Cast Iron Pan with an Infrared Camera

I have been planning on getting into cooking for a while now -- a while being over a year before I actually started. It finally happened recently and it's been slow but interesting. One thing that's really piqued my interest has been cast iron cookware. Interesting stories have been told about cooking with cast iron and the quality of food that it produces. I've been very apprehensive about getting anything cast iron due to the extra care and maintenance that I believed it required. Luckily, buying a cast iron skillet and dumping it on someone else to deal with wasn't something I was concerned about years ago.

Cast Iron Skillet Fresh Off a Stove

About five years ago, I bought a 10"-ish cast iron skillet as a gift for someone. That person has been pretty satisfied with it. And because the person had extensive experience with carbon steel cookware, the maintenance and care wasn't a bother at all -- a blessing because I didn't know anything about how to take care of cast iron when I dumped it off.

Cast Iron Skillet Heating Up More

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Lodge Cast Iron Skillet on Stove with Infrared Camera
Overview: Lodge Cast Iron 8" Skillet

Cast Iron Skillet on an Electric Stove Top
Five-ish years later, the cast iron skillet was dug up to try to see how it looked when heating up on a stove. This was done with a long-wave infrared camera. I considered doing this previously with other pots. However, most of the cookware available was either non-stick or stainless steel. Leaving an empty non-stick pan on a stove to heat-up seemed less than ideal, and stainless steel probably wouldn't have shown up well due to the shiny steel.

Cast Iron Skillet Heating Up More and Then Some

The cast iron skillet was about a 10" size, probably had some seasoning on the surface, and it was heat up on a 6" burner at low-medium heat. Nothing on the camera was set up accurately, this was done to just see what would show up.

Reminder: Temperatures are not accurate.