Hello! Welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook!
This week, I am continuing my series on cast iron. I am a devotee of cast iron and love cooking with it daily. Last week, I introduced you to three different cast iron brands. I talked about the features, the things I liked and some differences among the skillets. I also cooked bacon and eggs in all three skillets so we could get a baseline look at how each skillet cooks.
The three skillets are the Lodge Blacklock, Smithey and Finex.
Today, I’m going to give you a look at how each skillet handled searing salmon.
The recipe I used for seared salmon is here. I brined all the fish in a solution of about 1/2 cup sugar and about 3 tablespoons of salt dissolved in about 4 cups of water. I brined the fish for probably a little under an hour. I always brine fish–it results in a juicier, more flavorful final product.
Let’s start with the Blacklock skillet:
I took all the fish out of the brining solution and patted them dry with paper towels and then followed the recipe linked above.
I had a slightly thinner piece of fish on the Blacklock skillet than on the others. This was by choice. In my previous post about the Blacklock, I had noted that it cooked a little more quickly than the other two skillets. I believe the thinner construction of this skillet results in a quicker cook time, where the heavier, more traditional weight of the other two skillets results in a slower cook time.
I cooked this salmon filet, which at its thickest, was about an inch, for about 3 minutes on each side on medium-high heat. I got a lovely sear on the flesh side and the fish came out beautifully juicy and flakey, yet just under “done,” which is the way I like it.
If you like your fish a little more done, you will want to cook it a little longer, but I would recommend cooking it on the skin side rather than the flesh side, because you may run into a darker sear than you want if you’re using the Blacklock.
I had no issues with sticking, even with delicate flesh of the fish, and the skillet cleaned up just fine. As noted in previous posts, the handle of the Blacklock got too hot to handle after only a couple of minutes.
Next up is the Smithey. In this skillet, I placed one of the thicker portions of fish–it was about 1.25″ at its thickest–reasoning that the heavier construction of this skillet would work well with a thicker piece of fish. I was not wrong.
I cooked this piece of salmon on each side for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat. Here is the sear I got after 4 minutes in the Smithey:
As you can see, it’s got a lovely sear, which is comparable to the sear I got in the Blacklock skillet, but it took a little longer. After 8 minutes of total cook time (4 minutes on each side), this piece of fish was juicy, flakey and just underdone. Again, this is the way I prefer my salmon, but if you like yours a little more well done, you will need to cook it a little longer. In the Smithey skillet, I think you could go for another 30-45 seconds on each side without getting too deep a sear on the flesh side. If you want your fish more done than that, I would recommend cooking the fish a little longer on the skin side to avoid scorching the flesh side.
I had no issues with sticking, even with delicate flesh of the fish, and the skillet cleaned up just fine. As noted in previous posts, the handle of the Smithey got too hot to handle after about 3 minutes of cook time.
Next, let’s see how the Finex did.
In this skillet, I also placed one of the thicker portions of fish–it was about 1.25″ at its thickest–reasoning that the heavier construction of this skillet would work well with a thicker piece of fish. And again, I was not wrong.
I cooked this piece of salmon on each side for about 4 minutes on medium-high heat. Here is the sear I got after 4 minutes in the Finex:
I was very happy with the sear I got on this piece of fish–crisp, a golden caramel brown on the edges and golden-brown in the center. I think this sear is the best of the bunch, but that may be because I’ve had this skillet for longer and so the seasoning base is more mature. In any case, after 8 minutes of total cook time (4 minutes on each side), this piece of fish was juicy, flakey and just underdone. Again, this is the way I prefer my salmon, but if you like yours a little more well done, you will need to cook it a little longer. In the Finex skillet, I think you could go for another 30-45 seconds on each side without getting too deep a sear on the flesh side. If you want your fish more done than that, I would recommend cooking the fish a little longer on the skin side to avoid scorching the flesh side.
I had no issues with sticking, even with delicate flesh of the fish, and the skillet cleaned up just fine. The biggest difference in this test was, as noted in previous posts, the handle:
The handle of the Finex skillet is wrapped in a heavy, stainless steel coil, that provides good insulation for the cast-iron rod it covers. While I always have an oven mitt at the ready when I’m working with cast iron, I didn’t need it for this task–the handle stayed cool enough for me to handle during this cooking task, which I like a lot. A note of caution: the brass end of the handle that is not covered in the coil will get warm before the coil does. I didn’t find that it heated nearly as quickly as the cast iron handles, but it will get warm before the coiled part of the handle does. And, the handle will eventually heat up, but it takes a while, and for quick tasks like cooking fish, steak or burgers, where you’re on the burners for less than 10 minutes, this is a nice feature–not a deal-breaker–but a nice feature.
So, to sum up–all three skillets handled the task of searing salmon just fine. My experience is beginning to show that the Blacklock cooks a little faster than the other skillets, but there are more tasks ahead for the skillets, so time will tell. Also of note is that the Finex handle, at a little longer length and being encased in the stainless steel coil, does seem to work very well at keeping the handle cool.
Thanks for reading this review–tune back in on Wednesday to see how these skillets fared when searing steaks-
In the meantime,
Peace, love and good food,
Keri
