I cook with a couple of cast iron skillets—a 6-inch one and a 10-inch one—and, after each cooking session is complete, I wash the skillet so the fats and food bits left behind don’t set. In order to do this, I need to hold onto the handle—but by that point, the handle is very hot. Even with cast iron’s notoriously slow internal distribution of heat, the handle will still be 200°F or more.
