If the pan is well seasoned then it will be fine with scrubbing, even hard scrubbing.
Thinking about Cast Iron
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If the pan is well seasoned then it will be fine with scrubbing, even hard scrubbing.
buckytom
Chef Extraordinaire
to be clear, laddie, scrubbin is ok if'n ya ken how.
only with a scrubby sponge; no harsh steel wool, nor chemicals. just soap and water weel do.
(anyone else watchin "outlander".?)
only with a scrubby sponge; no harsh steel wool, nor chemicals. just soap and water weel do.
(anyone else watchin "outlander".?)
Freki
Assistant Cook
Always dry complete before oiling. Adding oil before heating it to dry could trap water under the oil and cause problems later.
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
Long and short of Cast Iron. The material is cast iron, and is extremely susceptible to corrosion (rust). The cast iron, if unseasoned, may have a protective coating of wax to prevent its contact with air (oxygen) to prevent corrosion. Anything and everything will stick to the bare metal like crazy.
To prepare an unseasoned, new cast iron pan, Scrub under hot running water, with soap to remove any coating. Immediately dry with paper towels, inside and out. Rub inside and out with a solid fat, i.e. shortening, or lard in a very thin layer. Place into a 350 to 400 degree oven and let bake for 30 minutes. Remove, taking care not to burn yourself on the hot metal, and repeat. The pan now has a coating of hardened oil (carbon) that encapsulates the entire pan, making it both slippery to food, and isolated from oxygen.
As you cook with oil, the thickness of the carbon coating thickens and becomes harder. Over time, it will be hard to remove this protective coating. The coating also keeps food from contacting the raw iron, eliminating any metallic flavor from the food. This metalic flavor is the result of acidic, or alkali foods leaching iron from the pan.
A pre-seasoned pan or pot requires only a light cleaning before use, but is made more durable with successive seasonings of the pan. Cook with fat (oil or grease) will add layers of seasoning to the pan.
After using, simply place the pan under hot, running water, and scrub with a nylon scrub brush to remove any food bits, and excess oil. Wipe dry with a paper towel, or dry on a hot burner, then add a tbs. of oil to the pan. Wipe to a shine with paper towels. Store when cooled.
Tip, Grease and oil can clog drains. If you don't use soap to clean the pan, put the drain plug into the sing, along with a good, grease emulsifying soap such as Dawn Dish Soap. Hold the pan under the running faucet and cleans as described above. The fat will empty into the sink, where the soap can liquify it so that it won't stick to your drain pipes, preventing clogged drains.
Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
To prepare an unseasoned, new cast iron pan, Scrub under hot running water, with soap to remove any coating. Immediately dry with paper towels, inside and out. Rub inside and out with a solid fat, i.e. shortening, or lard in a very thin layer. Place into a 350 to 400 degree oven and let bake for 30 minutes. Remove, taking care not to burn yourself on the hot metal, and repeat. The pan now has a coating of hardened oil (carbon) that encapsulates the entire pan, making it both slippery to food, and isolated from oxygen.
As you cook with oil, the thickness of the carbon coating thickens and becomes harder. Over time, it will be hard to remove this protective coating. The coating also keeps food from contacting the raw iron, eliminating any metallic flavor from the food. This metalic flavor is the result of acidic, or alkali foods leaching iron from the pan.
A pre-seasoned pan or pot requires only a light cleaning before use, but is made more durable with successive seasonings of the pan. Cook with fat (oil or grease) will add layers of seasoning to the pan.
After using, simply place the pan under hot, running water, and scrub with a nylon scrub brush to remove any food bits, and excess oil. Wipe dry with a paper towel, or dry on a hot burner, then add a tbs. of oil to the pan. Wipe to a shine with paper towels. Store when cooled.
Tip, Grease and oil can clog drains. If you don't use soap to clean the pan, put the drain plug into the sing, along with a good, grease emulsifying soap such as Dawn Dish Soap. Hold the pan under the running faucet and cleans as described above. The fat will empty into the sink, where the soap can liquify it so that it won't stick to your drain pipes, preventing clogged drains.
Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
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GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
One more tip: As my mother did. I keep a pickle or sauce jar under the sink for pouring out excess oil. When it's full, I throw it away. This keeps the oil from going down the drain. It's also bad for the water system beyond your pipes.
Andy M.
Certified Pretend Chef
I dry the pan on the burner, wipe it with oil and heat it some more then let it cool on the stove.
I don't use my "naked" cast iron for gravies. I use the enamelled cast iron for stuff like that. I haven't washed the "naked" cast iron in years. I wipe it. When necessary, I sprinkle a good coating of salt, heat gently, and scrub with a bamboo wok scrubber. If it's really dirty, I add a little bit of oil to the recalcitrant areas (on top of the salt) and let it heat for a bit longer and then use the wok scrubber.
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
I save the left over chicken fat, or pork fat (bacon or ham) for cooking. Oils are used to ignite charcoal on my Webber.
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
I use a broom-corn pot scrubber. I've had it for years and it works great. Might plant broom corn next year to make a few replacements...
I never even heard of that before. I Googled and they look similar.
GotGarlic
Chef Extraordinaire
I use my Pampered Chef stoneware scrubbers on stubborn cast-iron messes. They came free with my stoneware purchases: Amazon.com : Set of 3 Pampered Chef Brown Pot, Pan, and Stoneware Scrapers in Plain White Envelope. : Everything Else
CWS4322
Chef Extraordinaire
Mine was made for me by a Norwegian woman who lived near my grandmother. She grew the broom corn in her garden for her adorable kitchen witches. She gave me one of those at the same time. She also made these adorable marionette puppets...I used to know the Norwegian word for them, but I've forgotten it. It is on the tip of my tongue. Anyway, I have two of those that hang in my back entrance and every now and again, I give the "string" a tug to make them dance.
Caslon
Executive Chef
Sometimes after frying chicken, there IS a bit of crustyness stuck to the pan even tho it's seasoned. Rather than try and muscle it off right away, I put some hot tap water in the pan and let it sit for 10 minutes or so, and it cleans off effortlessly.
callmaker60
Senior Cook
Go for it, you won't regret it, my go to pan for almost everything.
No soap to clean it !!!
No soap to clean it !!!
Frying chicken or fried anything for that matter is something I have never personally cooked in my life. I would love to give it a shot.
What type of oil is best to use? What heat do you put your stove? do you have to do anything to deal with the lowering of temp after putting food in?
How do you clean CI after all that oil?
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
First, know that there are numerous kinds of frying. Let me try and give you some info.
1. Deep fat frying - completely immersing food in 360 to 370' oil so as to brown the surface and bring the internal temperature of the food to a safe level.
2. Pan Fry - frying food in 2 to 3 inches of oil, again heated to around 360 to 370' F, and cooking until browned on one side, then flipping and browning the other side. Care must be taken to insure that meat, especially chicken and turkey, are cooked until 160'F is reached in the thickest part of the meat.
3. Dry-fry - Pan should have just a sheen of oil on the cooking surface and is ready when the oil becomes fragrant. Food is placed onto the pan and browned on one side, flipped, and browned on the other. This method is good for steaks, chops, chicken or turkey strips, and most veggies.
4. Stir-fry - Dry frying, but with very high heat, and constantly moving the food around until all is cooked through.
5. Velveting (poaching) - This is a specialized technique that uses oil too cool to acuatally fry food, i.e. 335 to 340 degrees, but rather gently poaches a coated meat until the starch turns opaque. This allows the meat to be cooked just until done, and no more, which results in ridiculously tender, and well flavored meat.
I've no time to expound further right now, as I'm at work. There are many here who can explain in detail the methods listed above, and who can give you both techniques and recipes using them.
Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Chief Longwind Of The North
Certified/Certifiable
Well, now I have 15 to 20 minutes while I wait for a repair vendor to call. So, I'm going to give you a recipe for fried chicken. It's a two step process that uses pan frying, and roasting to create very juicy and tender chicken, and even waffles or hush puppies afterward.
Recipe 1: I'm going to name this one - Chief's Favorite Chicken
Preheat the oven to 375' F.
Dry chicken pieces with paper towels and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the following:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic powder
1/8 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. rubbed sage
1/4 tsp. ground thyme
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. red pepper
1 dash Chinese 5-spice powder
1/8 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. granulated onion powder
In a separate bowl, make an egg-wash from 1 large egg whisked with 1/4 cup water.
Preheat 2 inches of oil in a frying pan until fragrant. Turn heat to medium flame.
Skin the chicken pices and dredge in seasoned flour, two at a time. Dip in the egg-wash, and then again in the seasoned flour. Shake excess coating from the chicken and place in hot oil. Don't crown the pan. Fry on each side for 2 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove the chicken to a foil-lined pan. Repeat until all of the chicken pieces have been fried. Place the pan into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
That left-over egg wash and flour, there are two things you can do with them. First, you can add 2 tsp. baking powder to the seasoned flour, along with two tbs of sugar, then add the egg wash to make a batter. Add more liquid of needed. pour the batter into a waffle iron to make really great waffles.
Or, Do as above, but to make a biscuit dough. Add more flour if required. Either drop by tablespoon onto a parchment line cookie sheet and bake as biscuits, or drop into the hot oil to make hush puppies. Again, they are just plain yummy.
You know that skin that you removed from the chicken? Dry fry that with a little salt to make cracklings. You will want these well browned and crispy. Use in place of bacon bits, or simply drain on paper towels and serve with the meal. These are incredibly tasty.
You can also make a broth from the skins, to use as a gravy, or sauce. Simply boil them in a cup or two of water, add salt, sage, and pepper to taste, and thicken with a corn-starch slurry, or make a roux with flour and butter, then stir the broth in to make a gravy.
As for cooling of the oil, since we aren't deep frying until the food is completely done, this won't be a problem. Just don't overcrowd the pan and you'll be fine. I wouldn't put more than three pieces of chicken into a ten inch pan at the same time. I'd put four pieces into a 12 inch pan.
Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Recipe 1: I'm going to name this one - Chief's Favorite Chicken
Preheat the oven to 375' F.
Dry chicken pieces with paper towels and set aside.
In a bowl, whisk together the following:
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. granulated garlic powder
1/8 tsp. powdered ginger
1/2 tsp. marjoram
1/4 tsp. rubbed sage
1/4 tsp. ground thyme
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. red pepper
1 dash Chinese 5-spice powder
1/8 tsp. celery seed
1/4 tsp. granulated onion powder
In a separate bowl, make an egg-wash from 1 large egg whisked with 1/4 cup water.
Preheat 2 inches of oil in a frying pan until fragrant. Turn heat to medium flame.
Skin the chicken pices and dredge in seasoned flour, two at a time. Dip in the egg-wash, and then again in the seasoned flour. Shake excess coating from the chicken and place in hot oil. Don't crown the pan. Fry on each side for 2 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove the chicken to a foil-lined pan. Repeat until all of the chicken pieces have been fried. Place the pan into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve immediately.
That left-over egg wash and flour, there are two things you can do with them. First, you can add 2 tsp. baking powder to the seasoned flour, along with two tbs of sugar, then add the egg wash to make a batter. Add more liquid of needed. pour the batter into a waffle iron to make really great waffles.
Or, Do as above, but to make a biscuit dough. Add more flour if required. Either drop by tablespoon onto a parchment line cookie sheet and bake as biscuits, or drop into the hot oil to make hush puppies. Again, they are just plain yummy.
You know that skin that you removed from the chicken? Dry fry that with a little salt to make cracklings. You will want these well browned and crispy. Use in place of bacon bits, or simply drain on paper towels and serve with the meal. These are incredibly tasty.
You can also make a broth from the skins, to use as a gravy, or sauce. Simply boil them in a cup or two of water, add salt, sage, and pepper to taste, and thicken with a corn-starch slurry, or make a roux with flour and butter, then stir the broth in to make a gravy.
As for cooling of the oil, since we aren't deep frying until the food is completely done, this won't be a problem. Just don't overcrowd the pan and you'll be fine. I wouldn't put more than three pieces of chicken into a ten inch pan at the same time. I'd put four pieces into a 12 inch pan.
Seeeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North
Sounds great, Chief!
In lieu of the egg wash, I use buttermilk.
We soak the pieces in buttermilk for at least two hours (overnight in the fridge is better) and dredge, soak, redredge.
I shall try your seasonatings next time we make fried chicken.
In lieu of the egg wash, I use buttermilk.
We soak the pieces in buttermilk for at least two hours (overnight in the fridge is better) and dredge, soak, redredge.
I shall try your seasonatings next time we make fried chicken.
So what's granulated onion or garlic powder?
I know about granulated onion/garlic and about onion/garlic powder.
runs and hides.
I know about granulated onion/garlic and about onion/garlic powder.
runs and hides.
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