think aluminum pans have totally different use cases than cast iron. They’re wayyyy more responsive to changes in heat, and they heat much more evenly. With cast iron you’re supposed to supposed to build up a nonstick surface by heating oil in it until it polymerizes, which makes it great for eggs but actually bad for a lot of sauces I think? In aluminum you often kinda want food to stick and undergo a maillard reaction, then scrape all those bits up and incorporate them into the sauce for flavor. As for acidic stuff, that’s true, except good aluminum pans usually have a super thin layer of steel for the actual cook surface. Take all that with a grain of salt because I’m no expert, but I did learn everything I know from the holy grail of cookware knowledge, this legendary 2003 eGullet post.

    I’d probably use the cast iron for tortillas, or better yet, a flat soapstone tawa.

      • sga@lemmings.worldEnglish
        3·
        12 days ago

        Adding to what has been said before because it is directly in line - aluminium pans have higher heat conductivity. So whatever food is in direct contact would be heated much more quickly than the interiors, so you can use it to cook the the outsides crispy, while keeping inside jucier.

        Another point to note - you don;t really have to worry about acids (or anything for that matter). Aluminum oxidses ridiculously fast - making a thin (5-10 nano meter) coating of aluminum oxide coating - which would be one the most resistive things you would practically find (in terms of chemical corrosion or general wear and tear). If you would really like to ensure this just heat the pan, and let it cool down naturally. If you would like to test this, then just take some aluminum foil, heat it and let it cool down (so we ensure that we jhave made a good Al2O3 coating). After cooling, cut it in half - dip one them as is in a acid (lets say a concentrated vinegar, or HCl solution if available) and for the other - use a steel wool/hard plastic brush and brush its top (without tearing - we are trying to mechanically break/tear the Al2O3 layer) and also dip it. You would be able to compare the coorosion rates and the oxidised one should fare better. This is also one of the reasons why keeping water in iron pot vs al pot - iron pot would percievable corrode more. Iron is much lesst reactive, but Al so much more reactive - that it will oxidise and make a shielding layer, which then protects from corrosion from water)