Sheldon wrote:
> On Aug 27, 9:03?am, "Dee Dee" > wrote:
>> "Giusi" > wrote in message
>>
>> ...
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> > ha scritto nel messaggio
>>> ups.com...
>>>> In the past I have used cast iron skillets, however even with
>>>> seasoning, they are still a chore to maintain. One alternative I would
>>>> like to consider is a porcelain coated iron skillet.
>>>> Are they just effective in transferring heat and searing meats?
>>>> Thanks
>>> You are doing something wrong. Maintaining a cast iron skillet is one of
>>> the easiest kitchen chores. Immediately after searing meat in it, put a
>>> little water in the skillet. When ready to clean it, use a soap free
>>> metal scrubber to loosen any cooked on juices, rinse, dry, heat on a low
>>> flame. Cool it and put it away. Are you sure yours is properly seasoned?
>>> The enameled cast iron is much less stick-free. You can use soap on it,
>>> but without some fat in the pan the meat will stick like crazy. You'll
>>> leave the crust behind quite often. The big advantage is that you (must)
>>> use a low flame but you get a regular and high heat all over the pan.
>>> Quick sauces can often be made with residual heat after turning off the
>>> flame.
>> Another side to this cast-iron vs. coated that I notice is that all the
>> cooks on the foodnetwork use coated. I know they are selling stuff, making
>> things look pretty, but the only time I see them using cast iron is when
>> there is a program featuring it, or maybe 1% of the time when they say it is
>> best for a certain dish.
>>
>> I haven't seen them used in the chef's kitchen when go on-site either.
>
> Professional cooks don't use any kind of cast iron cookware, except on
> TV shows. When professional cooks want that kind of seasoned surface
> they use carbon steel cookware, never ever cast iron. The only cast
> iron cooking professional cooks do is on one of those large griddles
> that short order cooks use, but those are never seasoned, in fact
> they're scrubbed down to bare metal after each shift, usually with a
> block of lava stone. Cast iron cookware is like a baby step above the
> stone age, people who use cast iron are really not cooking food,
> they're abusing food. Compared with modern cookware cast iron is like
> going to war with a wooden club and a bag of rocks.

Wow! Those large griddles in diners are seasoned, and if you stone one
down to the point that it looks like freshly-machined metal it will need
to be seasoned again. What's more, many of them are rolled steel plate;
it makes no difference. What matters is that the metal can rust. The
"seasoned" finish of either consists of oxidized and polymerized fat
incorporating black iron oxide. Ask the short-order cook in your
favorite diner.

Professional chefs who have burners as large as pan bottoms prefer the
thinner stamped carbon steel because it heats and cools more quickly.
Home cooks tend to prefer thicker cast iron because it heats much more
easily on our smaller burners.

Read what Mark Bittman, a well known chef and food writer wrote about
cast iron: http://tinyurl.com/c4e6h

Jerry
--
Engineering is the art of making what you want from things you can get.
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