Cooking For Engineers

[boilerplate]

I recently watched a friend (from France) fry eggs in a pan I'd be ashamed to hang in my garage to swat rats with. The pan was absolutely black and might have cost $1.50 new. The sides were straight, slanted out, and the steel handle must have been riveted by a kid in shop class. I passed on the eggs after I saw that pan.

Now here's the kicker, his four kids are already in a war over who gets it when their parents dies. All it is, is a cheap piece sheet metal (an old fender maybe) pressed into the shape of a pan. It would rust in a minute if it wasn't covered with carbon.

Now, my wife wants one. What I want to know is food cooked in one of these safe to eat?

[CQE Chef]

It's safe - any piece of cast iron cookware is pretty much the same thing, only much heavier. Iron or steel cookware is always the way to go (unless you have a thing for copper) - avoid aluminum or glass at all costs except as bakeware.

Why not make your wife happy and get a set of skillets from Lodge Cast Iron? Pre-seasoned (covered in carbon) is the way to go so you don't have to cover it with bacon grease and bake it for two hours yourself. They'll turn out eggs just as great as the piece of junk your friend use, yet last for decades.