Food & Cooking

[whm1974]

So high do I turn the Oven too? Can I use a outdoor grill for this?

[tikker]

13 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Best way to season i found out, is use an oil that has a really high smoke point.
Heat the pan with the oil in to that point, leave it at the heat for couple minutes.
Then rmove heat let pan cool down. When a bit cooler pour out the oil.
When cool enough to touch use paper towel to rub the whole pan, make sure you dont completely dry it out.
If pan has cooled down to room temp, you will have a seasoned pan that has better non-stick properties then those stupid teflon things

I always followed the "opposite" method. Use a paper towel to apply a thin coat, wipe off the excess with a fresh towel and then bake for a couple of hours.

8 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

So high do I turn the Oven too? Can I use a outdoor grill for this?

Hotter than your oils smoke point, so 230C or so if I grab Wikipedia's table with smoke points of various oils. For domestic ovens in my experience this typically means as hot as it'll go. Just check what oil you're using and what it's smoke point is. Be sure to ventilate well, as it'll (unsurprisingly) smoke.

[Beerzerker]

Occasionally you'll need to redo the seasoning due to repeated use and cleanings of the skillet and so on, it's just repeat what you did earlier and life (The food) is good.

[Bitter]

I've found two things, one I do and I have not yet done.

 

Old cast iron wasn't bumpy on the cook area, modern cast iron is because they don't bother to finish the cookware (cheap). Bumpy iron looses it's seasoning faster because you're scraping it off the high points and then you're scrubbing the pan to clean what's left in the low points. Sand the cook surface smooth then season it, it'll hold seasoning and be even more non stick. Haven't done this to mine yet, been lazy.

2nd is if you're cooking with oils, after the food is out heat it up a little higher, wipe it out hot, and let it cool. It'll lightly season each time you use it if you do that.

[Bombastinator]

I don’t know what a Johnny cake is. There are some dishes that actually need a cast iron skillet to work though.  One of them is liver and onions.  A lot of people claim liver is repulsive and smells bad but it’s often because it wasn’t cooked correctly. Some stoves simply don’t get hot enough to do it.  You kind of need gas or be willing to wait a long time for an electric to heat up enough.  The thing about cast iron is it can be run very very hot and will hold a lot of that heat. 

[Beerzerker]

Iron has excellent properties for cooking, that's why it cooks like nothing else out there.

[whm1974]

13 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I don’t know what a Johnny cake is. There are some dishes that actually need a cast iron skillet to work though.  One of them is liver and onions.  A lot of people claim liver is repulsive and smells bad but it’s often because it wasn’t cooked correctly. Some stoves simply don’t get hot enough to do it.  You kind of need gas or be willing to wait a long time for an electric to heat up enough.  The thing about cast iron is it can be run very very hot and will hold a lot of that heat. 

Johnny Cakes are made of Corn Meal or you could make them out of Masa Flour AKA Ground Homily. American Colonial Term.

[whm1974]

Sorry I meant to spell Hominy instead. And the full name of Masa is Masa Harina. Masa can be used to make a Corn Dough, which is what Tortillas are made from.

[whm1974]

Just now, Sakuriru said:

I'm not sure why you would want to make a johnny cake in a cast iron pan. What's wrong with the oven?

Try using a Oven in Summer.... Plus the Johnny Cakes last longer.

[Bombastinator]

6 hours ago, whm1974 said:

Johnny Cakes are made of Corn Meal or you could make them out of Masa Flour AKA Ground Homily. American Colonial Term.

So a cornmeal pancake?

[whm1974]

30 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So a cornmeal pancake?

Basically yes. Bur as shown on Townsends YouTube Channel a bit thicker.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, whm1974 said:

Basically yes. Bur as shown on Townsends YouTube Channel a bit thicker.

Cast iron will work better than aluminum then transfers heat more slowly and there’s a lot more mass.  It will cook more evenly.  This is what makes them good for liver.  More thermal mass. 

[airborne spoon]

to season my cast iron i use grapeseed oil

heat the oven to 425f, apply a light coating of oil with a paper towel to the entire surface inside and out, place in oven upside-down, set timer for 60 min. When the timer goes off pull it out and apply another coat of oil in the same manner and repeat this whole process for about 5 coats and you'll have a great lasting non stick surface on your cast iron for a very long time.

 

You can use any oil you want but make sure you don't go over the smoke point by more than like 5-10f, grapeseed is like 420f, olive oil is only like 370f, flaxseed is 225f.

[Bombastinator]

2 hours ago, airborne spoon said:

to season my cast iron i use grapeseed oil

heat the oven to 425f, apply a light coating of oil with a paper towel to the entire surface inside and out, place in oven upside-down, set timer for 60 min. When the timer goes off pull it out and apply another coat of oil in the same manner and repeat this whole process for about 5 coats and you'll have a great lasting non stick surface on your cast iron for a very long time.

 

You can use any oil you want but make sure you don't go over the smoke point by more than like 5-10f, grapeseed is like 420f, olive oil is only like 370f, flaxseed is 225f.

Yeah.  You actually want to burn the stuff in.  The deal is cast iron is pretty porous as metals go and the idea is to heat up the metal to make the pores bigger and fill them with oil.  When the pan is again heated a tiny bit of oil comes out and make for non-stickiness.  It gets used up quick but cooking with it also works.  One thing you never want to do is use soap, or even a lot of water on a cast iron pan because it ruins the seasoning.  It holds heat so well though that you can effectively steam clean the pan by getting it good and hot and dribbling a bit of water on it in the sink which will then flash to steam. Then you can just wipe it out, wipe a bit of new oil on, and it’s good again.  Things can go a hundred years that way.

[whm1974]

On 5/10/2021 at 4:12 PM, Bombastinator said:

Yeah.  You actually want to burn the stuff in.  The deal is cast iron is pretty porous as metals go and the idea is to heat up the metal to make the pores bigger and fill them with oil.  When the pan is again heated a tiny bit of oil comes out and make for non-stickiness.  It gets used up quick but cooking with it also works.  One thing you never want to do is use soap, or even a lot of water on a cast iron pan because it ruins the seasoning.  It holds heat so well though that you can effectively steam clean the pan by getting it good and hot and dribbling a bit of water on it in the sink which will then flash to steam. Then you can just wipe it out, wipe a bit of new oil on, and it’s good again.  Things can go a hundred years that way.

The last couple of times I washed the Cast Iron, I washed it last with only dish soap, no bleach. Then Put it on the stove top, heat it up, let it cooled down a bit. Use a little olive oil, rub that inside with paper towels, inc handle.

 

I did read that: Don't use bleach for washing cast iron. Or cool off a hot skillet with cold water. The last I already knew.

[Bombastinator]

4 hours ago, whm1974 said:

The last couple of times I washed the Cast Iron, I washed it last with only dish soap, no bleach. Then Put it on the stove top, heat it up, let it cooled down a bit. Use a little olive oil, rub that inside with paper towels, inc handle.

 

I did read that: Don't use bleach for washing cast iron. Or cool off a hot skillet with cold water. The last I already knew.

I’ve heard don’t use soap for washing cast iron.  Use water and heat because soap pull the oil out of the metal. 

[whm1974]

39 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I’ve heard don’t use soap for washing cast iron.  Use water and heat because soap pull the oil out of the metal. 

The Liquid Dish Soap. Like Dawn. Does seasoning produced a deal of smoke? I don't want the Fire Department showing up And I end on Nationwide News just because I was only Seasoning a Cast Iron Skillet in my Oven...

 

And all the reporters are amazed that there are Folks who still use Cast Iron cookware and they still being made....

[Bombastinator]

32 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

The Liquid Dish Soap. Like Dawn. Does seasoning produced a deal of smoke? I don't want the Fire Department showing up And I end on Nationwide News just because I was only Seasoning a Cast Iron Skillet in my Oven...

 

And all the reporters are amazed that there are Folks who still use Cast Iron cookware and they still being made....

My memory is Liquid sink dish soap is basically ammonium laurel sulfate and a surficant.  Dishwasher soap is the same thing but with an antisurficant (because bubbles can be very very bad in dishwashers). Could be out of date. 
 

seasoning a cast iron hasn’t produced much smoke for me.  I only ever tried the oven method once though.  The finish came out rubbery and weird for me so I just used the old method of wiping oil all over the thing and heating it up flipping hot. Maybe I just did it wrong. Cast iron pans have to use more oil to do the non stick thing than aluminum/Teflon pans.  They don’t wear out though.  Teflon cookware only works till the Teflon gets worn away then it’s junk. There  are hundred year old cast iron pans that still work fine. 

[Bitter]

At the risk of sounding gross, I don't wash my cast iron unless I have to. If I'm cooking right then nothing sticks and I just wipe it out with some clean oil on a cloth while it's still hot and put it away.

[whm1974]

17 minutes ago, Bitter said:

At the risk of sounding gross, I don't wash my cast iron unless I have to. If I'm cooking right then nothing sticks and I just wipe it out with some clean oil on a cloth while it's still hot and put it away.

I did go online about Cast Iron Cookware what you do looks to fairly common. But it depends what you what meals you cook in them.

[Bombastinator]

28 minutes ago, whm1974 said:

I did go online about Cast Iron Cookware what you do looks to fairly common. But it depends what you what meals you cook in them.

They don’t work especially well for things like sauces. The whole nonstick thing just doesn’t work very well there.  Generally when I do, say a spaghetti sauce in a cast iron pan I have to serve the sauce and reheat the thing as if I’m frying something and get the bits to disadhere that way.  Their strength is frying. There are things that cook better in cast iron. Generally stuff where lots and lists of heat are helpful.  Like liver.  There are some foods that lost popularity and I think it happened because there are some things that cast iron is sort of needed for.  They just don’t do well in a cast iron pan.  The reverse is also true though.  There is stuff that Teflon/aluminum beats cast iron at.   I think a lot of food stuff has to do with available technology.  Britian has a rep for boiling everything.  This is actually a pretty reasonable thing to do if you’re cooking with peat and coal.  They both produce nasty ash.  Getting stuff under water where it won’t be affected by that makes a certain amount of sense.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Bombastinator

[whm1974]

3 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

They don’t work especially well for things like sauces. The whole nonstick thing just doesn’t work very well there.  Generally when I do, say a spaghetti sauce in a cast iron pan I have to serve the sauce and reheat the thing as if I’m frying something and get the bits to disadhere that way.  Their strength is frying. There are things that cook better in cast iron. Generally stuff where lots and lists of heat are helpful.  Like liver.  There are some foods that lost popularity and I think it happened because there are some things that cast iron is sort of needed for.  They just don’t do well in a cast iron pan.  The reverse is also true though.  There is stuff that Teflon/aluminum beats cast iron at.   I think a lot of food stuff has to do with available technology.  Britian has a rep for boiling everything.  This is actually a pretty reasonable thing to do if you’re cooking with peat and coal.  They both produce nasty ash.  Getting stuff under water where it won’t be affected by that makes a certain amount of sense.

Speaking of boiling foods, Stews/Soups are actually are very reasonable meals to make. I tend go for Pottage which basically whatever foodstuffs on hand cooked together in one Pot.

 

The main advantages of using this method are.

 

1) Need only one Pot to use and clean.

2) Can make either Potrage or Stew...

3) Stretch small amounts of meat.

[Bitter]

Getting a little off topic here and I don't think you can get this in Britain so easily, but American breakfast sausage like Jimmy Dean is amazing in soups. Had a left over patty the other day from breakfast and I chopped it up real fine and tossed in with some cream of mushroom and some cream of chicken and some egg noodles and that single sausage patty did imbue so much flavor into the soup it was amazingly good. Meant to only eat a small bowl each and save the rest for later, we ended up eating the whole pot in one go.

[Bombastinator]

8 minutes ago, Bitter said:

Getting a little off topic here and I don't think you can get this in Britain so easily, but American breakfast sausage like Jimmy Dean is amazing in soups. Had a left over patty the other day from breakfast and I chopped it up real fine and tossed in with some cream of mushroom and some cream of chicken and some egg noodles and that single sausage patty did imbue so much flavor into the soup it was amazingly good. Meant to only eat a small bowl each and save the rest for later, we ended up eating the whole pot in one go.

I forget which spice is predominant in breakfast sausage.  It is spiced differently though.  Lots of something.  I forget what.  It kind of defines breakfast sausage vs an other kind.

[Bitter]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I forget which spice is predominant in breakfast sausage.  It is spiced differently though.  Lots of something.  I forget what.  It kind of defines breakfast sausage vs an other kind.

I'm not sure either, and to be honest I think I like the Meijer store brand more than the brand name Jimmy Dean I got the 2nd time. Figured I'd splurge on brand name and nah, the store brand was better. It was a little spicier and less greasy.

 

So to clarify for the non US people, we have a few kinds of breakfast sausage. Links and patties mostly though, links are self explanatory and I'm sure you have breakfast sausage links too but maybe spiced differently. Our sausage patties though are uncased and more coarsely ground and often a little spicier with red pepper flakes. 4-5 minutes a side on medium to medium high heat depending how browned and crispy you like them. Save the grease in the pan to make a pancake with if you're into that kind of thing.