2 hours ago, quiet1 said:I got a Darto pan I was completely not expecting, a digital instant read thermometer (one of the good ones from Thermoworks) and a timer that can do three times at once. Also some tea and a tea strainer, but I'm not sure if that counts as kitchen related enough?
I'm currently pondering how to season the pan - I don't particularly want to smoke up the house with it in the oven. I could do it on a charcoal grill outside?
There's a lot of good info on the Oils for Seasoning Cast Iron thread, and particularly in this linked post that pertains to not smoking up the house.
I dunno about the charcoal. I don't like to cook a steak any other way, and I love my grill, but the temp is hard to regulate. It starts out screeching hot, which is the way I want it for my steaks, but then goes down pretty quickly. I'm sure it could be done with determination, but you'd also get some black soot on the bottom too, probably. I only use pans on the grill that I don't care about much. I find charcoal pretty expensive too.
Also, from personal experience in seasoning pans, I must not be running my oven hot enough or with enough excess of oil on the pans to create smoke. I have smoke detectors in the dining room on the first floor and on the top landing of the stairs on the second floor. The first floor one always goes off when I broil meat, and I have set off the second floor one a few times with broiling, but when I season pans, I've never tripped one. I never use heat above 400 F/204 C to season pans in the oven, and I use ultra thin coats wiped off to barely there in multiple coats/bakes. Works for me.
Edited to add:
Of course tea and a tea strainer is food and drink related. If you like tea, we have some very in depth informative threads here on it created by awesomely knowledgeable people on this very subject.
