Reply to Cooking with cast iron

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "Cooking with cast iron"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Definitely not exclusively but my 9 inch lodge skillet is one of my favorite pans. If I wanted a second cast iron pan I would get the lodge Dutch oven. But for the majority of cooking I prefer the iron to be clad in something, either stainless steel or enamel.[/quote]
Why do you prefer for the iron to be clad in something for the majority of your cooking?[/quote]

Well, first of all, I misspoke. Most of the stainless steel pans I have are clad aluminum, not clad iron. I like those pans for a couple of reasons:

1) They are much lighter. They're easier to get out of the cabinet and easier to move around on the stove. When I saute, for example, I use my wrist to toss the food, which is much harder to do in cast iron.

2) They heat more evenly/rapidly. Lodge is excellent at maintaining its temperature but not as good at heating evenly. If you don't want hot spots, you need to warm it more slowly.

3) I can clean them with lots of soap, or put them in the dishwasher. Neither works great with cast iron.

The reasons I'd prefer to have an enamel-clad dutch oven are:

1) When I'm using a dutch oven, I almost always have tomatoes or wine or something else acidic in there. I don't like cooking acidic things in cast iron because it can wreck the seasoning and add a metalic taste to the dish; and

2) I like to put the dutch oven in the dishwasher.

Also, while I kind of appreciate the rustic charm of cast iron, stainless steel and enamel both look better, in my opinion.

The main reason I use a Lodge pan, on the other hand, is when I want the pan to keep its temperature well, such as for making fried chicken, searing a steak, or making skillet cornbread.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics