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Stovetop grilling

Dave the Cook

By Dave the Cook
in Kitchen Consumer

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

Posted
Posted

Here you go:

http://www.bigtray.com/productdetails.asp?...s=scrubber&rn=1

ACS434PB_b.jpg

They're standard-issue items available in any store that supplies restaurants, and they should cost about $15 for a dozen if you're just buying one dozen. A dozen will last you about six years in a home kitchen if you cook every day.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Margaret Pilgrim

Margaret Pilgrim

Posted
Posted

Fat Guy, I wouldn't argue with you for all the tea in China, and I may be a wuss but I'm not a wimp! I always have a bigg-ass scrubber around, and use it on a lot of things. I find that, regardless of professional kitchen practices, grill-pans are not necessarily their best use. Stupid plastic squares are light-years better. They also do not need to be cleaned after use, as opposed to b-a scrubbers, which need to be flushed thoroughly to get rid of the horrid glark they have absorbed from the pot. (Having lived under severe water rationing, this is no small consideration where I live.)

Do use your b-a scrubber, but I really wish you wouldn't so consistently put down the plastic squares. They are truly amazing on mac-and-cheese, baked on gunk, greasy kid stuff.... Need to ask: have you ever used them? Do we need to have a scrub-off in lieu of an arm wrestle? :raz:

eGullet member #80.

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Sandra Levine

Sandra Levine

Posted
Posted
I prefer Copco.

My beloved 12" Copco pan (with the light coating that Margaret described) flew out of the dish drainer and crashed to the floor the other day. The inttegral cast iron handle snapped right off from the impact. I had had the pan for 25 years -- a wedding present. I don't think they are made anymore. I have a 12" Lodge cast iron, but will probably get something else that I can use when I want to develop a fond to deglaze for a sauce. Isn't cast-iron too reactive, even when well-seasoned to do that? That was the big advantage to me of the Copco coating.

Walks in New York and elsewhere -- my blog
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Dave the Cook

Dave the Cook

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

In the course of tracking down all the wonderful information you guys have provide, I found out the following:

Apparently, Copco was broken up a few years ago. What's left of the old company makes teapots and gadgets, but no pots and pans. That part of the company is controlled by Aga, the oven people, and is not easily obtained in the US. (Historical sidenote: Sam Farber, founder of Copco and nephew of the founder of Farberware, come out of retirement to start Oxo, the company that proved you really could get people to pay $19 for a manual can opener. He was inspired by his arthritic wife's struggles with everyday kitchen equipment.)

Note on Griswold, for those unfamiliar with it: Wagner (of WagnerWare fame) bought the Griswold castings. Eventually Wagner got out of the cookware business.

Thanks for all your help. A few minutes ago, I bought a Lodge 11-1/4" round pan. It was $15 on Amazon. Following FG's sage advice, I added a cookbook and got free shipping. I'm $15 ahead of the LeCreuset price. :smile: This was what I wanted to do in the first place, but the swoop of those handles (useless as they may be), kept tugging at me. Maybe when I 'm rich, I'll buy one and set it out as an objet d'art. Nice to be back on the One True Path.

By the way, the real deal-killer was LeCreuset's warning about using heat above medium. Don't they expect people to actually use these things?

Anybody making book on the upcoming Fat-Guy vs. Margaret "The Wuss" Pilgrim match?

Dave Scantland
Executive director
dscantland@eGstaff.org
eG Ethics signatory

Eat more chicken skin.

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torakris

torakris

Posted
Posted
big-ass stainless steel scrubbers

Is that the brand name. :biggrin: Were can they be had?

at www.bigass.com of course. lots of stuff to browse through there.

Sending us to that link was evil, Tommy. A good spanking is in order.

Let me get in line for that spanking too!! :angry::angry::angry:

I can't believe I was gullible enought to fall for it!! :angry::angry::angry:

I was trying to get rid of it before my kids walked in the room , but screens kept popping up that I couldn't close.

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted
Sending us to that link was evil, Tommy. A good spanking is in order.

well, i actually clicked posted that after the evil started. i was going to edit and include a warning, but i figured if anyone was twisted enough to click "just to see what happens," they'd get what was coming to them. :rolleyes::wink:

sorry 'bout that.

tommy:eats.com
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tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted
Let me get in line for that spanking too!! :angry:  :angry:  :angry:

I can't believe I was gullible enought to fall for it!! :angry:  :angry:  :angry:

I was trying to get rid of it before my kids walked in the room , but screens kept popping up that I couldn't close.

hehehehe. curiosity and the cat, etc.

tommy:eats.com
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  • 2 months later...
Anna N

Anna N

Posted
Posted
I consider my grill pans major workhorses.  I prefer Copco, but Le Creuset isn't too far behind.  As previously prescribed, you need a super fan, and you need high heat, at least at the start.  Cleaning is a breeze: when cooled, let soak for a while.  If you have better things to do, overnight.  Then, as I posted somewhere else, get one of those little 2" square plastic pot scrubbers, about a buck a piece, and simply run up one side of the grids and down the other.  A really abused pan will take maybe 3 minutes. 

The major advantage of Copco and Le Creuset over Lodge and Griswald is that they have a coating on the cast iron.  Other than that, I have no preference between the two.

Thanks for tip on soaking the Le Creuset - it worked like a charm. I will be much more willing to use it now that the cleaning problem is solved.

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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tommy

tommy

Posted
Posted (edited)
Thanks for tip on soaking the Le Creuset - it worked like a charm.  I will be much more willing to use it now that the cleaning problem is solved.

anna, i've never had *any* problem cleaning le creuset. in fact, quite the opposite. i use restaurant-type steel wool, and with no elbow grease at all they clean up in about 1 minute.

fat guy turned me on to these things, and there's some discussion here.

Edited by tommy (log)
tommy:eats.com
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