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?55 responses total.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
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?
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.
(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.)
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.
I *knew* I wouldnt win the "oldest cast iron skillet" contest ;) Those things last forever!
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.
My cast iron pan does not need to be scrubbed, just rinsed - why do you scrub yours?
'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.
Does it help to just let it soak with water in it for a hour before rinsing?
I don't soak cast iron. What's so wrong with scrubbing the stuff?
*shudders at soaking cast iron in anything but grease*
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.
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.
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.
All right, but how come you want to leave any grease on a pan you use for cooking? Do any germs just get burned off the next time you use it?
You put the oil on a hot pan, which allows it to sort of weld to the pan which gives it the nice non-stick surface and prevents rust. Once the pan is seasoned properly it really shouldn't need more than a rinse with hot water and frying the occasional thing to keep it seasoned and clean.
I looked around on the web a bit before upgrading my cast iron collection recently. Beyond "don't treat the finish too rough" and "stripping and re-seasoning will cure virtually anything you can do to it" there are NO universally agreed-upon rules. Some cure with veggie oil, some insist on animal fat. Times & temps are all over. Some won't clean it with more than a finger & warm water, others scrub with dish soap. Some put on a touch of oil & heat to re-cure a bit after *every* use, some do it once a year, some only if needed. Some won't let water or acidic foods near it, some cook down tomato sauce in it. A very thin layer of reasonably pure oil/fat is fairly unattractive to microorganisms (which is why they keep well in cupboards); it also helps discourage foods from sticking. I abuse my cast iron regularly, but don't seem to have problems. YMMV.
Tomato sauce cooked in cast iron pans is what they put on their pasta in hell.
Cast iron pans are a good source of dietary iron.
And I'm sure that very few of the unhappy diners in Michael Deliza's personal
hell are anemic.
Caitlin's mom makes chili in a cast-iron pan. She insists that it tastes
wrong cooked in any other sort of pan. Not only that, she swears that
cooking it in a larger or smaller cast-iron pan makes it come out wrong.
Her explanation has something to do with the surface area of chili
touching the iron pan compared to the total volume of chili. I think
that's going overboard, but I do like the chili.
("Chili" is one of those words that looks stranger and stranger the more
times you write it.)
I've been looking for quite some time now for a wok to replace the cheap one we gots about 10 years ago, which we've worn out. But buying any pan for a ceramic cooktop is tricky. They must have very flat bottoms that are no smaller than the diameter of the heating element. This is the only thing I don't like about my cooktop, so I just deal with it. So, back to the wok. Today I went to Williams-Sonoma and looked at what they had. Again, two of the three they carry wouldn't have worked. But they had this iron one that's very heavy, the bottom is a perfect (flat) fit, and the say it's not a high-maintenance finish. There is something not quite non-stick that seals the iron but can take getting extremely hot. There weren't any instructions as to the care and feeding of the surface so I'll see how it goes. Tonight is Pad Thai. Cross your fingers. At least Sonoma will take it back if I don't like it. A hassle but nice, nonetheless.
!!!!!!!! My understanding is that cast iron & smoothtop ranges mix about as well as sodium & water - without superhuman care and attentiveness, you WILL damage the range surface with the very hard & heavy iron.
It worked well last night, getting very hot and staying hot even when lots of veggies and noodles were added at the same time. Cleanup was easy, just a little soap and water and a light wipe. And I found I actually liked the fact it was heavy as I didn't need to keep one hand on a handle to stabilize pan. I could toss with both hands. But I sure don't want to harm my cooktop. Would you be worried about the weight or scratching the glass? I could always go back to my old pan and give this one to our son. He cooks everything he eats in a wok and his must be on last legs too.
I believe that the problem is mostly setting cast iron down on the smoothtop - misjudge by 1/4" when quickly setting it down, and the force of very heavy & hard iron meeting very inflexible & unyielding top is too likely to crack the top. I wonder if something like a thin copper disk could be used to shield the top but not interfere with heat transfer too badly.
I hadn't considered the weight aspect as I find I don't even think of the cooktop as ceramic. I treat it with the same respect as my countertops, meaning, almost none. I'll see how it goes but buying an iron wok may not have been the best choice, even a coated one. I brought up woks today at work and most of my Asian friends who do a whole lot of stir-fry meals use non-stick electric woks.
I have a stainless steel electric wok and a stainless steel non-electric wok. I generally just use a plain stainless steel frying pan instead of dragging out the wok.
It's possible that my knowledge of cast iron & smooth cooktops is dated... did the new stove come with a meaningful manual, mary?
I'm not sure how you use a wok up. We've got a well-seasoned one from my parents that they had before I was born.
And they probably bought a nice new one, huh? Looks like your the sucker with an old wok, joe. nya nya ;)
er you're
My wok is almost 30 years old and gets heavy use. It even survived being in the oven full of tupperware when STeve turned the oven on without looking inside first. He had to take the propane torch to it to burn all the plastic off and then it had to be reseasoned.
Re #39: Nah, they use an electric one. ;-) We've got a gas stove, so
this old iron wok does fine.
Er... might I ask what the oven was doing full of tupperware?
Unexpected guests before dishes were done, oven easiest place to hide them.
There's been recent talk in the Agora conf. about pressure cooking. I'd like to learn more about it: how it works, why use it, etc. Any info would be apprciated! :-)
A pressure cooker is faster because the steam in it is at a higher pressure and therefore gets hotter than 212 degrees. The pot also heats up faster because it is well sealed. Because it keeps cooking after you turn off the heat, there is much less chance of burning and you don't need to stir. Because it is well sealed it loses less heat so saves fuel, and it loses less steam so keep the kitchen from getting steamed up. It is cooler in the summer, and dryer. It produces less global warming.....
It gives stew the texture and taste of 3 hours of cooking in about 10 minutes. Great for things you should have put in the crockpot before work, but didn't get around to. It also makes great steamed veges, and cooks dry beans in minutes rather than the "overnight soak + hours of cooking" timeframe.
These pressure cookers sound pretty cool! I'm assuming they come with instructions on how to cook with them/recipes? Maybe some day, I'll have to consider getting one.
Do the seals on pressure cookers need to be replaced periodically? (So better buy a common type, or at a store that'll be around to sell you the new seal, or whatever?)
The gasket for our older Presto is about $6-7 and is available at hardware stores or from Presto directly (a bit cheaper).
How about some recipes and directions for Pot roast, roast beef, and chicken. I cook an awesome spaghetti sauce in my crock pot. It takes about 8 hours for that full rich red flavor. Can it be done in a pressure cooker? If it can, how long would it take?
Things made in pressure cookers are steamed (at high temperatures) so I doubt you could 'roast' in one. I think my mother may have browned her pot roast before pressure cooking it. Your crock pot, unless it is really tightly sealed, is probably boiling off a lot of the liquid. What do you make the sauce from? You could substitute tomato paste for tomato puree.
I'd be interested in your spaghetti sauce recipe, Larry.
Sure mary...I'll post it later when I have time
Cool.
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