that's that.

i'm done with my cast iron pan. i'll let hops use it for cornbread but that's all the use it will see. here are its faults:

1) i can never properly season it. there's always a rough spot.
2) it smokes when i heat it. likely a result of #1.
3) it heats up fast and cools off too slowly. cooking is all about temperature control.

and finally, the kicker:

4) i have a set of kickass all-clad pans which suffer from none of the above problems, and maintain all of the benefits of cast iron (except for being cheap). i see no reason to put myself through the trouble of bothering with cast iron's quirks when i've got perfectly nice alternatives that work flawlessly.

but corn bread in the cast iron pan sure looks nice.