Gravy's Cooking Thread

Alex

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Being from the midwest... Corn?! What.

I know. I'm from the Midwest and the lack of quality corn and green beans here is surprising because every other thing is rather plentiful. Only green beans here are the shitty French ones.
 

Ao-

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I know. I'm from the Midwest and the lack of quality corn and green beans here is surprising because every other thing is rather plentiful. Only green beans here are the shitty French ones.
I actually don't mind either canned green beans or the french cut version :p

What I need to figure out is how to make good edamame, since I'm from the land of Soy.
 

chaos

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Canned vegetables are the only vegetables I had growing up. Needless to say, I hated all vegetables growing up. Some work though, like corn or beans for certain applications. Others, like green beans or mushrooms or asparagus, not so much.
 

Lanx

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Canned vegetables are the only vegetables I had growing up. Needless to say, I hated all vegetables growing up. Some work though, like corn or beans for certain applications. Others, like green beans or mushrooms or asparagus, not so much.
green beans have that weird canned slimed

only frozen or fresh
 

Alex

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I wish half runner beans were available here. Those are my favorite kind of green beans.
 

lurkingdirk

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We can vegetables every year. We freeze more, but definitely do can some. If we didn't, a lot would go to waste. We can more fruit than veg, and freeze more veg than fruit, but we definitely do a lot of both.
 
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Alasliasolonik

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I need a new potato peeler, mine are pure ass. Anyone have a decent one?

Ive gotten a ton of them but they all suck and I go back to the 1980s version but its hard on the hands.
 

BrutulTM

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For basic kitchen stuff my go-to is oxo good grips. Their stuff is usually solid and not too expensive in my experience.
 
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chaos

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We were discussing cast iron a while back, this came up today and reminded me of it. Mine got bad and I had to strip it and reseason, it was not a fun process, I'd rather throw this thing away and redo it than do that again. But, it got in that condition in the first place because I took some poor advice on maintenance. So now all I do is cook with it, clean it out, and wipe it down with oil.

I am thinking about experimenting with it. Trying another layer or two of seasoning, trying to use dawn soap on it, etc. Since there are so many inconsistencies in what you read I'd rather just see what happens, but I might try that on my smaller cast iron griddle used for tortillas.
 
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Khane

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I use dawn on my cast iron pans all the time. I just immediately dry it and wipe it down with oil and it's fine.
 
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TJT

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I've never used soap on my cast iron. Cook, let it cool. Wipe it off with warm water then put a bit of oil on it and put it back on the stove. chaos chaos how did your cast iron go bad exactly?
 

chaos

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There was what I now know is just a bunch of burned on shit on the bottom of the pan, my aunt swore that was the patina from the seasoning and I had to let it build, this was years ago. So yeah, she's wrong and I was dumb to listen to her. When burned shit starts to stick/be left on a cast iron skillet it kind of forms a flat mound of carbon in the middle of the pan that just compounds over time, but it's all crackly like the video talked about with certain fats. So I had to scrape it, then get some horrifying chemical to put on it, then scrape some more, etc. Basically I had to take it all the way down to bare metal and reseason.

But if anyone was on the fence about cast iron, my experience isn't typical, I listened to a dumb person. Now I just do the same thing TJT does and it's simple and it works and I never have to worry about it.
 

Lanx

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There was what I now know is just a bunch of burned on shit on the bottom of the pan, my aunt swore that was the patina from the seasoning and I had to let it build, this was years ago. So yeah, she's wrong and I was dumb to listen to her. When burned shit starts to stick/be left on a cast iron skillet it kind of forms a flat mound of carbon in the middle of the pan that just compounds over time, but it's all crackly like the video talked about with certain fats. So I had to scrape it, then get some horrifying chemical to put on it, then scrape some more, etc. Basically I had to take it all the way down to bare metal and reseason.

But if anyone was on the fence about cast iron, my experience isn't typical, I listened to a dumb person. Now I just do the same thing TJT does and it's simple and it works and I never have to worry about it.
your aunt gave you advice from al bundy
 
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Funkor

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I've never used soap on my cast iron. Cook, let it cool. Wipe it off with warm water then put a bit of oil on it and put it back on the stove. chaos chaos how did your cast iron go bad exactly?
Same, I just use one of those flat plastic scraper things to get crud off if necessary then rinse and dry it. Light coat of oil and put it away for next time. Making sure it's completely dry I find most important as I got a bit of rust formed on it before when I was careless.

Dawn and other soaps are so mild now compared to old soap made with lye that they're more of a detergent and probably won't ruin a pan anymore. When is the last time you had to wear gloves to wash dishes with modern liquid soap?
 

BrutulTM

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I always wash my pans while they're still a little bit hot from the stove. If they get cool I heat them back up. When the pan is warm usually just running water over it will get most of the stuff off. If something is stuck on I use a little chainmail scourer to get it off. It's true that a little soap now and then won't hurt it but it's not really necessary.

Just seasoned a couple of pans using flaxseed oil and that is the best. Never seen a perfect shiny patina like those pans had when I was done.
 

Lanx

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Does regular cast iron do something that enameled cannot(do well)?
eventually enameled will get crud and shit and it'll wear out. wearas you can cook on the fires of hell with a cast iron

it'll brown meat just fine, i'm sure we've all browned/seared meat in a enameld dutch oven b4 we stew.

i mean look at how le creuset says to super clean a dutch oven
For normal wear-and-tear, Le Creuset offers cast iron and stainless steel cookware cleaners. To prevent staining, use only medium or low heat settings. However, stains will occur with use, and we recommend filling a pot with one part enzyme laundry detergent and three parts water. Boil for ten minutes, let cool and discard solution. Wash the pot with regular dish detergent, rinse and dry. To restore your pot’s sheen, apply a light coat of white vinegar.

they want you to fucking use tide.

also for those that havevn't seen, this fried rice video is gaining a million views a day
 
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Denaut

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Love cookware talk. I've mostly switched over to Carbon steel pans at this point, it is a good middle ground between modern cast iron and stainless steel. It doesn't hold seasoning as well, but it has smoother surface do begin with since it is forged and it much easier to clean/season. I still have a cheap dutch oven that I bake bread in and a nice Staub enameled one that I use for anything that needs browning + low and slow.

However, I would trade them all for a set of old school Jøtul cast iron. There are a couple of small pieces at the cabin that were my wife's grandmother's which are ~70 years old and they are far superior any of the mainstream modern ones I've used. They are thinner, smoother, and I am pretty sure made of much higher quality iron since they were manufactured in Norway at a time when most of it came from Sweden (Swedish iron is high quality and used for large ticket items like high end knives). It has the best features of my carbon steel mixed with the advantages of cast iron (holds seasoning better, no rivets or welds). I really wish she had more than just a couple of small pieces.