Kitchen Care | Basics with Babish

hey guys let's be honest kitchen maintenance is a real pain in the nads but it's one of the most important steps in the creation of great food so every once in a while take an hour out of a lazy Sunday and give your tools a little trip to the spa because if we take good care of our utensils they'll take good care of us let's get down to basics .. shouldn't of winked just then that was weird all right so let's start with what I definitely get asked about the most often cast iron if you don't wash it promptly after cooking and don't apply a thin film of oil all over before putting it away or if you do everything right and you just have very very bad luck you could end up with something like this rust, discoloration, chips, seasoning, or weird smell are all indications that it might be time to re season your cast iron we're gonna start by giving this guy a thorough scrub in soap and hot water but instead of reaching for the usual sponge action we're going to use a steel wool this is going to get rid of any rust or weaknesses in the seasoning think of it like a cleansing fire we must first burn everything down in order to start anew that sounds a little bit supervillain monologuey- how about gotta clear out your closet before you can fit in all of your new clothes that doesn't work quite as well but anyway we scrub this down to the point that you can start to see the raw steel peeking through and now we're going to coat it with a generous but even layer of vegetable oil making sure that every square inch of every surface is coated yes that includes the back sides and the handle and whatever other features your cast iron has that mine does not so now we're going to place this guy directly on the oven rack in a 375-degree fahrenheit oven for one hour with a rimmed baking sheet underneath to catch any errant drippings the seasoning didn't come out perfectly evenly so I'm gonna hit it with another layer of olive oil and throw it back in the oven until it gets a nice even Sheen upon which any unlubricated egg would be happy to be cooked... what? the point is it's nice and reasoned and ready to cook on again but how are we going to cook with this one of the most dangerous things you can have in the kitchen a dull knife the standard can this cut through a sheet of paper without pressing too hard test is being failed miserably and before you know it life turns into an infomercial you've tried everything why can't your knife just be sharp why can't life just be easier when it's hard stop throwing money away or something and get yourself a knife sharpener like this one if you want the easy and quick way to freshen up your edge press down firmly I like to do 10 passes through the core side 10 passes through the fine and as you can see it makes a market difference in the sharpness of the knife but it's still not as sharp as it could be the fact is that these quick sharpeners are good for touch-ups every now and again but they're not going to get your knife as sharp as a whetstone look for a two-sided stone like this one that has a grit of one thousand and six thousand for the optimal home sharpening experience wet stones are called wet stones because well you got to get them wet soak for ten minutes completely submerged in water or until bubbles have stopped coming out of the stone then place on a non-slip surface a towel or paper towel works fine and then we're trying to hit an angle between 17 to 20 degrees a good tip for finding that angle is to start at 90 degrees divide that in half to get 45 and in half again to get 22 just a couple degrees lower than that and you've got 17 to 20 starting from the bottom of the knife and working towards the tip we are sliding it diagonally across the stone so the entire blade gets exposed to the sharpening goodness let's turn on the audio for a sec for all you ASMR heads out there hmm that is a delicious noise now you're probably gonna want to clean up all the gray stuff that accumulates on the stone but no no no that actually assists in the sharpening process so resist the urge to clean off your stone in fact the only thing we're going to do is occasionally re-wet the stone with water from a very fancy glass anyway after about 10 or so passes on each side of the knife I've now flipped the stone over to the 1,000 or fine grit side this is going to refine our now very sharp edge by removing any burrs or rough patches left behind by the less refined side of the stone then after a thorough cleaning to get rid of all the metal shavings you can see this knife is ready for business but we are not done yet it is time to talk about honing rods most folks think that these are knife sharpeners in and of themselves but they are not they are rods designed to hone your edge or straighten it back out as the edge of your knife becomes microscopically bent after each use simply run the length of your knife down the length of the Steel as though you're trying to slice off a piece trying to maintain an angle of 15 degrees and making about ten total passes that's five on each side of the knife you'll find yourself with a well honed blade this is how you maintain your knife's edge between sharpening --zz sharpen once twice a year own once to twice a week depending on how often you cook next up how to maintain stainless steel a good stainless steel pan is super expensive and it's discouraging to see this crap build up on your once pristine cooking surface you only need one addition to your kitchen to get rid of this junk and that is bar keeper's friend or an equivalent like bonhomie I like to wear gloves because this stuff can be pretty rough on you hands you're basically making a paste out of it by wetting your pen and sprinkling it on generously you'll notice that I'm rubbing in circles because this stuff is basically like sandpaper and it's going to leave lots and lots of little scratches in the grain of your steel so you want to wash in the direction of the grain of your steel which in a pan is in circles it's gonna take some elbow grease but once you've got it all off wash it with soap and water and boom you've got yourself some beautifully refreshed stainless steel ready and willing to be messed up all over again the next time you want to sear a steak these guys are so pretty I might go easy on them for the time being now last but not least is the subject of wood do you respect wood not by the looks of this countertop you don't that's why I like to keep a spray bottle of this stuff around a mixture of 1 to 1 water to plain white vinegar which makes an excellent cleanser for wood surfaces I know I've got a whole wood table here but if you've got a wooden cutting board these tips are for you I'm sure you've run into this problem my board is all dried out and scarred up well this is a job for food grade mineral oil available on the cheap online and in stores once you've cleaned your work surface simply apply a liberal amount of mineral oil to the affected area and beyond rubbing deep into the grain of the wood and letting dry overnight this is good for regular maintenance and keeping your board from drying out but if you want to really pull out all the stops every few months hit your board with some boos block board cream which is really just a mixture of mineral oil and beeswax and with repeated applications will seal and waterproof your board beautifying and protecting it from your constant misuse and mistreatment so hopefully that's taught you a few things that are going to help you grow closer to your kitchen utensils and various objects now since kitchen maintenance isn't really livestreamable and since we jumped back in time and did tacos last week on the livestream we're going to do salads next week and then the week after we're back on regular basic schedule as I'm saying that I realize it doesn't make much sense point is we're making salads next week and the week after it's back to business as usual thank you guys for watching now go clean or maintain something

Channel: Babish Culinary Universe

Views: 2,615,562

Rating: 4.9631057 out of 5

Keywords: babbish, cast iron skillet, kitchen care, basics with babish, cleaning a cast iron pan, cooking with babish, seasoning a cast iron pan, pear qwerty horse, how to clean stainless steel, how to clean stainless steel pan, babish, how to season a cast iron, how to clean wood cutting board, how to sharpen knives, basics of kitchen care, binging with babish, basics kitchen care, cast iron pan, how to clean a cast iron

Id: xSjVrR7KPqA

Length: 6min 51sec (411 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 20 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Bangersss]

Not a bad video, nothing in there I'd disagree with.

I'd add some more maintenance for the cast iron though. What he showed there is restoring some out of shape cast iron. Once you have it in good condition though you need to do some light maintenance.

After each use, wash your cast iron with soap and a light scrub. You hear some people say never use soap on cast iron but this is a holdover from when soap was made with lye. Modern detergent is fine for use on cast iron pans.

After cleaning your pan, dry it completely by putting it back on the stove with some heat under it. Once the water is gone, add a little of your neutral oil (I use canola) wiping away excess oil and leave on the heat until it just begins to smoke slightly. Turn off the heat and leave the pan there to cool down and you'll have a nice near-non-stick surface ready to go.

[u/ChristopherDT]

Nice video I enjoy the humor. Videos like this are great for beginners.

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[u/olyko20]

I may be wrong, but I thought you go the other direction when using a honing rod?