EdS

All this discussion about large cutting boards leads me to the question: How does one clean them if they are larger than the largest compartment in your sink? Do you hold the board upright in the sink and wash it that way? Or do you wash the board while it's on the countertop, like with a sponge? I have an 18"x24"x2.25" Boos board and I've been using the former method because it doesn't fit completely in my 16"x20" sink. I'm thinking I bought too large of a board. I didn't think about having to clean it when I bought it! Any suggestions? This is something to think about before buying a massive cutting board.

My ideas: 1. Drop the mouse into a freezer bag. Toss in the fridge. When you find more mice, toss them in this bag too. When you have enough, make some stock. 2. Toss it alive into a FoodSaver bag. Suck the air out of it. 3. Throw the mouse along with some small pieces of tin foil into a microwave. Turn it on and let the sparks fly. 4. Dice some old cheese and drop it and the mouse into a pressure cooker. Close it. Wait about 10 minutes so the mouse has a chance to eat its last meal. Then crank up the pressure cooker! I think #4 would be the most humane so that's my recommendation. Come on people, it's just a mouse! Step on it or grab a shovel and whack it!

One downside I've found with cast-iron heat diffusers is that they kill the response. Makes cooking with your aluminum like cooking with cast-iron but without the benefits!

I hope to clarify all this and more in my "Understanding stovetop cookware" class in the eGCI. Thank you for your help and pointing me to the eGCI courses too. This is an impressive community!

Thank you very much for the explanation. I think one thing that has thrown me off on choosing the best pan for a particular technique is that different people use different terms for the same thing, probably incorrectly. I think I'm now clear on what a skillet is, as opposed to a "sauté" pan. However, I've also seen references to "straight-sided sauté" and "slope-sided sauté" pans. I know I'm opening up a whole can of worms, or escargot, here, ha. I'm thinkng that the slope-sided pans would be best for making the food jump due to the angle the pieces would bounce off the sides while a straight-sided pan would work best with tongs or a spatula because the food would otherwise slam into ä "wall" when it hits the sides. Yet, I can also see how a slope-sided pan would be less likely to trap steam while a straight-sided pan trades that advantage off for more flat surface area for the same diameter pan. I get more usable area for the same diameter in a straight-sided sauté pan, so it seems best to use this type of pan, often referred to just as a "sauté" pan, when I don't want to sauté (jump) my food. I hope I'm not being overly neurotic about this! Tying this all back to the main subject of this thread, I've noticed that the Lodge skillets, with the exception of the 10-Inch Chef Skillet, have nearly vertical sides. That makes sense now that I can see that their handle configuration and short sides don't make for a good sauté pan, as you have explained. By the way, note that Lodge says the Chef Skillet is "great for sautéing". That seems unlikely. By the way, I saw that Hackman cast-iron pan with a long-handle at a local shop this afternoon. I don't think anyone other than Chewbacca could sauté anything in that. It's quite heavy! The heck with this. Maybe I should just get a wok. Let's see, flat-bottomed or curved, carbon steel, cast-iron, or....

Hi all, I recently bought Lodge's 12-Inch skillet to try as a change of pace from my All-Clad one. I do get a kick out of the difference especially when it comes to such things as searing at high heat. The temperature of the surface doesn't drop as much as with the aluminum pan so I don't have to wait as long for the heat to come back or need to boost the heat to try to compensate. The end result is somewhat different and I like it in many cases as I'm sure many of you do too. Seasoning and clean-up is no big deal once you get the hang of it. I can even cook eggs in mine with little problem. The question I have is how does one toss food in one of these beasts? I'm learning how to do it with the All-Clad and, despite the miserable handle (couldn't they shape it better?), I'm able to toss Cheerios pretty well. Yet with the Lodge, I find it to be a lot of trouble. That stubby handle keeps one from getting decent leverage to help deal with the weight and using a kitchen towel to keep from getting burned doesn't help much with the dexterity. How is everyone doing it with the Lodge? Or do you use spatulas and other implements with cast-iron and avoid the tossing? I'll practice my tossing [ahem] if this approach isn't ridiculous! I also see some other significantly more expensive cast-iron skillets out there that might work better for this such as the Staub 11-Inch Frying Pan and the Hackman Tools (iittala) Dahlstrom 98 12-Inch Fry Pan. Both appear to have long, stay-cool handles. The Staub is enameled, with its tradeoffs, but the Hackman isn't. Le Creuset doesn't seem to make a large (11-inch or greater) skillet with long handle. BTW, I just found out about this web site. It's by far the best I've found for a serious or aspiring serious cook. I'll do my best to contribute! -Ed