Electric Frying Pan / Skillet

[Peter the eater]

I've got a 10 year old Sunbeam griddle which, coincidentally, is how long I've been married. It comes out for pancakes, grilled cheese and the multinomial egg-in-the-hole. My only complaint is that it heats unevenly -- you can see the shape of the heater through the cooking surface as things heat up.

[TongoRad]

I have one and never use it, but I have a friend who swears that fried chicken is the best done in one..

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My mom is the same way- she won't make fried chicken without hers. It's the same one we had from back in the 70's, and it's still got her markings on the thermostat for her preferred temperature settings. I think the prference boils down to three things: temperature control, size, and a tall lid.

Unfortunately it hasn't been used for fried chicken in a while, but recently we had a large family gathering and it came in very handy for tossing the cooked pasta with the sauce. All of the other burners were occupied, and the usual option would have been to just sauce the pasta in a large bowl- finishing the pasta in the skillet gave a much better result, imo.

[Anna N]

When my husband and I were first married we would probably have starved without the electric skillet! If it couldn't be cooked in that then it didn't happen as I had no clue about cooking at all.

Today I still have one but it lives in the basement due to lack of space in the kitchen and it rarely gets used but I will often look at it after the fact and realize that it would have been the perfect appliance for something I have recently cooked!

Most of the things I made in it way back then I would now consider abominations such as chicken with pineapple but there was one recipe which I have searched and searched to recover with no success. It was exotic for its time but was a family favourite for years. It was pieces of chicken coated with ground ginger, nutmeg and I have forgotten the rest and then cooked with apples and onions. It made a sauce that was so much more than the sum of its parts. I will never give up the search for that one!

I think I need to make space for that skillet and start using it for those tasks that it does well - things that don't require much attention. It's sort of like a shallow slow-cooker that can do wonders on longer-cooking recipes.

[andiesenji]

Anna,

Is the recipe you remember anything like the following?

I recently came across a box of old paperback cookbooks, little ones, most with less than 100 pages done on mimeograph machines, etc., and pulled this one out because Salem, KY is close to the place I was born and raised. It has been on my desk and I remembered seeing this recipe when I thumbed through it a couple of days ago. Serendipity, I guess.

Note that this was probably considered a very "exotic" recipe in that area at that time.

Mrs. Jenkin’s Oriental Chicken

from Salem Baptist Church Ladies Auxillary Cookbook, ca. 1951

1 1/2 pound boned chicken cut in 1” cubes

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 Tbs. grated lemon rind

1/4 cup butter and veg. oil, half and half

1 large onion cut in large dice

3 cored and peeled apples cut in 1” chunks

Juice of one small lemon

1/4 cup water

Mix spices and grated rind into the flour.

Dry the chicken pieces and dredge in the flour/spice mix.

In a large skillet, heat the oil and butter until it sizzles.

Add the chicken and brown on all sides.

Push the chicken to side of skillet, add the onion and

stir well and cook till it begins to brown.

Add lemon juice and water, stir to break up residue in bottom

of skillet.

Add the apples

Stir to mix all ingredients, cover skillet,

reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes.

Serve over rice or noodles.

[Anna N]

Anna,

Is the recipe you remember anything like the following?

. . .

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Oh Andie - how I wish! This was so kind of you but it's not THE recipe. To the best of my memory it came from Good Housekeeping Magazine and was called Chicken N' Apple. The onions were small and whole and the chicken was bone-in parts. The apples were cut into rings and there was also a call for a chicken bouillion cube dissolved in water. I can come close to the original but it's the combination of spices and their ratios that eludes me and it's the thing that makes the dish. The spices were mixed with flour, the chix pieces were then dredged in the mixture and browned and then the flour mix was also used to thicken the sauce. I know there was at least one other spice involved and it might have been cinnamon but that doesn't seem right so I am probably wrong on that part. It might even have been in Ladies Home Journal or Redbook or for that matter Family Circle or Woman's Day!

Don't want to pull this topic off topic too much so if anyone else has any ideas I would love a PM.

[Lindsey]

I used to live in a cottage with no stove and found I could use my electric fry pan for everything really, even lasagne, but it excelled itself when making Roast Chicken with all the baby veg tucked in the sides. I used it so much it died a happy death and was much missed. I now have an electric skillet pan - not quite so useful without a lid, but a huge boon when company comes for breakfast etc.

Just 2 of us now so really do not need either of these, sadly.

[azurite]

My parents have one--my mother probably still has it. When my sister & I were small my father made pancakes from scratch almost every Sunday (except when it was very hot during the summer) & used it to cook the pancakes. My mother used for schnitzel and I think some other foods but I don't remember what they were.

[Lindacakes]

Sounds like a West Bend or Presto.  They both made square, non-stick electric frypans with cream or "bisque" colored lids - one had a vent, one didn't.  Both made skillets that were sold through Sears.

Look familiar?

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That's not exactly it, but it looked a lot like that. Would have been about 1980, it had a brown bottom and a cream-colored lid. Had an open/close vent.

Maybe West Bend . . .

[ElsieD]

Sounds like a West Bend or Presto.  They both made square, non-stick electric frypans with cream or "bisque" colored lids - one had a vent, one didn't.  Both made skillets that were sold through Sears.

Look familiar?

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That's not exactly it, but it looked a lot like that. Would have been about 1980, it had a brown bottom and a cream-colored lid. Had an open/close vent.

Maybe West Bend . . .

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I have one that looks like that and it is made by Black & Decker.

[kayswv]

[andiesenji]

Then the original one was probably made by GE.

GE small appliance division was bought by Black & Decker in the early 1990s.

[Anna N]

This is my electric skillet (Rival):

I had some cooking to do this week that called for much larger than usual quantities and this proved the perfect pan for the job. Its actual cooking surface is 12 inches which exceeds even my largest non-electric skillet.

[ElsieD]

Then the original one was probably made by GE.

GE small appliance division was bought by Black & Decker in the early 1990s.

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I've had mine since the early 1980's, maybe even the late 1970s.

[andiesenji]

Then the original one was probably made by GE.

GE small appliance division was bought by Black & Decker in the early 1990s.

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I've had mine since the early 1980's, maybe even the late 1970s.

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I was off by a decade. B & D bought GE small appliance division in 1984.

The only household appliance marketed prior to that was the Dustbuster in 1979.

I have owned stock in B & D since I inherited several shares in 1976 and get a yearly report. I have always been a bit miffed because they chose not to continue production of the GE automatic toaster oven, in my opinion the best toaster oven ever made.

[karenlucas]

After careful consideration I went with the Presto griddle . Griddles are usually very versatile. I use mine daily to make breakfast.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

22 hours ago, karenlucas said:

After careful consideration I went with the Presto griddle . Griddles are usually very versatile. I use mine daily to make breakfast.

 

I have the Rival electric Dutch oven, as shown in the first two linked images with the domed glass lid. It looks much like yours. I don't care for it as a griddle due to the high sides, but have used it that way to cook breakfast off the generator during an extended power outage, which is the main reason I bought it. It has temp control too, and works well. I also use it on the back deck for fish and chip fries. I really like it, but I kind of think my model may not be sold anymore except on ebay. Oh, and while it claims to be dishwasher safe and completely immersible after unplugging the electrical supply, I ran it through the dishwasher the first time I used it and found a disturbing amount of corrosion on the exposed aluminum on the bottom of the unit where the encased heating coils run. I have hand washed it since and it has held up very well over about 15 years.

 

When I was growing up, my family had an electric skillet that I believe was Presto brand, but it was square and aluminum and has a little vent in the lid that could be closed or opened. I used to make Chicken Fricassee for the family from this recipe in it. I'm not sure if Betty ripped off Irma or vice versa, but their recipes for dumplings are identical except the "Joy of Cooking" calls for butter in an equal quantity instead of the shortening Betty calls for in the 1976 cook book. I have always used butter, and the dumplings are divine. I like the chive dumpling variation from Betty that isn't mentioned in the link but is in my 1976 cook book.