A cast iron pan on a black surface near herb springs and garlic - Yelenayemchuk/Getty Images Some of you may think cast iron pans are more trouble than they're worth. If you've got a perfectly good ...

Rai Mincey is a food writer and baking enthusiast whose focuses include culinary history, seasonal cooking, and Southern cuisine. She splits her time between Birmingham, Alabama, and Tulum, Mexico.

Out of the best cooking pans you can have in your arsenal, the versatile cast iron is one that professional and amateur chefs often feel the most passionately about. It is the pan José Andrés uses ...