Q: How important is the brand when it comes to buying a cast iron skillet? I know Lodge is probably the best out there, but I figure that since cast iron isn’t exactly high tech stuff, its perfections shouldn’t be too hard to duplicate. Are the cheaper brands such as Texsport just as good or almost just as good when it comes to cast iron skillets?
A: I agree with you that the quality of a cast iron skillet is likely to be of little difference between brands. Certainly casting iron is a lower tech manufacturing process than a copper and stainless steel skillet, for instance. Lodge is a good brand and I try to recommend brands that will be widely available to my readers. There’s not much difference in the cost and I recall that my 10 inch Lodge cast iron skillet was about $15.00.
When you buy a cast iron pan you need to cure it to keep food from sticking. Here’s how.
Q: I’m definitely a fan of your site and the ideas you are promoting: good eating and healthy living. I’m still a bachelor for the next eight months and am trying to find healthy recipes that will keep for the better part of five days that I can return to for leftovers. I love to cook but am increasingly finding I have less time for it. Do you have any recommendations for bulk meals that I can make once a week and reuse several times?
A: Thanks for your nice words about the Dr. Gourmet web site. There are a lot of recipes on the Dr. Gourmet site that will work well for you. Some Recipe Ideas
Q: For the last couple years I have been feeding my family ground turkey in all recipes that call for ground beef. After a friend made a comment that the ground turkey wasn’t always better for you I checked the labels. The 85/15 turkey is not as healthy as the 90/10 ground beef from a calorie and fat comparison. In fact, the ground turkey had a lot more calories and fat.
So now I am wondering if we should be eating the lean ground beef (90/10 or higher) instead of the ground turkey. I have tried the ground turkey that is 90/10 and it does not have much flavor. Is there a benefit to eating ground turkey over ground beef? We only eat ground turkey once or twice a week.
A: I use both ground turkey and ground beef in recipes. Most of the time I do this for flavor and not as much for health reasons. In some dishes I like the more mellow flavor of the turkey vs. beef.
Ground turkey can be leaner but it depends on what you purchase and where it comes from. There’s a wide variety of results when I look at different packages. Ground Turkey vs. Ground Beef
Q: I know that high fructose corn syrup is bad for me. Now that I’m reading labels more carefully, I’m very surprised at how often it shows up in prepared foods, even as an additive in supposedly healthy whole-wheat bread. I love to bake, and occasionally a recipe calls for corn syrup. What’s the difference between the corn syrup in my pantry and the high fructose corn syrup found in so many commercial products? Is Karo syrup as bad for me as HFCS, and should I try to find a substitute?
A: Like you, I find high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in so many products and am often amazed at the number of foods that contain this ingredient. You’ll find it in processed foods in very high amounts, like soda and sweet drinks, baked goods and other processed foods. There is a lot of controversy about whether this ingredient is a worse for you than other sweeteners. More and more research is building a case that it is not all that great a choice for health reasons. That said, I do try to avoid most processed foods in general and certainly those that contain HCFS.
Corn syrup, such as Karo, is essentially straight glucose that is extracted from corn. High fructose corn syrup undergoes a number of additional steps to yield a product high in fructose. There’s a lot of reason to use regular corn syrup occasionally. It works well for baking and I have found that it helps in small amounts in sauces and dressings to help with texture. It’s not a bad choice for you to use occasionally.
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