Actually, I just got an immersion blender the other day (an Oster brand). It has no special attachments I’m aware of but it’s oodles more convenient than hauling out (and cleaning) the blender I inherited. I’ve also got a tiny, underpowered two-beater hand mixer but I can’t remember the brand… Crapstone or Gearloose or something.
I was thinking that a pressure cooker could double as a large pot, of which I had only one (a measy 5.5 quarts). I’ve run into the problem before where I didn’t have enough pots so I definitely needed another. Instead of getting the pressure cooker, I got an 8-quart stock pot.
My rooommate is attached to the Kitchen Aid stand mixer particularly because it has an attachment for grinding meat. We can already chop meat in the food processor, but apparently he needs something with More Power (insert Tim Allen sound effects here).
I know you didn’t ask about this specifically, but:
<tangent>
Take care of this, and it’ll take care of you. I switched over to cast iron a few years ago and will now cook in virtually nothing else. I have three pans: small (2-person frittata size), medium, and bigass. The only times I don’t cook in them are when I require a pot (stock, pasta, deep-frying, etc, which is what the enameled dutch oven is for) or for anything highly acidic (which will destroy the seasoned surface).
Definitely worth the moderate pain in the neck to get used to their requirements and take care of them properly.
Actually, I have more than one cast iron skillet: the 13 or 14" skillet that I use quite regularly is the biggest-ass, and I have some littler-ass skillets that also see use: a 6 or 7" skillet that I just got (on sale) and a 9" square cast iron grill that I use for fajitas and Philly cheesesteak and stuff.
I don’t use them for everything; I find it’s easier to cook crêpes (for instance) in non-stick aluminum. (Easier to adjust the temperature, certainly; crêpes are finicky and cast iron holds onto heat for a while.)
By “highly acidic” what do you mean? Onion and tomato red sauce? Lemon-vinegar sulfide bolognese? Liquid Plumr custard?
To the OP:
I’ve never owned or used a pressure cooker, and I cook a fair bit.
Crock pot? I have one but have used it maybe 3 times in a decade. I know that I’m underutilizing this, but haven’t really looked into what else I might do with it.
KitchenAid stand mixer? I got one for Christmas two years ago and discovered that I use it ALL THE TIME. I’m baking way more, but have also put on about 10 extra pounds from baking pies all the time, so beware!
Can I also solicit some Doper Cooker’s opinions?
I, too, am enamored with cast iron cookware. I’ve recently noticed this little number
But am I just seduced by the Oh-so-pretty turquoise color? Will a cast iron pan with grilling ridges make a difference in broiled meat not getting soggy on the bottom?
Le Creuset is good, but you’re paying for the name. You can get reasonable-quality stuff at Target and the like. Or if you insist on Le Creuset, go to a discount store like Tuesday Morning the day their shelves are stocked, and see what they’ve got. Also, go to a donation-type store, like Goodwill; Le Creuset sometimes shows up in their kitchen stuff, because inexperienced cooks will make something that stains the enamel, and think the object is ruined, and give it away, unaware that a bit of oven cleaner will polish it right up, good as new. You can get a $500 casserole for relative peanuts this way, but it takes some browsing and scrounging.
Liquid Plumr custard is not very good; the chemicals prevent the egg yolks from setting properly. I’d use Windex, or Soft-Scrub in a pinch.
But yeah, tomatoes are bad (like red sauces), or anything with lots of lemon juice. Also, white wine, like for deglazing the pan after making a fond.
I kinda suspected that the Le Creuset name accounted for the high price. I’ve seen non-pretty ones for $15-20, but I’m a sucker for otherwise ordinary goods in a pretty color.
Well, if you’re in the market for a Le Creuset dutch oven (which you should be - it’s the piece of cookware I use, swear to god, more than any other) sometimes you can get a grill pan like that with a dutch oven in a package deal. I got one that way, from Amazon.
ETA - once I walked into a Le Creuset outlet which was selling everything in a box 40% off and everything out of a box 60% off… because they were moving across the street and that stuff is heavy! Unfortunately I already had my dutch oven. I did buy some “reserve wedding presents”, though.
Related but tangential question to this thread: I’m one person and rarely cook for more than me. When I do, I have a big-ass 6-qt. crock pot, but I want a smaller one for just me, for things like green chile, red/Texas chili, soups, a small roast (I buy roasts on sale, cut them in half), etc.
What size do I need/would you recommend? The 1-qt. and 1.5-qt. ones advertise themselves as hot dip/fondue holders, so I assume those would be too small. A 3-qt. or 3.5-qt.? Those are hard to find. Would a 4-qt. be too big?
Or can I just use my big-ass one and put small amounts of food in it?
Hmmm. I’m not sure that you can find enameled cast iron cookware for that cheap. Le Creuset & Staub are usually priced a little high, but you can easily find deals on them. Le Creuset has outlets all over the place.
When I was a young man my mom used to always tell me the one thing a young man should have is a crock pot. It’s soooo convenient chopping up all the ingredients and preparing everything in the morning and coming home to a warm nutritious meal at the end of the day.
Never owned one. Somehow I’m still alive. My wife owns one, but she’s never used it for anything I don’t make in my Le Creuset dutch oven, and the crock pot is harder to clean.
Never owned a pressure cooker. My best friend cans all the time. She just uses a really big aluminum stock pot to boil things. She’s still alive.
I used to slobber over those Kitchen Aid stand mixers, but realized I don’t bake, and don’t want to gain all the pounds if I did start baking. It’s also just a hell of a lot of gadgets which will need cleaning. I really try to minimize my “time saving” gadgets that actually waste clean-up time.
My counter has my rice cooker, my coffee maker,the microwave and a small toaster oven, all of which I find handy. Actually, I put the rice cooker on a shelf, but I use it enough I could leave it out.
I have dozens of pieces of Le Creuset, and I bought only 2 of them new. The rest I’ve found in thrift stores and garage sales. I have some pretty rare pots, too, with colours and patterns that haven’t been made in decades. Just check that there are no chips; the discolouration inside is immaterial and can sometimes be bleached away. “Cousance” is a good brand, too, made in Belgium, and you can sometimes find some good pieces made in Denmark.
Cheap enameled cast iron, such as IKEA sells, or Target, is just not as good. It’s all made in China and is simply not of the same quality. It develops hot spots very quickly and the enameling chips easily.
I have a grill pan like the one in the linked photo and my little boys like it for grilled cheese sandwiches, pressing the sandwich with the lid of a small cast iron casserole and getting nice criss-cross lines. It’s nice for grilling a steak or a fish fillet, but hard to clean if you burn something.
The Kitchenaid Kartel controls mixer prices pretty effectively. But Williams Sonoma & other retailers are allowed to offer “exclusive” colors. Martha Stewart’s Retro Green model, no longer in production, is the Holy Grail. Or you can customize yours.
(I’m not a serious baker, so I have no need for one of those mixers. Even if I sometimes wonder which color I’d pick.)
I have, and think they work well. I only use them for things that I think have a lot of “baking on” potential. It takes me a little while to find the opening on the bag (hint - it’s opposite the side that has an obvious sealed-together strip) and I get annoyed by the one-size-fits-all bunching that goes on, but it’s a small price to pay. You may find that condensation creates a little “staining” inside the pot so it should get a quick wash anyway. And obviously, don’t use this if you needed to do any cutting inside the pot!
I found myself wondering if I could use two bags next to each other to cook two dishes at once. Obviously the bags would have to hang out of the sides of the pot rather than be opened up over the top, so I don’t know what that would do with moisture, etc.
(I know that some crockpots have crocks that are divided into two compartments, but I don’t have one of those crocks.)
I’ve never had a problem cleaning the crock pot - as long as you don’t have one from the 70’s where the insert doesn’t come out, you just dump it in the dishwasher. Where’s the problem?
Not having a dishwasher? That junk gets really baked on some times, especially a sticky casserole-style dish and a full day of cooking, and having to soak the crock for a while and then practically chip/sand away at the remnants gets old.
It’s not really that big a deal but like I say, I don’t use one. My spouse occasionally does but it seems like cooking juices always bubble out and down the sides and on the counter and she doesn’t like parts of her fancy gadgets getting run through the dishwasher so the extra clean up just isn’t worth whatever extra convenience you get from using one. It’s just MHE.
No. Unless you plan on doing a lot of slow cooking and want the ease of turning on the thing before you go to work and then having a meal ready for you when you come home. It’s very useful, but not necessary. I personally just use an enameled cast-iron dutch oven (which I bought at Target for $20 on clearance, just as good as the expensive Le Creusets from my experience so far. I’ve had it for two years, and haven’t noticed any hotspots or chipped enamel). It’s far more useful for my purposes.
Once again, no. Nice to have around, but not really a requirement. Speeds up the cooking of a lot of foods, but not a requirement for canning at all.
I’d have more regular use for this than the other two, but you can just as well live without one.
You don’t need any of those three. It’s more a question of what type of cooking you will do, and what will save you the most hassle or time.