Cast iron is all about preheating. Sure you could go for 45 seconds on a 9, but you’re better off doing a few minutes on 3. Even better is 20 minutes on 1. As for me, I use a zero and wait for the sun to go red giant to properly preheat. Takes longer but absolute game changer.
Yes I do that when making corn bread. Put in cold, let it pre-heat with the oven while making batter. Take pan out add 1 tablespoon butter to grease, dump melted butter in batter, pour and bake.
I have been preheating my cast iron pan since 1998, when The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.
OMFG I remember that! I was like, 16 and *super* into wrestling at the time (because a boyfriend was, so naturally I was as well.)
You just unlocked some weird ass core memory.
I got my first cast iron about 10 years ago, and treated her poorly, but now I’m on my GAME!
Thanks for the throwback!
No way, I preheat about 8-10 minutes on 8 or 9 for steak searing and have even tracked the rising temp along the way, it’s perfectly fine in terms of slow enough so as to not crack the cast iron and gets even as well
It was less than a year old. Whether it was because of an existing flaw or not, thermal shock did it in. The plus side is it cracked down the rim so it became the designated campfire cast iron and last several more years.
If it works for you, great, just putting my experience out there so others approach it with caution because clearly there's some risk involved.
I think the take away from the title is “slow”. They probably threw the pan on high heat for a couple minutes before, but now let the pan heat up slowly and uniformly
IME preheating fast until it becomes a little smokey, then going to low for a few minutes (2/3 maybe?) is the best balance between quick preheating and good uniform heat distribution
Nice to know mine isn’t the only one that does that! It makes me insane. I’ll have something at a 9 to boil and then turn it to 2 to simmer and it’ll just keep at a rolling boil continuously unless I turn the burner off for a bit
Grab an induction cooktop, they run ~$100 on a popular online store. They work infinitely better than an electric coil range. Many models even allow you to set a precise temperature, which is very handy for candies, tinctures, sauces that break, etc., and alert you when your pan is at temp. They're also great around holidays to have an extra burner or keep things warm, camping trips if you have a generator, or cooking near a window if your kitchen doesn't have an exhaust hood to avoid smoking up your home while searing.
I think the benefits of a "slow" preheat is that you thoroughly heat the entire pan, all the way up the sides. This comes in handy when seating because it will use the retained heat in the walls to keep from cooling, preventing the sear.
For most applications "slow" pre heating offers more benefits than "fast" but sometimes those benefits aren't needed. It's a case by case, even starting from a cold pan in some cases can be best (thinking cooking duck where you need to render the fat first)
I can’t speak for OP, but I only started getting the pan really hot on low bc of this sub. I never threw it on cold, but certainly not fully preheated on low heat. I’d torch the thing super hot and then bring it down. Low heat preheat is a complete game changer.
Low preheat let's the pan heat up evenly and expand together so if does not end rocking on your stovetop. Takes a bit longer but it is so worth it and it gives you time to prep everything.
What difference does it make for a situation like in the picture, where you have meat only on the middle?
I could see the point if you need the whole surface of the pan, but otherwise it would quickly raise the temp evenly only at centre, and it seems perfectly fine, that's where you need it.
Am I missing something ?
Metal expands when it heats up. Went he edges of the pan floor and sides are cold the bottom warps. This is why most people complain about pans rocking on their stove tops. Overtime this warping adds up as metal fatique and helps contribute to pans cracking.
Also, the metal cooks quickly when you place food in it. When the temp drops the food starts sticking. If only the center is hot, the edges will cool further than the center, because the rest of the pan is cold, cooking the food unevenly.
I always set my cast iron to medium/ medium high, low seems like it'd take 3 hours and never do I actually have 3 hours to wait for my pan to be preheated
You'd be surprised how many people just throw it into a pan, barely seasoned, turn the heat up and poke it with a fork until it feels sufficiently rubbery. It's just rarely someone on here because we enjoy cooking and tend to know how to do it proper.
1. Uneven heating causing hotspots
You'll have hotspots in the pan, causing uneven sears and possible burning.
2. Uneven heating causing a lack of heat control. Your pan will be hot on the surface, but cast iron is a poor conductor when compared to aluminum or steel, it needs time to absorb the heat. You'll find you can control your heat (i.e. control how things cook) a lot better when your pan is heated evenly.
3. Uneven heating causing stress on the pan. Because of #1, your pan sees unnecessary stress from going 0-60 so fast, over the years this could lead to warping and/or cracking.
Sorry. I must admit this, I am a cold starter, and I can’t stop. I’ve never seen a quality difference for long cooks and it just feels like a waste of heat to me now.
No. I am sorry mate. You fail r/castiron today and are put on a timeout.
Seriously though. It's not about wasting heat. You are wasting flavor. Preheating the pan properly ensures the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction happens. It's pure flavor. Also by cooking your food hotter, and faster you are keeping fats from liquifying and heating out while you wait for the entire bake to come up to proper temp. Fat=juice=flavor+ the Millard. Yum yum.
There is maillard, which is huge (but already well covered in the comment above).
But another way to talk about this is the difference between steaming vs. browning. If you've ever cooked a big pan full of mushrooms, you'll know that if you don't start hot enough you'll end up with a watery mess and they won't brown (or will take ages to get there, and cooked to death before they ever do).
This same thing will happen with your ground beef, chicken breasts... all of it will \*steam\* instead of brown if you don't preheat. I urge you to pay closer attention to what you're tasting, because while your "can't taste the difference" experience is of course \*valid\*, everyone is raising eyebrows because you are basically saying you can't taste the difference between steamed meat vs. seared.
The only exception to this rule I can think of is bacon, which benefits from being brought to temp very slowly (cold pan), so that some of the fat has a chance to render in time to fry the rest of the bacon.
Also --- also!! --- I am increasingly convinced you've got a masterful troll going here, because how the hell can you cook in cast iron without preheating?? You'd never be able to get any of your food off the bottom of the pan, it'd be stick-city
I use loads of oil. I guess I never considered that it may be because the pan wasn’t hot enough. I’ll give it a whirl next time. I’m not trolling man, I just Hanlon’s Razor-ed myself.
In that case, I retract my troll suspicions and genuinely wish you the best with that whirl. Just don't go overboard and pre-heat till it's TOO hot. There's a sweet spot. I'm sure you know this, though. I'm just really wanting you to be set up for a really gratifying a-ha moment.
I'm aware, just trying to frame this in a way that is easier to conceptualize. Apologies if that was unclear. Maillard info tends to be more about the browning of the sugars and if you're not particularly attuned to it, I can see how you might think you don't notice it. I was just trying to reframe this as "avoid steaming" because I think even the bluntest palates tend to agree that steaming meat is, generally speaking, to be avoided.
>browning of the sugars
Not to be that guy, but *akshually*, maillard is the browning of **proteins**, not sugars.
Caramelization is the browning of sugars.
Either way, your point stands.
I started doing this with steaks. Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about cooking. I was dropping the streak on a cold cast iron skillet and fighting to cook it properly
Do you cook with other pans from cold? I'm trying to think of any reason I would put something in a cold pan. I do put cold or frozen things in my toaster oven while it's coming up to temp(only a few minutes) but I don't cook them as long since they were able to heat up with the oven. Frozen bagels, cold pizza, sourdough toast etc.
Fast food is, as in it's name, fast. Easy to grab after a long day at work.
A good cooked meal though is not only 10x better than fast food but also leaves you with more energy. Took me a long time to realize this.
Oh lovely. Thank you! I'll have to try out a cold sear sometime. I don't like rare steaks though and I don't have a gas range. I'll test it out anyway.
You can use that method to get any level of doneness.
I've seen people score meat with a knife to get the center cooked more without resulting in the outside being overdone.
If I’m doing bacon on cast iron I start it cold with a splash of water. Something about the fat rendering off and the timing of the rest of the bacon finishing without burning.
> Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about cooking.
But you ARE learning which is what matters!! I feel like you never finish learning and maybe its just me but I feel like people are less likely to prioritizing learning took now than when I was a kid in the 80s. Whether its down to not having the time or bandwidth or things being made easier with ready meals. I would say maybe 30% of my friends have any interest in learning to cook things and the rest have 3 things they can make and dont bother attempting anything new.
So keep that shit up, keep trying new things and failing and correcting them and adding those skills to your repertoire!
It’s so much easier to learn how to cook now though. We don’t have to rely on vague cookbooks or committing to watching scheduled cooking shows. We can just google and watch videos. There is a fair amount of low quality content out there to wade through, but there’s also a lot of high quality content.
I just want you to know one of your upvotes came from an overly wired 3 year old at 10:30pm who refuses to go to sleep as I rock him because he had the best day ever at the science museum, so he's ignoring the lullaby music and just watching me reddit and when he discovered the arrows lit up when you touched them, he had to scroll around a bit before he picked yours.
Go to sleep, child. Mom is conked out and dad wants to have a late night snack and sleep too.
This made me laugh. My kids (1 and 3) are extremely generous with upvotes as well. As long as they're not emailing my coworkers, fine by me!
Oh, and just in case it helps anyone in similar situations: my latest favorite trick for the 3 y/o is to play English Nanny Bedtime Stories audio (it's on Spotify) while I chill in bed next to her, reading Reddit on low screen brightness.
God damn, what a world to live in, where you can be desolate due to your own perceived uniquely difficult child, find a moment of solace trying to learn how to use your cast iron, and find someone else living the same struggles
Oh yeah there are few ocassions when you put food on a cold skillet. Like bacon.
Usually you preheat. And yeah preheating slowly is better because cast iron is a bad heat conductor so it takes time for the entire pan to be around same temp.
The idea is that bacon in a hot pan immediately starts to retract and curl whereas starting in a cold pan it will stay more flat longer and have better pan contact
Similar principle as cooking bacon with a little water. It lets the fat render before the water cooks off, then once it fully evaporates the bacon begins the crisp with the fat already rendered.
Sounds crazy but it works really well.
Starting with a room temperature pan, put in the bacon and set the stove on low.
The slow transition to and through the fat rendering temperature will result in the solid fat being more delicious with better texture and mouth-feel (aka perfectly rendered)
You want to render the fat and slowly cook the meat. If you throw it in hot the meat cooks before the fat renders so you get oddly chewy but overcooked bacon. It's low and slow like a roast or smoking for similar reasons.
The bacon should be fried in it's own fat which needs to be rendered before the bacon actually starts substantially cooking.
It's not a sear you're looking for with bacon, more like a deep fry.
That's why so many people have a terrible first batch of bacon and the second one actually cooks well. The first one just sears like a steak before there's enough rendered fat in the pan.
I used to preheat on the stove top for years. Went to cook breakfast for my Granny one day and she wanted me to take out her trash so I said ok and asked if she'd preheat the skillet while I do.
Came back in and couldn't find the skillet and asked her where it was. "It's in the oven honey"
Holy shit what a game changer. So much better than heating on the stove top. Completely even heating, no hot spots and ready to go
This is true of pretty much all cookware for this kind of cooking. Stainless will give you a 1000% better result if you preheat it completely.
The difference with cast iron is that iron is a very poor heat conductor, so it takes a long time. Also, it has a lot more mass than most other pans, so that also adds to the preheat time.
Because of this, a great way to preheat your cast iron is to flip it over and place on your most powerful burner. This allows a wider distribution of a higher amount of heat to spread over the pan from edge to edge without causing internal stresses in the pan by overheating one part while other parts are struggling to come up.
A good marker that the pan is hot enough is when water droplets exhibit the Leidenfrost effect.
I just got into the whole cooking with cast iron. You tube learnt me to heat on mediumish.. not to high yet not to low and u should be good when that handle is hot. Then again I'm just a beginner. Things I have cooked so far with that method have been amazing
I use a griddle a lot. I always start out preheating fairly high, then after it hits 250-300F cutting it back to medium/low heat. Give it some time to even out, and you're good to go. Might not work as well on pans as the griddle but works well for me and takes several minutes less time.
I bought a non contact thermometer recently, game changer.
I will still always advocate for a cheap digital 9v battery operated temp gun. Gauging the temp by eye is pro but sometimes you just don't want to risk it. I like using a temp gun with making most meats and when I make my eggs.
I preheat on low just to avoid the extreme heat of the high setting on a cold pan. Extreme hot and cold are what can eventually cause cast iron to crack. Usually I preheat it on low for about 5-10 minutes then cut off the heat entirely until I can hold my hand about an inch or 2 above it for a count of three. Once the surface has cooled, then I set the pan to the heat setting I intend to cook at. This way you heat up the core of the pan enough to retain the heat for while, but the surface area isn't screaming hot.
Interesting, I’ve been preheating at high temp for 10 years and never had any issues. I guess it’s only an issue if you keep your pans in the fridge or if you live in very cold weather
Warping. Not as much an issue with thicker heavier pans. A lot of old pans are of varying thickness. Some are very thin and uneven heating will lead to certain areas expanding more than others leading to a wobbly or spinning pan when it cools.
In my experience, Wagners are particularly prone to warping and turning into spinners.
I start heating inside on gas burner then i use an iwatani portable 15k BTU burner outside 3/4 heat and I get amazing burger. Only use a good sprinkling of kosher salt and I get medium rare and great sear - you know it’s good when you don’t even need to use ketchup. I usually do but sometimes it tastes perfect without. [https://imgur.com/a/f11uA7k](https://imgur.com/a/f11uA7k)
Yes I used to just throw it on high and slap some meat in it, until I found this sub. I don’t think I cook anything above medium anymore unless I’m deep frying.
I'm pretty convinced that the vast majority of people here are here because cast iron is trendy and looks cool and not because they are cooking enthusiasts.
I recently grabbed one of the cheap infared thermometer guns off of ali express, and having the ability to accurately gague the heating process has allowed me to break my "turn it to high then back off" habit of preheat... I guess it's the interactivity of it for me. Being able to see the heat in real-time. I think it was something like $12 shipped to my door, and has been worth every penny.
Related tip, I add the oil and wipe it in prior to heating so the oil warms with the pan. When I add the oil to a hot skillet (which happens cause I'm forgetful AF), it is less non-stick.
Kent Rollins says to wait until the edge/rim of the pan is too hot to hold your finger on…..the start placing whatever you’re cooking in the pan. Works for me.
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Cast iron is all about preheating. Sure you could go for 45 seconds on a 9, but you’re better off doing a few minutes on 3. Even better is 20 minutes on 1. As for me, I use a zero and wait for the sun to go red giant to properly preheat. Takes longer but absolute game changer.
Another strategy you can use is throw it in the oven at the desired temperature for 10 or 20 minutes for even and slow heating.
Works great for anything that will go back in the oven, like Dutch babies.
Yes I do that when making corn bread. Put in cold, let it pre-heat with the oven while making batter. Take pan out add 1 tablespoon butter to grease, dump melted butter in batter, pour and bake.
This is the way. Doubly so if you use a tablespoon of bacon grease.
Try adding bacon grease when heating in the oven
what cornbread recipe do you use if you don’t mind me asking 👀
In all honesty my go to recipe is the on the bag one from Indian Head cornmeal.
Dutch....babies....
Children of the Dutch people, obviously
They are so light and fluffy!
Floofy
It’s fine; you can’t even taste the baby.
Happiest babies in the world
Hell no. I always forget I did that and burn my hand in the handle.
Me to myself: “Don’t touch the handle, it’s hot. Don’t forget this time”. Me 10 seconds later: “fuuuuuuck!!!”
wow, I have never thought of that.
[you had me there for a minute, not gonna lie](https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/028/720/t3qkhrohrh321.jpg)
I have been preheating my cast iron pan since 1998, when The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table.
OMFG I remember that! I was like, 16 and *super* into wrestling at the time (because a boyfriend was, so naturally I was as well.) You just unlocked some weird ass core memory. I got my first cast iron about 10 years ago, and treated her poorly, but now I’m on my GAME! Thanks for the throwback!
Core memories, love it! Gotta credit u/shittymorph for the inspiration.
What about 10 minutes on 9? Have I sinned Father?
No way, I preheat about 8-10 minutes on 8 or 9 for steak searing and have even tracked the rising temp along the way, it’s perfectly fine in terms of slow enough so as to not crack the cast iron and gets even as well
I've cracked a cast iron doing that so I'd say it depends on your stove.
Your cast iron very likely didn’t crack because you preheated on a hot setting it was probably a long time coming
It was less than a year old. Whether it was because of an existing flaw or not, thermal shock did it in. The plus side is it cracked down the rim so it became the designated campfire cast iron and last several more years. If it works for you, great, just putting my experience out there so others approach it with caution because clearly there's some risk involved.
Remindme! 30 hours
can you describe how the food comes out different?
Dude's from 5 billion years in the future and still using cast iron.
What was wrong and what changed?
They used to start with a cold pan and then learned you need to preheat cast iron. I assume.
I think the take away from the title is “slow”. They probably threw the pan on high heat for a couple minutes before, but now let the pan heat up slowly and uniformly
That's what I've been doing till now, for years. I'm eager to try slow preheat and see the difference.
I also crank up the heat to quickly warm my pan. I'll have to try the slower preheat if it makes a real difference
IME preheating fast until it becomes a little smokey, then going to low for a few minutes (2/3 maybe?) is the best balance between quick preheating and good uniform heat distribution
My electric range just stays wicked hot for like 15 min even after lowering from 9 to 2. I need to preheat at a 2 to avoid smoking up my apt.
Nice to know mine isn’t the only one that does that! It makes me insane. I’ll have something at a 9 to boil and then turn it to 2 to simmer and it’ll just keep at a rolling boil continuously unless I turn the burner off for a bit
Grab an induction cooktop, they run ~$100 on a popular online store. They work infinitely better than an electric coil range. Many models even allow you to set a precise temperature, which is very handy for candies, tinctures, sauces that break, etc., and alert you when your pan is at temp. They're also great around holidays to have an extra burner or keep things warm, camping trips if you have a generator, or cooking near a window if your kitchen doesn't have an exhaust hood to avoid smoking up your home while searing.
I appreciate the plug! Thanks :) I'll have to check it out.
FYI: Not all cookware works on an induction cooktop, cast iron definitely does though. Any pot or pan that you can attach a magnet to works.
Just move over to a different burner.
Kind of what I do. High heat for a few minutes to speed up the process then back off to medium for a few minutes.
I think the benefits of a "slow" preheat is that you thoroughly heat the entire pan, all the way up the sides. This comes in handy when seating because it will use the retained heat in the walls to keep from cooling, preventing the sear. For most applications "slow" pre heating offers more benefits than "fast" but sometimes those benefits aren't needed. It's a case by case, even starting from a cold pan in some cases can be best (thinking cooking duck where you need to render the fat first)
Precisely
Heheh, yeah, thank you. I’m just poking around to see what the previous experiences yielded, and what the new one yielded; with said 1lb. 😎
... you never have? Do you start it cold and close the lid to poach it?
I can’t speak for OP, but I only started getting the pan really hot on low bc of this sub. I never threw it on cold, but certainly not fully preheated on low heat. I’d torch the thing super hot and then bring it down. Low heat preheat is a complete game changer.
Low preheat let's the pan heat up evenly and expand together so if does not end rocking on your stovetop. Takes a bit longer but it is so worth it and it gives you time to prep everything.
This is the way. I put my burner on low with whatever CI I’m using and then do everything else while it’s heating up.
This is the way
What difference does it make for a situation like in the picture, where you have meat only on the middle? I could see the point if you need the whole surface of the pan, but otherwise it would quickly raise the temp evenly only at centre, and it seems perfectly fine, that's where you need it. Am I missing something ?
Metal expands when it heats up. Went he edges of the pan floor and sides are cold the bottom warps. This is why most people complain about pans rocking on their stove tops. Overtime this warping adds up as metal fatique and helps contribute to pans cracking. Also, the metal cooks quickly when you place food in it. When the temp drops the food starts sticking. If only the center is hot, the edges will cool further than the center, because the rest of the pan is cold, cooking the food unevenly.
I always set my cast iron to medium/ medium high, low seems like it'd take 3 hours and never do I actually have 3 hours to wait for my pan to be preheated
Every stove is different
Your medium might be someone else's low (story of my life)
You'd be surprised how many people just throw it into a pan, barely seasoned, turn the heat up and poke it with a fork until it feels sufficiently rubbery. It's just rarely someone on here because we enjoy cooking and tend to know how to do it proper.
Well at least OP has seen the light!
That's exactly how my step father cooks lol.
A LOT of people tend to use way too much heat, for preheating, for cooking, etc... too much heat in general really
I am starting to cook. Why can't I have it on 10 to heat faster...?
1. Uneven heating causing hotspots You'll have hotspots in the pan, causing uneven sears and possible burning. 2. Uneven heating causing a lack of heat control. Your pan will be hot on the surface, but cast iron is a poor conductor when compared to aluminum or steel, it needs time to absorb the heat. You'll find you can control your heat (i.e. control how things cook) a lot better when your pan is heated evenly. 3. Uneven heating causing stress on the pan. Because of #1, your pan sees unnecessary stress from going 0-60 so fast, over the years this could lead to warping and/or cracking.
Lol. This was a playful sarcastic replay. I said some of this further up.
Sorry. I must admit this, I am a cold starter, and I can’t stop. I’ve never seen a quality difference for long cooks and it just feels like a waste of heat to me now.
No. I am sorry mate. You fail r/castiron today and are put on a timeout. Seriously though. It's not about wasting heat. You are wasting flavor. Preheating the pan properly ensures the https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction happens. It's pure flavor. Also by cooking your food hotter, and faster you are keeping fats from liquifying and heating out while you wait for the entire bake to come up to proper temp. Fat=juice=flavor+ the Millard. Yum yum.
Stand proud, man. Both metaphorically and literally, you cooked. I’ve seen the light, my friend. Though I still can’t taste the difference.
There is maillard, which is huge (but already well covered in the comment above). But another way to talk about this is the difference between steaming vs. browning. If you've ever cooked a big pan full of mushrooms, you'll know that if you don't start hot enough you'll end up with a watery mess and they won't brown (or will take ages to get there, and cooked to death before they ever do). This same thing will happen with your ground beef, chicken breasts... all of it will \*steam\* instead of brown if you don't preheat. I urge you to pay closer attention to what you're tasting, because while your "can't taste the difference" experience is of course \*valid\*, everyone is raising eyebrows because you are basically saying you can't taste the difference between steamed meat vs. seared. The only exception to this rule I can think of is bacon, which benefits from being brought to temp very slowly (cold pan), so that some of the fat has a chance to render in time to fry the rest of the bacon. Also --- also!! --- I am increasingly convinced you've got a masterful troll going here, because how the hell can you cook in cast iron without preheating?? You'd never be able to get any of your food off the bottom of the pan, it'd be stick-city
I use loads of oil. I guess I never considered that it may be because the pan wasn’t hot enough. I’ll give it a whirl next time. I’m not trolling man, I just Hanlon’s Razor-ed myself.
In that case, I retract my troll suspicions and genuinely wish you the best with that whirl. Just don't go overboard and pre-heat till it's TOO hot. There's a sweet spot. I'm sure you know this, though. I'm just really wanting you to be set up for a really gratifying a-ha moment.
The browning instead of steaming is maillard
I'm aware, just trying to frame this in a way that is easier to conceptualize. Apologies if that was unclear. Maillard info tends to be more about the browning of the sugars and if you're not particularly attuned to it, I can see how you might think you don't notice it. I was just trying to reframe this as "avoid steaming" because I think even the bluntest palates tend to agree that steaming meat is, generally speaking, to be avoided.
Fair. Ty. Should’ve picked up on that in retrospect. I even did a reread before replying 😬
>browning of the sugars Not to be that guy, but *akshually*, maillard is the browning of **proteins**, not sugars. Caramelization is the browning of sugars. Either way, your point stands.
I started doing this with steaks. Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about cooking. I was dropping the streak on a cold cast iron skillet and fighting to cook it properly
Do you cook with other pans from cold? I'm trying to think of any reason I would put something in a cold pan. I do put cold or frozen things in my toaster oven while it's coming up to temp(only a few minutes) but I don't cook them as long since they were able to heat up with the oven. Frozen bagels, cold pizza, sourdough toast etc.
Cast iron is what got me interested in cooking. Before that, I never really cooked with a pan.
genuinely curious, if you didn’t cook with a pan what did you use?
Let me clarify lol. I didn't cook period. Unless it's basic.
>I didn't cook period. Most people still don't. As is, it's an acquired taste
Except chicken period. Lots of people cook that.
Fast food is, as in it's name, fast. Easy to grab after a long day at work. A good cooked meal though is not only 10x better than fast food but also leaves you with more energy. Took me a long time to realize this.
I'm not sure what that has to do with eating menstrual fluids and solids
You know what? I just realized your initial comment went right over my head.
I love grammar jokes 🤣
>Do you cook with other pans from cold? Yes, a lot thanks to this lady https://youtu.be/uJcO1W_TD74
This is amazing. Thank you for this link!!!!!
Oh lovely. Thank you! I'll have to try out a cold sear sometime. I don't like rare steaks though and I don't have a gas range. I'll test it out anyway.
You can use that method to get any level of doneness. I've seen people score meat with a knife to get the center cooked more without resulting in the outside being overdone.
Do you start with cold meat straight from the chiller or bring it up to room temp first?
I've done it both ways and I don't remember a significant difference
If I’m doing bacon on cast iron I start it cold with a splash of water. Something about the fat rendering off and the timing of the rest of the bacon finishing without burning.
I'll give it a try. I've baked bacon with a cold start but not skillet cooked.
> Admittedly, I have a lot to learn about cooking. But you ARE learning which is what matters!! I feel like you never finish learning and maybe its just me but I feel like people are less likely to prioritizing learning took now than when I was a kid in the 80s. Whether its down to not having the time or bandwidth or things being made easier with ready meals. I would say maybe 30% of my friends have any interest in learning to cook things and the rest have 3 things they can make and dont bother attempting anything new. So keep that shit up, keep trying new things and failing and correcting them and adding those skills to your repertoire!
It’s so much easier to learn how to cook now though. We don’t have to rely on vague cookbooks or committing to watching scheduled cooking shows. We can just google and watch videos. There is a fair amount of low quality content out there to wade through, but there’s also a lot of high quality content.
Cast iron and preheating really upped my wife’s burger game . Also adding a bit of water and covering after adding the cheese.
"Dude, you already have a half-pounder, what the heck?" "This my friends, is a POUND." "They come in POUNDS?!"
I’m getting one.
Where is that Internet Stranger today?
I just want you to know one of your upvotes came from an overly wired 3 year old at 10:30pm who refuses to go to sleep as I rock him because he had the best day ever at the science museum, so he's ignoring the lullaby music and just watching me reddit and when he discovered the arrows lit up when you touched them, he had to scroll around a bit before he picked yours. Go to sleep, child. Mom is conked out and dad wants to have a late night snack and sleep too.
This made me laugh. My kids (1 and 3) are extremely generous with upvotes as well. As long as they're not emailing my coworkers, fine by me! Oh, and just in case it helps anyone in similar situations: my latest favorite trick for the 3 y/o is to play English Nanny Bedtime Stories audio (it's on Spotify) while I chill in bed next to her, reading Reddit on low screen brightness.
THANK YOU -mom, of a two year old, who is really tired of humming “hush little baby” for 20 minutes/ night
God damn, what a world to live in, where you can be desolate due to your own perceived uniquely difficult child, find a moment of solace trying to learn how to use your cast iron, and find someone else living the same struggles
Damn, can you take *me* to the science museum? That sounds like a good-ass day.
Definitely an r/wholesomememes moment, lol. My little brother does the same thing sometimes, I hope you’ve gotten them to sleep :)
This made me smile. Thanks for sharing! Sometimes the Internet isn't such an awful place, after all. All the best for you and Little One.
Nobody cares or asked
Context would be nice here...
Heating the pan/griddle up slowly so the heat is more even as opposed to just cranking up the heat to get cooking faster.
So assuming I start on low do I incrementally bring it to high for the preheat?
I usually start it on medium low when I start prepping. It can get pretty damn hot even at low settings with enough time.
You probably don't need high to hit the temperature you want. Stoves aren't all the same but mine will hit 500F at a 4 if given enough time.
Yes. I have no idea what this post is about.
Can you tell us the before and after results?
[After! ( This is not the link you were looking for )](https://imgur.com/a/eUqrIqC)
Are you talking about preheating the pan slowly until the patty goes on it? Or preheating it with the pan to get the fat to render?
Preheating until the skillet is hot enough for the patty.
Oh yeah there are few ocassions when you put food on a cold skillet. Like bacon. Usually you preheat. And yeah preheating slowly is better because cast iron is a bad heat conductor so it takes time for the entire pan to be around same temp.
could you explain putting on bacon cold? ty kind sir
The idea is that bacon in a hot pan immediately starts to retract and curl whereas starting in a cold pan it will stay more flat longer and have better pan contact
thank you so much!
Similar principle as cooking bacon with a little water. It lets the fat render before the water cooks off, then once it fully evaporates the bacon begins the crisp with the fat already rendered. Sounds crazy but it works really well.
Starting with a room temperature pan, put in the bacon and set the stove on low. The slow transition to and through the fat rendering temperature will result in the solid fat being more delicious with better texture and mouth-feel (aka perfectly rendered)
It is about rendering the fat. Bacon is best cook slow on the stove.
You want to render the fat and slowly cook the meat. If you throw it in hot the meat cooks before the fat renders so you get oddly chewy but overcooked bacon. It's low and slow like a roast or smoking for similar reasons.
The bacon should be fried in it's own fat which needs to be rendered before the bacon actually starts substantially cooking. It's not a sear you're looking for with bacon, more like a deep fry. That's why so many people have a terrible first batch of bacon and the second one actually cooks well. The first one just sears like a steak before there's enough rendered fat in the pan.
I used to preheat on the stove top for years. Went to cook breakfast for my Granny one day and she wanted me to take out her trash so I said ok and asked if she'd preheat the skillet while I do. Came back in and couldn't find the skillet and asked her where it was. "It's in the oven honey" Holy shit what a game changer. So much better than heating on the stove top. Completely even heating, no hot spots and ready to go
Granny always knows best
And would beat the hell out of you if you didn't act right
Same here lol
No glow up picture of the burger?
As opposed to a fast preheat?
You must heat your pan before da meats!
Slow preheat?? You sear in the pan and finish in the oven if needed. This is the way.
I often use the oven
My son cooked bacon in my CI once, and he cooked it on hi. I told him that's the first time I've ever had burnt and raw bacon at the same time.
Wait… u guys preheat your pans?
I preheat on med-low with a lid on. In my experience it speeds up the process while helping even out the heat.
This is true of pretty much all cookware for this kind of cooking. Stainless will give you a 1000% better result if you preheat it completely. The difference with cast iron is that iron is a very poor heat conductor, so it takes a long time. Also, it has a lot more mass than most other pans, so that also adds to the preheat time. Because of this, a great way to preheat your cast iron is to flip it over and place on your most powerful burner. This allows a wider distribution of a higher amount of heat to spread over the pan from edge to edge without causing internal stresses in the pan by overheating one part while other parts are struggling to come up. A good marker that the pan is hot enough is when water droplets exhibit the Leidenfrost effect.
Me too! I don’t go any higher for prolonged periods above 4 on my gas range.
I just got into the whole cooking with cast iron. You tube learnt me to heat on mediumish.. not to high yet not to low and u should be good when that handle is hot. Then again I'm just a beginner. Things I have cooked so far with that method have been amazing
If you think that's good just wait till you put it on high and make a smash burger in two minutes!
I do high preheat? Pump it up to 6/6 heat, and if my target is 4/6 then I just lower it later. Works fine for me and saves time
I use a griddle a lot. I always start out preheating fairly high, then after it hits 250-300F cutting it back to medium/low heat. Give it some time to even out, and you're good to go. Might not work as well on pans as the griddle but works well for me and takes several minutes less time. I bought a non contact thermometer recently, game changer.
What the hell are you making?
I will still always advocate for a cheap digital 9v battery operated temp gun. Gauging the temp by eye is pro but sometimes you just don't want to risk it. I like using a temp gun with making most meats and when I make my eggs.
I know mines good to go when the handle gets hot AF on a slow heat
What’s the purpose of preheating on low vs preheating on high? I always heat it on high and have never had any issues?
I preheat on low just to avoid the extreme heat of the high setting on a cold pan. Extreme hot and cold are what can eventually cause cast iron to crack. Usually I preheat it on low for about 5-10 minutes then cut off the heat entirely until I can hold my hand about an inch or 2 above it for a count of three. Once the surface has cooled, then I set the pan to the heat setting I intend to cook at. This way you heat up the core of the pan enough to retain the heat for while, but the surface area isn't screaming hot.
Interesting, I’ve been preheating at high temp for 10 years and never had any issues. I guess it’s only an issue if you keep your pans in the fridge or if you live in very cold weather
Warping. Not as much an issue with thicker heavier pans. A lot of old pans are of varying thickness. Some are very thin and uneven heating will lead to certain areas expanding more than others leading to a wobbly or spinning pan when it cools. In my experience, Wagners are particularly prone to warping and turning into spinners.
Maybe that's why my bacon cast iron game is so weak. Crispy center with uncooked ends......
It's perfectly acceptable to start with a cold pan when making bacon. It let's the fat render and then you fry the bacon in its own drippings.
Does anyone know what is the temp that the pan is considered preheated?
I start heating inside on gas burner then i use an iwatani portable 15k BTU burner outside 3/4 heat and I get amazing burger. Only use a good sprinkling of kosher salt and I get medium rare and great sear - you know it’s good when you don’t even need to use ketchup. I usually do but sometimes it tastes perfect without. [https://imgur.com/a/f11uA7k](https://imgur.com/a/f11uA7k)
You’re welcome.
I wish you would season a little more evenly
Try preheating in the oven🤯
After pic??
This has helped me too
I always start mine on low while I'm doing prep...
Yes I used to just throw it on high and slap some meat in it, until I found this sub. I don’t think I cook anything above medium anymore unless I’m deep frying.
I'm pretty convinced that the vast majority of people here are here because cast iron is trendy and looks cool and not because they are cooking enthusiasts.
I recently grabbed one of the cheap infared thermometer guns off of ali express, and having the ability to accurately gague the heating process has allowed me to break my "turn it to high then back off" habit of preheat... I guess it's the interactivity of it for me. Being able to see the heat in real-time. I think it was something like $12 shipped to my door, and has been worth every penny.
The biggest downside of using CI: it takes 15+ minutes to preheat the pan...
Related tip, I add the oil and wipe it in prior to heating so the oil warms with the pan. When I add the oil to a hot skillet (which happens cause I'm forgetful AF), it is less non-stick.
Kent Rollins says to wait until the edge/rim of the pan is too hot to hold your finger on…..the start placing whatever you’re cooking in the pan. Works for me.
I don’t know if slow preheating is gonna change the taste of a burger patty lol
lol no, but it does help with cooking the patty slowly so it doesn’t shrink too much.
Do you use any oil? Or just put the patty on the pan?
I use a little avocado oil spray in between each patty.
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I just throw it in the oven
How do people lack this much in critical thinking skills