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What Cookware Is the Best?
Spilling over from Susan’s post on Kamala’s recent cookware purchases is a minor debate on what cookware works the best, for what purpose, and at what price. @doctorrobert, @kedavis, and @jimmcconnell have already commented. But what do you think? I suppose I started the digression with this comment:
I confess to you, I have one of these. I’ve only used it once to fry a single egg. I told my wife before l’affaire Kamala that she might as well start using it — we’re not getting any younger.
Mauviel Copper M’200 CI Fry Pan
Select : 12″
$435 (It was much cheaper when I bought it.)
Williams-Sonoma many years ago. Up ’til now it’s just been too special to use.
What is your favorite skillet, chicken fryer, or saucepan?
Published in General
Preach it, brother!
I just cook every day with the cast iron and it seasons itself in no time. Use a bunch of butter and make omelets, fry eggs, cook sausage, chorizo, saute onions, etc…
That’s another reason why not to clean it with soap I guess.
Counter-productive. A seasoned pan has grease/oil that penetrated the pores of the iron (yes, metals do have “pores” at their grain boundaries) and polymerized there. That latter part requires approaching or slightly exceeding the smoke point. Unless you are cranking your heat up way past 500°F, you aren’t going to polymerize the avocado oil.
Deep frying and cast iron seasoning have distinctly different optimizations.
Consider seasoning with bacon grease or some other pork fat.
I’ll give it a shot.
Same here. We wash our cast iron stuff in Dawn, and only have to reseason them maybe once a year.
Update: However, you must dry them immediately after washing.
Only the best canned green chiles you can buy. My wife orders the 28 oz cans by the case . . .
So my understanding is that as you say, you want to be just about at the smoke point. A higher smoke point oil will supposedly be tougher to chemically “bust”, more resistent to menaces such as tomatoes and so forth. Still, I’ll take your suggestion — the old-timers managed it with bacon grease — so can I!
Sigh. Time to take it down to bare metal again with the stainless scrubbie. Never put good paint on top of bad paint.
I watched a strange YouTube video about a strange person who collects and “restores“ old cast iron pans. I followed his instructions, and got good results. He first left the cast iron pan in an oven while it went through a self-cleaning cycle. Any residue on the pan simply flaked off after it cooled. I didn’t let the self-cleaning cycle complete, just went through about two hours.
The next step was to coat the pan very lightly with Crisco. Then leave it upside down on the middle rack in an oven preheated to 300° for about an hour and a half. Let cool. Since then all that was necessary was to rinse it clean, dry it thoroughly, and coat with a very light film of Crisco. BTW, that is all I ever do with Crisco.
Are the particularly hot?
You can get them in mild, medium or hot. Even the hot is well-behaved. Chile (the
vegetabletechically a “berry-fruit”, whateverrr) can be quite spicy, but it’s not mean spirited like some japalenos (or all habaneros). It is the spice of life — it cures the cold, improves the flu, and probably prevents COVID.Huge advantage (back to the ahem, topic) of cast iron & other all-metal cookware is the ability to go right from burner to oven. Sautee or othwerwise sear/fry on top, then add the rest and into the oven. One pan, just need a hot toucher.
I have it by a good source, habeneros, seranos, and ghost peppers will kill covid. And the Carolina Reapers kill, everything.
Including the people eating them. :-)
I will use soap if I have no choice but will then dry and wipe down with cooking oil.
I dry then wipe with oil
Do you make homemade biscuits?
No. I did make them once, but the instructions called for butter instead. Not bad, but not worth the trouble.
I’ve seen people mince scotch bonnet and then wipe their faces and swell up. I never touch them so I just smile in sympathy.
It’s easier making biscuits than bread, that’s for sure. (For me, at least.) And you can made a sandwich out of them, too, if you make them big enough.
Some homemade biscuits and fried chicken and stuff:
Flagged: Please report to the CDC authorities for deprogramming.
My wife swears by cast iron.
I made pancakes this morning using an 8″ Martha Stewart pan that was also a dumpster rescue from Phoenix, it works great.
It’s very good. It just takes so long to heat, though. But it’s cheap, durable, and non-stick. Perhaps I’ve been using too thick a skillet. Cast iron is certainly the best for dutch ovens. And cauldrons, but who uses them anymore.
When I was doing my Jacque Pepin omelet-making impression this morning, I used an 8-inch non-stick Le Creuset pan. Even though it’s non-stick the booklet that came with it suggests “seasoning” it every 15 or 20 uses. Anyway, it does a good job.
Witches.
You shake a Le Creuset?! Anyway, I never understood seasoning enamel. Have you tried it?
This one isn’t enameled. It’s an old looking little thing, seems to have some sort of ceramic coating on it.I think it’s heavy gauge aluminum with a steel plate in the bottom to make it work with induction cooktops.
We do have a crane on our fireplace so Lynda can cook over the fire. I guess she’d use a cauldron. I don’t guess it’s like having a cauldron out in the middle of the heath. And there’d only be one of her.
But you shake it? I can’t shake it and scrape it at the same time. I feel like I’m having a seizure coming on.