Termyn8or
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Joined: 11/12/2005
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Sometime between now and the end of the year something important is going to happen. I am going to clean my toaster oven for the first time in about six years. Of course you never clean a grill, but every once in a while you must clean a toaster oven.
Now let's get on the same page here, because there are important issues to many, and one of those in the forefront for many is germs. That is a valid issues if not addressed properly. My toaster oven is thoroughly preheated to 400F prior to putting any food in there. At 400F the germs are pretty much gone, I mean really gone. This also reduces the amount of moisture in the toaster oven thus reducing capital waste.
Soap shall not touch these surfaces, even the chrome plating is well seasoned, things do not stick. By capital waste, I mean that you could've just put the food in a microwave. A toaster oven is not made to bake in. It is not meant to be run at 325F for an hiour to cook a piece of chicken. In fact you NEVER put uncooked or uncured meat in a toaster oven. That is simply asking for problems. If you stick to this rule, your toaster oven will be safe.
There are, and have been more even, people who will not allow a drop of soap to touch their cast iron skillet. Those who do usually dilute it so it does NOT soak in, which would screw up the seasoning. And the grill the same way, I never use foil, if the food needs foil, wrap it in it. People have eaten steaks I cooked and never suffered one ill effect, and I do it the same way as always.
First of all I only use charcoal, and I use enough of it to make a VERY HOT fire. There is a time the flames are shooting up, that is when the cleaning happens. The grate itself gets so hot I have to use a pair of pliers to handle it. And THEY get hot, even after a short time. The grate leaves dark marks, and all that is is carbon with a bit of grease and juice mixed in. The carbon could be from last year, but all carbon is from millions of years ago anyway. Once the grate is in that fire for a bit, which is a while if you know how to grill, there are no germs there. Yes I am careful about the edges and other things of course. Anything that didn't get super hot is suspect.
So the main reason to clean the toaster oven is because the grunge down at the bottom has been outgassing. Soap will never touch it, but water will, probably after it is preheated to 400F.
Also if I actually COOK meat in a skillet, I make sure to take the temperature up high AFTER cooking. Before washing.
Washing dishes - what good does it do to wash dishes if they are just going to contaminate each other ?
Now realize that I am chiefly talking about cooking surfaces here, other things bear more careful scrutinization. It all has to do with the handling of cooked meat vs uncooked. If cooked meat is to placed somewhere, that surface was not usually raised to 400F beforehand, like a plate or bowl. This is a whole different thing.
People love the steaks I cook and part of it is those lines seared into it, in fact I started turning them just slightly to make an X pattern in them. They eat them up, literally as well as figuratively. First time people "Where's the foil ?". Lol. About an hour later they will never ask again.
OK, before this really become rambling on, the idea is, if you can burn it you can cook on it. If raw meat touches it, you can only cook on it. If you can't burn it, care must be taken to avoid the spread of disease etc.
But when it comes to a burning surface, that is an acceptable meat cooking surface, burn it clean. Like I have a buddy who makes pretty good ribs (who doesn't), and between the first and second batch he changes the foil. Why ? You are putting uncooked meat on the surface from whence cooked meat just came ? Makes no sense.
What makes sense is NOT to go the other way.
Anyway, uncooked meat has never been in my famous toaster oven, and never will be. It is perfect, small, very fast in heating, and can bring french fries back alive. Yes you read that.
Get you some restaurant fries or pizza place fries, if you like them. I suppose I could do McD's and all that but this is different. The slightly bigger fries. It seems no matter what you do with them it just comes out terrible.Well I have a solution.
Now you take the fries out of the package and put them in a bowl.Start preheating, 400F or more. Once the thermostat kicksout for the second time, it is HOT. Keep it hot and pour water into the bowl with the fires. Cold COLD water.
You need them right under the top element(s), and turn once. Actually I did a batch I forgot to turn and they were still good, just not "right" IMO. In a way it is a temperature shock I guess.
A microwave has a totally different function, understand the difference. In fact there are dishes for which I use both of them. Let it nuke for a little while, warm it just a bit, take the chill off, then to the toaster oven for real cooking. Something like chicken courdon blue would be best heated like that. Any kind of stuffed meat, as long as it is already cooked.
Any meat that is not cooked has to go one of a few places, a grill, a real oven, a skillet or a pot of boiling water.
Agree or disagree.
T
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