I have a feeling that stainless steel is where I’ll end up eventually, but seasoning maintenance hasn’t been an issue for the foods I usually cook. Hot water, a chainmail rag and a brush knock everything off pretty easily to get them towel-wipe clean with a very light layer of avocado oil.
My problem is that I’m not feeling good about my overall level of pan spending, even though I’m really happy with each individual purchase. I have to be honest with myself that it is starting to get out of control. My problem began sensibly enough with a $25 Lodge cast iron.
I liked that so much that I bought a $200 Smithey, which has been great to use and after a couple years is super non-stick with just a tiny bit of oil.
Then I bought a $60 carbon steel pan (that’s now twice as expensive) that I’m beginning to like better than my cast iron for most tasks. Seasoning seems to be coming along great, so no actual problems to solve.
Now I’m asking for your help talking myself out of forking over $230 more for a 10 and 12 inch All Clad D3 stainless set.
I have an old but perfectly functional electric glass top stove. It heats unevenly compared to gas which is why I still like to have the heft of cast iron for certain jobs. Do you think the stainless would behave similar to the carbon steel on that kind of stove?
Am I missing out on an entirely new world of pan performance that can open up new methods, recipes and pan sauces?
I agree that sometimes i’m mentally weaker than I should be but i’m pretty sure that I didn’t use the word “impossible” in my original post. On that mental weakness, i’m working on constantly. I enjoy challenges and I enjoy overcoming them. I overcame (moderate) alcoholism a couple years ago without therapy. I have bad fucking panic attacks regularly, and have never whined about it to anyone. Learned to deal with them myself. I enjoy being a man.
But about the rest of what you said - fuck. I’m sorry, but it is a fact that there are two kinds of men out there - those who say “Fuck therapy, I don’t need a shoulder to lean on” and put on a macho mask but secretly wish they had that shoulder. The other kind is the man who can overcome adversity, is strong and doesn’t whine, but is willing to admit that sometimes, a shoulder to lean on and someone to help them out a bit is necessary. Doesn’t mean that guy is a fucking crybaby.
Women may want to fuck the first kind of guy for a while, and then get repelled as they sense that fake, tryhard macho shit. The second kind is the guy they’d want to keep fucking and stay with for life.
I admit, I gave this some thought and I might just increase my food budget a bit to be able to cook slightly more creative stuff and avoid ordering the junk shit.
I’m making no excuses, and wasn’t making them before either. Just sometimes takes me time to process stuff and figure out the best course of action. Still going to keep it as cheap as possible.
Now just have to learn how to cook more stuff than fucking eggs and pancakes
I appreciate the honest advice that’s given in this forum and trust me, I know my weaknesses and sitting in the forums isn’t the only thing i’m trying to do to fix them. I know how to grab hold of my balls and fix my shit once things start getting really bad - it’s just the staying on track long-term that i’m working on.
Though i’m repelled by the mentality of “men don’t cry, fuck therapy, you don’t need anyone’s help”. Fuck that. Fuck that hard. Everyone needs help sometimes, otherwise we’d all be good living by ourselves somewhere out in a forest, hunting and gathering, away from society. I know nobody probably gives a shit that i’m saying this, but i’m saying it anyway.
I didn’t say men don’t cry. I said you’re being a bitch and you came here looking for a shoulder to cry on. Both of those things are true.
*note that I didn’t say you are a bitch, i said you’re being a bitch. “Being” is a temporary state.
Grow the fuck up, and get shit done.
The best therapy for men has been, and always will be doing what you need to do.
Maybe if your handle was Working_for_gains, you’d have made more progress than simply being desperate for them.
Maybe you can just therapy your way to more gains
Are you going to keep being a ninny, or are you going to go make something of yourself?
Literally cut a chicken breast into chunks and put it in a pan with salt and black pepper.
Cheap, lean protein. Cheaper than ground beef though you do need to have red meat sometimes.
For a while I was buying Builder bars and cliff bars. I like Cliff bars better.
I know this is processed food, but I don’t care, and here’s the point-
So these bars are very expensive, then it hit me like a ton of bricks……….
A box of nature bakery fig bars AND a box of nature valley Protein bars are still cheaper than 1-box of 5 builder bars AND almost twice the calories.
Better yet, eat a can of tuna with corn relish for the protein first, then as a treat one of each bar. That’s 500 calories and about 20 grams of protein.
1-box of builders are 11bucks and about 1400 calories.
1-box of figs, 1-box of Nature Valley, 1 4-pack of tuna = 16 bucks and 2600 calories
YES. I love the Montreal seasoning we’ve been using for both grilled streak and chicken, but a well-cooked medium-rare steak with just salt and pepper? Yum! Why would you pour processed food on it? WHY???
I was so proud of my kiddo. They LOVE steak, and they like it with just salt on it. We were at Texas Roadhouse, there was a bottle of steak sauce on the counter, my kid has been taking a “healthy eating” class in school, and immediately started reading the bottle. At first, they just looked at the macros “There is 3g of fat, 6g of carbs, lots of sodium…and NO protein in this!”, but then I was like “Dive a little deeper into the ingredients: what are the 3 things they use to make food hyper-palatable” “…fat…sugar…and salt!”
