Help With Cast Iron Pots Please

ciarasdreams

I have recently moved in with my sister who is an absolutely wonderful and skilled cook but I am not at all and seem to even be struggling to boil water let alone anything else in the range of pots and cookware that she has. She has these French cast iron pots that are so heavy and difficult to use and I am finding that no matter what I try and cook in them ends up burnt on to the base of the pan no matter how low the heat setting is or however much I stir the contents. Can somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong and how to fix it because I cannot expect my sister to cook for me for ever and I am going to have to learn how to do it myself sooner rather than later.

Debt_Free_Chick

It's not you, it's the pans.

Bad conduction means that you are getting hots-spots. Is this a gas hob? Are the hot-spots in line with the gas burners?

Constant stirring and removing the pan from the hob for a short time are the only answers. Sorry

Mojisola

Isn't your sister the best person to ask?

ciarasdreams

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

It's not you, it's the pans.

Bad conduction means that you are getting hots-spots. Is this a gas hob? Are the hot-spots in line with the gas burners?

Constant stirring and removing the pan from the hob for a short time are the only answers. Sorry

It is a gas stove but there is absolutely no conection between the location of the burners and where the food is sticking because it is sticking uniformly to wherever it makes contact with the pots both on the base and on the sides. Thank you I will try stirring the pots even more often and will remove it from the heat source every few minutes and see if that improves my situation any.

ciarasdreams

Mojisola wrote: »

Isn't your sister the best person to ask?

Usually she would be the first person that I would ask about just about everything but she was recently involved in an accident and was injured badly and she is still recovering so I am trying to keep everything as light hearted as possible for at least the next few weeks.

phizzimum

we have one le crueset (spelling?) pan which I hardly ever use. I heated up some milk in it the other day and managed to burn that!

sorry, I know that's not very helpful for you but at least you know you're not the only one!

kethry

I'm not sure that removing it from the heat source is going to help very much - apart from giving you extremely sore wrists! I have a cast iron fry pan that i use on a very regular basis, it's wonderful and i swear by it but it does take some getting used to.

cast iron pans hold any heat that is applied to them very very well. As an example: when i do fried eggs in the pan, i often turn the heat out underneath the pan for the last egg. There's enough residual heat in the iron to cook the last egg. For this reason, temperature adjustments take absolutely ages to come through, so by the time something is sticking, its really too late. What i would do is to have your burners on the gas much lower than you think you will need it, and if something starts to stick, remove it from the heat completely, stirring like fury to stop it sticking, and only returning when you can feel it not sticking. when you're cooking something have the burners on as low as possible for whatever you need to do, if you edge upwards slowly rather than whacking it on full then turning it down like a lot of people do with most traditional pans then you should get on better.

i have to say though, if you have one of the kind that can go from hob to oven, they do make the most fantastic roast potatoes or yorkshire puddings, toad in the hole - anything where you need the fat to be smoking when the food hits it, and because it holds the heat so well, it cooks well in the oven as well. Tart tartin is another one. Fab. i wouldn't be without mine.

HTH

keth
xx

ciarasdreams

kethry wrote: »

I'm not sure that removing it from the heat source is going to help very much - apart from giving you extremely sore wrists! I have a cast iron fry pan that i use on a very regular basis, it's wonderful and i swear by it but it does take some getting used to.

cast iron pans hold any heat that is applied to them very very well. As an example: when i do fried eggs in the pan, i often turn the heat out underneath the pan for the last egg. There's enough residual heat in the iron to cook the last egg. For this reason, temperature adjustments take absolutely ages to come through, so by the time something is sticking, its really too late. What i would do is to have your burners on the gas much lower than you think you will need it, and if something starts to stick, remove it from the heat completely, stirring like fury to stop it sticking, and only returning when you can feel it not sticking. when you're cooking something have the burners on as low as possible for whatever you need to do, if you edge upwards slowly rather than whacking it on full then turning it down like a lot of people do with most traditional pans then you should get on better.

i have to say though, if you have one of the kind that can go from hob to oven, they do make the most fantastic roast potatoes or yorkshire puddings, toad in the hole - anything where you need the fat to be smoking when the food hits it, and because it holds the heat so well, it cooks well in the oven as well. Tart tartin is another one. Fab. i wouldn't be without mine.

HTH

keth
xx

Thank you so much for that information I am going to try out your suggestions tomorrow and see how I get on. Like yourself my sister swears by her iron pots and says that they are magnificent for cooking with but I think that you actually have to know what you are doing with them before you can get it right. I think that quite a lot of them can go from the stove to the oven or at least I have seen them used like that frequently by my sister but I am not actually sure what you call any of them.

Thank You.

moonpixiewitch

is the cookware le creuset or le chasseur? I have both and I find the le chasseur always burns and the le creuset is fine although heavier to pick up (particularly when full of liquids!) If the problem is a frying pan or wok , it may need re-seasoning if it has been washed in hot soapy water? To season a pan , heat a little oil (rapeseed , ricebran or vegetable not olive) on a med to low heat for upto 10 mins until it starts to smoke , turn off the heat and gently swirl it round the pan and leave it to cool. Then re heat the same oil again for 10-15 mins on a very gentle heat or until it starts to smoke again. swirl and cool again, then tip away .gently wipe the excess from the pan with kitchen paper. When cleaning the pan after use , this procedure will need to be repeated if you wash the pan in soapy water. Try to just rinse the pan in hot water and wipe with kitchen paper whenever possible.
For other pots/casserole dishes - Try heating the pan first using a med heat then turn it right down as low as you can after a few mins , then put your food in . If you are cooking meat (for a casserole for example) then let the meat brown slightly and seal before trying to move it around the pan. The thing to try and remember is because they are cast iron they conduct heat EXTREMELY well ! all over! Things carry on cooking in the heat of the pot long after they have been taken off the heat or out of the oven, and things cook much more quickly in le creuset pots than normal roasting dishes etc.
They take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you will not want to use anything else. I have mostly le creuset stuff thanks to freecycle and the le creuset warehouse sale and I always use them wherever possible.:T

ciarasdreams

moonpixiewitch wrote: »

is the cookware le creuset or le chasseur? I have both and I find the le chasseur always burns and the le creuset is fine although heavier to pick up (particularly when full of liquids!) If the problem is a frying pan or wok , it may need re-seasoning if it has been washed in hot soapy water? To season a pan , heat a little oil (rapeseed , ricebran or vegetable not olive) on a med to low heat for upto 10 mins until it starts to smoke , turn off the heat and gently swirl it round the pan and leave it to cool. Then re heat the same oil again for 10-15 mins on a very gentle heat or until it starts to smoke again. swirl and cool again, then tip away .gently wipe the excess from the pan with kitchen paper. When cleaning the pan after use , this procedure will need to be repeated if you wash the pan in soapy water. Try to just rinse the pan in hot water and wipe with kitchen paper whenever possible.
For other pots/casserole dishes - Try heating the pan first using a med heat then turn it right down as low as you can after a few mins , then put your food in . If you are cooking meat (for a casserole for example) then let the meat brown slightly and seal before trying to move it around the pan. The thing to try and remember is because they are cast iron they conduct heat EXTREMELY well ! all over! Things carry on cooking in the heat of the pot long after they have been taken off the heat or out of the oven, and things cook much more quickly in le creuset pots than normal roasting dishes etc.
They take some getting used to, but once you get the hang of it you will not want to use anything else. I have mostly le creuset stuff thanks to freecycle and the le creuset warehouse sale and I always use them wherever possible.:T

They are all le creuset pots and cookware dishes in an almost radioactive orange/red colour. I have problems with every single pot but strangely the non stick ones like the frying pans ang griddle and wok are the ones that I have the least difficulty with. It sounds like I am just going to have to keep trying to get the hang of it but I am going to try adjusting the heat like you advised and see if that helps me any.

Thank You.

Mojisola

ciarasdreams wrote: »

Usually she would be the first person that I would ask about just about everything but she was recently involved in an accident and was injured badly and she is still recovering so I am trying to keep everything as light hearted as possible for at least the next few weeks.

Sorry to hear that - I hope she recovers well.

If it was me, I think I might go and buy a couple of pans that I could use. We have a cast iron frying pan which I love but find the saucepans too heavy to use when they are full of stuff.