Cast Iron & Glass Top Stoves

'I Don't Use Cast Iron Because I have a Glass Top Stove.'

     Quite possibly the heading of this post is one of the most disturbing comments that I hear as a collector, user and seller of cast iron hollow ware. The observation that somebody cannot use cast iron because they have a glass top stove. So I have decided to create a post with visual proof that cast iron is okay to use on a glass top stove.



This is a glass top stove. It is about 3 years old.

    My wife asked me to make steak, rice and canned corn for dinner. Though I would not have thought to come up with that combination, I figure why not? So the first step is to get the rice cooking, because that takes the most amount of time for this dinner. About twenty - thirty minutes or so I figured. So here is the first cast iron pot. It is a Griswold Deep Fat Fryer. I use it as a sauce pot. Unloaded it weighs about 5 lbs. 3 oz. With the rice, water glass lid it weighs 6 lbs.



Rice getting ready to boil.


     I chose to use a No. 10 3-Notch Lodge Skillet to cook the steak. This skillet weighs in right at 7 lbs. Keep in mind that it is important to slowly heat the cast iron. Both the Deep Fryer and the Skillet will heat up over the course of about 10-15 minutes. The nobs have a scale of 1-8 on them. I have the rice set to a 3.5 and the skillet is at a 3. I almost never cook at anything hotter than these settings and I find that they are a nice slow heat up.


Heating up the No. 10 3-Notch Lodge Skillet for the steak.

     Next thing to get started is the corn simmering. I like to cook canned corn slowly. Perhaps it is a habit I developed elsewhere. Any rate, I only have one Deep Fat Fryer (Sauce Pan). So I will be using a heavy duty Commercial Brand Aluminum Ware 1.5 qt. sauce pan that weighs in at 3 lbs. with the food added.



Corn and rice simmering, with the Lodge warming up.

     Finally the pan is hot enough to add some steak. After adding enough LouAna Coconut Oil to cover the skillet, I added about 1.5 lbs. of steak. The weight of the skillet is now 8 lbs.



And now STEAK!

     The rice and corn is now done. The steak is finished cooking. All I used to season the steak was pepper and salt. As you can see, the top of the stove is still intact with no damage. Total weight sitting on the stove top is 17.5 lbs. The fact of the matter is it is not any more hazardous or dangerous to cook on a glass top stove using cast iron versus any other type of cookware. I have been doing it on this stove for years. 

All done!

     So how is it that I can be absolutely positive that this is safe? Well the picture below represents what I would consider the most hazardous type of cooking that I do. As in pressure canning. The two sauce pans on the left will weigh about 8 lbs. on their own when filled with water and whatever produce I am getting ready to can. The canning pot on the right will hold about 4 gallons of water plus however many quart or pint jars filled with produce that I happen to be canning that day. But for simplicity lets assume that there is a total of 5 gallons of water contained inside the pressure canner. The pressure canner itself weighs in at 10 lbs. Water weighs about 8 lbs. per gallon. That makes it about 40lbs of water inside the canner for a total of 50 lbs. Plus the 8 lbs. for everything else. When I do my seasonal canning, the top of that stove supports nearly 60lbs of pressurized, boiling liquids. And it does its job admirably. The final point is why I always stress to my customers that it is completely okay to cook with cast iron on a glass top stove. That being said, cooking in the kitchen no matter what the method is inherently dangerous. Things in there are all hot and boily. Be careful, use your gloves when necessary. Keep the kids under constant supervision. Don't let the cats sniff the pots. Please use caution when cooking.



Representation of my canning habits.