Cast iron steaky makin' advice from the Times
As most experienced cooks know, you can't brown food unless you preheat your skillet.Sure you can. You just gotta flip the steak more than once.
So cast iron is a logical choice, especially in skillets, unless you require gorgeous stainless to make a style point or you can afford copper -- which is ideal for sautéing because its heat distribution is incomparable -- and the time to care for it.We should all be using cast iron, or copper, or we are shallow people.
Cast iron really struts its stuff when you want to get a pan good and hot and keep it that way.Look, I may be half-retarded in the kitchen, but this is not a feat I've had difficulty performing over my stove. Anyone else?
For "grilling" a steak indoors, it can't be beat. Ridged cast-iron "grill pans" are good for two reasons: They raise the meat slightly above the surface, which promotes browning by preventing escaping liquids from contacting the meat, and they leave grill marks, which are attractive if nothing else.I thought this was down home cookin' for jes folks who could see right through the pretension of grill marks.