They may not be seasoned right or something, but I do find they tend to stick for some tasks more than I would like.
Use butter when heating up may help. Also, apply a thin coat of oil after using and cleaning before putting back on the shelf.
They may not be seasoned right or something, but I do find they tend to stick for some tasks more than I would like.
I have a couple cast Iron pieces. Love my enameled dutch oven (starting coq au vin tonight for company in fact). My skillets are OK, but not my favorites. They may not be seasoned right or something, but I do find they tend to stick for some tasks more than I would like. I do appreciate the amount of heat they hold though. Work great for steaks and such.
For seasoning purposes, I would use an oil with a high flash point, like Peanut, Grapeseed or Canola.Yeah, they probably need to be re-seasoned, a nice trick for getting great non-stick performance from a sticky pan (and also help with building up seasoning) is heat it up and oil it down with olive oil and then melt some butter in it before adding food, for some reason the combo of olive oil and butter makes for a super slick surface.
For seasoning purposes, I would use an oil with a high flash point, like Peanut, Grapeseed or Canola.
You have to get the Teknor-Apex cutting board first.
I'm willing to wager that Jim will have one on him when I see him tonight. He did the last time I saw him (and so did Scotto!)
Search DeBuyer and you'll probably see some on the site.
I have tried that line of logic, saying not to slide them around.
Besides that, it gives you a good excuse to enjoy a few pounds of bacon. Not that you really need an excuse ...Frying up a few pounds of bacon is also a good season while you cook method, it won't make a bulletproof killer coating right away, but it will give a very good base to start with and it will give ya plenty of bacon grease for future pan coating.
If you use a saturated oil, like coconut oil, it will prevent the cast iron pan from getting that tacky, sticky feeling they will sometimes get after being stored if you are using other oils. This is the best oil to use if you are not cooking any meat on your cast iron. I usually cook with coconut oil, sometimes butter... and clean with salt and shortening.
Im hoping to pick up the cliff cornell breakfast skillet eventually
question for you gents, do many of you deglaze with wine when cooking a steak? Or stock?
id love to hear some opinions, id like to start using wine but some of the info ive read about acidity and stripping seasoning scared me off.. Im assuming its ok for a quick degalze but not to actually cook acidic foods in? (like tomatoes and such)
Thank you!
Hate to be the contrarian here, but cast iron is simply not that great of a pan for doing pan sauces. First off, you want acidic wine (and stock...hell, sometimes straight vinegar) for a sauce, and that to one degree or another is going to react to even the best seasoned cast iron. Second, you want very quick heat conductivity. If you're finishing off the sauce with butter, you want to go from reducing down the wine/stock at boiling temps to being very much cooler when you swirl in the butter (if the butter boils, the sauce curdles and breaks). Cast iron is very poor at heat conductivity--i.e. it heats up slowly but holds that heat for a long time.
Put it this way. My hot water on full bore comes out at 160F. I can stick cast iron under it for a minute, and it's only warm when I pull it out.....but that warmth will stick around for minutes later. Conversely, I put an All Clad under that for 30 seconds, and it comes out at 158F but cools back down to room temp almost immediately after being removed from the water.
Cast iron is great (unmatched) at what it's well suited for. For other things, it stinks on ice.
Hate to be the contrarian here, but cast iron is simply not that great of a pan for doing pan sauces. First off, you want acidic wine (and stock...hell, sometimes straight vinegar) for a sauce, and that to one degree or another is going to react to even the best seasoned cast iron. Second, you want very quick heat conductivity. If you're finishing off the sauce with butter, you want to go from reducing down the wine/stock at boiling temps to being very much cooler when you swirl in the butter (if the butter boils, the sauce curdles and breaks). Cast iron is very poor at heat conductivity--i.e. it heats up slowly but holds that heat for a long time.
Put it this way. My hot water on full bore comes out at 160F. I can stick cast iron under it for a minute, and it's only warm when I pull it out.....but that warmth will stick around for minutes later. Conversely, I put an All Clad under that for 30 seconds, and it comes out at 158F but cools back down to room temp almost immediately after being removed from the water.
Cast iron is great (unmatched) at what it's well suited for. For other things, it stinks on ice.