Cast Iron Cookware Questions
 

I read somewhere on the internet (so it has to be true) that if you are going to use tomatoes in the pot of gruel you're whompin' up, you should avoid black cast iron dutch ovens and skillets. They suggest enameled cast iron.

Is this blasphemy or some other kind of hooey?

And if I am using enameled cast iron, am I using cast iron?

I have been shopping cast iron cookware, focusing on large dutch ovens. I have a few black skillets that I love that I use for frying.

I just want an ~8-12 quart cast iron dutch oven, and need advice on the enameled/tomato thing.

Thanks in advance, sorry if repost.

Dinny

The acid in the tomatoes can leach out the iron. It'll give the tomatoes a metallic taste. Use enameled if you're wanting to cook anything acidic in cast iron.

Even enameled cast iron is superior to non cast iron.

I love cast iron. Love. Love, love, love.

On another note, once you've got a really well seasoned cast iron dutch oven, the acid in tomatoes won't be a problem. Cook away.





On a completely unrelated note, you should feel free to use tomatoes when doing a dutch rudder, or double dutch rudder.

Nobody knows what a double dutch rudder is.

Dinny

Go to 1:05.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfQk34rY6ck

So many of the old cooking styles are obsolete now. Who needs a double dutch rudder?

I'm cooking a pot roast as we speak in a Le Creuset 7 qt. enameled dutch oven. FMB thinks Le Creuset is overpriced and he may be right (I got this piece in a sales promotion) but this really is a remarkable piece of cookware. Even, consistent heat, very durable and cleans up easily.

I usually put tomatoes in a midwestern chili that I make in a regular cast iron dutch oven, haven't detected any metallic taste. Might be different with a marinara sauce, though. In chili the tomato flavor is surrounded by lots of other stuff.

If there is a World Market store in your area, I've seen some reasonably priced enameled cast iron there.

http://www.worldmarket.com/home/index.jsp

Le Creuset is great, there's no doubt. But if you'd bought that dutch over outright you'd probably have spent $230. While Lodge is not as good, it is still very good, and at $50 for essentially the same thing comes out to be a superior product. At least that's my opinion.

And I'll add that Cooks Illustrated backs me up on that. They rated Le Creuset as the best performing cast iron, with 3 stars across the board, and "highly recommended." They rated Lodge, available at Wal-Mart and Target, with 3 stars across the board, and the "clear winner" because of the price difference. It was also rated as "highly recommended" above the Le Creuset.

Now, if I had the opportunity to get Le Creuset even at double the price of Lodge, I'd jump on it in a heartbeat. But, I'll take a somewhat lesser product for a fraction of the cost and be happy.

You seriously should be able to buy a good enameled cast iron from Target or Wal-Mart for $50 or thereabouts.

All cast iron has even cooking. Heat absorption/retention quality is a trait of the metal because of its mass. I've used "really" cheap cast iron that had better and more consistent heating than $70 pans.

Plus, you gotta love that cast iron will literally outlive you. Every time I'm at a flea market or a garage sale I'm looking for cast iron. Not only will it last forever, the stuff that 50-60 years old usually has 50-60 years of seasoning on. That shit makes car batteries taste good. :drool:

For a pot roast, I would personally use a regular cast iron dutch oven, if it were available. Something like that with just a little braising liquid would help season a good piece of cast iron cookware.

Like I said before, if your cast iron is seasoned well at all, the light acidity from tomatoes wouldn't do anything, so that's probably why you've never tasted the difference. When I first got into cast iron I did a tomato salsa Santa Fe chili sort of thing with a brand new pan and could definitely sense the metallic taste. Now, I'd cook just about anything in my cast iron. The seasoning on them kicks ass.

I still use my cast iron a lot, but I've most recently gotten into using carbon steel pans. Fell in love with a carbon steel wok, and the cookware is sturdy as hell, cheap as it gets, and professional quality.

I think if it is seasoned well, it should be fine.

FMB is The Man when it comes to cast iron.

I'm going to make some oven roux in my cast iron skillet on Saturday. GUMBO FTW!

Explain oven roux whenever you have the time, please.

I gave Lumpy a double dutch oven the other night...

(but that's a completely different conversation)
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FMB! saw it on Alton Brown and mentioned it on another thread. This will be the first time I've tried it, but it's got to beat stirring for 45 min.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ipe/index.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com...ress=236x48652

It's an obsession. I'm OK with that. :D

If it can be cooked in cast iron, it should be cooked in cast iron.

Let me know how that turns out. I still haven't tried it, but that may be a Sunday chore. I love me some gumbo.

ROFL @ the ad.

I am feeling slightly gay from having read this thread.
Y'all sound like a bunch of quilt making Grandma's. :spock:

Nevermind that the professional field of cooking is a man's world.

Whatever you say, dear....

Trust me when I say that a good home cooked meal prepared by her man is an easy way into a girl's pants.

This.

Has worked well for me anyway.

Mikey sneers at your frilly apron-wearing cast iron antics. He prefers to snag vagina with his quixotic mix of 1950's cave-man chauvinism and life withering bitterness...

He'd have better success dragging women back to the cave by hitting them with a cast iron pan than his wooden club. Cast iron, heavier and sturdier than a wooden club.

Just saying... cast iron is better for everything.

Always thought a Dutch oven was when you farted under the covers...learn something everyday on here :)

Alton Brown kicks ass. I've got to say he is the direct cause for my cooking (especially for a single 20 something male) not completely sucking.

I'm a big fan. Didn't like him at first. Love the premise of his show, and watched because I liked the science behind it, but originally I absolutely hated his humor. It's grown on me. He's so corny, but once you get past that or accept it as a personality trait, it not only becomes fun to watch, he actually becomes funny.

You can't eat a quilt.

Can't make a good pot of chili in one either.

Weird, I just use the regular ones when I could some chicken up in hot sauce and that turns out just fine without that metallic flavor...

It just leaches some of the iron out, which can give it a funky flavor. But like I also said, if the pan is seasoned well at all, it shouldn't be a problem.

I would add, as it hasn't been mentioned yet, that despite whether your food tastes good or not in a cast iron pan, do NOT store tomato-based foods in cast iron. It will pit, it will ruin the seasoning and it will rust.

It won't ruin the pan, as you can take steel wool or sandpaper and get rid of the rust, but you'll have to re-season it a couple times before you use it again.

I think this would be a great slogan for a series of commercials... basing things with cast iron off things you wouldn't normally see. Like using a cast iron pan in a baseball game. Or the example above, the caveman using a cast iron pan to club his woman. Or as a flyswatter.

You'd end every one with "Cast iron... it's better for everything."

This works for roux.

I used 1 cup flour and 1 cup canola in a cast iron skillet in a 350 oven. Stirred every 20 minutes for about 1 hour 40 min. I think I quit before it got to the brick stage. The flour kept settling out leaving a layer of oil on top. But I'd stir it back in and put it back in the oven. Threw my uncooked trinity in the roux at the end to sop up the extra oil.

This might be interesting to try again with a little less oil.

Gumbo is about an hour away.

How was it?

And what'd you put in it?

It was awesome. I ate three bowls. And it will taste even better tomorrow.

Made chicken stock from scratch. I pulled the chickens out part way through and cut the breasts, legs, and thighs up and threw the bones back in.

To the roux I added chopped onions, green pepper, celery, okra, parsley, and garlic. Stirred that around and put it back in the oven to sweat.

After 30 or 40 minutes, I added stock to the roux/veggies. Then about 2 cups of the chicken, some andoullie and a pound of shrimp at the end. I also boiled the shells from the shrimp and dumped that broth into the mix.

Seasoned with Old Bay, a little cumin, Worcestershire, Tabasco (was out of Frank's), and ground pepper.

Served over white rice.

I also made rhubarb pie, which I had not had in years. :D

Thanks for the report. I think this is on my list of things to do tomorrow.

**** dude. YOU ARE THE MAN.

We're not worthy!:wayne: