A simple test to determine whether particles from cooking remain in the skillet and get absorbed by a subsequent meal is to cook fish (or something particularly spicy) and then wash the pan carefully. If you can detect that flavor in the next dish, some kind of leaching is going on.

After many years of using tri-ply, I can confirm that I've never detected this pan-to-dish flavor exchange to occur. I've burnt food on stainless steel many times, and when that happens it takes a lot of scrubbing with Bar Keepers Friend to get the carbonized food out, but the pot comes out as good as new. The trouble with tri-ply is that the bottom of pots remain perfectly flat, but skillets warp, making them tiresome to use on ceramic stoves.

I'm contemplating a new type of cookware. Given the uncertainty of whether a cast-iron skillet's seasoning makes it into the food, I'm skipping this type of cookware. Instead, I am looking into enameled cast iron.

I'd like to focus on just the flavor. If we assume that the cook cares for the enamel so it doesn't chip or similar, will there be flavor transfer between dishes?

A simple test to determine whether particles from cooking remain in the skillet and get absorbed by a subsequent meal is to cook fish (or something particularly spicy) and then wash the pan carefully. If you can detect that flavor in the next dish, some kind of leaching is going on.

After many years of using tri-ply, I can confirm that I've never detected this pan-to-dish flavor exchange to occur. I've burnt food on stainless steel many times, and when that happens it takes a lot of scrubbing with Bar Keepers Friend to get the carbonized food out, but the pot comes out as good as new. The trouble with tri-ply is that the bottom of pots remain perfectly flat, but skillets warp, making them tiresome to use on ceramic stoves.

I'm contemplating a new type of cookware. Given the uncertainty of whether a cast-iron skillet's seasoning makes it into the food, I'm skipping this type of cookware. Instead, I am looking into enameled cast iron.

I'd like to focus on just the flavor. If we assume that the cook cares for the enamel so it doesn't chip or similar, will there be flavor transfer between dishes?

A simple test to determine whether particles from cooking remain in the skillet and get absorbed by a subsequent meal is to cook fish (or something particularly spicy) and then wash the pan carefully. If you can detect that flavor in the next dish, some kind of leaching is going on.

After many years of using tri-ply, I can confirm that I've never detected this pan-to-dish flavor exchange to occur. I've burnt food on stainless steel many times, and when that happens it takes a lot of scrubbing with Bar Keepers Friend to get the carbonized food out, but the pot comes out as good as new. The trouble with tri-ply is that the bottom of pots remain perfectly flat, but skillets warp, making them tiresome to use on ceramic stoves.

I'm contemplating a new type of cookware. Given the uncertainty of whether a cast-iron skillet's seasoning makes it into the food, I'm skipping this type of cookware.

The next type of cookware is cast-iron covered with enamel. I'm guessing that the enamel is just silicon dioxide, and hence entirely harmless if it enters our digestive system and even our blood stream. Let's skip the financial considerations (replacing what I have from that famous French maker of enamel cookware would be steep—luckily they're not the only one).

I'd like to focus on just the flavor. If you have used enamel-covered cast iron for an extended period and you can confirm that you have never experienced flavor from one dish making it into the next, please share your experience. Here we assume that the cook is caring for the enamel and that the enamel is of sufficiently high quality to remain nearly pristine. It's understood that once enamel cracks or chips, one can build a new patina from the seasoning, but then we'd be back to the uncertainty outlined above.

A simple test to determine whether particles from cooking remain in the skillet and get absorbed by a subsequent meal is to cook fish (or something particularly spicy) and then wash the pan carefully. If you can detect that flavor in the next dish, some kind of leaching is going on.

After many years of using tri-ply, I can confirm that I've never detected this pan-to-dish flavor exchange to occur. I've burnt food on stainless steel many times, and when that happens it takes a lot of scrubbing with Bar Keepers Friend to get the carbonized food out, but the pot comes out as good as new. The trouble with tri-ply is that the bottom of pots remain perfectly flat, but skillets warp, making them tiresome to use on ceramic stoves.

I'm contemplating a new type of cookware. Given the uncertainty of whether a cast-iron skillet's seasoning makes it into the food, I'm skipping this type of cookware. Instead, I am looking into enameled cast iron.

I'd like to focus on just the flavor. If we assume that the cook cares for the enamel so it doesn't chip or similar, will there be flavor transfer between dishes?