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Kitchen Cookware: Caring for Knives E-mail
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 06:58

There are kitchen knives of all shapes and sizes out there, and while serious cooks may want as many on hand as possible, for most of us a careful selection of appropriate knives will be all that's necessary. Kitchen knives come in a huge variety of materials and quality varies greatly - better knives will be well balanced, sharp and easy to use. So once you've got the right one, it's important to take care of it.

Kitchen Knife Styles

The cook's knife is usually the most heavy-duty knife in a collection (short of a meat cleaver). It's a bad, solidly constructed knife with a wide blade that is used for slicing, dicing and chopping. A slicing knife is also long, but is not as wide as the cook's knife, and is used for tasks such as slicing ham. Bread knives have serrated blades that can easily and neatly trim slices off a tasty loaf. Paring knives are much smaller and are generally the most-used knife in the house. They're useful for peeling, cutting and dicing fruits, vegetables, cheeses and many other foods.

Caring for Your Knives

It's a good idea to use a polyethylene or timber cutting board, rather than marble, glass or stone. These other materials can blunt and even take a knick out of your expensive knife.

You should clean your knife immediately after use, wash it down and put it away. If you leave it lying around in the sink to bang around with other knives and dishes, over time it will lose its edge. If you have a carbon steel knife, leaving it around in a wet area will also leave more chances for rust and discolouration.

Also avoid putting your expensive knife in the dishwasher - the heat will cause the handle to expand in a different manner to the blade, eventually making it looser and rendering your knife potentially unsafe.

Storing Your Knives

There are a number of ways to store your knives. A magnetic rack is one good idea - they are very strong and keep knives within reaching distance for easy access while cooking.

A knife block is another common means of storing knives out in the open. Usually made from steel or wood, they sit on the counter top with the handles of your various knives sticking out of them.

If you need to store your knives in a drawer, then you'll need knife sleeves, which are rigid plastic sleeves that encompass the blade. Some types of knives come with a knife sleeve that includes a built-in sharpener.

 
Cast Iron Cookware in the Kitchen E-mail
Friday, 28 November 2008 10:13

For meat lovers everywhere, cast iron cookware is a blessing, thanks to the materials ability to stay hot and conduct heat evenly. But cast iron skillets and other pans made from this material require extra special care to prevent rust, and this care flies in the face of normal washing procedures in the kitchen.

Seasoning Your Cast Iron Cookware

When you first get your pan, the first thing you need to do is season it. The reason for this is to create a surface that resists rust and is non-stick. Seasoning takes time and repeated use of the pan will only build up its excellent surface.

Start by washing the pan in hot, soapy water. This is the only time you will use soap on your pan, unless you need to re-season it. Rinse and dry, then apply a thin coat of shortening using a paper towel to the inside and outside of the pan. Next, get your oven hot and put the pan inside it, upside down, with foil underneath to catch in spillage. Leave it in the over for one hour, then turn the oven off and leave the pan in there until it cools down.

Caring For Cast Iron Cookware

First of all, you should wash the pan in hot water (but not with soap), as it is more effective at removing grease from your pan and will also dry more quickly, preventing rust.  Wash it straight after use, while it's still hot.

Make sure that you don't scrub the pan too hard. This will actually remove the coating that makes your cast iron cookware so effective and leave it vulnerable to rust. Another step you can take to prevent rust is to dry your cookware over heat. Afterwards, it's a good idea to very lightly coat the inside of the pan with oil. And make sure you don't seal it with a lid on, as cast iron needs to breathe.

If a bad case of rust sets in despite your best efforts, you'll need to re-season the pan.  To do this, wash the pan in hot, soapy water and scrub hard to get rid of the rust. Then repeat the steps outlined above.

Acidic foods can damage your pan. Furthermore, because the acidic elements dissolve the pan's surface, if you cook these types of foods in a cast iron pan you'll probably have a meal that tastes slightly metallic.

 
Caring For Your Kitchen Cookware E-mail
Sunday, 09 November 2008 05:17

You may have bought good-quality cookware, but if you don't take care of it properly then it's bound to deteriorate over time. Regularly washing, maintaining and checking your cookware is an essential part of keeping your kitchen in good working order. In this article we run through some of the main things you need to do to keep your kitchen cookware in tip-top working condition.

Check Your Handles

One of the most important things you can do is check the handles of your pots and pans. Over time screws can wear out or come loose, leaving you with a potentially dangerous situation - imagine if it came loose while you were carrying a full pot of boiling water!

If you do spot loose screws, they can generally just be tightened up using a screwdriver. It's probably best if you avoid using a power drill - if you go too far, you may crack your handle.

If you're handle is cracked, you've got a bigger problem, as this is far less easy to repair. If you can't obtain a replacement handle from your manufacturer, it might be necessarily to buy an entirely new item.

Washing Your Cookware

Dishwashers are a controversial subject when it comes to cookware. Some people say that the detergents used in dishwashers can damage kitchen cookware - others say those days have past. Regardless, you'll want to remove your cookware immediately after the wash cycle and dry it by hand to stop ugly discolourations.

Generally, washing by hand using a mild detergent will be your best bet, although this is not good for cast iron or blue steel cookware, as it will ruin the seasoning and cause it to rust.

If there is food burned on to the bottom of your cookware, the best thing to do is soak it for some time in hot soapy water, before placing the item on the stove and boiling the water for about 10 minutes. After you've done this, scrub the pan with a scouring pad - but avoid steel, as this will scratch the cookware and eventually lead to it wearing out.

Water with a large amount of calcium in it will tend to leave a build-up of white residue on your cookware over time. To get rid of this, try a mixture that's one-quarter vinegar and three-quarters water. Boil it, let it cool then wash it out - this should have done the trick.

 
What Pots and Pans Do You Need? E-mail
Sunday, 02 November 2008 04:42

There's a wide range of cookware available on the market, and very few home cooks are going to make use of all of them. The trick is to have the right combination of kitchen cookware, so that you can cope with a range of tasks in the kitchen. In this article we run through different types of pots and cookers, and what they can be used for.

Sauce Pan

These come in a variety of sizes and are great for cooking sauces, reheating food and many other tasks. Sauce pans generally have high sides and long handles, although larger types of sauce pans may have a smaller handle on either side.

Stock Pot

Stock pots are used for more liquid-based tasks - for instance, as the name suggests, making a stock. They are narrow and tall, and usually quite big, keeping much of the liquid away from direct contact with the heat source.

Pressure Cooker

A pressure cooker works (again, as the name suggests) by putting food under pressure. This makes it cook food much more quickly, but without burning it. They are tricky to use - many a meal has ended up spattered across a kitchen because the lid has blown off a pressure cooker. Better models will have good safety features.

Dutch Oven

Dutch ovens are made for use on both stove tops and in ovens. They are usually big enough to contain a hunk of meat or entire bird. Dutch ovens usually also have a lid.

Steamer

A steamer is a fantastic and healthy way to cook your vegetables without resorting to boiling them. A bottom pan is used for boiling water - over this goes a smaller pan with holes in the bottom, where your food will sit. The steam passes through these holes, cooking the food above. Steamers come in a variety of materials - top sections made of bamboo are an excellent choice, as it reduces condensation.

Wok

For anyone with an interest in Asian cooking, a wok is essential. It's a versatile piece of equipment that can work for frying, boiling and creating sauces. The wok has high sides, which makes it great for stir frying, but its curved shape means it works best with a gas cooker. Stainless steel, which is not an even conductor of heat, is not a good material for a wok - try carbon steel instead. This needs to be properly seasoned, but is heavy, conducts heat very evenly and over time will build up a nice coat. 

 
Cookware: How to Choose a Great Frying Pan Print E-mail
Sunday, 26 October 2008 04:23

Don't be cheap when it comes to buying a frying pan - if you shell out for something decent, you'll get years of pleasure from it. But there are a number of options for good frying pans. In this guide we run through the basics of choosing one.

Non-Stick Frying Pans

This is your general workhorse on the kitchen stove. A good non-stick frying pan is versatile and great for cooking all types of meals. If you pay for a decent piece of cookware, you should get years of use from it. Non-stick frying pans allow you to drastically reduce the amount of fat you use in your cooking, so they're a healthy option too.

Cast-Iron Frying Pans

These heat up slowly, but once they do they hold and radiate heat, and conduct heat very evenly. This makes them great for grilling meats - especially if you buy one with ridges to give your meat that lovely char-grilled look. Cast-iron pans are very heavy, but essential for the serious meat lover.

Stainless-Steel Frying Pans

From an aesthetic point of view, these pans are great. They can also be great from a practical point of view, but make sure you're aware of a few things first. Food tends to burn on to stainless steel pans more easily than with other types of metals. Also look for a base that's an alloy of stainless steel and copper or aluminium - that way, your pan will conduct heat better.

Blue Steel Frying Pans

Like non-stick frying pans, these do not need much fat or oil during cooking - but they're a bit tricky to care for. You need to treat your blue-steel frying pan buy seasoning it with oil - this involves heating the oil in the pan until it binds with the metal. You need to repeat this a number of times, but once you do, you'll have created a non-stick surface that just gets better as more things burn on it. The only problem is, you can't scrub them in soapy water or they'll rust. Instead, just wipe them out with a damp cloth and forget about the little bit of black gunk that's left over - it'll just burn on in the end.

Frying Pan Shape and Size

You are likely to need more than one frying pan - different sizes and shapes are better for different jobs. Small pans are good when you're cooking for one - bigger pans tend to dry out small amounts of food. But you'll need your big pan when you're cooking for the whole family. Shallow pans are good for dishes where food needs to slide out easily, but pans with high sides are great for making sauces, searing pot roasts and the like. So think about what kinds of cooking you like to do and decide from there.

Also - make sure that whatever frying pan you buy, it has a good, solid base on it.

 
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