Gravy's Cooking Thread

Lanx

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cast iron is the cheapest, must have. Of course the older the better, hand me downs or if you're adventurous used. Or just get a lodge one, of course just get a flat one, w/o the grill marks, easier to clean/ more surface area.

I reguarly give lodge pans that i bought a month b4 as presents, i put a few eggs and steaks through, this way it's already pre-seasoned and gots some goodness to it. (this is for like new ppl i meet, lodge pans are cheap, like under 20bucks, but once you tell them that you've pre-seasoned a cast iron pan just for them, they go ape-shit)
Amazon.com: Lodge L8SK3 Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet, 10.25-inch: Kitchen Dining

I agree w/ the teflon sentiment, just buy a new cheap $20pan a year and throw away when it looks... sticky, cuz if even you buy an expensive teflon pan, it's just gonna go nasty on you anyway.

stainless? i guess you should save up some $$$ and buy an all-clad. If you've used basic stainless b4, then you've seen how you can have "hot-spots". All-clad has thier 3 layers go all the way up the sides, not just a bottom layer, so heat is distributed evenly everywhere. I also like that the lip is rolled so it doesn't dribble on the sides and you have that one long black streak that you get from years of dribbling shit cuz the lip wasn't rolled. I wouldn't buy an entire all-clad set tho, that's just stupid, just buy a saute pan, is probably all you need
Amazon.com: All-Clad 4403 Stainless Steel Tri-Ply Bonded Dishwasher Safe Saute Pan with Lid / Cookware, 3-Quart, Silver: Kitchen Dining

Then just buy a big ass cheap aluminum pot for spagetti and things, you really don't need that many pots/pans really imo.

copper? only really seen ppl who love the way it looks as it hangs or chocolatiers use it. (cuz it heats up shit so fast)

For stainless are you guys heating up the pan first? just turn the heat on high and put the pan on, wait a min, then put in your butter/oil, don't put butter/oil in a cold pan, you won't create that thin non-stick layer otherwise.
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
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So pork loin roast was on sale at my locak market, like $1.50/lb or some shit. Now usually I cut that shit up, pound it out, bread it and make pork chops out of it, but this time I decided to throw the fucker onto my ronco rotissery cause I was lazy. 2 hours and it came out perfect, surprisingly juicy and tender for that cut of meat, which is usually dry and tough.

I let it rest a while, the sliced it up like lunch meat then made pork sandwiches out of it. A bit of garlic aioli, bit of mustard, pickle, swiss cheese, then pan grilled in a bit of butter, until cheese melts. Fucking awesome.

The more I use that ronco, the more I love it.
 

lurkingdirk

AssHat Taint
<Medals Crew>
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I have cast iron, it's great.
I have stainless, it's also great, you just have to make sure is hot as a mother fucker before you use it. Nothing sticks.

I get these non-stick pans and use them every day. I replace them about every two years because that's what happens with non-stick pans.

Amazon.com: Grand Gourmet Professional Stainless Steel Fry Pan Set, 9.5 inch Dining

They're nice, and come with nice fitting glass lids in a local grocery.
 

The Ancient_sl

shitlord
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FYI RE: AllClad Stainless
All Clad makes a cheaper "pro" pan called MC2 where they skip the trip ply and just leave alum on the bottom because it's supposed to be used back of the house and appearance doesn't matter. If you aren't leaving your pots hanging out for all to see appearance likely doesn't matter for you and you should save yourself some cash AND get slightly better cooking performance by opting for their MC2 line.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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How can I deglaze without a fond! And why does bisi know the meaning of a word that is most commonly used in the US? Is he a defector? Does Trudeau know about this?
 

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
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Did I tell you guys that I had my first lobster roll not long ago? Lobster is great on its own and everything, but goddamn is glorious tossed in dat saws and served on a toasted buttery bun.

I must find moar
 

The Master

Bronze Squire
2,084
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Cast Iron is a must have in my opinion but I have a similar question. I have stainless pans as well but they don't seem to "cut it" as far as I'm concerned. On all the cooking shows they have what look like stainless pans that require very little oil yet seem to sear perfectly with no sticking/residue left behind. On one of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episodes he goes into some cooking store and picks out a pan, shows it to the camera and says "This is the only pan you'll ever need" and it looks exactly like the pans I'm talking about in the cooking shows. But the bastard never explains what kind of pan it is at all other than to say it was a ~$30 pan.

Maybe I just have shitty stainless pans?
They have better burners. They did this in Modernist Cuisine, they took each type of pan at varying thicknesses and heated them up while watching with an infrared camera. Turns out the most important factor is the ratio of the burner to the size of the pan. Almost nothing else actually matters. Restaurants, and professional kitchens, have multi-tiered burners with more BTU output then home ranges. They could sear on anything that didn't literally catch fire with those burners.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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FYI RE: AllClad Stainless
All Clad makes a cheaper "pro" pan called MC2 where they skip the trip ply and just leave alum on the bottom because it's supposed to be used back of the house and appearance doesn't matter. If you aren't leaving your pots hanging out for all to see appearance likely doesn't matter for you and you should save yourself some cash AND get slightly better cooking performance by opting for their MC2 line.
Oh cool, didn't know this, seems to stand for Master Chef 2 (MC2), it's still tri-ply cuz it's stainless steel-alum-alum, seems to be a 20% savings.
Amazon.com: All-Clad 7112 MC2 Master Chef 2 Stainless Steel Tri-Ply Bonded Fry Pan Cookware, 12-Inch, Silver: All Clad Brushed Aluminum: Kitchen Dining
 

mkopec

<Gold Donor>
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They have better burners. They did this in Modernist Cuisine, they took each type of pan at varying thicknesses and heated them up while watching with an infrared camera. Turns out the most important factor is the ratio of the burner to the size of the pan. Almost nothing else actually matters. Restaurants, and professional kitchens, have multi-tiered burners with more BTU output then home ranges. They could sear on anything that didn't literally catch fire with those burners.
I learned this while I was on my beer brewing kick in the late 90s. Ever try to boil 5-6 gal of something? It literally takes hours to heat that up. So I got me a propane burner, kind of like one of those turkey frier things, but bigger and better. It could boil 5 gal of beer wart in under 5 min. 180,000 btu, compared to average 38,000 btu ranges.

This is why you cannot do proper Asian food in woks on regular ranges either. You are better off buying a dedicated propane burners made for woks. They cost like $100-$200 and well worth it if you do a ton of Asian stir frys.Thai Gas Burner with Stand, High BTU, Available at importFood.com
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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I learned this while I was on my beer brewing kick in the late 90s. Ever try to boil 5-6 gal of something? It literally takes hours to heat that up. So I got me a propane burner, kind of like one of those turkey frier things, but bigger and better. It could boil 5 gal of beer wart in under 5 min. 180,000 btu, compared to average 38,000 btu ranges.

This is why you cannot do proper Asian food in woks on regular ranges either. You are better off buying a dedicated propane burners made for woks. They cost like $100-$200 and well worth it if you do a ton of Asian stir frys.Thai Gas Burner with Stand, High BTU, Available at importFood.com
shhhh! that's da secret to why home chicken and broc doesn't taste like restaurant chicken broc!
Best use of a real high btu wok is for octopuss stir fry, they don't become rubbery cuz it's cooked so fast.

BTW i visited "THE Wok Shop" in SF Chinatown, i guess it was supposed to be a great place for woks? shit is just a basic chinese store, don't know why these online sights lamented it as awesome. Plus there was a white guy helping out customers, WTF.

Overall i hated SF Chinatown, gimme nyc Chinatown or Flusing or 8ave Bklyn, anyday.
 

Abefroman

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Home_KS - flatev

So at minimum $239 for the machine to make tortillas and the pods are around 75cents each. I think I'm going to donate a soy buck just so I can tell these people they are fucking morons for paying 75 cents per tortilla.
 

mkopec

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Home_KS - flatev

So at minimum $239 for the machine to make tortillas and the pods are around 75cents each. I think I'm going to donate a soy buck just so I can tell these people they are fucking morons for paying 75 cents per tortilla.
But they are artisan, bro! Why not just hire a migrant to clean your house and bonus make you home made tortillas.
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
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Home_KS - flatev

So at minimum $239 for the machine to make tortillas and the pods are around 75cents each. I think I'm going to donate a soy buck just so I can tell these people they are fucking morons for paying 75 cents per tortilla.
Each pod makes a single tortilla?! I would maybe pay around that for a machine I could just put my own dough into, but having to buy proprietary K-Cups(which have to be refrigerated!) is retarded.
 

Khane

Got something right about marriage
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shhhh! that's da secret to why home chicken and broc doesn't taste like restaurant chicken broc!
Best use of a real high btu wok is for octopuss stir fry, they don't become rubbery cuz it's cooked so fast.

BTW i visited "THE Wok Shop" in SF Chinatown, i guess it was supposed to be a great place for woks? shit is just a basic chinese store, don't know why these online sights lamented it as awesome. Plus there was a white guy helping out customers, WTF.

Overall i hated SF Chinatown, gimme nyc Chinatown or Flusing or 8ave Bklyn, anyday.
So many great Dim Sum places in Flushing.

For anyone who is in the market for a thermapen, they are having a 15% off sitewide sale with coupon code 15OFFSITEWIDE:

Thermapen® Mk4 Thermometer from ThermoWorks
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Each pod makes a single tortilla?! I would maybe pay around that for a machine I could just put my own dough into, but having to buy proprietary K-Cups(which have to be refrigerated!) is retarded.
No kidding. The idea of a machine that makes tortillas is pretty appealing but the cups make it ridiculous. It also looks like it only makes like 5" tortillas. How are you supposed to make a burrito with that shit? Someone should really come up with a non-retarded version of this.