Anyone here cook - Pots and Pans discussion

[dtel]

It's been used for that many times. I have two about the same size with normal sides, they mostly get used for cornbread and briskets more than anything else. The more I cook with these the more I like them, partly because I have to clean them and they are easier than anything else I have.

With all of these cast iron pots when I am done cleaning them I put them back on the stove to heat them back and dry, then wipe with a napkin with bacon grease or oil and heat a little and they are ready to go again.

[Marvel]

3 hours ago, dtel said:

Had a wok many years ago, it disappeared ? I wanted another one and I ran across part of a website about smoking, it was about Discada cooking so I made one. I was building a smoker at the time so I added a heavy duty burner to one end. Couldn't find an old disc blade so i got one from a tractor supply place and made one, added handles and welded a piece in the center to fill the mounting hole. It's a disc blade off a tractor and 22" across and about 1/4" thick in the center. Works great for stir-fry's or frying fish outside so no smell inside. I still want another wok for inside but this is handy for large cooks especially if you want to do it outside. Hey it's cooking

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discada

 

http://www.southwestdisk.com/

 

 

That is simply awesome!

[WillyBob]

when you hear someone down here talking disco - that would be it.

 Nothing goes to waste

[Audio Flynn]

On 3/4/2018 at 1:18 AM, Mallette said:

Good for you.  I am all steel and cast iron, both because they do the best job and because they are induction burner friendly. Induction plus magnetic metals equals cooking magic with almost instant response to adjustments. I can wok now without a 40k BTU gas burner with a flat bottom steel wok. I can simmer chili and such with zero concerns about sticking. No aluminum for this cook anymore!

Dave

 

I only use aluminum coated for fried eggs or grilling a sandwich.

Cast iron for Dutch Ovens is addictive.

Also consider a stainless steel electric pressure. AWESOME!

[babadono]

19 hours ago, dirtmudd said:

omelette pan

Omelette you live if you leave me alone

[ZEUS121996]

On ‎3‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 12:23 PM, tigerwoodKhorns said:

 

I am serious, but not sure what shipping will do unless you have a commercial account. 

 

I tossed the pans that we used and the rest are either basically like new or used little (not much wear). 

 

Here is what I have:

 

8" frying - 1388 - 2 ea

10" frying - 1390

12" searing grilling (has ribs on it)

 

3 qt saute pans - 5003 - 2 ea

 

1 qt sauce 8701

2 qt sauce 8702

 

6 qt pot - 806

 

12" Wok - 1612

 

Also have stainless and glass lids - need to inventory them

 

I have gotten rid of any bad ones (a few frying pans and sauce pots) that were used heavily.  The remaining stuff is all either very good or like new.  You can PM me if you like.  Might do a trade, I happen to like audio equipment and music. 

 

 

"Might do a trade, I happen to like audio equipment and music." 

You do have a VERY nice set up for occasional listening

 

Mark

[WillyBob]

23 hours ago, dtel said:

It's been used for that many times. I have two about the same size with normal sides, they mostly get used for cornbread and briskets more than anything else. The more I cook with these the more I like them, partly because I have to clean them and they are easier than anything else I have.

With all of these cast iron pots when I am done cleaning them I put them back on the stove to heat them back and dry, then wipe with a napkin with bacon grease or oil and heat a little and they are ready to go again.

 

wife and I have had countless go-rounds about how my cast iron should be taken care of. She wouldn't have stopped until it was a rusted mess. Now    She will use it.   and like it.  Cleaning it is all me. I'm OK with her not...

[JJkizak]

13 minutes ago, WillyBob said:

 

wife and I have had countless go-rounds about how my cast iron should be taken care of. She wouldn't have stopped until it was a rusted mess. Now    She will use it.   and like it.  Cleaning it is all me. I'm OK with her not...

 

If you have the cast irons ones  chrome plated it won't matter how you clean them.

JJK

[dtel]

47 minutes ago, WillyBob said:

 

wife and I have had countless go-rounds about how my cast iron should be taken care of. She wouldn't have stopped until it was a rusted mess. Now    She will use it.   and like it.  Cleaning it is all me. I'm OK with her not...

True if your not going to clean them correctly don't bother, soap will remove the oils and seasoning, half the reason to use them anyway, nonstick. I'm really surprised how little care they take to stay perfect.

[willland]

On 3/4/2018 at 8:15 AM, willland said:

Did I mention how cast iron cooks bacon and scrambles eggs, or cornbread?

Did I mention cornbread in Lodge cast iron?  How about a huge pot of chili cooked in the Revere copper clad pot.

 

Bill

[HDBRbuilder]

There is actually an art to seasoning cast iron cookware.  My father was a food service warrant officer for 27 years, and grew up cooking with cast iron cookware.  Each fall, when the weather turned colder, we would take all the cast iron cookware, one item at a time and put it into the fireplace (which was our primary heat source for the house) and burn the cookware clean.  All we ever burnt in the fireplace was oak firewood, from the trees we cut which would not make good timber (we are timberland people).  The next morning, before the fire was stoked up again, we would remove the cast iron cookware item while it was cool, and Dad would wipe it out good and take some of the bacon grease which was always kept in a can on the stove in the kitchen and wipe the cookware completely down (inside/outside/handles and all) with the CONGEALED grease from the upper portion of the bacon grease can, then stick it in the oven and cook that grease into the iron.  We would do it a second time each spring right before the weather began to warm up again.  Dad was very picky about his cookware.  He had made up some salt bags to rub the inside of the large cast iron skillet so that pancakes would not stick when making them.  In my Father's own words, "Pancakes are called panCAKES because they are BAKED on the stovetop.  If you use any oil for cooking them you gotta call them FRITTERS!"

 

As for the knives I use, I have every single item in the entire line of "walnut traditions" Chicago Cutlery which I bought way before they started getting their knives made in China.  They are great knives, but you have to hand wash them and occasionally wipe oil into the black walnut handle slabs. The old Chicago cutlery blades were high carbon semi-stainless steel, and sharpen up well and tend to hold their edge. I also use a number of the OLD HICKORY brand knives for my butchering.  They are forged very high carbon steel blades, with hickory-slabbed handles.  I prefer the butcher knife and boning knives of that brand for butchering whole carcasses, such as venison, etc.  They sharpen up well and hold their edges well, too, plus they have very little blade flex, which is ideal for separating joints, such as hip joints and such.

 

I have tried many other knives but always go back to my trusty Chicago cutlery and Old Hickory cutlery...they are old school and do what they were designed to do. If it works for my needs, then I tend to be happy with it.

 

As an aside, if not for all the wild game I brought home while growing up, our household would have had far less meat protein in our diets.  We ate whatever I hunted...deer, squirrels, rabbits, game-birds, you name it!  I also provided quite a bit of fish for all those years, all-year-round.

 

I have this rather large and deep cast iron "chicken fryer" that I love to use when cooking breakfast for a crowd.  First I cook the bacon in it, then the country sausage.  That leaves a pretty high level of hot grease in it.  Then I put an iron wedge under one corner of it to VERY SLIGHTLY tilt it.  I crack open the eggs on the high side, and they cook perfectly to "over-medium" doneness as they float across to the low side, where they are removed and slid onto plates held by hungry hands.  My whole family has always prefered "runny yellows" on their fried eggs to "sop up" with hot biscuits at breakfast.

 

Having spend a number of years working in a grey and ductile iron foundry as a pattern-maker, I will tell you how the BEST cast-iron cookware is produced.  They use a CORE of baked fine sand for the inside of the pan, whereas the rest of the sand mold is standard sand.  This makes the inside of the cookware very smooth.  The downside is that it costs over twice as much in materiels to make each item, and there is more possibility of a shifting core, which could end up causing a scrapped product.  Good pattern makers know how to keep that from happening though.  THat is why the cost for smooth-interiored cast-iron cookware is so much higher in cost than standard castings.  Although some companies also machine the interiors, which really isn't necessary if you use a fine-sand core, and which also makes the bottoms thinner from removal of some of the iron in the machining process.

[WillyBob]

9 minutes ago, willland said:

Did I mention cornbread in Lodge cast iron?  How about a huge pot of chili cooked in the Revere copper clad pot.

 

Bill

 

 

my chili would have been in cast iron.  Spaghetti sauce goes in cast iron also

[Jeff Matthews]

31 minutes ago, dtel said:

True if your not going to clean them correctly don't bother, soap will remove the oils and seasoning, half the reason to use them anyway, nonstick. I'm really surprised how little care they take to stay perfect.

This is the correct answer.  Never use soap on cast iron.  Never scour it.  Otherwise you ruin it, and it will become rusty and not be non-stick.

 

As for stove-top cooking, I really like stir-fry a lot.  A simple, $15.00 carbon steel wok does nicely.  Same care instructions as cast iron.   Watch the many videos about street stir-fry.  Here's one:

 

 

 

 

[willland]

1 minute ago, WillyBob said:

my chili would have been in cast iron.  Spaghetti sauce goes in cast iron also

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

 

Bill

[CECAA850]

20 minutes ago, WillyBob said:

Spaghetti sauce goes in cast iron also

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

[BigStewMan]

48 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said:

As for stove-top cooking, I really like stir-fry a lot

what time is dinner?  I’m a huge fan of stir-fry ... never cooked it myself though. i’m sure i’d ruin it, like everything else i’ve ever tried to cook.

[Jeff Matthews]

8 minutes ago, BigStewMan said:

 I’m a huge fan of stir-fry ... never cooked it myself though. i’m sure i’d ruin it, like everything else i’ve ever tried to cook.

It's really easy to cook - after lots of trial and error.  

[tigerwoodKhorns]

1 hour ago, dtel said:

True if your not going to clean them correctly don't bother, soap will remove the oils and seasoning, half the reason to use them anyway, nonstick. I'm really surprised how little care they take to stay perfect.

 

I have just been wiping them with a quarter of a paper towel and then spraying some olive oil on it while it is still warm.  Pretty easy to do.  I just received an 8" Lodge pan today and a nylon brush to clean it.  10" will be here later in the week. 

 

I like these but am looking forward to the SS layered pans to compare.  Don't know if I want to brown in them though, and might skip the cast iron in the summer as a big hot heat sink in the summer will not be that smart. 

[oldtimer]

Honestly a variety of different types---a hodgepodge---is the practical way.  You will have standard go to pans for most uses, but you will also enjoy that big stainless stock pot for certain things.  A non-stick here and there too.  One thing I constantly switch out after wearing out is a 11 inch non-stick cheap as chips saute.  For starchy foods like hash brown potatoes they just make life easier.  My personal kit besides that includes the anodized aluminum calphalon one, a calphalon commercial stock pot, a 12 quart stainless stock pot, plus a set gifted of nonstick porcelain on steel.  4, 5 and 7 quart pots, and cast iron pans.  LOL, no wonder they are spread all over the place.  At the condo, it's even more eclectic.  Oh yeah I can't forget the carbon steel woks.  So a nice set or two, complimented by some specialty items will work for most of us.  You seem to be on the right track.

[Mallette]

7 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said:

A simple, $15.00 carbon steel wok does nicely. 

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