Ridged cast iron skillets...

[beccaboo]

He uses a neat Staub square grill pan with low sides and a snap-on wire handle in that episode.

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I have that Staub pan, and I like it for eggplants and things like that. The ridges are closer together than on most of those stripy pans, and it seems to cook my veg pretty well.

[weinoo]

Bumping this up because I happened to come into possession of a nice Wagner ridged grill pan.

So two things:

1. I see no reason to season a pan like this, as whatever is being cooked in it doesn't come into contact other than on the ridges. So I imagine just a little rub with oil right before cooking will do the trick...

2. Does anyone use one of these to get grill marks after, say, sous-viding a steak?

[gfweb]

I do that. It has a great advantage for sv in that only a small portion of the meat actually gets charred and conducts heat inward. I think it tastes as good as pan seared steak and looks better.

[77kath]

I use it for pork chops after sous vide. My husband thinks it tastes better. I just put some water in while it is still hot and use a scrub brush for cleanup.

[Dave the Cook]

Bumping this up because I happened to come into possession of a nice Wagner ridged grill pan.

So two things:

1. I see no reason to season a pan like this, as whatever is being cooked in it doesn't come into contact other than on the ridges. So I imagine just a little rub with oil right before cooking will do the trick...

2. Does anyone use one of these to get grill marks after, say, sous-viding a steak?

We did this just last night (and the night before) for a "steakhouse" cooking class. Just make sure the ridges are immaculate. The pans we had to use were Staub pans that had residual polymerized fat on them. It was almost impossible to get a clean release.

[Miss Priss]

1. I see no reason to season a pan like this, as whatever is being cooked in it doesn't come into contact other than on the ridges. So I imagine just a little rub with oil right before cooking will do the trick...

In my experience, meat and poultry juices (plus the residue of marinades or seasonings) often drip down between the ridges and create a real clean-up challenge. That's largely the reason I stopped using my Lodge cast-iron grill pan, even though I'd carefully seasoned it before its first use. On the other hand, since the seasoning helped so little, maybe it really doesn't matter.