A community for cast iron cookware. Recipes, care, restoration, identification, etc.
Rules: Be helpful when you can, be respectful always, and keep cooking bacon.
More rules may come as the community grows, but for now, I'll remove spam or anything obviously mean-spirited, and leave it at that.
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Wife was craving comfort food so I made us some goulash in the Lecruset last night.
I inherited a small enameled Le Creuset and I don't know how to work with it. Scrambled eggs stuck even with plenty of oil. I could probably make naan or tortillas; just not sure what the best use is. I tend to grab the Griswold or the Lodge first.
I got a large Cruset for my birthday last year and it has rapidly become my favorite pan. I use it most for ragu and curries, but really any excuse I get. It’s an amazing piece of cookware.
can i be your wife too
We have and use both (enamel and plain CI) quite heavily. Some of our enameled pieces are >60 years old with only minor edge chipping on a couple, the rest are completely intact. What I wonder is how people are treating their pans that they manage to chip that enamel.
Me too - I have a cousances enamel dutch oven that lasted maybe 20 years, then we moved to a house with a gas cooktop and I managed to get it too hot (with just a bit of oil in it) and flakes of enamel stated flying off!
I'm wondering if there's a way to remove the enamel so I can season it and keep using it.
Cover it in oil and put in a raging backyard fire?
Sounds like a plan
So my wife lived in Waco 15 years ago and bought a cheapo enameled DO at the grocery store. Her mom liked it and bought herself one there too. Two years later, the enamel on her mother's was cracked and peeling. Wife bought her a replacement. Two years later, same thing. Meanwhile, the original one my wife bought has been the workhorse of her kitchen for 15 years and the only chips it has are exterior ones from damage during cross country moves. I've often wondered if that company's quality control sucked and we just got lucky or if my MIL was that hard on them.
MIL is definitely the culprit
They are a bastard cookware hiding behind a fragile veneer of porcelain.
But for real, it just seems like its another thing to chip/crack/break. I personally like cast iron because its one giant piece of metal that's practically impossible to damage under regular use. I don't see why I would give that up just to have a candy shell around it.
I use stainless steel cookware so I can scrub the shit out of it without worrying about anything
Contrary to popular belief, you can scrub your cast iron, too. The seasoning (if done correctly) is bonded at a molecular level to the cast iron, so even a hard go with a steel scrubber wont take it off.
Should you do this regularly with a strong soap? No, but its better to scrub off some burnt on bits than leave it on because we think cast iron seasoning will be ruined is we look at it funny.
But if you're cooking with it right, that shouldn't happen too often.
Is there a trick to getting stainless to release food in a reasonable way? I've tried it a couple times and whatever I cook ends up feeling like it's epoxied on. I assume it's a me problem since so many people speak positively about it.
Throw some water and dish soap in it and simmer for like 5-10 minutes. It'll loosen everything right up.
Or, what I usually do is fill it with hot water and soap as soon as I'm done with it so by the time I'm done eating it's good to go.
For highly acidic dishes
Wouldn't make a difference unless the enamel is on the inside, though?
Yes that is what OP is talking about. The LeCreuset pans have black enamel inside, colourful enamel outside.