I TOTALLY DISAGREE!#!@$ (With the “for me” part)
How do people normally bring stuff over to others for a large meal? It was extremely lanky dragging 9 grocery bags of stuff to my parents.
Great question. I’ve struggled with it. After a few times of the way-too-many-containers method, I started doing par cooks and premixing to make things easier. Plus you don’t end up lugging extra things over that you aren’t sure your host may have, like that stick blender you own that works so well, or a ricer, or sharp knives, or … etc.
As an example, over Christmas I took a nearly pre-made shepherds pie over to a family members house in this form:
Nearly pre-made, it just needed a finish in the oven. Plus, it was in a throw away broil pan.
@ArmandoPenblade does this stuff all the time, I’m interested to hear his response.
It varies a lot, but I’ve begun doing pre-cooking and pre-prepping as well.
For instance, once a year, an old high school friend rents a giant cabin out in the mountains of East TN for a bunch of old pals and we gather together for two days of drinking, gaming, and eating. I do most of the cooking. Initially I was bringing all the nonperisable ingredients (e.g., canned tomatoes, spices, grains, etc.) with me from NC and having her buy perishables in TN (e.g., meat, chill-requiring veggies), then we’d meet at the cabin and go. Downside being that hey, with most cabins opening at 3PM and dinner ostensibly at 7, I’ve gotta whip up a full menu for 20+ people in 4 hours. That’s fucking hard.
So the last couple of years, I’ve done heavy pre-prepping. The year I did Mediterranean fare, I made my hummus, tzatziki, tahini sauce, and “white sauce” at home completely. I made the batter for my falafel, too. Then still brought nonperishables (rice, spices, etc.) and a lot of not-very-perishables like veggies for salad, all in a giant cooler I bought. She still got the meats. When I got to the cabin, I quickly marinated the meat, chopped up the salad veggies, and got to work frying the falafel balls and fries and grilling the chicken and steaming the spiced rice. At the end of it all, food was served right on time.
I do still wind up bringing a lot of my own cookware for stuff like that because I don’t trust other people’s gear, so it winds up being a lot. Work used to give away these really nice zip-up insulated bags every year, so I’ve got 3 of those. I also have a Rachel Ray insulated bag that’s more “on its side” than stand-up that’s good for casseroles, and then this year for Christmas ,I got an actual insulated casserole dish bag that can hold two 9x12 casserole dishes, so I can do things like what @Skipper did above where I make the whole casserole except final baking, pack it into the bag, and then bake when I get to the friend’s place.
Yeah I have one of those insulated casserole carriers, and they are nice. Makes transporting dishes real easy, especially since we often drive for an hour with a partially cooked dish to Indiana.
Man I forgot about the insulated bags. Those work wonders on transporting stuff. Thankfully my girlfriend has several really good ones. My brother in law also has a large heating / chilling cooler than can be plugged into a car lighter or similar for power. You can switch modes on it for heating or cooling.
Portable electric fry pans or burners always help, too.
My Christmas burner and rice cooker let me simultaneously prepare rice, etouffee, chowder, and hush puppies (deep fryer is very large and I prefer to use it on stovetop since it “leaks” a lot of heat and might damage my countertops, so it takes up two burners on its own), so yes, yes, yes. The extra burner is great.
Any issues with that thing heating up to temp? Since it was plug in wattage only, I wasn’t sure how that wattage equates to power to heat, say, a large amount of water, for induction.
You get to be the guinea pig for all of us.
It boiled the broth for the chowder very quickly (not a perfect test: the giant, heat retaining enameled cast iron pot was already hot from sautéing veg and there wasn’t a ton of broth), so I’m pretty pleased!
Good to hear. I have yet to get one, I’ve only used them in cooking classes. I did like that the heat changes (for the setting) were instant. The cooking vessel might take a bit, but there was no up/down time for the burner itself to change from one temp to another.
Do y’all use uncoated/filmed cast iron often? I have some pans, but they are rarely used because I cannot cook anything acidic without knocking off the coating. I have relegated them to frying duty.
Nah. I used to cook steaks in cast iron, but it smoked up my apartment beyond belief and searing in a nice stainless-steel all-clad pan works 90% as well with much less annoying cleanup. I never fry and don’t make cornbread, so no reason for cast iron cookware.
Uncoated … so just regular cast iron? I use it all the time, tons to be honest. My primary pan is a 60 year old Griswold skillet. I’ve also cooked plenty of acidic foods in mine. I regularly reseason them, it’s not really that hard on them.
I also have cast iron muffin tins, bread pans, a dutch oven, a pot or two, and multiple skillets. I have a cast iron collecting problem.
I’ve got a low-budget Lodge cast iron skillet I use for bacon, sausage, cornbread, and steak, primarily. Sometimes stove-to-oven stuff like brussels sprouts, too. I never managed to get a good seasoning onto it despite 2-3 attempts, so I sort of gave that up and just accept that it’s kind of lackluster.
I do this a lot, so it’s kind of old hat, but by far, the best method I’ve seen, despite reading so many expert writeups on it, has been this guy. He’s good. This is an all in one video on how to strip (using oven cleaning cycle method) followed by how to season, and how to touch up, aka mini-season. He has other videos on different restoration methods if you’re into that kinda thing.
One of the biggest arguments that gets tossed around is X oil is better than Y oil is better than Z shortening/lard. Just use what you have, but if possible whatever it is with the highest smoke point. And then, cook on it, cook on it, cook on it. The more you use it, the better it gets.
Sadly the cheapo oven our landlords got us to replace the amazing one the apartment came with doesn’t do self-cleaning. . . wonder what the mintemp is for his method. . . which I could possibly answer by watching the video first, but I wanted to bitch about the oven.
It’s using the burner on the oven, directly. You just bring it to a smoke, take off, wipe down, reapply, repeat. But because it’s not in the oven, you have to do one side, then the other.
EDIT because it took me a sec to understand what you’re asking. You don’t need the cleaning cycle to season, just to completely STRIP seasoning off an old skillet.
Yes, and my concern is that my shitty old seasoning really needs to be removed before I can do a proper job going forward. I suspect I can get it off with a lot of elbow grease, but I’m also embarrassingly weak :)
He covers that on other videos. You can use different methods.
- OvenOff sprayed all over it and placed in a bag for a day
- Electrolosys
- Elbow grease and steel wool
- Vinegar soak and scrubbing
… etc.
Stusser, you get less smoke from steel than iron? I can’t tell because I don’t have an externally vented hood. Seems to me that the layer is being vaporized.
Skipper, next time you cook wet acidic stuff in your pans check out how the flakes come off.
Armando, budget don’t mean shit. It pisses me off that no one laps cast iron cookware. They could at least bead-blast the stuff.
Fuck, cooking is so g-danged complex. So much stuff going on.