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Grex > Kitchen > #191: The beauty of pressure cooking (and any other kitchenware that's going to be around for a while) | |
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jaklumen
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The beauty of pressure cooking (and any other kitchenware that's going to be around for a while)
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Apr 25 09:06 UTC 2002 |
I am so glad a friend of mine gave me a pressure cooker pot to use on
the stove. It is so quick and easy when you want to make mashed
potatoes or cook a variety of meats. As far as meat, I often buy
small whole chicken fryers (you can remove the skin to reduce fat), or
any cut of meat that will fit in it.
It's not the latest kitchen gizmo that will cut the fat (and man, I
would love to have a RonCo Showtime Rotisserie someday), and so you
have to hand cut the fat out, broil it, or any other traditional
method, but it's very handy and very useful.
So, first, commentary on pressure cookers?
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keesan
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response 1 of 55:
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Apr 25 14:59 UTC 2002 |
We use two of them to cook most meals - one for beans, one for grains or
potatoes. Bring to pressure (15 pounds) and turn off and wait.
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i
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response 2 of 55:
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Oct 8 00:28 UTC 2002 |
Iron. Cast iron. I've recently read part of a book propounding its
virtues, purchased a couple small pieces, and looked around a bit on
the web. One thing's clear - there's no agreement on how to season or
clean cast iron. Or whether (WHEN well-seasoned) acidic foods can be
cooked in it. "Don't store food in it" does seem agreed upon. What
sorts of experience & wisdom with cast iron do folks around here have?
Is it worth the bother compared to stainless steel clad, non-stick and
other modern pan technologies?
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scott
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response 3 of 55:
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Oct 8 00:37 UTC 2002 |
Properly seasoning cast iron seems to require cooking a whole lot of greasy
meat on a regular basis. :( I mostly use my cast iron skillet for camping,
when that's the sort of food I'm cooking often.
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keesan
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response 4 of 55:
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Oct 8 02:08 UTC 2002 |
Cast iron works well for cooking eggs, and also for pancakes made from
chickpea flour, and probably other things that would stick to stainless steel.
Nothing seems to stick to the blackened iron. I don't wash the pans unless
I have used liquid in them. I never cooked meat in them. We take the
lightest possible pans camping (on our bikes).
We recently acquired an electric teflon-coated pressure cooker.
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glenda
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response 5 of 55:
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Oct 8 03:24 UTC 2002 |
If you don't cook greasy food in them keeping them seasoned is just a matter
of wiping them occasionally with an oily papertowel when they are good and
hot. Don't use soap on them, once they are properly seasoned rinsing with
HOT water is all that should be needed, with maybe a touch of a wet papertowel
for anything that doesn't come loose.
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gelinas
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response 6 of 55:
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Oct 8 03:53 UTC 2002 |
Right now, the only thing I cook in cast iron is cornbread. I used to cook
eggs in cast iron skillets, but that was when I was growing up. I think I'll
try the skillet for eggs again, though; no amount of olive oil keeps them from
sticking to the stainless steel skillet.
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cmcgee
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response 7 of 55:
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Oct 8 14:55 UTC 2002 |
Cast iron holds heat, and thus I find myself using much lower heating levels,
and turning off the heat slightly before the food is done.
I use it for tomato-based foods but expect the food to darken a bit, and the
seasoning to be eaten away. It is wonderful for stir-fries, baking cornbread,
pineapplle upsidedown cake, and baked beans.
I have a single-use pan for omlets, and an array of frying pans, griddles,
and dutch ovens. Even a 1 qt size pot that works well for a single person.
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cmcgee
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response 8 of 55:
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Oct 8 14:58 UTC 2002 |
BTW, when I purchase a new pan, I take it to the local welding shop and have
the inside bottom machined smooth. The ridges and casting marks, I've found,
make it hard to clean and keep seasoned. Otherwise, you have to accumulated
old food and rancid grease until it fills in the ridges and smooths out the
spots that "catch" food. Too many burn spots, and too much time spent
pampering a "tool".
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slynne
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response 9 of 55:
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Oct 8 17:09 UTC 2002 |
My cast iron pans are more than 50 years old. I like them because they
are easy and pretty much indestructable. I dont fry a lot of foods so I
dont use them a lot. Sometimes I do what glenda mentions in resp:5
where I take a paper towel with oil and wipe the pans when they are
hot. They are reasonably seasoned so are pretty much non-stick.
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orinoco
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response 10 of 55:
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Oct 9 00:46 UTC 2002 |
Honestly, Lester House has a cast-iron skillet that's been in the kitchen
taking abuse for years, and it doesn't seem to be any worse for wear.
Anything nasty that was going to happen to it has already happened, and the
skillet seems to have dealt with it and moved on. It's almost like the old
crud forms a shield that keeps the new crud from sticking.
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scott
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response 11 of 55:
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Oct 9 01:43 UTC 2002 |
I'm intrigued with Colleen's practice of having a new cast iron piece machined
for smoothness. Where, and how much, and how the heck did you come up with
that idea in the first place?
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i
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response 12 of 55:
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Oct 9 03:58 UTC 2002 |
Digging around extensively on the web, i found only one site suggesting
such smoothing. At least one other specifically disapproved of it. From
whether to wash with soap/detergent to seasoning with animal/veggie fat
to seasoning temp to vinegar treatment before seasoning, sites just did
not agree on things.
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davel
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response 13 of 55:
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Oct 9 13:43 UTC 2002 |
(Indeed, I was surprised to have someone say not to wash the things, &
more so to have so much agreement. I grew up washing a cast-iron skillet
as part of my regular kitchen chores. You'd really rather not let it
soak, & you want it to dry quickly afterward - either wipe dry or heat
briefly on the stove.)
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cmcgee
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response 14 of 55:
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Oct 9 15:23 UTC 2002 |
My grandfather was a blacksmith, and my inherited cast iron skillets from his
kitchen are all smooth on the bottom. Early purchases of cast iron skillets
were also of the smooth interior version. So when the trendy cast iron
company quit doing that, and gave me grooved or bumpy bottoms, I look around
for the modern version of a blacksmith.
I think I paid five bucks, but it was a goodwill offering. I suspect if I'd
let him set the price it would have been a couple bucks.
I also grew up washing the skillet. Very briefly, but with soapy water, and
a scrub pad for burnt/stuck spots. Then extremely hot rinse, and a wipe with
the towel. If the seasoning had been worn through either from the acid foods,
or from steel wool on burnt spots, we wiped it with a greasy paper and heated
it a few minutes.
These family skillets came west on covered wagons in the 1890s, so I just
followed family practice.
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slynne
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response 15 of 55:
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Oct 9 17:09 UTC 2002 |
I *knew* I wouldnt win the "oldest cast iron skillet" contest ;)
Those things last forever!
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void
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response 16 of 55:
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Oct 22 06:04 UTC 2002 |
When I get brand-new cast iron, the first thing I do is wash it with
soap to get off any waxy coatings the manufacturer may have left on.
When it is thoroughly dry, I coat it inside and out with shortening
(Crisco or similar) and stick it in a 450-degree oven for an hour.
Then I turn the oven off and let the oven and cast iron return to room
temperature together, with the door closed (4-6 hours, usually). Then
I spend about six months cooking nice greasy or grease-requiring stuff
in it, like burgers and bacon and pancakes and fried potatoes and such.
After the initial washing, soap never touches my cast iron again. I
keep a soap-free yellow plastic non-abrasive Brillo pad (these things
used to be called Dobie pads) specifically for cleaning cast iron.
The cast iron gets scrubbed with the Dobie and hot water, then is
immediately put on a hot stove burner for a few minutes to dry. After
a minimum of six months' seasoning, I have cooked acidic things like
spaghetti sauce in cast iron, but the acidic stuff never sits in the
pot longer than the duration of cooking and meal-eating time, and the
cast iron is always washed right afterward.
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keesan
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response 17 of 55:
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Oct 23 02:18 UTC 2002 |
My cast iron pan does not need to be scrubbed, just rinsed - why do you scrub
yours?
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void
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response 18 of 55:
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Oct 23 04:05 UTC 2002 |
'Cause sometimes stuff sticks to it and won't come off with plain
rinsing. The only time it needs hard scrubbing instead of
encouragement is when I manage to burn something.
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keesan
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response 19 of 55:
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Oct 23 18:45 UTC 2002 |
Does it help to just let it soak with water in it for a hour before rinsing?
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void
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response 20 of 55:
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Oct 24 05:29 UTC 2002 |
I don't soak cast iron. What's so wrong with scrubbing the stuff?
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cmcgee
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response 21 of 55:
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Oct 24 12:14 UTC 2002 |
*shudders at soaking cast iron in anything but grease*
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md
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response 22 of 55:
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Oct 28 12:09 UTC 2002 |
Amazing how many people here use cast iron. I have a few nasal
aversions and cast iron is a big one. The smell makes me instantly
ill. Anyway, we like to buy nice nonstick pots and pans, treat them as
well as cooking utensils deserve, and throw them away after a few
years. (No wonder Al Qaeda hate us.) I do have a nostalgic affection
for enameled stuff, but so far I've kept it in check. Maybe when I
retire and have more time for such things.
Colanders: I got a gorgeous stainless steel colander for Christmas last
year. It's one of those items you *have* to use for company because it
actually makes food seem to taste better if people see you using it.
Otherwise, I like my Williams Sonoma pot with the colander and steamer
inserts, or our ancient plastic colander with the long handle. I'll
sometimes use this black half-moon shaped thingie to drain a pot when
I'm going to be leaving [whatever] in the pot.
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jep
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response 23 of 55:
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Oct 28 14:16 UTC 2002 |
I'm trying to figure out the cast iron thing. Why would you want to
leave grease on a pan? How do you store them? Don't you worry about
bugs and mice getting on/in them?
I grew up scrubbing cast iron pans just like anything else. I now have
one cast iron frying pan, which I like just fine, but I have trouble
visualizing storing it covered with grease. I am domestically
challenged but willing to learn.
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keesan
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response 24 of 55:
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Oct 28 15:31 UTC 2002 |
There is not enough oil left on the surface to attract bugs - just a very thin
film. For some reason it does not seem to get rancid like old oil usually
does. Perhaps the iron protects it somehow? Rane probably knows. I have
never smelled my cast iron pan. Or had anything stick to it that needed to
be scrubbed off. I only rinse if it I cook something wet in it (tomatoes)
and it dries without rusting.
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