YouTube is awesome

When I first heard and saw people using YouTube I was thinking who in the world is going to watch 30 second clips of people acting dumb.  Now several years later I must admit that YouTube has saved my life and taught me a thing or two.  I have found clips on how to repair my trucks window regulator, hunt wild hogs, and how to use electrolysis.

I have been telling all of you lately of my current obsession with buying cast iron on the cheap and trying to clean and rehab it to new like conditions.  Now this has been lots of elbow grease and my wife wondering when I will go to bed and stop scraping skillets.  

With my new method of cleaning, I can stop the scrubbing, and oiling and just put the iron in the 5 gallon bucket with some sodium carbonate and hook up the battery charger and presto!  In lots of time depending on the carbon and rust factor you have bare metal clean cast iron.

Watching all of these videos I learned an important part of electrolysis and that is to buy a "Manual" battery charger.  Very important because all the new chargers that have the jump battery built into them are automatic charges.  I picked the charger above from "Big Lots" for 50 bucks and it was 20% off sunday so that made it 40 dollars.  That is a deal on a 2-10-50 amp manual charger.

I forgot to get a before picture of the pan above.  This is after 2 hours in the electro-cooker.  Once you remove the metal from the science experiment you have to take a scrub brush and get the loose carbon and rust off of the pan.

Before I put the pan in the solution I didn't even know it had this no. 5 and 81/2 IN. stamp on the bottom.

Here is a shot of the inside part.  This skillet is probably 50 to 75 years old at least.  You can tell a little on the age if they have a ring on the bottom.  The ring was on skillets during the days when people cooked on wood stoves.  The skillet has a nice flat and smooth as butter feel to the metal.  I would put this in the crepe making department in my pantry.

It is hard to tell the difference in collor.  The skillet on the right is the one I just used electrolysis on and has a silvery metalic look to the pan.  The skillet on the left is one I picked up about two months ago and heat cleaned the rust off.  Once I dried the electrolysis pan it instantly started to surface rust.  I pulled out the bottle of veggie oil and sealed it real quick to stop this from going any further.

All of this started when my wife wanted me to pick up an extra set of cast iron to use at our house.  We have one set at our cabin and now miss it at our house.  Me being the cheap person wanted to buy used and found lots of rusty gold.  I had heard of alternative methods of cleaning cast iron and came across the video earlier in this post.  Now I have volunteered to teach a cast iron cooking class and have learned mountains of information about cast iron and how to care and restore it.  The internet is our friend!

Country Wok

I wanted to show a unique cooking tool that a friend of mine lets us use when we are doing the park and camp method in the outdoors.  The picture above is of a plow disc that purchased before the disc hole in the center was stamped.  The handles have also been added so you can adjust the outdoor wok on the open fire. 

http://www.maverickfab.net/default.html

The above video is of a company that has taken the cowboy cooker wok to a new level.  From what I have seen most people use turkey fryers (That is what we use) but in the above video they use charcoal in this wild looking propane barrel cap that has been converted and fitted with a hand crank on the side that adjusts the unit up and down depending on your heat need.

These outdoor woks have many names, looks, and sizes but one thing you need to always look for is that they are made from a "plow disk."  That is very important because there are the stir fry woks that restaurant supply companies sell that look the same and are the same size. The huge difference is that they are made of thin steel or plate style steel and you need a completely different style of heat source for those.  Next time you are at one of those asian infusion style restaurants look at their woks and how their heat source works.  It is totally different than campout cookers and charcoal.  The plow disk is heavy gauge steel that helps with retaining the heat.  You can see from the picture above how ours has alot of heat in the center, then a nother ring around that then the third ring of where you would warm the breads.  This is where the heat levels are and you use those areas to cook different types of foods.  To tie these cowboy woks and diabetes together you have to be carefull with what you cook.  Now these things are great for veggies but, they make great fajitas, tacos, and anything you can put in a flour tortilla.  That mixed in with using oils you get great fresh foods but be carefull of the calories and carbs that come with these foods.  Just like asian cuisine you have to be warry of what is in the suce.  I have to limit my intake when we break out the cowboy wok on campouts because of all the carbs, oils, and fatty meats.  I am looking to getting one of these for my personal use and when that happens or if you use one and have some healthy suggestions please let me know!  It always seems that when camping with friends the diabetic loses out when it comes to the menu, and that is why I practice portion control.

In the end if you ever camp with groups of people or are looking for something different to cook on, these outdoor woks are awesome.  I have never seen one item that has wowed so many people so fast.  When the wok comes out we all gather around and everyone helps out cutting foods, stirring the wok, and prepping the sides.  These outdoor woks bring everyone together and give a different element to your camping experience.  I think my friend started camping with us three years ago and now everyone either has purchased an outdoor wok, made an outdoor wok, or wants an outdoor wok.