So there are some new recipes I want to try out. Several use a Dutch oven, which I don’t have, but as far as I can tell from the recipes, it’s used ONLY as a pot (i.e. it stays on the cooktop and there are no unusual processes done to them as far as I can tell).
What adjustments, if any, will I need to make to cooking time and such if I use a regular pot/pan instead?
It’s really just a heavy pot, I don’t think you’d need to adjust cooking times or anything like that - if you’re using a thinner pot on the stovetop for long periods you might take a little more care to make sure stuff doesn’t scorch on the bottom - keep the heat down and an eye on it, maybe stir the stuff around more often, add a bit of liquid if it looks like it needs it, etc.
What are you making? Like zombywoof said, for some you can just turn the heat way down and stir it really often (and keep the lid on). For others (like beef stew) you can just toss it in a Crock Pot for 8 hours.
Dutch Ovens are just pots, but they’re very, very heavy because of this you use very little heat and don’t really have to stir them because they distribute the heat they receive so well and retain it for a while. They act more like crock pots than cheap aluminum pots.
Yes, it’s just a crock pot you heat in the oven or on the stove top. You can also use it to make bread. Get the book Flour Water Salt Yeastfor the recipes.
They do retain heat well, but it is not true that they distribute it well. In fact, cast iron (which I assume is what you’re talking about) does a very poor job if transferring heat, which is why it’s sometimes recommended to heat them in the oven while empty before transferring them to the stove. The heaviness and the low heat and long cooking time that you recommend mitigate the poor transference somewhat, but I’ve often had food frying at high temp at the bottom of a cast iron frying pan while the edge was still touchable without burning.
Just to be clear, this is a cast iron dutch oven, not a skillet. You wouldn’t fry anything in one of these. The heat will build up inside and stay there. There’s a lot of thermal mass so once it’s up to temp you can turn the flame way down and you should get some very even heating across the bottom.
But, just if you could touch the edge of your frying pan, that just means it was still heating. Wait until the entire thing is hot, turn the flame down just high enough to maintain the temp and it should stay pretty even.
But I’m just assuming here, I don’t use a cast iron skillet, I had one but I never really liked it.
Well, yeah, if you wait long enough, the heat will spread out. If you had a stainless steel pan, you wouldn’t have to wait as long. Like I said, using a low heat and waiting mitigates the poor transference, and the heaviness means that it takes longer to heat up, also giving more time for the temperature to even out. And as you say, once it’s hot, it stays that way.
BTW, although I wouldn’t use a Dutch oven like a skillet, they make great deep friers.
I think, in general, something that heats evenly will take longer to heat up (evenly) while something that conducts heat very quickly will heat less evenly because it’s going to send the heat straight from the source right up into the pan without spreading it out (or giving the heat any chance to travel around before being absorbed.
My SS pots and pans heat nice and evenly as well, but they’re very heavy. 7 Ply maybe?
That’s well reasoned and wrong. I’m not an expert in physics or cooking, but I know that there are several ways substances can vary in how they absorb and transfer heat. Heating something slowly allows time for the heat to even out, but it doesn’t follow that something that conducts heat well will heat less evenly or vice versa. Wood, for example, is a very poor conductor of heat, but that doesn’t mean that if you leave a wooden spoon in boiling water long enough that you’ll burn your hand on the handle. If I’m not mistaken, aluminum conducts heat well, so that if you heat one end of an aluminum bar over a flame, the other end will rise in temperature rather quickly compared to, say, an iron bar of similar mass heated at one end. OTOH, iron holds a lot more heat because of its greater thermal mass, and will transfer that heat to your hand (or a steak) once it has heated up. I don’t think thermal mass and conductivity are related, though, at least not directly.
It will all depend on what you’ll be cooking. If you’re making something with a lot of liquid like a stew, you might not have to make a lot of adjustments except for liquids (and proportional seasoning) because reduction will be different from a “regular” pot.
If you’re making something like a pot roast, you will not be able to reproduce the low, even heating of a dutch oven so while you might be able to get away with the same recipe and cooking method, the flavour and texture of the food will be different from what was originally intended.
It’s a magazine of pasta/sauce recipes. Most of them don’t require a lot of roasting or whatever.
Then you will be able to get away with using a slow cooker. Just use less liquid because it will not reduce as efficiently as a dutch oven would. You can use a regular heavy-gauge pot as well to get the even heating effect. If you use aluminum, make sure it’s anodized so it won’t react with the acidic tomatoes in your pasta sauce.
Yes you would. People often use ditch ovens for deep frying. They’re probably the best piece of equipment in the kitchen for that purpose.
We were talking about pan frying (since Alan mentioned frying things in the middle but still being able to be able to touch the outer edge…can’t do that when you deep fry).
Depending on what you might be cooking, and what pot you are planning to replace the dutch oven with, I would suggest that once any browning is done and the any liquid is brought to a simmer, that the cooking be transferred to 300° oven. This works whether you are using a light stainless or anodized dutch oven or a heavy enameled cast iron one. It’s a steady, constant, omni-directional heat that will keep liquids at constant simmer the entire cooking time. You will need less stirring, necessary on a stovetop because the heat comes from beneath and can promote burning at the bottom. If necessary, towards the end of cooking you can remove the lid to allow the liquids to reduce, or reduce on the stovetop at the end. I use this method for stews, chilis, pot roasts, some soups, and other long, slow cooking methods.
If whatever you are cooking calls for it to be covered, and your pot does not have tight-fitting cover (or even if it does), a piece of aluminum foil between the pot and the cover does an even better job at retaining liquid in the pot.
Alan Smithee, my understanding is pretty much the same as yours. Cast iron is slow to heat. I’ve heard some chefs suggest heating it over high heat for up to 30 minutes(!). The advantage is that when a cold piece of meat hits a cast iron skillet, the skillet barely cools, whereas in stainless-coated aluminum, the pans temperature drops precipitously. This is also why enameled cast iron dutch ovens make such good fryers. The shock of adding cold, sometimes frozen, food to hot oil is reduced and the oil can return to temperature quicker.
I still saute in the Dutch oven all the time, like beef and onions for chili.
That makes a lot of sense. I hadn’t thought of that.
What if the cook times are listed in minutes, not hours? There is no slow cooking involved here.
Uh, what? My entire point was that I don’t have a Dutch oven. And again, there is absolutely no “long, slow” cooking involved. Boiling and sautéing, sure, but nothing is staying on the stove more than half an hour, and even that’s long.
Same here.
You should be fine using whatever pot. AS zombywoof says, just keep an eye out on it to make sure nothing scorches, but it sounds like for what you’ll be making, it shouldn’t be a problem. I can’t think of any pasta type recipes that take a half hour of cooking (which is what you seem to be making) that would require any sort of adjustment. I love my Dutch ovens, and use them all the time, but if you’re just cooking on the stovetop for a short period of time, I can’t see needing to make any sort of adjustments beyond making sure nothing burns on the bottom (which won’t happen if you have a heavy-bottomed pot, anyway.) The only time I really watch out in foreign kitchens when I’m working on someone else’s pots is if they have really cheap thin-bottomed pots. Then you have to look out not to burn.
