What Do You Cook in or with?

[chiltepin]

I like elemental materials, like copper, cast iron, and clay. Also enameled cast iron, the colorful French ones that weigh a ton. Develop your arm muscles wonderfully.

Also have a few oddball items, such as a cataplana (NB-shaped and hinged, used in Portugal's Algarve to cook shellfish, has been described as a "primitive pressure cooker"), a tajin (tagine) (Moroccan food), and a paiolo. The last is an unlined copper pot shaped like a flowerpot and is used to cook polenta. Well, I figured grits was a close cousin to polenta, so maybe I could cook grits in it without getting hit on the arm by flying hot grits. Wrong! You still get hit. Grits can jump like fleas!

So do you need these things to cook Portuguese, Moroccan and North Italian? No, but they're fun.

As the folk song has it, Keep your skillet good and greasy all the time!

[FineExampl]

We're on a budget over in my kitchen. We cool in heavy gauge aluminum, 100% metal cookware. Mostly Ikea pieces for me, but we have Steph's nice set from before we lived together. Both get good use and are swell. Her stuff is prettier than my functional no-frills stuff.

Funny you mention the tagine; i almost bought one today until i looked at the price tag. Eegads! Even Ikea was expensive. They did have a nice cast iron dutch oven i want though. Next trip though!

[chiltepin]

John, it's the European-influenced tajins that are expensive. Try www.tagines.com for genuine Moroccan tajins. The cooking ones are a whole lot cheaper than the fancy product; even the serving (decorative) ones are. What I didn't know--you can use them on a regular stove, though you have to be careful to keep them on low. You can also get a Moroccan brazier, which probably has to be used outside.

What I have is, regrettably, the expensive iron-bottom, clay-top kind, with a top the color of my NB, and the contents tend to bubble over the side. Sure don't recommend them. Thinking of sending away for the real thing, now that I know it'll work on my stove.

[SMG]

I cook in the kitchen with a stove. Dope, eh?

[mombug]

I use the Guardian aluminum service I inherited from my mother, its wonderful! It can be used on top of the stove or in the oven....

[chiltepin]

Yeah, I inherited some things too, mostly the cast iron. BTW my mother swore by a little cast-aluminum pot; said it heated up faster than anything else she had. She was right, too: the more scientifically minded folks say it's second only to copper.

An inherited kitchen thing I particularly like is the Luchs Messbecher. I'll post a photo of this and some of the other things I mentioned when I (1) take the photos and (2) figure out how to get them onto my computer and thence onto this site. The Luchs Messbecher is a cone-shaped measuring device calibrated with marks for so-&-so-many grams of flour, cocoa, rice, sugar, semolina &c. Right handy for baking. All of it metric, but then so are many of the family recipes. Luchs is the brand name; it means "lynx." See them occasionally on eBay.

[chiltepin]

Originally Posted by SMG

I cook in the kitchen with a stove. Dope, eh?

Duh. So do we all. What're you, some kinda wise***? LOL