A legit kitchen hood that vents outside is a total game changer cooking but obviously it’s something that isn’t a possibility for anyone renting or in a condo or whatever.
Yep, I just open my windows and pray for the best. And I only sear meat on one side on the stove, then flip and finish off in the oven.
My range hood, as far as I can tell, literally just exhausts into the space in the ceiling above my kitchen.
Mine blows into my face. The fuck?
Yeah, useless range hood (actually part of the microwave above) here. All it does is pull air through a shitty filter on the bottom, and then blow it out the top again.
My kitchen is first floor, above which sits my office. Stove is against interior wall. No way to do a range hood at all.
If/When I remodel our kitchen, I will be moving the stove to the exterior wall, and then putting in a vent through the wall.
Not an option for me sadly, the kitchen is interior and will stay that way. It isn’t really a big deal except when I sear meat at very high heat. I keep an old back-scratcher near my smoke detector for this purpose.
Totally. Big difference between a budget one and a good one too. The better ones can move significantly more air while making less noise.
@stusser can’t vent through the ceiling?
@Skipper when we moved last year, we had a horrible hood (Vent-a-hood, ugh). We like to sear stuff, so it was a big issue. It’s been replaced now and we can’t out the back instead of the cabinet above, so we gained cabinet space too.
I suppose I could drill a hole but the guy above me might complain.
Tell him it’s a stripper pole.
This is high on my list of things to purchase, wanted it for awhile and just never picked one up.
I have a 10 year old Le Creuset dutch oven and it has no nicks or chips except on the rim, which I don’t care about and don’t notice unless I stop and look for them. The bottom is discolored and looks scratched to hell and back but that hasn’t affected the performance of it as far as I can tell. It’s the one piece of kitchen equipment I credit the most with affecting my end result. So many recipes just magically started working when I got one. If I was going to replace it today I would probably look at Lodge for sure, just to save a buck.
Le Creuset is obviously super expensive, but they have great warranties. I’ve taken advantage of it around 3 times—oldest one being like a 20 year old piece. Full replacements each time, at no cost.
I have a Lodge enameled dutch oven that I’ve had for 10 years or so. No chips or anything to speak of in the base, a small one on the lid, which was from me being careless once. I also have a totally unblemished nonstick pan that I’ve had for well over 5 years and pull out almost daily.
I also have one of those stupid microwave/hood things that doesn’t do anything. I have taken to using an induction hot plate on the patio for any high-heat searing I have to do.
Now that makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately I have no patio. I suppose I could use the fire escape, but then the pigeons and rats would compete to steal my ribeye!
Ah, the classics. :)
My go-to cookware is a 100+ year old griddle that was passed down through generations and a round bottom wok from the wok shop.
Then comes the cast iron skillets. I have a diminutive 6" that gets a lot of work with onions and peppers and a couple of 10" ones.
Then, joining stusser is a couple of non-sticks that we use for eggs that we replace every year.
Then the once a month type things for cooking pasta; my 32 qt tamale cooker that I use for making Pho, and the various sizes of plastic bins for sous vide.
Nice!
We need to get a wok. Burners on our range are setup to work with them super easily.
I bought this wok a few years back:
It is not round bottom though. It’s for flat burners. It has been a bit of a learning curve for me though because being carbon steel, it needed seasoning. BUT, woks are seasoned on a burner, not in an oven like I do with my cast iron. So it’s a slooooow process. You get a little patina in a first seasoning, then a little more and more and more over time. I like it when I use it, but I’m betting if this was a daily use item for me I’d have picked something different.
You can season it in the oven too, you just need to remove the wooden handles.
I, somewhat uncharacteristically, am fairly un-picky about my wok-pan despite the fact that I use it almost daily. I’ve used a succession of undefined non-stick pans that I found at Asian markets,and replace them every couple years as needed.
I tried to look up the pan brand at some point to figure out what the non-stick material was, but it doesn’t exist on English internet. So, it remains a mystery.