CAST IRON SKILLETS ARE THE BEST FOR CRACKING OPEN SKULLS

[Kingston No.4893224]

>Have Salmon
>And a brand-new pre-owned cast iron skillet

Give me something to cook it in. and how to cook it.

Also, Cast Iron Skillet General thread

[Kingston No.4893230]

>How to best use a cast iron skillet

>Your favorite recipes
>The (only) way to keep your skillet in good shape

These things are things that need to be shared. Who will share them with the people?
>Because I don't know, myself.

[Anonymous No.4893239]

the only way I fry fish is on cast-o-irron

>never use soap on it, when it absorbs your apple/grapefruit/lavender flava soaps...you will be pissed
>salt pepper, peanut oil, chili, and cayenne
>nice and black on both sides
>its not burnt, its carmelized

[Anonymous No.4893240]

there isn't much difference between cast iron and other cookware, except aesthetic and cultural connotations. the biggest actual difference is you couldn't put teflon into high oven temperatures for baking, but even then i wouldn't use a skillet for baking, i'd use my bakeware. i guess it's more cute and nostalgic to bake cornbread in a cast iron skillet, but its unnecessary.

as for care, just use google. plenty of information out there. to clean i personally just use water and the soft side of a sponge, then set it on the stove top for 5 minutes over heat to dry it out. maybe put a little oil in there if the metal is looking thirsty.

[Anonymous No.4893269]

Haven't used cast iron since I got my All-Clad and I don't miss it. The nonstick schtick is oversold, if you use oil/pam/misto whatever, stuff won't stick to stainless. Cast iron is heavy, and requires a little more care.

But it's cheap! And a lot better than other cheap pans that are plain aluminum or plain stainless.

[Anonymous No.4893273]

>>4893240
>there isn't much difference between cast iron and other cookware, except aesthetic and cultural connotations.

Bitch do you pay attention when you cook?

[Kingston No.4893397]

So how bout that blackened salmon, eh?

I seared my salmon that way once and it came out really nice.

8/10 wish I had some lemon to go with it.

[Anonymous No.4893653]

>>4893240
Cast iron is actually worse than other cookware!

What a lot of amateur chefs don't realize is that because of its high density and bumpy exterior, cast iron pans cook foods unevenly!

For years cast iron pans have been the joke of every cooking community but it seems only recently that people have take that joke seriously. There's a reason no professional kitchen will use a cast-iron pan - they know cast iron is a joke.

[Anonymous No.4893656]

>>4893653
Speaking from experience, that's untrue. No professional kitchen will use cast-iron because eventually some new faggot dishwasher is going to scrub it down to bare metal and go "LOOK BOSS I CLEANED THIS DIRTY PAN UNTIL IT WAS SHINY."

[Anonymous No.4893657]

>>4893653
Except that is wrong.

[Anonymous No.4893664]

>>4893656
This entirely. Professional kitchens wouldn't be able to maintain it.

[Anonymous No.4894021]

So cast iron pans are like the Starting Strength or Haskell of /ck/?

[Anonymous No.4894333]

>>4894021
>So cast iron pans are like the Starting Strength or Haskell of /ck/?
don't know what haskell is but the SS comparison doesn't really work since SS has a limit and cast irons don't

[Anonymous No.4894335]

>>4893224
>brand-new pre-owned

[Anonymous No.4894340]

>>4893656
>>4893664
don't a lot use some form of thin cast iron? Also, they tend to use stuff that easily and cheaply replaceable

[Anonymous No.4894357]

>>4894335
he mighta meant pre-seasoned

[Kingston No.4894950]

>>4894357
This
Grandparents got it for me.

[Anonymous No.4894963]

>>4894333
Haskell is a programming language.

[Anonymous No.4894975]

>>4894963
..used entirely by neckbeards who think it's great but really it offers nothing over current, higher level languages used in the real world.

CASE CLOSED.

[Anonymous No.4894993]

>>4894021
Haskell isn't /g/, suggesting to read SICP is more appropriate.

[Anonymous No.4895131]

>>4893224
Grams gave me one of her cast iron skillets when I was up this summer "when you need to wash it, wipe it down as much as you can. If you have to, quick soap and water scrub and dry immediately. After you wash it, put a little oil on a rag and wipe the whole skillet down with it." She only cooks cast iron and has so for the past 65 years. Also taught me to make what she calls "flitters" which are basically what she considered "poor pancakes b/c we didn't have a lot". In a measuring cup: fill half of it with self rising flour and add a little milk till its the consistency of peanut butter but pourable. Put oil in the pan, heat it up, pour batter in circle, wait till you see small air bubbles in the middle of the batter of the flitter and then flip. Edges come out super crispy. We eat them with apple butter and syrup.

[Anonymous No.4895145]

>>4895131
Now she has imparted all the wisdom she has left, you should beat her to dmeath with her cast iron pan. Don't worry, it won't get dented.

[Anonymous No.4895156]

>>4895145
Ha. It wouldn't take much. Shes tiny, 77 lbs and lugs those giant pans around all day cooking, I am amazed she hasn't keeled over just from exhaustion.

[Anonymous No.4895170]

>>4895156
Mine almost expired getting something out of the freezer. She was 4'11" and it was a god thing we were there to grab her ankles!

[Anonymous No.4895349]

Every time I heat up my iron cast skillet there's a lot of smoke.

[Anonymous No.4895356]

>>4895349
Do you oil the bottom of it?

[Kingston No.4895372]

>>4895349
>>4895356

[Anonymous No.4895384]

>>4894950
Strip the seasoning and do it yourself. The newer preseasoned stuff only protects against rust until it gets to consumer, its not going to be non stick. Do you know how to do?

[Kingston No.4895398]

>>4895384
Coat the cooking surface in a little oil and heat until barely smoking, then let it cool and you're good.

>But knowing 4chan, I'm probably wrong somewhere.

[Anonymous No.4895421]

>>4895398
Well, not wrong, but depending on how anal you are, not completely right.

You definitely want to get rid of the preseason. To do so you can go all fancy with hydrolysis. Easiest way is soap and water, scrub the fuck out of it (usually not something you want to do with cast iron, but when stripping its ok). What I recommend is the soap and scrub method, THEN grind it down with sander using finer and finer grain until smooth. The newer stuff isnt as smooth as older ones, and as a consequence it wont be as nonstick. It'll get seasoned, but will never be as smooth as antique iron, and will be noticed in your cooking. After sanding it down a bit give it a light scrub without soap, then oil and heat up to a lot. Not barely smoking- you want your smoke alarms going off. This polymerizes the oil onto the pan, giving it a good nonstick coating. More indepth info here

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

Otherwise, simply taking care of it works just as well. Some people care a lot, some people don't at all. Cant tell you which one to be, just giving you the information

[Anonymous No.4895423]

>>4895421
>Not barely smoking- you want your smoke alarms going off.
You never really want to burn any fat or oil. Get one with a high temperature smoke point, like ghee, or strained lard. Burning fat or oil isn't ever really good.

[Anonymous No.4895433]

>>4895423
Correct, not good to breath in or eat. But for seasoning cast iron its a good thing. It binds the oil onto the iron, creating a sealed non stick surface. You wouldn't really heat your pyrex up to 800 either, but that's how theyre created. Same too with cast iron seasoning

[Anonymous No.4896469]

>>4895423
>You never really want to burn any fat or oil.
Not for cooking for sure, but you do for building the initial seasoning on cast iron.

The best way of thinking about it is that this isn't cooking, you're creating a baked-on coating so it's almost an industrial process.