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It turns out that my mom threw out the cast iron pans she had because they got rusty and she was moving.  I did, however, notice that I was given a brand new cast-iron sauteuse (with a lid!) that's older than I am and has never been used before. How would I take care of hard-anodized cast-iron?
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Feb 26, 2014 04:28
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psychokitty posted:Your best bet is to let your steak come to room temp first, but I dunno, you could try a press? I can't think of any reason it would be bad, necessarily. Cheaper just to wait an hour. Well, I puddle them first, so they're pretty well cooked. I just need a crust and the thin bastards curl something wicked.
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Feb 26, 2014 16:10
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So being from Euroland, cast iron pans are not all the rage here. In fact I never saw one in a shop in Switzerland. Much to my surprise a large market type thing started carrying Lodge stuff. Much to my dismay they decided a simple cast iron pan was not needed in their assortment but rather very small cast iron things or weird pans with round holes called I think a Aebleskiver Pan, I have no clue why anyone would use this type of thing but I'm just looking to make loving awesome steak and bacon or I don't know what else I can make in it. I finally found a 31 cm cast iron pan and just ordered it. I'm going to season it with canola oil because I cannot seem to find flaxseed oil anywhere? I believe canola oil will do perfectly fine? I'm also planning to use it to put in my oven when baking bread and pour water in it to create steam. I was wondering if this might damage the seasoning? I'll hopefully be back with success stories about cast iron steak / bacon.
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Mar 11, 2014 11:59
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Le0 posted:So being from Euroland, cast iron pans are not all the rage here. In fact I never saw one in a shop in Switzerland. Aebleskiver pan to make Aebleskiver. Canola oil works fine, so does hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Crisco). Flaxseed oiling your cast iron pan is pretty spergy and not necessary. It is worth mentioning though that my seasoning, while effective, is blotchy and ugly as sin. I've also used my skillet as a steamer for baking as you describe and it didn't damage the seasoning, but I cook fat laden things with it on the stove far more, so if it was only used to boil water in the oven, maybe it'd damage it?
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Mar 11, 2014 19:25
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phthalocyanine posted:Aebleskiver pan to make Aebleskiver. Canola oil works fine, so does hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Crisco). Flaxseed oiling your cast iron pan is pretty spergy and not necessary. It is worth mentioning though that my seasoning, while effective, is blotchy and ugly as sin. Nah, it wouldn't 'damage' it. If you use tap water you'll get mineral spotting, if you use distilled it'll probably end up looking pretty good. Either way, smear some bacon fat on it again immediately and you'll be golden. it'll already be loving hot from the baking.
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Mar 11, 2014 19:40
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The answer is ALWAYS more bacon fat.
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Mar 11, 2014 21:07
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Thanks for the advice guys. Just wondering tho, I think the pan I will receive will be coated in a pre-seasoning. Should I remove this seasoning? And if yes, how so?
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Mar 12, 2014 10:42
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Best thing I've ever done with my cast iron. Splayed chicken. Got it from here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/dining/splayed-roast-chicken-with-caramelized-ramps-recipe.html?_r=0 I use sweet onions and scallions instead of ramps, because who can get ramps. Make sure to use a good chicken, because the chicken fat will render and the onions (or ramps)/garlic will be caramelizing in it. Seriously gently caress Tyson or Perdue. Spend in the neighbor of 25$ for the chicken you use for this, how the fat tastes matter immensely. The wilted greens/fat/onion mixture at the end is the best thing ever. Expect to accidentally burn your self doing this. The skillet is very hot and very heavy and oil/fat will be spattering like crazy the second you put the chicken in. You will be pulling it in and out of the very hot oven multiple times. You're probably going to need to clean your oven afterwards too (and I mean a full run the cleaning cycle cleaning). I would not serve this to guests until you've done it a couple times because it ends up being kind of high stress to do. Unrelated one can use enameled cast iron to make recipes (with some small modifications) you would otherwise need a Tajine for. For anyone who doesn't click links. NYT posted:Splayed Roast Chicken With Caramelized Ramps, Garlic and Capers Edit: I'd never watched the video (got the recipe from a physical paper). It's way more stressfull to do this than the video lets on. Bar Ran Dun fucked around with this message at 15:29 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 15:19
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BrandorKP posted:Seriously gently caress Tyson or Perdue. Spend in the neighbor of 25$ for the chicken you use for this, how the fat tastes matter immensely. Does Whole Foods even sell a $25 4lb chicken? Where they hell do you buy one at? Even the mega-organic/grain fed/free range/petted daily birds at Kroger are only like 8 bucks.
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Mar 12, 2014 15:37
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Pastured poultry from a local farm or farmers market is normally in the 5-7 $ dollar a pound range in the area I live in. I have a big skillet and I think I've been using a five + pound bird. The big thing is to buy a bird that you know the fat is going taste good. Yeah you can buy the Simple Truth type stuff at Kroger for less than that (2-4 dollars a pound depending on where one lives). Even though that's organic and antibiotic free it's still a grain fed bird. Personally the organic part isn't a big deal to me. It's the pastured part that matters, because that's what makes the fat taste good. Whole Foods is a mixed bag, you can definitely get the organic and the hormone/antiboitic free there, but you might not be able to find pastured depending on where you live in the country. An example of what I'm talking about. I've been buying my chickens from here: http://www.savannahriverfarms.com/ But they just burned me with a lovely yield from hanging weight and poorly butchered cuts on a quarter of a steer I bought. So I'm hesitant to recommend them to anyone in that area. If you live in a rural area you might be able to find pastured but conventional chickens that would be cheap and the fat would taste good. In the Midwest you can find that around Hmong communities (but in general those birds will be live, which may scare most people off). In other places kosher might be the way to go, need good tasting fat to make good tasting schmaltz. Edit: That's probably the best way to think about it. The ramps or onions are caramelizing in schmaltz, in rendered chicken fat, and that fat needs to taste good. Bar Ran Dun fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Mar 12, 2014 |
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Mar 12, 2014 16:32
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BrandorKP posted:Best thing I've ever done with my cast iron. Splayed chicken. Got it from here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/dining/splayed-roast-chicken-with-caramelized-ramps-recipe.html?_r=0 I adore this recipe. It has been one of my go-tos for small groups, and my wife requests it at least once a month. Don't stress too much about it. I've yet to mess it up.
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Mar 12, 2014 18:33
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Seems like you could easily do that recipe in a cast iron Dutch oven and the splatter would be less of a problem
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Mar 12, 2014 18:55
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Le0 posted:Thanks for the advice guys. Just wondering tho, I think the pan I will receive will be coated in a pre-seasoning. Should I remove this seasoning? And if yes, how so? No, it's not necessary to remove it. I just scrub my new iron pans with soap and water, and then season right on top of whatever's still there. The pre-seasoning that Lodge uses is pretty minimal and crappy and it shouldn't interfere too much with a new layer of seasoning unless you want it to be ~ perfect ~, which would likely require sanding down your Lodge anyway.
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Mar 12, 2014 19:17
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Yeah the general rule isn't to overthink it too much. Just use your pan whenever you have an excuse. Omit (preferable) or minimize the use of soap in the cleaning (I just use a scrub brush and wipe it down). That's pretty much it. Regular use will leave archeological layers of carbonized fats over time. I'd like to insert the castiron.txt post that someone did a while back that is pretty much the manifesto of don't worry about it as it comes to these things but don't have it handy.
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Mar 13, 2014 14:39
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I was using my cast-iron skillet the other night to cook a steak, and somehow set off the smoke detectors. This is probably due to the poor location of my apartment kitchen with zero ventilation, but will picking an oil with higher smoke point reduce the smoke? Do I just need to cook at a lower temperature?
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Mar 13, 2014 15:45
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If you're searing a steak at the gently caress off heat that you should be, you're going to set off the smoke detectors. You should be using a high heat oil regardless. If you're trying to get some proper crust on a steak, all you need is a healthy bit of salt and a small amount of high smoke point canola/peanut/grape/etc oil rubbed directly on the steak itself. Olive oil will turn plastic at the heat you'll want. Preheat the pan in the oven for optimal heat coverage. Sear the poo poo out of the steak. Finish it off in the oven if you want it cooked more than medium rare (and are a butt). Your cast iron pan should live in your oven anyway. It helps maintain a more consistent heat in the oven itself when you cook other things.
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Mar 13, 2014 16:23
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Bo-Pepper posted:If you're searing a steak at the gently caress off heat that you should be, you're going to set off the smoke detectors. You should be using a high heat oil regardless. If you're trying to get some proper crust on a steak, all you need is a healthy bit of salt and a small amount of high smoke point canola/peanut/grape/etc oil rubbed directly on the steak itself. Olive oil will turn plastic at the heat you'll want. Preheat the pan in the oven for optimal heat coverage. Sear the poo poo out of the steak. Finish it off in the oven if you want it cooked more than medium rare (and are a butt). I was doing this for the first few months I had mine just out of convenience but I was afraid it was hurting the seasoning. Can you speak to that? Paper With Lines fucked around with this message at 00:43 on Mar 14, 2014 |
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Mar 14, 2014 00:41
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Paper With Lines posted:I was doing this for the first few months I had mine just out of convenience but I was afraid it was hurting the seasoning. Can you speak to that? As long as you actually use (and care for) the pan, it'll keep seasoning. If you make steam with it all the time like I do, you might want to reseason pretty frequently.
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Mar 14, 2014 01:01
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Bo-Pepper posted:
I keep some cast iron in my oven but I also keep a big rear end baking stone on the bottom rack for more even heating. Learned that from some bread baking book.
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Mar 14, 2014 13:18
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Bob Morales posted:I keep some cast iron in my oven but I also keep a big rear end baking stone on the bottom rack for more even heating. Learned that from some bread baking book. We have a slab of granite in the bottom of our oven, a friend had it left over from counter installation.
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Mar 14, 2014 17:16
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I bough two small cast iron bowls things recently and I used one to put water in it while baking. Only the first time I forgot the "don't put in sink with water" golden rule and so a few hours later some rust appeared on it. I washed it as best as I could and then I wiped some canola oil on it. Only I had some black marks on the paper I used. When I put oil on the second one which wasn't used nothing came out. What is this black thing? Is that the pre-seasoning coming off? They are made by Lodge by the way
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Mar 15, 2014 15:19
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Zhent posted:I was using my cast-iron skillet the other night to cook a steak, and somehow set off the smoke detectors. This is probably due to the poor location of my apartment kitchen with zero ventilation, but will picking an oil with higher smoke point reduce the smoke? Do I just need to cook at a lower temperature? In the future, remove the battery from the smoke detector while cooking steak. This is a common apartment problem and you are not alone.
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Mar 16, 2014 03:16
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Bob Morales posted:Does Whole Foods even sell a $25 4lb chicken? Where they hell do you buy one at? Even the mega-organic/grain fed/free range/petted daily birds at Kroger are only like 8 bucks. I cooked this in my cast iron the other month. Tasted soooooo good.  And the stock I made with it the next day was good too. It was from the new Fremont Whole Foods. They had 2 different kinds of pastured chickens.
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Mar 16, 2014 03:27
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d3rt posted:I cooked this in my cast iron the other month. Tasted soooooo good. I prefer my chickens to taste of neglect and solitude.
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Mar 16, 2014 03:46
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d3rt posted:I cooked this in my cast iron the other month. Tasted soooooo good. I think it's funny that they weigh the chicken out to the milipound.
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Mar 16, 2014 04:37
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We have 2 skillets that are used almost daily. 1 small one for eggs, and a standard sized for...everything else. Seriously, most of our cooking is done in either a Dutch oven, a cast iron pan, or the slow cooker. It's heavenly. Favorites: -Hashes of sausage and home fries -Bacon and egg biscuits (eggs in the small on lower heat, covered, for a perfect sunny side up, bacon in the large on med/high - usually finishes about the same time) -Biscuits and gravy -Any kind of meat -White fish wrapped in bacon, finished in the oven -Blanched vegetables finished with butter and lemon juice I don't know what the deal is with acid, I mean, I wouldn't fill the thing with vinegar but I have made dishes with tomato and so forth. We clean with salt usually, water and scrubbing sometimes, and have to re-season maybe once a year? Acid is too tasty not to cook with. I won't make marinara in it, but cast iron's sturdy stuff, it doesn't care if you squeeze a lemon on it. Also, cast iron is awesome for making pan sauces with. Cook your steak or whatever, deglaze with whatever wine you have around (stock is good too), whisk in some flour and salt, pour that on your steak. Delicious.
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Mar 16, 2014 19:13
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Made this beast last night!  Deep dish spicy Italian sausage, onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and pepperoni pizza. Since I'm terrible with managing dough at times I often opt to use my cast iron in favor of a stone. Have to say the versatility of cast iron is amazing! Now I need to learn to cook steak with it.
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Mar 16, 2014 22:59
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I want that recipe, cause drat that looks good
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Mar 16, 2014 23:28
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I would like to know what you did, too. For eating purposes. That looks so good.
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Mar 17, 2014 00:03
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I've done deep dish cast iron pizza a few times before. This dough http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe.html holds up really well, and the amount the recipe makes is perfect for a 10 inch deep dish with real thick crust. Basically just make the dough, roll it out, put it in the cast iron with 2-3 inches hanging over the lip of the pan. Pack in your ingredients in layers (I like a layer of cheese at the bottom to kinda hold the whole thing together) and put sauce and parmesan on top. Fold extra dough back onto the top to form the top crust. Now here's the secret: throw the cast iron on the burner on high for about 7 minutes to crisp the bottom and sides, then throw it into the oven at 450 to bake the rest. Since you can't really preheat the cast iron, it doesn't matter how hot the oven is when you put the pan in, because the pan will be we cold, and the crust gets lovely.
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Mar 19, 2014 03:57
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When you make bread and pizza poo poo, salt retards the yeast growth, right? Wouldn't you want to add salt right at the end of things, when you mix it together for the last time, or do you just run the risk of salt not getting evenly dispersed if you wait?
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Mar 19, 2014 04:40
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Nah just add the salt. Nothing bad happens.
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Mar 19, 2014 06:48
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I've never had any issues adding it at the same time. I just don't pour the salt right onto the yeast without mixing the yeast into the flour a little first. Give it a couple stirs and I think you should have no trouble.
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Mar 19, 2014 18:43
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onemanlan posted:Made this beast last night! You need to come back to this thread and post this recipe.
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Mar 21, 2014 01:37
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A marinaded steak was cooked in my cast iron pan, which resulted in a bunch of burnt-on crap that I've had to do my best to scrape off using various methods. There are still some bumps but I can't seem to get them off, so I oiled and oven'd it for now to put any seasoning back on that I took off when trying to get the crap off. I was wondering if this was just a peril of cooking marinaded food in cast iron or if there's something I could do to prevent this next time?
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Mar 21, 2014 16:34
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Bollock Monkey posted:A marinaded steak was cooked in my cast iron pan, which resulted in a bunch of burnt-on crap that I've had to do my best to scrape off using various methods. There are still some bumps but I can't seem to get them off, so I oiled and oven'd it for now to put any seasoning back on that I took off when trying to get the crap off. I was wondering if this was just a peril of cooking marinaded food in cast iron or if there's something I could do to prevent this next time? The sugars will burn, it's not a big deal. Clean it as best you can and then forget about it, it'll come off eventually. If you want to avoid it, don't cook sugary things at such a high heat. I don't know what various methods mean, the best way to clean poo poo stuck on it is to either keep cooking with it, or boil water in the pan and then scrub it out with a hard plastic brush/scrubber. But honestly, though, don't stress the small stuff. Maybe pat dry the meat before putting it in?
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Mar 21, 2014 16:59
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Drifter posted:The sugars will burn, it's not a big deal. Clean it as best you can and then forget about it, it'll come off eventually. Yeah, I boiled some water and scrubbed for a couple of rounds and then put it in an oven to try to char it some more so I could scrape it off. Glad to know it was just the sugars in the sauce, I'll advise Mr Bollock Monkey to turn the heat down a bit more in future. Thanks for your response!
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Mar 21, 2014 17:47
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Scrubbing it with steel wool (NOT a soap pad) is great if you have a hard time scraping the pan out.
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Mar 21, 2014 20:07
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Echoing the steel wool for absolute best cast iron cleaning implement. All you need is a quick scrub with the wool and a rinse and you're good to go. The more usual scrubbie style stuff doesn't really cut it nearly as well as the steel wool does. Also holy poo poo I really want to make that pizza now.
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Mar 21, 2014 21:54
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Gwaihir posted:Also holy poo poo I really want to make that pizza now. Where the gently caress IS that guy with the recipe, anyway...
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Mar 21, 2014 22:18
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