/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>13390211
You are overthinking this shit. Step back, take a deep breath and calm down.

I just bought a 'ron this weekend to cook burgers at home, since basically all I eat are burgers
>yes, I am American

>>13390217
>just bee yourself

But anon, listen, I know it takes 1 minute per side to sear my steak when I take it out of the oven if I want it medium or medium rare and it also has a nice cap of fat on the side I wanted to render to make it delicious. Holding the steak with the fat side against the hot pan means that the meat inside is cooking or just the fat side? Am I still aiming for 1 minute per side after 40 seconds on the fat side?

The stove must always be on a high level or at some poin I can lower it or fry the steaks with an inferior temperature? Can I fry a steak “low and slow” (more time but the stove on medium) and still get the maillard crust?

I never tried cooking smaller steaks, I always make ribeyes and prime ribs / t bone

>>13390238
>low n slow

Asking because I saw this video

https://youtu.be/MURPf_6r8z4

And it looks like the metal under is way less hot than my skillet while red smoking hot, but it still gets the crust.
It happens that I have a well marbled sirloin with an offensive amount of side fat, so what if I cut half of it and render it in the pan on a not red hot level and cook the steak in its own fat?

>>13390238
>Can I fry a steak “low and slow” (more time but the stove on medium) and still get the maillard crust?
Yes but the steak will be way overcooked before you get a proper crust.

>>13390254
>what if I cut half of it and render it in the pan on a not red hot level and cook the steak in its own fat?
Yeah that works, I do it all the time. But render the fat chunks over medium-high/high heat instead.

>>13390360
Thank you anon.

So render that fat over high burner and then cook them on medium right?

That probably would also help raising the sizzling and smoke a little hopefully. I tried brushing some room temperature clarified butter on the sides and the sear seems to be basically the same as adding butter to the pan.

How can I make a sauce with the melted butter and rendered fat in the same pan after the steak is cooked? Do I have to let the pan cool down before I add any liquid including alcohol?

Bump

>>13390211
>how to deal with the heat and manage the burner under the pan
Cast iron pans make that job very easy. You can lower the heat once the pan reaches the right temperature, since it only needs to replace the heat lost in the pan, which isn't much.
>how to make sauces that don’t destroy the seasoning
Are you making sauces with vinegar? Acids are your seasoning's worst enemy. Make that in a stainless saucepan.

Other tips:
-Dish soap is fine, contrary to popular belief. Dish soap is almost pH neutral.
-Do not soak the pan, and always keep it completely dry when not cooking. After cleaning, use a towel to dry, then put it back on the burner to evaporate any moisture.
-Clean the pan soon after cooking. If you leave grease on the pan for too long, it will bond to the seasoning and chip it off when you clean it.
-Lots of sources say you have to season it every time by oiling it and leaving it in a 500 degree oven for an hour. That is so unnecessary and will run up your gas/electric bill. It will also make you hate cooking with cast iron. I haven't seasoned mine in months, but it's still slick as heck since I use it often and clean it well.

>>13390211
leave it on the burner a little longer. don't go crazy and turn the heat up a bunch to get it up to temp fast. just put it on the temp you need and leave it.

just don't cook tomato sauces in them and you're fine. buy an enameled one if you want to do that. aldi has enameled sauce pans for cheap as fuck and they are nice.

>>13390804
>Lots of sources say you have to season it every time by oiling it and leaving it in a 500 degree oven for an hour. That is so unnecessary and will run up your gas/electric bill. It will also make you hate cooking with cast iron. I haven't seasoned mine in months, but it's still slick as heck since I use it often and clean it well.
you can just oil the cook surface and toss it on a burner until you see smoke. no need to use the oven and it takes very little time. I always do that if I have washed mine in the sink, but I don't do it if I cooked something and just wiped it out.

>>13390813
Good to know. Thanks.

>>13390211
There isn't that much you can cook in a cast iron that isn't done the same in a nice nonstick skillet.
Why it's good for steak, is that you can indeed get it hot as shit in the oven too, without warping or ruining the nonstick coating.
Where it shines though is with frying, where the heat retention between batches is nice. Shallow pan frying, I am talking about fritters of every type, fried okra, fried slices of eggplant, green tomatoes, croquettes, arancini, crab cakes, and I probably use it the most for potato pancakes, with or without grated zucchini. There's a level of browning that happens to the breading, as well as the fact the oil absorption is low because of the even oil temp between batches.

It's excellent for "chicken fried steak" where you bread or flour a cubed steak, or a pounded pork chop for schnitzel. Ham steak. All those nice browned drippings morph into a cream gravy, or a red eye gravy, etc.

Heat the pan in the oven with bacon grease, or oil/butter, and then pour in your corn bread batter, sizzling in the hot fat, and return to oven. Excellent southern cornbread (little to no sugar).
I like to whirl up a batter for "dutch baby" cooking, which is my easy weekend brunch idea whenever I have lemons in the house. My mom, though, sautees apples in the pan stovetop, then pours in the batter, and moves to oven for german apple pancake. Don't forget how nice a spanish potato omelet can get cooked in the oven, and flipped for browning the other side.

>>13390804
>>13390805
>clean the pan

When I cook steaks I always put the pan outside on my balcony because it smokes/drizzles with fat and makes smell since it stays hot for longer than a normal pan, then when I’m finished eating I take it inside (it’s nice to see that it gets very cold too and maintain the temperature) and pour all the grease down the sink (yeah I know...) and clean with a towel then boil some water in and put it on the stove to dry. A drop of high temperature friendly corn oil and pat all the surfaces with it until it’s shiny.

So far I never had problems even though the interior surface is not silk smooth but still grainy, probably because I use the pan 1-2 per month.

>vinegar

Nope, I never tried making sauces because the whole red hot pan thing scares me if I want to add alcohol (I have red and white wines always) however will try maybe only adding some flour to the melted grease and butter with some beef broth (would chicken broth be wrong to use for beef?)

>>13390853
Thanks.

>Dutch baby

What a coincidence I’m going to make that later today.

Also I definitely want to try cast iron deep dish pizza.

>>13390896
I made deep dish cast iron pizza and it turned out great. Couldn't find it, but I also made the thin crust cast iron pizza in the pic.

>>13390977
Looks good

>>13390977
Here is the "deep dish." I worked for Domino's at the time so my idea of deep dish was a bit off, the crust was great though, coated the inside of the pan with a lot of butter and it tasted really good.

Rate my pizza?

>>13391000
God dammit, I was trying to make a thread. My bad.

>>13390990
Nice, but was it fully cooked? Looks a little pale at the bottom, maybe it’s the light.
I wonder how much dough is needed for a 10” skillet, but I’ll work this out