There’s one more thing you should know: it’s a bad idea to cook tomato sauce, or any other super acidic food, in cast iron. Acid reacts with the metal and can cause some of the iron to leach out into your food. While the potential health risk is extremely low, it can make the food taste metallic.
Another common inquiry is “Can you cook Tomatoes in a cast iron skillet?”.
America’s Test Kitchen found that only after cooking very acidic foods for 30 minutes in a cast iron skillet there was a noticeable metallic flavor. So just make sure you’re not making any slow-cooked tomato sauces in your cast iron.
(These rules do not apply to enameled cast-iron skillets; the enameled coating makes it safe to cook acidic ingredients for any length of time.) So it’s okay—you just need to be careful about how long you cook your sauce, and how long you let the sauce stay in the pan.
Our answer is that a well-seasoned skillet can withstand the acid in most foods. Seasoning can stop the acid from reacting with the iron. If you’re cooking with a poorly-seasoned skillet, you might want to reconsider. Secondly, if you’re quickly cooking tomato sauce in the skillet, there’s not much chance for iron to be leached out.
Is there more iron in tomato sauce or tomato paste?
However, when dried or concentrated, they offer a much greater amount ( 33 ). For instance, half a cup (118 ml) of tomato paste offers 3.9 mg of iron, or 22% of the RDI, whereas 1 cup (237 ml) of tomato sauce offers 1.9 mg, or 11% of the RDI ( 34, 35 ).
You may be thinking “Which has more iron tomato sauce or meatballs?”
…The tomato sauce wins. You read that right: A cup of tomato puree has 4.5 mg iron, whereas 3 ounces of Italian-style meatballs contains just 1.5 mg. I know, I was shocked too!
At 0.5 mg per cup, raw tomatoes contain very little iron. However, when dried or concentrated, they offer a much greater amount ( 33 ). For instance, half a cup (118 ml) of tomato paste offers 3.9 mg of iron, or 22% of the RDI, whereas 1 cup (237 ml) of tomato sauce offers 1.9 mg, or 11% of the RDI ( 34, 35 ).
Should you season a cast iron skillet?
A cast iron skillet is an integral tool in a home kitchen, but there are do’s and don’ts that must be respected. If you own a cast iron skillet, you should know that it first needs to be seasoned. Any by seasoning, we mean giving it a good protective coating of oil. You’ve probably also heard that you should never wash it with soap.
What foods are high in iron?
Pureed tomatoes contain 4.5 mg iron per cup, plus 27 mg of vitamin C to boost absorption. (4.5 mg iron per 1 cup canned pureed tomatoes) 5. Asparagus Okay, did anyone else know asparagus is rich in iron?