Re carbon steel controversy; i grew up when our kitchen had a wood-fired, then kerosene fired, cast iron stoves. My mother used cast iron and carbon steel "cowboy" skillets and after 75+ years have had no effects from arsenic or other heavy metals. I still use her 100-year old Wagner cast iron skillet along with Matfer, de Buyer and Darto carbon steel. Like they say, when used properly, they pose very little danger.And are still safer than Chinese made non-stick or pure aluminum cookware.
Fish sticking to the basket. I worked as a fish and chip cook years ago. Place the battered fish gently into the fry oil or tallow, holding on to it for a few seconds until the baking powder activates, creating air pockets which will allow the fish to float.
I am still going to use my Matfor pan. It feels like a bunch of politics within the manufacturing industry. I've been using my Matfor for five years now and I'm not dead yet.
Re: testing the pans. To be fair, (if they had the extra time and money) they could re-test all pans with the same test to see how they fare. At the same time, like Uncle mentioned - we don't exactly boil acidic food for a long time in our seasoned pans, and certainly not on a regular basis. If there's anyone who does - those people should care. But then they could just use stainless instead.
Honestly, I cooked some Cicadas back in the 2009 invasion. My Dad's chihuahua loved them. With salt or soy sauce, not bad. But Cats are off limits, way to stringy.
Nice, info packed program. I have been using Matfer, Mauviel, deBuyer (maybe all part of the same corporation now), Rüsle and an unknown brand carbon steel for a long time. I find them to be interchangeable. For seasoning, which is not something I do all the time, I use avocado oil, which is our oil with the highest smoke point of all-- around 500F. I make my paella in the oven using Spanish paella Bomba variety rice and an old 12" 3mm thick tinned copper fry pan which nowadays I only use for paella because it does a perfect job and all the other carbon steel works fine for everything else. Your program is interesting. I like it.
Uncle Scott, you mentioned that ATK did their own testing and found leaching metals in Matfer pans. I have read their August 27, 2024, article several times, and do not see anything saying they actually tested any Matfer pans, they mention only testing of Mauviel. Also, the ATK article lists several lot numbers for the "affected" batches of 12, 10, and 8-inch skillets. I have an 11-inch Matfer. Does that mean that I have no potential worries since I do not have a 12, 10, or 8-inch skillet, or was that just an oversight by ATK?
I contacted ATK, who said the lots listed in their August 27 article are only the ones for the models they reviewed, it is not a comprehensive list of all of the recalled lots. I told them that I thought it was totally irresponsible for them to publish what purported to be a list of the recalled lots without mentioning it is only a partial list. They also told me that the November/December 2023 timeframe is not when the affected lots were first made available in the US as their article suggests, it is just the timeframe when they received from Matfer some skillets from the affected lots. I am so angry at ATK that I am thinking of cancelling my subscription and going back to Bon Apetite.
Precisely! They didn't test the pans. They just switched their recommendation. ATK (let's just drop the T at this point) hasn't been a reputable source of testing in years. Nowhere in their press release did they mention testing the pans even though they initially said they would. If anyone is worried about his or her M/B pans, send them my way.
In regards to your comment about hyperinflation. I believe we do have it in a lot of food. Where I live here in the US, a dozen and a half eggs are $9.99! I took a picture of it because I was just blown away. And I don’t even wanna talk about the cost of beef right now. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I haven’t bought eggs in months. I just can’t afford them.😢
I don’t know about you but eggs have costed that much in Switzerland for years. That’s why Switzerland was probably the only country that wasn’t affected by inflation of food prices so far. The inflation was only started by the shortage during Covid and the war in Ukraine. Everything happening after the first few months is a result of price gauging of the big companies- capitalism without any regulations will do that. There’s hardly any competition on the food market, three big monopolies control over 80% of the food market. Something needs to give, this isn’t sustainable.
Commenting from Japan here.... De Buyer Japan hasn't had the Mineral B Pro's for ages. Currently they're not even listed on their website. On another subject... Does anyone have any experience with the LOQY system?? Looking into getting the 11". Wondering how the removable handle is holding up and if the handles on the pan itself also needs to be seasoned.
Scott reviewed the LOQY system in one of his videos. I haven’t bought it because all things considered, it’s way overpriced and Scott found them to be a bit wobbly.
7:45 There was cooking youtube channel that visited the Staub production facility in France and they showed that Staub also uses scrap metal for their cookware. But I think that if you get it so hot that it is melted and glowing and then you bake a few enamel layers after after that - them maybe, just maybe it it is probably safe. Le Creuset has a base coat of enamel all around and then the sand color light enamel on the inside or the dark enamel and 2 extra coats on the outside (the color and the hombre effect) So 2 coats on the inside and 3 coats on the outside. I suppose Staub has just as much if not more for their Majoulique colors.
Can't blame the California Olive growers for boosting their prices, given the shortages caused by a couple of years of poor crops in the Mediterranean Area. It is the way the free market works. ATK likes the Cali Olive Oil as it is more likely to be 1. Fresher, 2. Have what is in the label being what is in the bottle.
Wagyu is special because it gives cuts of beef that are really well marbled. If you have domestic grass-fed beef, and make tallow from the suet .. is it any different than fancy Wagyu tallow? (I was lucky enough to score some free suet from grass-fed cows raised locally; The instant pot is really handy here)
I don’t have a carbon steel pan. Matfer or otherwise. I do however have a matfer chinois, some rounded flat spatulas, & a spoon all made of “exoglass” matfer’s proprietary polyamide hi temp material. I like and use that ridiculously expensive chinois often and think of it as well worth the investment. The other pieces are also great and I use them regularly.
I though about this recently, and noticed prices for good olive oil have fluctuated, but haven't seemed to change much overall in 20 years. Looking at world trading prices, they match my intuition, _however,_ there has been a HUGE spike in trading price in the last 2 years. I don't even think we've seen the full impact of this yet, and store prices will climb higher. Or maybe the nicer olive oil was already selling for a premium price, and more commodity-grade oil has just crept up closer in price.
@@johnharper257 I figured something like that, and I vaguely recall hearing about olive harvests being poor recently. That would certainly track, though I'm sure recent hyperinflation also impacted it a bit like it has everything.
I have experimented a bit with animal fats instead of seed oils for cooking, but not for seasoning a pan. I always use grapeseed oil for seasoning. I may have to go over to SAMS and see about a membership if they are still running that $15 special. I generally buy that brand of olive oil because I like it best of the brands I have tried. One liter usually lasts about three months for me - I cook much less than you do.
Yeah, it's almost entirely in the seeds. Which is why they kind of taste like almonds. I used to eat every part except the stem, but I'm on a ketogenic diet now.
ATK has amended their 8/27/24 article twice in response to my emails. First, I pointed out that the only affected lot numbers listed in the articl were for 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch pans. They said those were the only ones they had reviewed, but they were adding a note that other sizes could also be affected. Then, I asked about the dates they listed for when the pans were first made available in the US, and they pretty much admitted that those dates were not reliable, so they removed them from the article. Now I have asked them whether the testing they did on the Mauviels they are now recommending were the same as done by the French regional authority, i.e. boiling an acidic solution in an unseasoned pan for two hours. Have not heard from them yet, but their credibility is already pretty much shot as far as I am concerned, and I doubt they used the same method.
Awesome keeping them on their toes! After reading their article, I had (have) two main questions... what were the overall test results for all pans they tested, and second, for the Mauviel pan they now recommend they say the chromium levels were safe by EU standards, but so were the Matfers, right? Matfers failed the Isere test but not the EU test. Did the Mauviel meet the Isere standard that Matfer didn't?
@@UncleScottsKitchen The article does not say anything about testing any pans other than the Mauviels. You would think they did, but you would also think they would have been clear about the lot numbers and the dates of release of the so-called affected pans. Frankly, I do not think ATK's opinion is worth anything unless they are completely transparent about any testing they did by telling us what pans were tested, what were the results, and what was the testing methodology. I am going to continue using my very well seasoned Matfer unless and until someone provides evidence that using the pans as intended (i.e., seasoned and no acidic ingredients) is any more dangerous than any other pan used as intended.
Shockingly, ATK's response to my last email was "We evaluated the Mauviel skillet using the test and standards recommended by the European Union." In other words, they did NOT use the extreme testing conditions that the regional French authority that issued the recall did. (2 hours of boiling an acidic solution in an unseasoned pan.) I am now waiting for a response to my followup email asking about the testing that was done by ATK, whether it was done on the "affected" Matfers, what the results were, whether they tested other manufacturer's pans, etc.
Matfor pan “failure“ is like a Wisconsin car being deemed unsafe because it fails California emission requirements. Irrelevant bureaucracies need to be removed.
ATK gave no indication that they tested any pans other than the Mauviels they are now recommending. Nor have they disclosed what method of testing was used. I doubt they used the extreme testing done by the French regional authority, i.e., boiling an acidic solution for two hours in an unseasoned pan.
I'm not understanding how the Matfer carbon steel is ostensibly different from all other cookware carbon steels on the planet. That's the operative question.
@@yourworstfan Yes, I heard that Matfer was subjected to a different, highly acidic test that no carbon steel or cast iron cookware is intended for. It's like driving a car off a skyscraper then saying the air bags are defective because the crash test dummies got obliterated along with the whole rest of the car. The courts should step in and find the bogus test unreasonable and therefore null and void. And America's Test Kitchen should stop being an obsequious toadie and do the same.
I'm a bit wary about ATK ever since they did a comparison between lump charcoal and briquettes, declaring briquettes the winner. They compared the charcoal's heat and burn times by volume rather than by weight. These two different fuels have different densities! That's not a valid comparison!
Olive oil is 8800 calories per litre. That's more than 4 days worth of calories for one person just in olive oil! Wow! In my case, I have a hard time getting through a single 1L bottle of extra virgin olive oil before the expiry date!
My 5 cents: -1 bottle of olive oil per 2 weeks. That is too much lol. 😮 I come from spain and live in Germany, I finish my 500ml bottle probably after 2-3 months or even longer. - Beef tallow is great for anything beef related and starch related (flour, potatoes, etc.). Works for savory bakes (Yorkshire Puddings) but also sweet bakes ( British christmas puddings). It tends to crisp up starch very nicely compared to other fats. - My favorite potato fry recipe that always works and never sticks is: Use starchy potatoes and cut them into half inch cubes. Parboil for 5-6 min in salted water. Drain the water and let them dry in the pot. Take a seasoned cast iron or carbon steel skillet. Not stainless. Preheat and then add the right amount of: uncultured butter, clarified butter, beef tallow, beef dripping or coconut oil. The fat will be absorbed by the potatoes in the end. Add the right amount of fat to the amount of potatoes. Not more. Fry on medium heat for 12- 15 min. Season with salt and spices during cooking, after 10 min. Flip or toss potatoes accordingly when browned. Enjoy. This recipe is the reason why iron cookware is superior to anything else. - My theory is Matfer pissed someone off. It is weird that they only test matfer and also under those cooking conditions. Fear mongering and destroying its place in the market. It is just Carbon steel. If used correctly it does what it does. This stinks more of a french pissed off another french. - In my opinion, after trying many brands of carbon steel and cast iron cookware. I consider the best brand of cast iron in terms of looks and performance to be the Field Company from the US. And for the best looking and performing carbon steel: Alex Pole Ironworks from England.
Regarding the leeching of harmful substances from cookwear. Nickel and chromium leeches from stainless steel, but the amount goes down by about 70% (I don't remember the amount exactly) after the 5th use. The teasing for this was also an unrealistically excessively long duration, but the amount of nickel leached was enough to cause an allergic reaction to people with a nickel allergy. I wish someone would make 10/0 stainless steel pan with the 10/0 on the inside instead of the outside. I, personally, have recently transitoned over from nonstick to stainless steel and carbon steel. I am just discovering all the issues now, after making the investments into these expensive cookwear smh. Though I'm quite certain you can wash out most of the toxins by simmering acidic water for a few hours with the stainless steel. I don't know how to purify carbon steel because simmering acedic water will pull out the iron particles, too, revealing the nickel and chromium underneath.
It's enough to drive people crazy. I think these chemicals are all around us and in drinking water anyway, it's just if they rise to a certain harmful level or not. All metal pans are made from metal... no way to get around everything!
It does not seem like America's Test Kitchen made a comparison of chromium and arsenic leaching out different brands of carbon steel pans. Their product reviews don't come across as honest reviews.
From experience, at home, it is best to pan fry and the best fats to do so from a taste perspective are: Uncultured butter, clarified butter, beef dripping, beef tallow or coconut oil. Anything else develops that fried smell that coats your entire kitchen.
Beef tallow tends to crisp up starch very nicely better than other fats. The taste is mild but the texture is the best. It also does not carry that frying odor that many fried foods carry. It is cleaner tasting, if you can call it so.
Re carbon steel controversy; i grew up when our kitchen had a wood-fired, then kerosene fired, cast iron stoves. My mother used cast iron and carbon steel "cowboy" skillets and after 75+ years have had no effects from arsenic or other heavy metals. I still use her 100-year old Wagner cast iron skillet along with Matfer, de Buyer and Darto carbon steel.
Like they say, when used properly, they pose very little danger.And are still safer than Chinese made non-stick or pure aluminum cookware.
Still using my matfer. I have good seasoning and don't do stupid things with my pans.
Fish sticking to the basket. I worked as a fish and chip cook years ago. Place the battered fish gently into the fry oil or tallow, holding on to it for a few seconds until the baking powder activates, creating air pockets which will allow the fish to float.
I am still going to use my Matfor pan. It feels like a bunch of politics within the manufacturing industry. I've been using my Matfor for five years now and I'm not dead yet.
I'm not dead yet either and I have two Matfer pans. Use one or the other almost daily. Sometimes both. They are my work horses.
I agree. This stinks more that a french pissed off another french.
Re: testing the pans. To be fair, (if they had the extra time and money) they could re-test all pans with the same test to see how they fare. At the same time, like Uncle mentioned - we don't exactly boil acidic food for a long time in our seasoned pans, and certainly not on a regular basis. If there's anyone who does - those people should care. But then they could just use stainless instead.
So long as we don't have to cook bugs (or cats) in carbon steel pans, I think we'll be ok.
Honestly, I cooked some Cicadas back in the 2009 invasion. My Dad's chihuahua loved them. With salt or soy sauce, not bad. But Cats are off limits, way to stringy.
Nice, info packed program. I have been using Matfer, Mauviel, deBuyer (maybe all part of the same corporation now), Rüsle and an unknown brand carbon steel for a long time. I find them to be interchangeable. For seasoning, which is not something I do all the time, I use avocado oil, which is our oil with the highest smoke point of all-- around 500F. I make my paella in the oven using Spanish paella Bomba variety rice and an old 12" 3mm thick tinned copper fry pan which nowadays I only use for paella because it does a perfect job and all the other carbon steel works fine for everything else. Your program is interesting. I like it.
I've used a lot of garlic presses but the best, hands down, I ever used was the rocking type. Super easy to clean too.
Thanks for answering my question about seasoning pastes. I do use BuzzyWax from time to time, but grapeseed oil is my mainstay.
I have an De Buyer 8" pan. I like it, but it's still not flat after it gets hot.
Uncle Scott, you mentioned that ATK did their own testing and found leaching metals in Matfer pans. I have read their August 27, 2024, article several times, and do not see anything saying they actually tested any Matfer pans, they mention only testing of Mauviel. Also, the ATK article lists several lot numbers for the "affected" batches of 12, 10, and 8-inch skillets. I have an 11-inch Matfer. Does that mean that I have no potential worries since I do not have a 12, 10, or 8-inch skillet, or was that just an oversight by ATK?
I contacted ATK, who said the lots listed in their August 27 article are only the ones for the models they reviewed, it is not a comprehensive list of all of the recalled lots. I told them that I thought it was totally irresponsible for them to publish what purported to be a list of the recalled lots without mentioning it is only a partial list. They also told me that the November/December 2023 timeframe is not when the affected lots were first made available in the US as their article suggests, it is just the timeframe when they received from Matfer some skillets from the affected lots. I am so angry at ATK that I am thinking of cancelling my subscription and going back to Bon Apetite.
Precisely! They didn't test the pans. They just switched their recommendation. ATK (let's just drop the T at this point) hasn't been a reputable source of testing in years. Nowhere in their press release did they mention testing the pans even though they initially said they would. If anyone is worried about his or her M/B pans, send them my way.
In regards to your comment about hyperinflation. I believe we do have it in a lot of food. Where I live here in the US, a dozen and a half eggs are $9.99! I took a picture of it because I was just blown away. And I don’t even wanna talk about the cost of beef right now. I’m not exaggerating when I say that I haven’t bought eggs in months. I just can’t afford them.😢
I don’t know about you but eggs have costed that much in Switzerland for years. That’s why Switzerland was probably the only country that wasn’t affected by inflation of food prices so far. The inflation was only started by the shortage during Covid and the war in Ukraine. Everything happening after the first few months is a result of price gauging of the big companies- capitalism without any regulations will do that. There’s hardly any competition on the food market, three big monopolies control over 80% of the food market. Something needs to give, this isn’t sustainable.
the costco brand kerrygold knock off butter from new zealand is fantastic, especially for the price
Commenting from Japan here....
De Buyer Japan hasn't had the Mineral B Pro's for ages. Currently they're not even listed on their website.
On another subject...
Does anyone have any experience with the LOQY system?? Looking into getting the 11". Wondering how the removable handle is holding up and if the handles on the pan itself also needs to be seasoned.
Scott reviewed the LOQY system in one of his videos. I haven’t bought it because all things considered, it’s way overpriced and Scott found them to be a bit wobbly.
7:45 There was cooking youtube channel that visited the Staub production facility in France and they showed that Staub also uses scrap metal for their cookware.
But I think that if you get it so hot that it is melted and glowing and then you bake a few enamel layers after after that - them maybe, just maybe it it is probably safe.
Le Creuset has a base coat of enamel all around and then the sand color light enamel on the inside or the dark enamel and 2 extra coats on the outside (the color and the hombre effect) So 2 coats on the inside and 3 coats on the outside.
I suppose Staub has just as much if not more for their Majoulique colors.
Can't blame the California Olive growers for boosting their prices, given the shortages caused by a couple of years of poor crops in the Mediterranean Area. It is the way the free market works.
ATK likes the Cali Olive Oil as it is more likely to be 1. Fresher, 2. Have what is in the label being what is in the bottle.
Wagyu is special because it gives cuts of beef that are really well marbled. If you have domestic grass-fed beef, and make tallow from the suet .. is it any different than fancy Wagyu tallow? (I was lucky enough to score some free suet from grass-fed cows raised locally; The instant pot is really handy here)
I don’t have a carbon steel pan. Matfer or otherwise. I do however have a matfer chinois, some rounded flat spatulas, & a spoon all made of “exoglass” matfer’s proprietary polyamide hi temp material. I like and use that ridiculously expensive chinois often and think of it as well worth the investment. The other pieces are also great and I use them regularly.
I though about this recently, and noticed prices for good olive oil have fluctuated, but haven't seemed to change much overall in 20 years. Looking at world trading prices, they match my intuition, _however,_ there has been a HUGE spike in trading price in the last 2 years. I don't even think we've seen the full impact of this yet, and store prices will climb higher. Or maybe the nicer olive oil was already selling for a premium price, and more commodity-grade oil has just crept up closer in price.
A couple of years of poor harvests in the Mediterranean basin boosted prices.
@@johnharper257 I figured something like that, and I vaguely recall hearing about olive harvests being poor recently. That would certainly track, though I'm sure recent hyperinflation also impacted it a bit like it has everything.
Did America's test kitchen do the same test? Because wasn't it found that the test was doing something with the pan that is outside normal use?
Yes, they were boiling acidic food for 2+ hours. Matfer specifically says not to cook acidic foods in their pans.
Nowhere has America's "test" Kitchen confirmed that they did any testing of M/B pans nor have they posted results.
I have experimented a bit with animal fats instead of seed oils for cooking, but not for seasoning a pan. I always use grapeseed oil for seasoning. I may have to go over to SAMS and see about a membership if they are still running that $15 special. I generally buy that brand of olive oil because I like it best of the brands I have tried. One liter usually lasts about three months for me - I cook much less than you do.
I always use lard to season. Works great and does not stink as much when seasoning compared to other stuff.
The membership is worth it just for the olive oil! lol
Apples to apples. It turns out apples have arsenic.
Yeah, it's almost entirely in the seeds. Which is why they kind of taste like almonds. I used to eat every part except the stem, but I'm on a ketogenic diet now.
I like that olive oil very much!
It's good stuff and as of the last testing I saw it is genuine 100% EVOO too.
ATK has amended their 8/27/24 article twice in response to my emails. First, I pointed out that the only affected lot numbers listed in the articl were for 8-inch, 10-inch, and 12-inch pans. They said those were the only ones they had reviewed, but they were adding a note that other sizes could also be affected. Then, I asked about the dates they listed for when the pans were first made available in the US, and they pretty much admitted that those dates were not reliable, so they removed them from the article. Now I have asked them whether the testing they did on the Mauviels they are now recommending were the same as done by the French regional authority, i.e. boiling an acidic solution in an unseasoned pan for two hours. Have not heard from them yet, but their credibility is already pretty much shot as far as I am concerned, and I doubt they used the same method.
Awesome keeping them on their toes! After reading their article, I had (have) two main questions... what were the overall test results for all pans they tested, and second, for the Mauviel pan they now recommend they say the chromium levels were safe by EU standards, but so were the Matfers, right? Matfers failed the Isere test but not the EU test. Did the Mauviel meet the Isere standard that Matfer didn't?
@@UncleScottsKitchen The article does not say anything about testing any pans other than the Mauviels. You would think they did, but you would also think they would have been clear about the lot numbers and the dates of release of the so-called affected pans. Frankly, I do not think ATK's opinion is worth anything unless they are completely transparent about any testing they did by telling us what pans were tested, what were the results, and what was the testing methodology. I am going to continue using my very well seasoned Matfer unless and until someone provides evidence that using the pans as intended (i.e., seasoned and no acidic ingredients) is any more dangerous than any other pan used as intended.
Shockingly, ATK's response to my last email was "We evaluated the Mauviel skillet using the test and standards recommended by the European Union." In other words, they did NOT use the extreme testing conditions that the regional French authority that issued the recall did. (2 hours of boiling an acidic solution in an unseasoned pan.) I am now waiting for a response to my followup email asking about the testing that was done by ATK, whether it was done on the "affected" Matfers, what the results were, whether they tested other manufacturer's pans, etc.
Matfor pan “failure“ is like a Wisconsin car being deemed unsafe because it fails California emission requirements. Irrelevant bureaucracies need to be removed.
Agree. This stinks more of a french pissed off another french.
How did the De Buyer do in testing?
ATK gave no indication that they tested any pans other than the Mauviels they are now recommending. Nor have they disclosed what method of testing was used. I doubt they used the extreme testing done by the French regional authority, i.e., boiling an acidic solution for two hours in an unseasoned pan.
I'm not understanding how the Matfer carbon steel is ostensibly different from all other cookware carbon steels on the planet. That's the operative question.
One big difference is that Matfer is under the jurisidiction of the agency that did this test, while none of the other manufacturers are.
@@yourworstfan Yes, I heard that Matfer was subjected to a different, highly acidic test that no carbon steel or cast iron cookware is intended for. It's like driving a car off a skyscraper then saying the air bags are defective because the crash test dummies got obliterated along with the whole rest of the car.
The courts should step in and find the bogus test unreasonable and therefore null and void. And America's Test Kitchen should stop being an obsequious toadie and do the same.
Although ATK has reviewed carbon steel skillets, rarely do you ever see their cooks/presenters use them
I agree 100%!!
I'm a bit wary about ATK ever since they did a comparison between lump charcoal and briquettes, declaring briquettes the winner. They compared the charcoal's heat and burn times by volume rather than by weight. These two different fuels have different densities! That's not a valid comparison!
Olive oil is 8800 calories per litre. That's more than 4 days worth of calories for one person just in olive oil! Wow! In my case, I have a hard time getting through a single 1L bottle of extra virgin olive oil before the expiry date!
The only thing that should have come from that test is a required warning label to make sure consumers are well aware to never do that.
My 5 cents:
-1 bottle of olive oil per 2 weeks. That is too much lol. 😮 I come from spain and live in Germany, I finish my 500ml bottle probably after 2-3 months or even longer.
- Beef tallow is great for anything beef related and starch related (flour, potatoes, etc.). Works for savory bakes (Yorkshire Puddings) but also sweet bakes ( British christmas puddings). It tends to crisp up starch very nicely compared to other fats.
- My favorite potato fry recipe that always works and never sticks is: Use starchy potatoes and cut them into half inch cubes. Parboil for 5-6 min in salted water. Drain the water and let them dry in the pot. Take a seasoned cast iron or carbon steel skillet. Not stainless. Preheat and then add the right amount of: uncultured butter, clarified butter, beef tallow, beef dripping or coconut oil. The fat will be absorbed by the potatoes in the end. Add the right amount of fat to the amount of potatoes. Not more. Fry on medium heat for 12- 15 min. Season with salt and spices during cooking, after 10 min. Flip or toss potatoes accordingly when browned. Enjoy. This recipe is the reason why iron cookware is superior to anything else.
- My theory is Matfer pissed someone off. It is weird that they only test matfer and also under those cooking conditions. Fear mongering and destroying its place in the market. It is just Carbon steel. If used correctly it does what it does. This stinks more of a french pissed off another french.
- In my opinion, after trying many brands of carbon steel and cast iron cookware. I consider the best brand of cast iron in terms of looks and performance to be the Field Company from the US. And for the best looking and performing carbon steel: Alex Pole Ironworks from England.
How much did all that saffron cost?
If you have to ask, you can't afford it.
Regarding the leeching of harmful substances from cookwear. Nickel and chromium leeches from stainless steel, but the amount goes down by about 70% (I don't remember the amount exactly) after the 5th use. The teasing for this was also an unrealistically excessively long duration, but the amount of nickel leached was enough to cause an allergic reaction to people with a nickel allergy. I wish someone would make 10/0 stainless steel pan with the 10/0 on the inside instead of the outside. I, personally, have recently transitoned over from nonstick to stainless steel and carbon steel. I am just discovering all the issues now, after making the investments into these expensive cookwear smh. Though I'm quite certain you can wash out most of the toxins by simmering acidic water for a few hours with the stainless steel. I don't know how to purify carbon steel because simmering acedic water will pull out the iron particles, too, revealing the nickel and chromium underneath.
It's enough to drive people crazy. I think these chemicals are all around us and in drinking water anyway, it's just if they rise to a certain harmful level or not. All metal pans are made from metal... no way to get around everything!
You are ready for the Apocalypse. A case of olive oil for survival and a large pestle to fight off the zombies.
It does not seem like America's Test Kitchen made a comparison of chromium and arsenic leaching out different brands of carbon steel pans. Their product reviews don't come across as honest reviews.
Damn bro, your eyes look like your “feelin’ good”. Party on Wayne
I have a three-month old baby... those eyes are from lack of sleep!
The matfer recall is like climate change, a hoax. I have matfer and debuyer. Both are great. Sounds like a marketing battle to me.
Beef tallow for fries is the only way to go. 🤌
Do you use beef tallow by itself? I use a mix of refined coconut oil and self-extracted tallow. (from beef suet)
From experience, at home, it is best to pan fry and the best fats to do so from a taste perspective are: Uncultured butter, clarified butter, beef dripping, beef tallow or coconut oil. Anything else develops that fried smell that coats your entire kitchen.
Beef tallow tends to crisp up starch very nicely better than other fats. The taste is mild but the texture is the best. It also does not carry that frying odor that many fried foods carry. It is cleaner tasting, if you can call it so.