Sous vide - Searing for a dinner for 14? Can't use my cast iron.

[xray]

Since you have a gas grill (as we do), can you give me an idea of how long it takes to heat up those cast iron pans?

My cast iron pans take about 10 minutes to heat up with my 4 burners set on High. My gas grill’s bottom is rusted out, so that’s all I use it for is cooking on the cast iron outside.

Now I imagine a larger griddle may take a few extra minutes to heat up. But what’s 15-20 minutes when an oven, normal gas grill, chimney of charcoal takes the same amount of time? A griddle will give you that extra surface area as opposed to doing your tenderloins in batches in a pan.

Also, most griddles are reversible. You could use the side with the raised ridges if you’re looking to obtain some nice grill marks.

You could see it gives you a good sear using the cast iron on a gas grill.

 

[zwiller]

DH is 75 years old. I'm not letting him NEAR that sucker. :)

LOL. It ain't for everybody... CI on the grill could work but not gonna get as hot as the burner setup but might be doable. Also, goes without saying to sear in batches and rest/keep warm prior to serving. I use the oven set to 170F.

 

[johnmeyer]

Since you have a gas grill (as we do), can you give me an idea of how long it takes to heat up those cast iron pans?

If you want to use the gas grill to heat your CI skillet, and you want to get the skillet really hot, then remove the grill's grates and set the skillet down on the "flavorizer bars," or whatever they're called on your grill. That will let you get the skillet as hot as you could possibly want.

I use a relatively inexpensive "point 'n shoot" IR thermometer to measure the temp of the CI skillet before I put the meat on, regardless of the method I use to heat it, although if you heat the skillet in the oven, which is the best possible method for getting both exact temp, and uniform heating, you don't need the thermometer to measure the surface temp (unless your oven is way off).

 

[Braz]

DH is 75 years old. I'm not letting him NEAR that sucker. :)

HEY, I resemble that remark. 75 is not too old to play with fire. Except for that leaving the stove burners on thing every now and then.