Speak to me of pots and pans.
Moving to a new house and I figured it’s time to quit spending $30 here and there on individual crap pans and get something decent (but not crazy expensive). Any suggestions of where to start?
Yes, seconded. I’m about to move out of my college house and, thank Jebus, never see any of this crap cookware ever again.
Yes, the first thing is a 12" Lodge cast iron skillet. Should be less than $30 and will last the rest of your life.
After that, a small and large stainless pot like this:
And a pressure cooker, like this:
Which acts as a stock pot as well. Add a stainless skillet of some sort and you’re good for most.
What are you looking to spend? Largely, I think you get what you pay for with stainless steel pots and pans, with the exception that when you get into exotic finishes (copper, etc), they’re more for show. Generally, you want clad - stainless steel sandwiched around aluminum.
All clad and Calphalon are great, but expensive. I see Cuisinart’s pots and pans around a lot these days, and they seem fine, and are a little cheaper. But really, nice cookware lasts pretty much forever, so it may be worthwhile to spend a little more. My only real general advice is to think about what you’ll actually use and only buy a set if it’s actually cheaper for what you need than buying them individually. I have a 6 qt stockpot that I never use because it’s so huge. What I actually use is an 8 inch fry pan, 10 inch saute pan, 2 quart pot, 4 quart pot, and a wok. I have and use a cast 10" iron skillet, as well, but that’s fairly specialty.
Don’t buy anything non-stick that’s expensive. You probably only need 1 non-stick pan, and it should be a cheap one you can replace when it wears out. Something like this.
If you want a wok, this one is pretty good.
Oddly enough, though that’s common wisdom, I’ve never had much use for either cast iron or skillets. Nothing I cook uses a skillet. There are some things which could, such as sauteing mushrooms, but I’d rather something deeper so stuff escaping from the pan is less of a danger. Here and there are things where low sides help, like making omelets, but I don’t cook those these days. I do own a couple, but they’re stainless steel and I like 'em that way. Much, much less work than cast iron.
90% of what I cook uses either a 3.5 quart saute pan or 3.75 quart sauce pan. 1.5 quart sauce pans are so small they’re only useful for very specific tasks, like boiling eggs or cooking rice. Thus, handy to have, but not vital. I also use a 5 quart saute pan, but that’s huge, and I only use it for 2 specific dishes.
Pressure cookers are great, and the stove-top models can act as a stockpock, as Houngan said. Don’t get anything smaller than 6 quarts, because actual working capacity is rather less, to allow a safe margin for pressurized air when it gets up to steam. I’ve moved to an electric model, because it’s fire-and-forget. Just load the thing up, set the amount of time at pressure, and walk away. With the stovetop models you must keep an eye on it so you can reduce heat when it reaches pressure, and then remove it from the flame when the pressure period is up.
What’s with copper? Labour intensive status symbol or actually legit? I never, ever used a copper pot when I worked in restaurants but everyone seems to be getting them now.
I would buy one really good 10-12 inch pan. To start. Steel with an aluminum bottom that goes all the way to the edge of the pan. Or maybe better a ceramic coated, cast iron Dutch Oven type pot. Either has multiple uses. And the Dutch oven type will have a nice fitting lid. As well a 12 in cast iron pan is something that will last several human lifetimes.
Well, you’re weird. I don’t mean that harshly but if you don’t use a skillet then you’re pretty far off the reservation, statistically.
Honestly I can understand some of Gus’ fear. Cast iron actually takes some care. Most people will ruin a good cast iron pan with either abuse or neglect. That’s why I suggest ceramic coated cast iron. But if you’re going to buy one and only one thing, then the ceramic coated Dutch oven can be found for around $40. And completely worth it.
I don’t think it’s worth it from what I have read, unless you want to whip egg whites. Of course the first reaction of somebody whipping egg whites is to add a bit of acid like cream of tartar which mimics the copper bowl effect. Cooking acids though is bad for copper. So maybe a bowl for whipping egg whites but otherwise if you have to ask, you don’t need or want copper.
Cast Iron enamel coated dutch ovens for the win. I went crazy and splurged on a La Creuset 6.5 and it’s my favorite kitchen item. So many recipes that just kind of sucked suddenly started working with this pot. I attribute it how they develop a fond on the bottom, letting you easily see it and otherwise mange this super important part of cooking. Well if you like flavor anyways.
As well a cast iron based pot will do what your burner can’t. Here in Florida we don’t have natural gas burners. We have electric stoves. Electric stoves keep heat on the pan by turning the heating element on and off at various times. But ultimately they overheat the “burners”. So a cast iron pan or pot will kind of keep the heat even. They don’t heat up fast. But they keep the heat if the range is turned off.
The point is to keep the heat even throughout the cooking process. Honestly I have learned more about cooking using an electric stove than I ever knew with a gas burner. To each his or her own.
I know most people use skillets. I used to. Then I realized that they were inferior for most tasks to a sauté pan. You only really need a skillet if you’re going to flip the contents with a spatula, for which you need low sides. Omletes, pancakes, steaks, that kind of thing, and I just don’t cook anything where that is a factor. I have an electric grill for things like hamburgers, which I prefer because a two-sided grill eliminates the need for turning, so I can prep other stuff while the meat is cooking.
I did in fact own a cast iron skillet, but it was constantly rusty because the seasoning was damaged, which is easy to do. This being pre-Internet, I couldn’t just look up “rusty cast iron” to find out what was wrong. It got lost in one of the moves and I never bothered to replace it.
Even heat distribution is important, in my experience, but you don’t really need copper for that. The Cuisinart pans have thick metal disc across the bottom which has aluminum sandwiched inside to facilitate that. It works, and it’s cheaper than copper.
Some generic brand (Target? Martha Stewart?) was the equal of the La Crueset but much less expensive, Cook’s Illustrated did a piece on it. I’ll check my library and see if I can find it. Edit: Found it, Target. See if they still have it, it seemed to be exactly the same as the Crueset.
As I mentioned, my view is that copper is basically just for looks. Stainless steel clad aluminum is the way to go.
Most of my cooking background is chinese, so my wok is my #1 pan that I would have if I could have only one. But, even I have found more uses for a cast iron skillet than I expected when I got it. I use it for stove-top applications like pancakes, burgers, grilled cheese sorts of thing, but also find it convenient for things that need to transition from the oven to the stove-top. For instance, the roast chicken in here which is the best goddamn roast chicken I’ve been able to make (you roast the chicken on a bed of veggies, then while the chicken is resting, heat the veggies over the burner to get a little color / texture on them). I could use a dutch oven or a large saute pan for many of the same applications. But the cast iron is convenient, and can do many things well.
I don’t find care of cast iron to be that bad, although maybe I’m abusing it without realizing it. I haven’t re-seasoned it in a couple of years. But I routinely cook greasy things in it, and I never wash it at all (I just scrub it out with salt), and that seems to be working for me.
I have an enameled dutch oven I use primarily for stews and long-cooking sauces. But it’s a hassle to clean in my sink, so I don’t use it that often.
Rich, you can actually get a diffuser to get the same evening effect with other cookware, if you wanted to for some reason.
Maybe there are better electric grills than I’ve used, but no thanks. Too much weight, not enough heat control = bad burgers.
As you say, using and only wiping out cast iron is really all the care it needs. If you leave it in a closet for a few years dry then it will rust, but mine sees enough bacon that there’s no danger of that. I also like that it’s nonstick but rugged, I can’t stand scratching nonstick and I don’t always want to dick around with stainless and sticking. I saw this in a store the other day:
http://www.lodgemfg.com/seasoned-carbon-steel/seasoned-steel-skillet-CRS10
And I’m pretty intrigued, it looks like the seasoning of cast iron with the rapid sear and control of stainless.
I have a blue steel crepe pan (to go with my 5 cast iron skillets, I’m kind of nuts). It’s great. I actually prefer it to cast iron now. Non-stick, light, quick to heat up. I use it for just about everything that will fit. Eggs, pancakes, crepes, salmon, you name it.
I wouldn’t futz around with Lodge, though. Just get the De Buyer. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0019N4ZHQ
I have trouble with the idea of never washing a pan that has come into contact with food. I suppose the heat will kill any bacteria that are growing there, but still my reaction is “urgh.” No doubt that’s why I had problems with my cast iron pan, I washed it after every time I used it.
I’ve thought about a crepe pan now and then. My father’s crepes were a big deal for me when I was growing up, but I’ve never put the effort in as an adult. I’m questioning that De Buyer though, because my father’s pan had ridiculously low edges, and the linked pan looks like a regular frying pan to me. Of course, maybe that doesn’t matter - as I said, it’s not something I have any experience cooking.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I just don’t know what I’m missing… But I’ve never had much trouble turning out pretty excellent results even with very mediocre cookware. Obviously the better stuff is preferable, but I’ve never had a meal failure that could be attributed to the cookware. I think it’s more about developing your instincts for when something is done/burning/needs to be flipped/etc.
That ick factor took me a while to overcome too. But as you said, the pan gets screaming hot, so what does it matter? Most commercial griddles are never “washed” the way home cookware is, and you don’t put outdoor grill grates in the dishwasher either.
Scrubbing it out with salt, as per Alton Brown’s suggestion, really helped me accept it. That let me feel like I was washing it, and gets all the physical food particles off.
Rinsing will wash away anything in a properly cared for and seasoned cast iron pan. If something is sticking, it’s not completely seasoned yet or food was left sitting in it.
+1 to the enameled cast iron dutch oven. I have a cheap emeril one right now but looking to replace it with a staub.
Copper is too sensitive.