Hi gang!
So just a quick update; the pan is working great thus far, wonderful non-stick, though not quite ready for cornbread... but the steak we made for Christmas came out wonderful. But that's not the best news!
We just got our oven replaced today, the maintenance person told us that we needed to have a properly working oven because he likes all the great things we make in it! Yay us!
There will be more updates once we get it broken in, so stay tuned!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Adventures in Cast Iron Part 2
Welcome back!
In case you need a refresher, we're talking about the pitfalls of small apartment ranges when using cast iron cookware. Definitely read the previous post for the start of this story, and I promise that when you get back to this entry, there will be better news.
So when we last left, I had just shown you the result of a pan reconditioning that did not take well at all. Why did this happen? There are a few reasons, not the least of which is my crappy stove. In fact, most of them have to do with my crappy stove. Rather than go into details about the stove itself, let me tell you what I did next to resolve the issue with the pan.
Again, I had to strip the pan down. I thought long and hard about what to do next with this pan, and about my own experiences with seasoning cookware from ages past. In fact, a quote from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock came to mind during my research:
"What you seek, has not been done since ages past! And then, only in legend!"
I'm afraid that when my mind is really trying to solve a problem, it often goes back to the beginning, and this turned out to be the best way to think in this situation. In this case, it was also a very geeky thought process.
Firstly, I needed to do more experiments with my stove. As I mentioned in Part 1, it is important to get a feel for your range before expecting to work miracles with it. I began by doing precisely what I mentioned last time: Using an oven thermometer to get a feel for how my oven actually is heating up, holding temperature, and if there were hotspots. Indeed there were. My oven heats to a higher temperature on the sides, particularly the left side, and is hotter at the top of the oven than in the center. My oven also takes more than 35 minutes to heat up, and when it does, it is often hotter than what the dial says. When I open it, the heat that escapes seems to not affect the right side of the oven, and it takes about 20 minutes to heat up a second time.
Next, I tested how hot my burners get, though not through any scientific method such as an infrared thermometer. I used my wok, oddly enough. Now I know what you are thinking:
How can she use the wok to test how hot the burners make a pan compared to the oven?
The answer isn't precise, but the theory bore out in the end. I used my wok in conjunction with the oil I was using to treat the pan. My cast iron skillet, right out of the (supposed 550 degree) oven, when coated with a light coating of vegetable oil, creates no smoke whatsoever, even though in theory, the smoke point of the oil should be well surpassed at this point. To be clear, I'd left the pan in the oven for about 45 minutes before testing it.
The wok, which is really a stir-fry pan, would cause the oil to smoke almost instantly when the pan had been on the burner for less than 5 minutes. When applying this test to the poorly mottled cast iron skillet, I found that not only did this hold true, but when looking at the surface of the pan, I also found that the pan did not heat evenly on the burner as it appears to in all the pan seasoning tutorials I've read.
Yes, I may have interpreted those tutorials too literally, but these experiments really paid off. When I stripped my pan down a second time and prepared to season it, a theory popped into my head about the initial seasoning of my wok, and how I developed a patina on it that was slicker than... well it was anti-stick, let's just say. So the approach I took to the pan this time was to dry it off in the oven again, and then crank the oven up as I had before with the bare pan in it, and then remove the pan to a burner set to high. After about 6 minutes of this, I wiped the pan down with a coating of oil to cover the entire surface, let it brown, and then move the pan around the burner so all areas of the cooking surface became heated evenly. Once the oil stopped glistening (and smoking too, for that matter), I repeated the process. I did this about 6 times before I put the pan back in the oven, upside down, with a sheet pan below it to catch any drippings, and turned the oven off.
My results were astoundingly different. This method gave me an incredibly smooth black patina that I have been building up ever since, which looked like this after the pan cooled from the first round of seasoning:
So what else did I do differently? I used vegetable oil with a high canola oil ratio (regular canola oil will work too) this time, instead of what some other blogs recommended (everything from lard, to generic vegetable shortening, to olive oil). When I'd seasoned my wok, I used sesame oil, which has a very high smoke point, well above that of canola (as I seem to recall, I'm sure someone will correct me on this if I am wrong). In fact, now whenever I coat the pan, the oil only smokes for a moment, and then it clears up. With the mottled pan from Part 1, the pan would smoke once it got hot, no matter how baked in the oil appeared to be.
Again, what I sought had been done in ages past: The method of creating a patina that worked on my wok, worked on my cast iron skillet as well. I have to say that I'm thrilled, and I continue to break it in with everything from bacon to burgers. When I feel the surface is just right, I'll give it the fried egg test. I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, that's the end of this chapter, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Until next time:
Happy cooking!
In case you need a refresher, we're talking about the pitfalls of small apartment ranges when using cast iron cookware. Definitely read the previous post for the start of this story, and I promise that when you get back to this entry, there will be better news.
So when we last left, I had just shown you the result of a pan reconditioning that did not take well at all. Why did this happen? There are a few reasons, not the least of which is my crappy stove. In fact, most of them have to do with my crappy stove. Rather than go into details about the stove itself, let me tell you what I did next to resolve the issue with the pan.
Again, I had to strip the pan down. I thought long and hard about what to do next with this pan, and about my own experiences with seasoning cookware from ages past. In fact, a quote from Star Trek III: The Search For Spock came to mind during my research:
"What you seek, has not been done since ages past! And then, only in legend!"
I'm afraid that when my mind is really trying to solve a problem, it often goes back to the beginning, and this turned out to be the best way to think in this situation. In this case, it was also a very geeky thought process.
Firstly, I needed to do more experiments with my stove. As I mentioned in Part 1, it is important to get a feel for your range before expecting to work miracles with it. I began by doing precisely what I mentioned last time: Using an oven thermometer to get a feel for how my oven actually is heating up, holding temperature, and if there were hotspots. Indeed there were. My oven heats to a higher temperature on the sides, particularly the left side, and is hotter at the top of the oven than in the center. My oven also takes more than 35 minutes to heat up, and when it does, it is often hotter than what the dial says. When I open it, the heat that escapes seems to not affect the right side of the oven, and it takes about 20 minutes to heat up a second time.
Next, I tested how hot my burners get, though not through any scientific method such as an infrared thermometer. I used my wok, oddly enough. Now I know what you are thinking:
How can she use the wok to test how hot the burners make a pan compared to the oven?
The answer isn't precise, but the theory bore out in the end. I used my wok in conjunction with the oil I was using to treat the pan. My cast iron skillet, right out of the (supposed 550 degree) oven, when coated with a light coating of vegetable oil, creates no smoke whatsoever, even though in theory, the smoke point of the oil should be well surpassed at this point. To be clear, I'd left the pan in the oven for about 45 minutes before testing it.
The wok, which is really a stir-fry pan, would cause the oil to smoke almost instantly when the pan had been on the burner for less than 5 minutes. When applying this test to the poorly mottled cast iron skillet, I found that not only did this hold true, but when looking at the surface of the pan, I also found that the pan did not heat evenly on the burner as it appears to in all the pan seasoning tutorials I've read.
Yes, I may have interpreted those tutorials too literally, but these experiments really paid off. When I stripped my pan down a second time and prepared to season it, a theory popped into my head about the initial seasoning of my wok, and how I developed a patina on it that was slicker than... well it was anti-stick, let's just say. So the approach I took to the pan this time was to dry it off in the oven again, and then crank the oven up as I had before with the bare pan in it, and then remove the pan to a burner set to high. After about 6 minutes of this, I wiped the pan down with a coating of oil to cover the entire surface, let it brown, and then move the pan around the burner so all areas of the cooking surface became heated evenly. Once the oil stopped glistening (and smoking too, for that matter), I repeated the process. I did this about 6 times before I put the pan back in the oven, upside down, with a sheet pan below it to catch any drippings, and turned the oven off.
My results were astoundingly different. This method gave me an incredibly smooth black patina that I have been building up ever since, which looked like this after the pan cooled from the first round of seasoning:
So what else did I do differently? I used vegetable oil with a high canola oil ratio (regular canola oil will work too) this time, instead of what some other blogs recommended (everything from lard, to generic vegetable shortening, to olive oil). When I'd seasoned my wok, I used sesame oil, which has a very high smoke point, well above that of canola (as I seem to recall, I'm sure someone will correct me on this if I am wrong). In fact, now whenever I coat the pan, the oil only smokes for a moment, and then it clears up. With the mottled pan from Part 1, the pan would smoke once it got hot, no matter how baked in the oil appeared to be.
Again, what I sought had been done in ages past: The method of creating a patina that worked on my wok, worked on my cast iron skillet as well. I have to say that I'm thrilled, and I continue to break it in with everything from bacon to burgers. When I feel the surface is just right, I'll give it the fried egg test. I'll let you know how that goes. In the meantime, that's the end of this chapter, and I hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Until next time:
Happy cooking!
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Adventures in Cast Iron Part 1
As some of you may already be aware, I follow a couple of cast iron blogs on this site. I have learned a lot about cast iron in general from doing so, though have found myself struggling with a few things in my own care of my cookware, particularly when its come time to recondition it. I learned through a lot of trial and error that while the methods for doing so on Black Iron Blog are very accurate, when it comes to the final stages of heating up your pan and putting down the oil to build up the patina, there is a lot to be said about the oven and burner you have available to you to accomplish this. Generally, the idea is simple:
1. Strip the pan.
2. Remove the rust.
3. Dry the pan thoroughly.
4. Put your pan in the oven and get the oven NASA hot.
5. Remove the pan and wipe down with oil on all sides, return to oven to let oil soak in and start to develop the patina.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
Simple, right? Not necessarily.
For one, NASA hot does mean what it says. Having an oven that can get your pan hot enough is really key here. Most ovens that come with your average apartment, suburban or city, I've found, simply do not get the pan hot enough, even if you leave it in the oven for an hour. I cite Alton Brown's note in the first episode of Good Eats: Steak Your Claim, where he talks about putting the pan on the burner after having it in the oven, so that it can get even hotter. This is very important if you have such a range.
Let's talk about ovens for a bit
First of all, let's presume that the oven you have says it goes up to 500 degrees. This really needs to be tested, so get yourself a good (emphasis on good. While you don't need to spend $80 on an oven thermometer, go to a good cooking supply store and ask a lot of questions. You'll find one in your price range that will be accurate for a long time.) oven thermometer that goes up to at least 500 degrees and put it in the center of the center rack of your oven, turn the oven on, and let it heat up for... let's say 20 minutes. If your oven is new, and is clean, your thermometer may actually get up to 500 degrees.
However, if your oven is older, or is not so clean, your temperatures may vary quite a bit. You may find that you have to leave the oven preheating longer, or may find that the oven is far hotter than 500 degrees and there's smoke coming out of all the vents, as well as the door. Yuck! Clean your oven if you need to, or run it through a self cleaning cycle if it has one, then wipe it down to get rid of the ash.
You will likely want to perform this test with the thermometer in several different locations in the oven, as many apartment ovens simply do not heat evenly. Once you establish an understanding of how your oven works, and what temperatures you can get out of it, then we can move on.
For the sake of following the steps above (more specifics in the link to Black Iron Blog), I would like to show you the awful results of my first attempt to season my pan in the craptastic oven that I have. Going strictly by the book (website), this is what my pan looked like afterwards:
1. Strip the pan.
2. Remove the rust.
3. Dry the pan thoroughly.
4. Put your pan in the oven and get the oven NASA hot.
5. Remove the pan and wipe down with oil on all sides, return to oven to let oil soak in and start to develop the patina.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5.
Simple, right? Not necessarily.
For one, NASA hot does mean what it says. Having an oven that can get your pan hot enough is really key here. Most ovens that come with your average apartment, suburban or city, I've found, simply do not get the pan hot enough, even if you leave it in the oven for an hour. I cite Alton Brown's note in the first episode of Good Eats: Steak Your Claim, where he talks about putting the pan on the burner after having it in the oven, so that it can get even hotter. This is very important if you have such a range.
Let's talk about ovens for a bit
First of all, let's presume that the oven you have says it goes up to 500 degrees. This really needs to be tested, so get yourself a good (emphasis on good. While you don't need to spend $80 on an oven thermometer, go to a good cooking supply store and ask a lot of questions. You'll find one in your price range that will be accurate for a long time.) oven thermometer that goes up to at least 500 degrees and put it in the center of the center rack of your oven, turn the oven on, and let it heat up for... let's say 20 minutes. If your oven is new, and is clean, your thermometer may actually get up to 500 degrees.
However, if your oven is older, or is not so clean, your temperatures may vary quite a bit. You may find that you have to leave the oven preheating longer, or may find that the oven is far hotter than 500 degrees and there's smoke coming out of all the vents, as well as the door. Yuck! Clean your oven if you need to, or run it through a self cleaning cycle if it has one, then wipe it down to get rid of the ash.
You will likely want to perform this test with the thermometer in several different locations in the oven, as many apartment ovens simply do not heat evenly. Once you establish an understanding of how your oven works, and what temperatures you can get out of it, then we can move on.
For the sake of following the steps above (more specifics in the link to Black Iron Blog), I would like to show you the awful results of my first attempt to season my pan in the craptastic oven that I have. Going strictly by the book (website), this is what my pan looked like afterwards:
Awful, no? The oil didn't have a chance to get soaked into the iron, and it mottled all over the pan, creating an uneven coat and a pattern that looks like the surface of The Starship Enterprise. Even after several more attempts to "remedy" this, things just did not work out, and I ended up having to shelve the pan for a bit until I could revisit the process again. What I ended up doing surprised me, but it worked well.
However, that is another entry, and I'll have to leave you hanging for now. (Yes, mean girl I can be, but this is a blog, and you're meant to read until I say you are done! Mwahahahahahaha!)
*ahem*
Anyway, stay tuned for the next chapter in my Adventures in Cast Iron, and we'll talk more about the oven, the rangetop, the oil, and the methods. I think you'll be surprised at the results.
Happy cooking!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
begin.
Greetings!
This blog is meant to be about my various escapades and misadventures in the kitchen, whether it has to do with cooking, cookware, kitchen hardware, cutlery, recipes, or just frustrations about being an amateur foodie and a bit of a gearhead. I should introduce myself first.
Hi. I'm Kimberle.
Now that the formalities are over, let's talk about my intentions here. "Young lady, what are your intentions towards my son-- er, this blog??" Well, as I mentioned above, I'm a bit of a kitchen nut, an amateur foodie, and a slight gearhead. I should specify, however, about gear. I'm talking mostly about cutlery and cookware, though I do love my Kitchen Aid stand mixers.
Because of my current projects, you'll likely hear more about cast iron than anything else, and about my crappy stove. I'll be going into some details about the ups and downs of seasoning, reconditioning, and using cast iron on a crappy mini stove in a small apartment in northern Chicago. What a pain. The bulk of my time in the next few entries will be spent on this specifically, as I have been asked about them by a number of people, and so there will be a lot of catching up for them as to why I began this current cast iron project and the lessons I'm learning from it.
For now, this should tell you enough to decide if you want to spend a small part of your day reading my entries. I am not sure about my update schedule just yet, most of it depends on work, but I will try, at the very least, to not leave this blog without 1 post per week. If I slack off, I'm sure someone will hit me and get me back in the swing of things.
For now, I bid you good morning!
This blog is meant to be about my various escapades and misadventures in the kitchen, whether it has to do with cooking, cookware, kitchen hardware, cutlery, recipes, or just frustrations about being an amateur foodie and a bit of a gearhead. I should introduce myself first.
Hi. I'm Kimberle.
Now that the formalities are over, let's talk about my intentions here. "Young lady, what are your intentions towards my son-- er, this blog??" Well, as I mentioned above, I'm a bit of a kitchen nut, an amateur foodie, and a slight gearhead. I should specify, however, about gear. I'm talking mostly about cutlery and cookware, though I do love my Kitchen Aid stand mixers.
Because of my current projects, you'll likely hear more about cast iron than anything else, and about my crappy stove. I'll be going into some details about the ups and downs of seasoning, reconditioning, and using cast iron on a crappy mini stove in a small apartment in northern Chicago. What a pain. The bulk of my time in the next few entries will be spent on this specifically, as I have been asked about them by a number of people, and so there will be a lot of catching up for them as to why I began this current cast iron project and the lessons I'm learning from it.
For now, this should tell you enough to decide if you want to spend a small part of your day reading my entries. I am not sure about my update schedule just yet, most of it depends on work, but I will try, at the very least, to not leave this blog without 1 post per week. If I slack off, I'm sure someone will hit me and get me back in the swing of things.
For now, I bid you good morning!
Monday, December 5, 2011
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