What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

USCHO Cooks: Are you our Top Chef?

dxmnkd316 said:
Epic stock-the-freezer weekend. Cooked and portioned:
Eight quarts chili (with an ‘i’)
2 lbs taco meat
2 lbs homemade sloppy joes (this is the first I’ve made this in years. Since I’ve learned to enjoy veggies, I can finally load this up on the good stuff to offset the not-so-great part ;-) )
2 pans lasagna
a dozen muffins (breakfasts this week)
1/2 batch of my famous cookies (froze the other half)
Prepped half a dozen bell peppers for fajitas, two bunches of green onions, celery, and a couple other veggies. Sadly, our green peppers that didn’t have time to ripen before the frost were just too bitter to use.

First time we’ve cooked ground beef in months, maybe May. Stocked the freezer full of chicken breasts and thighs as well. Have a couple pork butts and loins too that will help fill in the gaps.

Trying to make it easy on ourselves over the next several months to try to minimize needing to go out shopping as covid washes over the populace. Figure we will still try to do regular meals on Sundays and have leftover for half the week. Intersperse with the stuff above and we should be set.

One other thing we’ve been doing lately (but not this weekend). We like turkey sandwiches for quick and easy weekday lunches. Weren’t huge fans of the deli meat with all the additives and whatnot. So we’ve been making our own. Overnight brine (swapping back and forth between maple-sage and tomato-basil) and then a quick smoke. Bring it to like 150 for five minutes and pull. Wrap, refrigerate, slice. We don’t get those perfect deli slices, but it’s nice having homemade, low-salt, zero nitrate/nitrite, zero preservative lunch meats.

Oh, and we have a dutch oven full of coq au vin is cooking right now.
We'll be finishing our from-scratch macarons after dinner.

now I know how our resident cookie fiends feel. Whew!
Click to expand...
Yum
 
My SIL just bought some molds for Springerle but is struggling with finding a right recipe. Does anyone have one?
 
I took the easy way out and made Ice Cream Bread for snacks or toast for the morning.Dreyess S'mores and Rolo + more mini chocolate chips. In case you didn't know the "pint" containers are no longer a pint---14 ounces.
 
Made Alton brown’s reloaded pot roast tonight. We used the chuck roast from our share of the quarter cow (grass fed, non-cert organic).

holy moly. I wish we had pot roast like this growing up. That was good. Watch out on the salt in the recipe. I think it’s a hair too much.

Also, we didn’t have potatoes so we chunked a couple sweet potatoes. That was a great call. They sat lighter in our stomachs and were more flavorful than regular.
 
We had lamb masala, rice biryani and naan for dinner and it was ridiculously good. The naan was the only item we didn't make from scratch but on the whole it was a hit!
 
Where is Jen with her cookie list? It isn't Christmas without me feeling inferior because she has cooked about twice as many kinds as I have.

So far
Chocolate Treasures
Coconut cookies
Swedish coffee bread-braid

Sugar cookies and Pepparkakor dough are ready to roll
Lace also ready to bake
 
We made traditional schweineschnitzel, potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce for my birthday dinner. I decided to try the pre-tenderized (needled) pork chops from Hy-Vee. I’m glad I did. At ~$1.25 a piece, it made the job so much easier than having to pound it out ourselves. Pan-fried in clarified butter. Just so good.
 
Now that finances have stabilized for me for the first time in a long time, I'm looking to make some upgrades in the kitchen.

First on the list is joining the Cast Iron cult. Thinking of starting out with a 12" and 9" or 10" skillets.

For starters, why is there such a gap in some of the "top rated" pieces. For the 12" the Top 3 seem to be Le Cruset ($160), Victoria ($80-90), and Lodge ($60). What am I getting for more cost with Cast Iron? It's not like a piece of Stanless where the actual construction of the pan and non-stick coatings will improve. I want to get high quality, but am really struggling to look into the Le Cruset at almost double the price of the other two I mentioned. Handles and pour notches seem equal between them, so I'm stumped as to why I should pay more here.
 
RaceBoarder said:
Now that finances have stabilized for me for the first time in a long time, I'm looking to make some upgrades in the kitchen.

First on the list is joining the Cast Iron cult. Thinking of starting out with a 12" and 9" or 10" skillets.

For starters, why is there such a gap in some of the "top rated" pieces. For the 12" the Top 3 seem to be Le Cruset ($160), Victoria ($80-90), and Lodge ($60). What am I getting for more cost with Cast Iron? It's not like a piece of Stanless where the actual construction of the pan and non-stick coatings will improve. I want to get high quality, but am really struggling to look into the Le Cruset at almost double the price of the other two I mentioned. Handles and pour notches seem equal between them, so I'm stumped as to why I should pay more here.
Click to expand...

That's an interesting question. I'll be curious to hear the answers.

I only have 4 or 5 cast iron pans. I have one or two that are more expensive than the others, but honestly the only real difference that I've noted is the finish. I bought a cheap one for tailgating and that baby is grittier than sandpaper. The ones I use at home are a little closer to a typical pan. But I don't really notice anything with respect to cooking (although while tailgating, we've usually been drinking.)
 
Lodge are great. We have several enameled and regular cast iron from them. I assume you’re talking mostly about the enameled pots if you’re talking le creuset. I wouldn’t pay extra for just cast iron. No way. For enameled you probably won’t need the upgraded le creusets. Very nice, but if taken care of the lodge will last just as long.

We also have several straight cast iron pans from lodge. The process to make them no longer gives them that ultra flat surface. But honestly I haven’t had much to complain about with the newer rougher surfaces. They’re fine. Just season really well using the Serious Eats method.
 
If you can get to a le creuset outlet store or get a sale, I think they’re worth it. I love enameled cast iron and use it all the time, way more than cast iron
 
I have both the knock off and the Le Creuset. The cheaper ones the enamel has chipped off on the edges, no matter how careful I have been. The LC does chip but I have had some of mine close to 30 yrs and they have very few dings comparatively
 
dxmnkd316 said:
The process to make them no longer gives them that ultra flat surface.
Click to expand...

The cast iron I have at home has this textured surface because of the newer manufacturing process, but I have some antique cast iron at camp, and holy shit those are awesome. I'm tempted to hit some antique shops for replacement cast iron pans for home.

Unless it's something with a sauce that I'll use to deglaze the pan, I go to my cast iron. It's hard to beat. 10" and 12" cast iron are my most commonly used pans, and I also use a shallow 10" cast iron crepe pan. If it's acidic, or involves deglazing, I use try-ply stainless.

The only Le Creuset enamel I have is a dutch oven, which is pretty awesome for pot roasts and the like.
 
The main benefit of the enameled ones is that they're lower maintenance because you don't have to worry about keeping them seasoned. The wives' tale about not cooking wine or tomato-based stuff in regular cast iron because the acid can cause metal particles to leach into the food is largely a myth, as long as your cast iron vessel is well-seasoned and cared for.

That said, enameled cast iron is not as good for searing meats because it shouldn't be used over high heat - it can stain the enamel coating and cause cracking/chipping. Regular cast iron like a Lodge skillet can go over a fully cranked burner, under the broiler, or even on your grill with no issues as long as you've got good oven mitts to protect yourself and can deal with a little smoke.

I will also add, regular cast iron should not be used on those fancypants ceramic flat-topped electric ranges - I've found out the hard way that it can cause cosmetic damage to the ceramic surface. Never buy one of those ranges if you can avoid it. The house I'm renting has one, and after several months of use I'm convinced there is not a range you can buy that is more annoying to use and keep clean than one of those things. The burners are also terrible conductors, as you might imagine.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
I will also add, regular cast iron should not be used on those fancypants ceramic flat-topped electric ranges - I've found out the hard way that it can cause cosmetic damage to the ceramic surface. Never buy one of those ranges if you can avoid it. The house I'm renting has one, and after several months of use I'm convinced there is not a range you can buy that is more annoying to use and keep clean than one of those things. The burners are also terrible conductors, as you might imagine.
Click to expand...

I hate those. My first house came with one, and I was never happy with it. I thought it sucked to cook on, and if you spilled anything on the burner it as a pain in the *** to clean.

I use a 36" 5 burner gas cooktop, and an electric wall oven now and would never go back to a ceramic top range.
 
FadeToBlack&Gold said:
The wives' tale about not cooking wine or tomato-based stuff in regular cast iron because the acid can cause metal particles to leach into the food is largely a myth, as long as your cast iron vessel is well-seasoned and cared for.
Click to expand...

I don't like cooking that stuff in cast iron because it ruins the seasoning and I have to start over
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top