Anyone here cook - Pots and Pans discussion

[WillyBob]

12 hours ago, willland said:

Don't have a 2 or 3 quart cast iron pot but I will soon.

 

Bill

 

12 hours ago, CECAA850 said:

The tomatoes leave a taste in cast iron that's hard for me to get out.  I use stainless for sauce.

 

I use a dutch oven. It's primary use is chili/spaghetti sauce. The tight/er sealing lid makes good for simmering in  it.

 

  IF I don't want that taste in what I am cooking, I will resort to soap in it.  Ewwww

 

I presume y'all have seen the bamboo brush that is traditionally used to clean a wok?

[Skelt]

I love my cast iron cookware.
Griswold sells for more than others but there are others that are just as good and
Wagner bought Griswold in the 50s.
Favorite Piqua ware is lighter than ether of the other two but preforms the same just easier to handle.
Wardway was cast iron produced by Wagner for Montgomery Wards.

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[dirtmudd]

http://www.castironcollector.com/restore.php

[WillyBob]

I have an electric stove. The pans with the ridge don't sit on the burners nice.

 

[Coytee]

14 minutes ago, WillyBob said:

The pans with the ridge don't sit on the burners nice.

 

Heat ring...

 

I was always under impression that was made for the older stoves that had a literal 'hole' in them (wood burning?) and the heat ring was fitted to the stove size so it wouldn't slide around?

 

1 hour ago, Skelt said:

Favorite Piqua ware

 

My mom was from Piqua,  I've wanted to get a piece of that just for her memory.

[WillyBob]

I can see that for cooking on a woodstove. They half lock on the edge of the burner of the electric.

We have a 5gal dutch oven, may be larger [cauldron w/lid] ... came with the house. Has been repaired a couple times and is in need again. It sits out in the yard along with a lot of other oddball things the original owner dragged here.

[Jeff Matthews]

7 hours ago, Mallette said:

Not disputing that a simple carbon steel wok can yield magic...but that video is NOT a simple carbon steel wok. It's a cast steel wok, and a very nice one. Totally caught my eye as it is a dead ringer for one of mine. I keep it at the river and use it over a 40k BTU bubba cooker. I am sure they are around, but it's the only other one I've seen in this country.

Mine came from the trash. I was living in a National University of Singapore house in Singapore. One day, I saw this thing sticking out of the neighbors trash. I took a closer look, pulled it out, and it was intact. I rather suspect that any of my Singaporean neighbors who saw this must have thought me insane to take such a worthless relic of the past. That was in 1988, and I've been loving this thing ever since.

As mentioned, a flat-bottomed carbon steel wok is just fine. Mated with an induction burner, you can pretty well get towards the 20k or better BTU needed for serious stir frying.

Dave

Yeah, I thought that was a cast iron wok in the video, but I wasn't sure.  I don't have commercial burners, so I just turn it all the way up to 10.  It works pretty good!  The carbon steel woks heat up and cool down very rapidly.

[Skelt]

Skillets with the heat ring, also called a smoke ring, works well in the oven for corn bread, biscuits, pizza, oven fried chicken...


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[dirtmudd]

some new pans

[dtel]

I like the one on the right, just by looks, don't know about either.

[dirtmudd]

1 minute ago, dtel said:

I like the one on the right, just by looks, don't know about either.

aluminium saute pans...the small

one is coated nonstick....for eggs

and crepes....

 

the other is non coated.....

 

from the restaurant supply store...

 

not no fancy chef endorced fake pan.. that cost more money.....

 

and does not last as long !

[WillyBob]

I might use the baking sheets...

I leave "non-stick" coatings alone

'Round here,  if it gets fried, browned or sauteed, it goes in cast iron.

[Coytee]

I never understood how non-stick CI could be until I actually tried it.  (as an aside, I agree with leaving the non stick coatings alone, though I have to admit, they're pretty slippery!)

 

 

 

[dirtmudd]

i would of bought carbon steel saute

pans.....

 

I just don't like to cook with them..

 

high maintenance pans....that have 

to be cured.... uneven cooking...

heat to fast.....

 

if not properly maintained....clean and cured....leaves a after taste...

[Coytee]

If anyone gets curious on a piece of cast iron and finds one that is rusty....  don't fret, you can fix it!

 

I bought a couple and made my own electrolysis tank to clean them in (didn't want to use chemicals)

 

It was amazing to see how they came out.

 

Cleaned them up one at a time, when removed, dried & seasoned them.

 

Now if I were to be looking for a piece, I'd kind of keep my eye open for one with a lot of crud on it.

 

 

[oldtimer]

I have rehabbed a couple, but mainly used a lot of elbow grease to do the job.

[Coytee]

Electrolysis is  a lot easier.... (at least in my opinion) Tank of water, some form of washing soda (currently forget) mix at ratio, piece of plate steel to act as your anode and a 12V power supply (used battery charger)  "set it and forget it" although you need to "flip the pan" to clean the hidden side.  My understanding is the process only works via line of sight.  (if that makes sense...  if not....  have to do later, this typing is killing my arm in the sling)

 

 

[Paducah Home Theater]

I went through a cooking nerd phase.  Nowadays I use multiple cast iron pots and pans about every day.  We have a dutch oven, a fajita skillet which is perfect for two over-easy eggs, a grill skillet, and a big flat skillet.  We can cook most anything with those.  

 

Also have a set of tri-ply Calphalon which I thought was an interesting design.  Aluminum actually is the best conductor of heat, very even, but acidic foods can taste funny plus it's probably not very healthy to eat out of aluminum every day.  Stainless is easy to clean but it actually isn't that great at conducting heat.  So, you can get pans that have three layers, basically aluminum sandwiched by two layers of steel.  We like using those on some things but things like grilling bratwurst still sucks on them, you just burn the bottom, cast iron is better.  

[dtel]

6 hours ago, Coytee said:

(as an aside, I agree with leaving the non stick coatings alone, though I have to admit, they're pretty slippery!)

One thing I found out about nonstick pans is the put off a chemical in the air. I read about this when we had birds many years ago, If you heat up a nonstick on a stove when you go to cook the chemical it put off can kill birds, so it can't be to good for people either ? I don't know if it's a certain kind or if it's not like that anymore ?

 

6 hours ago, Coytee said:

Cleaned them up one at a time, when removed, dried & seasoned them.

 

I have heard some people throw them in a fire and remove later to finish cleaning, I have used a wire wheel on a grinder a couple of times.

 

7 hours ago, WillyBob said:

I might use the baking sheets...

Have a few of them, the ones with an air space in between, works great for not burning the bottom of what your cooking, they are just aluminum, no coating and pretty easy to clean.

[dirtmudd]

8 minutes ago, dtel said:

One thing I found out about nonstick pans is the put off a chemical in the air. I read about this when we had birds many years ago, If you heat up a nonstick on a stove when you go to cook the chemical it put off can kill birds, so it can't be to good for people either ? I don't know if it's a certain kind or if it's not like that anymore ?

 

I have heard some people throw them in a fire and remove later to finish cleaning, I have used a wire wheel on a grinder a couple of times.

 

Have a few of them, the ones with an air space in between, works great for not burning the bottom of what your cooking, they are just aluminum, no coating and pretty easy to clean.

Cleaning pieces by burning them in a fire, or using a self-cleaning oven both have the potential to ruin if not outright destroy a piece.

Fire may heat the iron to the point it turns the metal flaky and an irreversible, reddish color. Pieces so-damaged will never season properly again

 

 

http://www.castironcollector.com/cleaning.php#lye