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Comment on YSK You don't need Teflon pans for nonstick

As a wonderful cook, I resent just about every piece of cooking advice. They’re just oft-repeated, poorly-understood concepts.

For example, I love cast iron. It’s my go-to for nearly all my cooking. I cannot stand cast iron people. They think their lump of iron is a baby that needs to be spit polished and pampered like a Fabergé egg. No, you beat the ever-loving hell out of it, abuse it, soak it in water, leave it to rust, abuse it with scouring pads… then you rub a 1/16th tsp of oil on it and get on with life/cooking.

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Pilferjinx@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
There’s a joy with high crafted tools that you can’t really get with an average equivalent. It usually comes down to comfort and looks. Is it worth it? Depends, I suppose.

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- Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I’ve cooked every meal from scratch for 5 years
  
  There’s one tool that was worth the $50 and that was a garlic press, the rest was money wasted
  
  It’s much better to understand your tools and buy appropriately, instead of just assuming that lots of money is the answer
  
  That’s my opinion and experience
  
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AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I agree with both your original comment and the edit, but especially the bit about cast iron. Neglecting mine for an extended period led to uneven patches of seasoning, but when I got round to giving it a proper scrub, it was like hitting a reset button. I’m going to try to be better at basic seasoning/maintenance this time, but the joy of cast iron is knowing that it’s super forgiving if you do mess it up.

Tangential to your edit: I enjoy being able to sharpen knives, but that’s mostly because I’m a nerd who has other tools I need to sharpen anyway, so I already have the stones. Something that I found striking though is that when I was learning how to sharpen knives, I asked if I could practice on various friends’ kitchen knives. Most of them were poor students, so I sharpened many cheap knives, and I was impressed by how well some of the cheaper ones performed compared once they were sharp. They held their edge for surprisingly long too.

I’m quite fond of my Wusthof chef’s knife, which was a bit of an indulgent treat for myself, but I am utterly baffled by the gear acquisition syndrome that so many seem to fall into. It’s not just that prospect of someone who barely cooks buying a $300 knife that perplexes me, but that so many of these people keep acquiring more knives. If they said that collecting knives was just their hobby, and that they were never intending to actually use them, then I’d shrug and say fair enough. That’s pretty rare though — the underlying implication that these people seem to operate under is that the fancy knives make you a better cook (and that the perfect knife will make good cooking into an effortless, joyful endeavour). It’s an odd culture that’s developed.

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- Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  You’re making some great points
  
  I like that you like sharpening, my grandfather taught me how as well and it’s a pleasure to know how. I have also been surprised how some “bargain basement” cheap ones are higher quality steel than the expensive Henkels, just as one random example
  
  Maybe it’s my fault, but I don’t think so, I think it just revealed a deeper truth to me…
  
  I was given professional chef knives by someone who dropped out of cooking school. I mean, you could just hold the chef knife in your hand for a second and tell you are dealing with a completely “next level” tool
  
  I think I had that knife for all of 5 days before something took a massive chip out of the edge. I suppose a person could argue it was my fault. I really don’t think it was, I think it was just a freak incident. But the timing of it revealed to me that I’m just going to stick with my cheapos. There is too much going on with cooking to have to stress about if my little delicate knife can handle a tap against a pan edge
  
  That chipping incident disabused me of many false notions. I can absolutely acknowledge it made prep quicker, but I did the mental math and realized I’m not going to pamper and baby knives my whole life. I need to be able to have tools that if they break, they go straight in the trash and I just get another one. In the forensic analysis, it’s much cheaper and easier to go that way.
  
  This is for me as a home cook - I can acknowledge if I worked in a professional environment I would need pro tools that I would baby and pamper, but my home kitchen is not the place
  
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Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
I went for a cheapish knife, like £20 or so each for a few knives. My thinking was I don’t want the 20 knives in a set for £19.99 that are probably made of stamped aluminium and hollow plastic handles, but by £20 you are getting something good without spending a silly amount of money.

As for the cast iron I won’t deliberately leave mine to rust, but happily use it over a fire and then just wipe off the worst of the soot/ash. But it’s black anyway so no one is going to notice spot buildup. Just remove anything that would easily brush off on other things.

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- Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I agree with your approach
  
  I think knife sets are a bit of a con job because a good cook really just uses one or two. I’m looking at my knife block and I’m seeing 9 different knives in there, two of them get used. Two… The $5 el-cheapo chef knife and a $1 paring knife. I haven’t used the serrated bread knife in 10 years, because my chef knife is sharp enough to shave my beard
  
  I’m also kind of exaggerating a bit on my prices. Yes I’ve paid $5 or 6 but I time the purchases to be right after Christmas when they’re on clearance. I’d say in “real money” and with recent inflation I’m using about a $35 CAD knife
  
  I also find the pricing of them to be completely arbitrary. I have been gifted knives that should be extraordinarily high quality based on retail price… And found the handles/plugs were falling off, or they were degrading within weeks!
  
  I don’t understand why we live in a world where someone can sell a $500 knife that in terms of manufacture and material cost, is almost indistinguishable from a no-frills budget one. And in many cases, conspicuously worse in every measurement!
  
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  - Korhaka@sopuli.xyz ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Been looking at sharpening stones a bit today, genuinely wonder if I could instead get 2 slate roof tiles and grind them against each other until the surface is flat enough to use to sharpen a knife. Would cost almost nothing
    
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    Krudler@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    I love the wild, devil may care, DIY approach!
    
    It’s the type of lunacy that I would try just to see how it works hahahah
    
    I’ve said in many other threads in regards to cooking, and my knives, that I admit and confess, in full, that I am a complete rebel and sinner
    
    I use a dual wheel Rada quick sharp to blast the correctly angled edge, knowing full-well that it shears off material, and then I quickly use my 14-in hone
    
    I know by official standards and reckoning… I am abusing my knives and doing it “wrong”
    
    But I cook every day, and it takes me 5 years to go through a knife. I completely gave up on sharpening with a stone a decade ago. My attitude is “fuck it, I’ll just get another knife in 5 years, this is a primary tool for me and I’m not going to baby them”
    
    I would love to know how this works out for you though!!! I can *absolutely" envision a scenario where you angle these pieces of slate and you make yourself your own version of a quick sharp!! This is madness though, which is why I love it LOL
    
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