Peter Halle said:
WOW! Lots of questions in that one. And everyone here will have different answers.
So to wade in: I tend to use mostly two sauce pans and one of 4 skillets / frying pans. I tend to use stainless steel if I am browning / searing meat and then finishing it off in the oven.
I have plenty of other pots, and pans, of all sorts of materials including cast aluminum roasters with racks and lids, cast iron, clay (Schlemmer-Topf), etc. Pressure cooker, solve vide circulator, separate single burner portable stove, portable induction burner, and then my 10+ outdoor grills of mostly the charcoal variety but with couple of gas thrown in along with a pellet grill. All tools that get used in my effort to have fun cooking (I hate to eat.)
Vegetables can be grilled, sautéed with minimal oil, or steamed. I never use the microwave as the principal cooking method for anything but I will cook ears of corn in the oven and once done zap them for 30 seconds so that the core of the corn absorbs heat and keeps everything hot longer. Potatoes are usually baked in my household. Yes, on occasion I will fry my own fries and boil potatoes for potato salad. Corn on the grill is coated with oil and then coarse salt.
Broiling is placing food in the oven close to the top element so that the cooking is only from the top versus baking which typically has heat from the bottom or top and bottom.
For proteins I tend to either cook them outside on a grill or cook them sous vide and finish them off in a cast iron pan (browning them only) or use a torch.
Pizza - a major food group here - is done in my household from scratch and favorite way is on the outdoor grill.
I personally do not worry about what I eat because I tend to only eat one meal a day. My weight doesn't normally vary 3 pounds in a 6 month period.
Hop this helps although it only tends to reflect my personal habits.
Peter
Thank you so much Peter. Apart from anything else, you've demystified your uniquely North American culinary jargon for me. So much for using a common language: a couple of centuries of cultural divergence can result in quite a gulf.
Your broil, then is my grill.
Your grill is my fry-up.
Your Fry is my..... Deep Fry??
Baking & Roasting seem superficially synonymous.
All jargon of French provenance remain true to their origin (obviously): sous-vide, ragout, sautee, bain marie, flambe etc.
It also seems evident from succeeding replies that, as I suspected, steaming is not a common food prep technique in the western hemisphere. Australasia seems to increasingly take its culinary cues from our Asian neighbors, who have a long tradition of relatively low-intervention simple processes such as steaming & stir frying. One glaring contrast is the north american concept of slowly reheating pre-cooked foods that are encased in plastic: a successful means of preserving essential nutrients & widely used as a long-term storage solution for space-poor applications such as submarine crews etc. In my opinion - yuk! I like my occasional stews (Irish, steak in beer & mutton fricasee are favourites from my youth) but definitely never cooked in plastic! I suppose it's more the concept than the reality that i find so revolting. As a legitimate method of "haute cuisine" however, it seems pretty flawed.
I can recall pressure cooking from my own youth: immediately prior to christmas (summer time in Oz) my mum would cook the ham for a strict 30 mins. only over heat, then wrap the cooker in every spare blanket from the household (a dozen or more) & leave it sealed for the next few days (3-5??) before opening it all up for christmas lunch. I've never stopped using them myself, but mainly for cooking corned (salted) meats, soups & for softening dried pulses such as split peas, lentils etc. for soups, dips & dal etc. The higher water temperatures afforded by their greater-than-atmospheric pressure allow remarkably reduced cooking times & energy consumption. High temperatures can however destroy essential vitamins unless time is strictly controlled: bring to the "boil", hold for one minute only, then take off the heat & allow to cool naturally works for all but the largest of ingredients.
I also forgot my favourite cooking implement of all: a cheap cast aluminium non-stick roaster (baking dish). Nothing I have ever used or seen before provides the consistently correct level of caramelisation of meat & veg juices that alloy allows. That beautiful, uniform brown encrustation on the bottom & sides makes the most delightful, natural gravies with the addition of only ground semolina & veg water & without the intervention of any awful chemically enhanced, salt enriched artificial gravy browning agents.
I have all my life cooked on a slow combustion wood stove, supplemented at times with electrical appliances. Never used gas, with the exception of camping stoves when travelling. I don't understand the appeal of gas myself; it's simply too harsh, too powerful for me. Yes, temp control is rapid (almost instant), esp in contrast to the "laggardly" slow control of a cast iron firebox, but the sheer calorific intensity of LPG makes for a harsh, savage cooking experience that simply doesn't suit me at all.
Electric cooktops seem a useful compromise. I have a few "dominoes" installed: one dbl. induction ceramic, one dual cast iron rings, an electric BBQ "grill" & a concave ceramic wok burner; all Miele. Maybe half of my implements are "induction ready" so I generally prefer the slower responding & heat retentive characteristics of the "old school" cast iron rings. A gas afficionado would I'm sure prefer the speed, intensity & fine control of induction. With cast elements I can shutoff half way through & allow residual heat to complete the process. The induction wok burner is an overpriced but effective alternative to a cast alloy wok on a conventional ring. I still prefer the latter.
What seems obvious to me is that wildly contrasting regional & national cuisines still seem very much alive & well, thankfully resistive to the seductive power of commercially-induced homogeniety. Thank you one & all for taking the time & trouble to reply.
