Porcelain coated iron vs. cast iron skillet

Quoted message said:

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.

http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-11-Inch-Cast-Iron-Round/dp/B000IXOO4W/ref=sr_1_8/002-8992071-6364059?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1187918316&sr=1-8

Are they just effective in transferring heat and searing meats?
Thanks

If plain cast-iron skillets are a chore for you to maintain, you must be
doing something the hard way. Have you read the admittedly idiosyncratic
bit at http://users.erols.com/jyavins/season.htm ?

I have and use two enameled cast-iron Le Cruset skillets, one the size
of a Wagner #3, the other, a #6. They are enameled white, and so
particularly useful when I need to judge color, as with a roux. They
stain a bit, but periodix bleaching with Chlorox fixes that, and they
are lightly scratched, which doesn't seem to impair their usefulness.
They're nice, but not special. Eggs stick more than in plain cast iron.

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

<[email hidden]> ha scritto nel messaggio
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Quoted message said:

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.

Quoted message said:

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.

http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-11-Inch-Cast-Iron-Round/dp/B000IXOO...

Are they just effective in transferring heat and searing meats?
Thanks

Cast iron skillets and cast iron grill pans are two different thangs.
Coated or uncoated.

"Giusi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

<[email hidden]> ha scritto nel messaggio
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Quoted message said:

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.

I'd buy a Batali pot --
Fan of Mario, tho, so I'm prejudiced.
Dee Dee

Jerry Avins said:

If plain cast-iron skillets are a chore for you to maintain, you must be
doing something the hard way. Have you read the admittedly idiosyncratic
bit at http://users.erols.com/jyavins/season.htm ?

"If it is very fresh, refrigerated and unprocessed, linseed oil is suitable for
human consumption..."

It's like mineral oil in that regard -- I wouldn't trust any container
(especially from a hardware store!) that does not state "food quality" or
something similar.

-- Larry

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

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.

http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-11-Inch-Cast-Iron-Round/dp/B000IXOO4W/ref=sr_1_8/002-8992071-6364059?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1187918316&sr=1-8

Are they just effective in transferring heat and searing meats?
Thanks

They are two quite different things - both have their uses but one is
not a replacement for the other.

First, if you learn what you are doing and don't use it for
inappropriate foods, cast iron is not all that hard to maintain (once it
has been seasoned properly, which I will not get into). Soak in hot
water with maybe a little dab of detergent (which does not harm the
seasoning despite claims to the contrary), a scrub with a medium-stiff
brush or a plastic "scrubbie", and dry over a warm burner.

Cast iron can be heated to any temperature you want and is great for
searing steaks, fish, and the like. When well seasoned it has some
degree of non-stick. It holds heat better than anything else. It is not,
however good for long simmering of acidic foods (or so I have heard).

If you heat porcelain coated iron, such as le Creuset, to a really high
temp you may damage the porcelain. It does not have the non-stick
qualities. If you drop it you may crack the porcelain. I don;t see it
being any easier to clear. But it is unexcelled for long simmering or
baking of anything, for making delicate sauces, and because the pans are
usually attractive you can take them to the table.

--
Peter Aitken

Dee Dee said:

"Giusi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

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Quoted message said:

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Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

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?

Quoted message said:

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.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

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.

Paul Prudhomme, Mario Batali, Rick Bayless: a few quick
counter-examples.

Quoted message said:

.... 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.

The right tool for the right job is a useful maxim.

Cast iron retains heat better than any other material -- and thus
reaches higher temperatures -- useful for cooking things in batches at
high heat, searing, or for deep frying.

My cast iron pieces are easier to clean after anything done at high
heat (searing, blackening, etc.) than any of my All Clad or French
copper/ss-lined pans.

Quoted message said:

Sheldon

Ah, yes -- old Sheldon, who thinks with a bag of rocks.

(How'd you ever get out of the killfile on this laptop??? {plonk})

-- Larry

pltrgyst said:

Sheldon said:

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.

Quoted message said:

.... 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.

Cast iron retains heat better than any other material -- and thus
reaches higher temperatures

Neither statement is true.

Dee Dee wrote:

...

Quoted message said:

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.

Most of the skillets I see on TV are never-before-used stainless steel.
I bet the production staff people have closets full of used-once cookware.

...

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

pltrgyst said:

Jerry Avins said:

If plain cast-iron skillets are a chore for you to maintain, you must be
doing something the hard way. Have you read the admittedly idiosyncratic
bit at http://users.erols.com/jyavins/season.htm ?

"If it is very fresh, refrigerated and unprocessed, linseed oil is suitable for
human consumption..."

It's like mineral oil in that regard -- I wouldn't trust any container
(especially from a hardware store!) that does not state "food quality" or
something similar.

I don't use it on salads as cheap flax-seed oil, but I season pans with
it. Once it oxidizes to varnish, it's even more neutral than my dining
room table. Would you avoid eating a bit of food from table finished in
linseed or tung oil?

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

Sheldon said:

Dee Dee said:

"Giusi" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

<[email hidden]> ha scritto nel messaggio
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> 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.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

<[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

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.

http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-11-Inch-Cast-Iron-Round/dp/B000IXOO4W/ref=sr_1_8/002-8992071-6364059?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1187918316&sr=1-8

Are they just effective in transferring heat and searing meats?
Thanks

Having used both side by side, I don't think the porcelainized cast iron is
quite as good at searing as seasoned cast iron. I think, however, for
searing and deglazing meat the stainless steel cladded copper saute pan is
hard to beat. When we started using that, all the porcelain coated cast iron
saute pans went to Goodwill. We still use the Le Crueset and the Copco cast
iron casserole items for baking.

Kent

constantly struggling with my level of ignorance

"pltrgyst" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sheldon said:

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.

Paul Prudhomme, Mario Batali, Rick Bayless: a few quick
counter-examples.

Quoted message said:

.... 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.

The right tool for the right job is a useful maxim.

Cast iron retains heat better than any other material --

Cast iron skillets retain heat more because of their mass rather than the
specific heat retention properties of the metal[cast iron, aluminum or
copper].

and thus

Quoted message said:

reaches higher temperatures -- useful for cooking things in batches at
high heat, searing, or for deep frying.

Heat retention doesn't have anything to do with reaching a higher
temperature. Head conductivity does.
Copper conducts heat more than aluminum or cast iron.

Quoted message said:

Kent

Quoted message said:

Kent said:

Quoted message said:

Cast iron retains heat better than any other material --

Cast iron skillets retain heat more because of their mass rather than the
specific heat retention properties of the metal[cast iron, aluminum or
copper].

Agreed. But since all commercially available cast iron pans have greater mass
than available equivalently sized pans of any other material, that distinction
is of pedantic interest only. Cast iron pans retain more heat.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

and thus reaches higher temperatures -- useful for cooking things in
batches at high heat, searing, or for deep frying.

Heat retention doesn't have anything to do with reaching a higher
temperature. Head conductivity does.
Copper conducts heat more than aluminum or cast iron.

Heat retention is just a colloquial term related to heat conductivity. A cast
iron pan has greater thermal mass and thus retains more heat energy than an
equivalently sized pan of aluminum or copper. But with the same surface area,
cast iron will lose heat to the surrounding air at no more than the rate of the
other pan. Thus the cast iron pan will also suffer a smaller temperature drop
for any given cooking load.

It will take cast iron a considerably longer time to reach a given temperature;
that's the primary tradeoff.

-- Larry

In article <[email hidden]>, kh6444
@comcast.net says...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Cast iron retains heat better than any other material --

Cast iron skillets retain heat more because of their mass rather than the
specific heat retention properties of the metal[cast iron, aluminum or
copper].

Not true.

Cast iron has a higher specific heat than any other material used in
cooking utensils, aluminum excepted. Because aluminum's density is so
low, an aluminum pan would probably have to be 2 inches thick to match
the heat retention abilities of a standard cast iron pan.

--
Peter Aitken

Peter A said:

Cast iron has a higher specific heat than any other material used in
cooking utensils, aluminum excepted.

Umm?

Googling "specific heat cast iron stainless steel", I came up with this link:
http://blog.khymos.org/2007/03/01/staying-warm-cast-iron-vs-stainless-steel/

According to that article,

"There is a very small difference in specific heat capacity between cast
iron and stainless steel (0,46 J/g*K vs. 0,50 J/g*K)."

Donald

As a professional chef I really don't like to use cast iron frying
pans as they are very heavy to handle or to work with, but cast iron
skillets or cast iron dutch ovens are very useful. On the long run,
cast iron is not very useful inside a porfessional kitchen as you may
need to take some care on them.

We love cast iron pans, pots, grills and skillets at home for any
cooking, in most situations the food is incredible in cast iron. To
keep our cast iron cookery, we wash gently with soap after each use
and then we coat with a film of cooking oil in a hot burner.

In a TV show, the chefs like to use colorful pots and pans, most of
the times they prefer to use them because food tends to look wonderful
in a colored pan than in a black cast iron it is part of the show.

So go to your best shop and buy as many cast iron products as you can.

Alex.: