What is the advantage of a steel skillet over a cast iron one? I currently use cast iron for most everything and am curious what I might be missing.
Pan sauces made with wine, vinegar, or any other acid are better in stainless steel. If you put any acid in cast-iron, you are harming your seasoning, and leeching iron into your food. This will affect the taste of your sauces, I find pan sauces taste metallic when made in cast iron.
Stainless steel also heats up and cools down much faster than cast-iron. This is great when you need quick heat, or fine control of your heat. You can also plunge a piping hot stainless pan into an ice-bath without cracking it in half.
If there's an advantage to getting a steel skillet as well, what would be recommended?
Go with a a bonded stainless-steel pan with an aluminum core. The most well known manufacturer is All-Clad. The stainless steel exterior is great due to it's non reactivity, you can literally put anything in it. The aluminum core distributes the heat much more quickly and evenly, minimizing hot-spots.
Is a steel skillet good for cooking omelettes?
Not in my opinion. I go with a non-stick pan every time.
I have to recommend sticking with a nonstick pan for eggs. There's simply nothing better, although well seasoned cast iron comes awful close. If you're spending more than $20 for a nonstick egg pan, you're doing it wrong. You don't need Calphalon, or any other big name for a good nonstick pan. Go to a restaurant supply store if you can and buy a cheap one there. With care it should last you 2-5 years depending on use. I found my current one at a Bed Bath & Beyond.
it is perfectly safe to use stainless steel wool on a Vitreous enamel. I presume that the cast iron skillet has a Vitreous enamel finish.
The reason is simple:
Vitreous enamel is essentially a type of ceramic and has a hardness of around 5-6 on the Mohs scale. Steel has around 4-5 on the same scale. This means that generally, you can not damage it with the steel wool.
Also no not confuse the "grit" of the steel wool with its hardness :P
The only thing that will happen is that the enamel will get very small scratches and that things will stick a bit better in them. You can get rid of most of them with a good polishing compound if they disturb you to much.
Personally I would advise you "not to need" to clean it with steel wool in the first place, but is something burned up badly and you do not have heavy cleaning agents nearby steel wool is an acceptable solution.
If it is just for cleaning leftovers , usually soaking in soap water and a hard plastic brush does a very good job as well.
Remember that even thou Vitreous enamel is very hard and durable it may be damaged by overheating or crack if dropped.
Best Answer
Enameled cast iron usually means porcelain enamel, a type of glass. It's resistant to both acidic and alkaline foods. It is fine to cook and even store tomato sauces, etc. in enameled cast iron.
Stainless steel is also resistant to acidic foods, but not as much as porcelain enamel. Storing tomato sauce in it may eventually discolor the pot.
Both stainless and enameled iron are perfectly good options for cooking with acids. Whether you need a stainless pan depends on what cooking you're doing. In brief, cast iron has very slow heat response (e.g., you raise or lower the burner, it takes a while for the pan to cool or heat); stainless is much faster. That's a drawback too, iron gives a very nice steady heat, perfect for braising.
Stainless is also almost always lighter. I have a 12 qt stainless stock pot, its several pounds. My enameled iron dutch oven, at less than half the capacity, is closer to 15 lbs.