cast iron frypans – Don's House of Fine Patisseries

September 10, 2026

Making Pulled Beef — Photos

Similar to my pulled / braised pork, I also make pulled / braised beef — but mostly for my mom, who finds my pulled pork a bit too sweet (a characteristic that, for the moment, I am declining to adjust). While despite personally liking this recipe for pulled beef, I have decided that “Mom can have it while I enjoy my pulled pork!”

Note that in this case I am using relatively inexpensive cuts of beef, and certainly some of it tougher than others. In today’s Canadian beef markets, “relatively inexpensive” is itself a fairly relative term, and in fact, through making pulled beef, I noticed just how much more expensive beef is than pork, despite it normally being so anyway!

Note that I got some advice from ChatGPT in how to make a more savoury version of my pulled pork recipe / process using beef; I was quite surprised at just how much onions it suggested — approximately two pounds of onions to four pounds of beef!

Note that as has become more common and customary with these posts, while all photos were taken in the same session, some may have been taken at slightly different points in time than presented here; the photos are presented here as per the progression below for the sake of the narrative.

Making the pulled beef:

The night before I made the pulled beef, some packages of beef were taken out of the freezer:

Two packages of beef taken out of the freezer

A bit of commentary on meat shopping: One of the packages I used had a fixed price for the package — as in, all the packages of the same beef from the same supplier were of similar weights and all had the same price — instead of being sold, strictly speaking, by weight, something I occasionally see at some stores. When I am presented with meat counters of prepackaged, single-priced flats of meat that are normally sold by weight and which normally would otherwise have slightly or not so slightly different prices depending on the weight of meat in each package, I normally go through all of the packages, looking for the heaviest packages (the stores normally still lists the weight on the packages!) and I look for the highest weights; surprisingly, I have often noticed non-trivial differences in the weights of the various meat packages being offered for sale at the same price!

Back to the cooking session: Before I went to bed, the meat packages were placed in the fridge, to continue defrosting overnight:

Frozen meat packages placed in the fridge to defrost overnight

The following morning when I began the cooking session, I took out a large soup bowl and placed it on a kitchen scale, setting the scale to zero so that it would only weigh the onions I was about to place in the soup bowl:

Soup bowl placed on scale, which was set to zero

Onions were taken out and weighed:

At this point, all the ingredients were taken out:

The onions were transferred to a cutting board, and a kitchen knife was taken out:

Onions transferred to cutting board, and knife taken out

The onions were trimmed:

The onions were sliced in half:

The onion halves were sliced into half-coins:

The onions were somewhat coarsely chopped:

A lidded cast iron pot was taken out and placed on the stove:

The cast iron pot’s lid was removed:

Olive oil was taken out:

The bottle of olive oil was opend:

Olive oil was poured into the cast iron pot:

The chopped onions were transferred to the cast iron pot with the olive oil:

The onions and the olive oil were mixed a bit:

The beef and a pair of scissors were placed on the cutting board:

Beef and scissors placed on cutting board

The meat packages were opened with the scissors:

The beef pieces were removed from the containers:

The netting on one of the pieces of beef was cut with the scissors and was removed:

The pieces of beef were sliced into pieces that would fit more nicely into the cast iron pot:

The beef pieces were placed in the cast iron pot with the onions and olive oil:

Concentrated beef bouillon and a measuring spoon were taken out:

Beef bouillon and measuring spoon taken out

The beef bouillon was measured out:

The beef bouillon was transferred to the cast iron pot with the beef, onions, and olive oil:

Beef bouillon transferred to cast iron pot

Water was drawn into one of my clean drinking water bottles (although I have others, I love Nalgene water bottles!):

The water was brought over to the cast iron pot with the concentrated beef bouillon, beef, onions, and olive oil:

The water was poured into the cast iron pot:

Once filled, the contents in the cast iron pot were stirred a bit:

The stove burner was turned on to high:

The lid was placed on the cast iron pot:

While the contents of the cast iron pot were heating up, the rack in my countertop convection oven was placed on the bottom level, in order to accomodate the pot:

The countertop convection oven was turned on and set to 300F, as well as to a permanent “On” position (instead of on a countdown timer):

Soon, the pot on the stove was brought to a boil (the steam can be seen escaping on the left):

At this point, I remembered to add a bit of salt — although, not too much, since no doubt the concentrated beef bouillon already had a good amount 🙂 :

Since I had already moved the cast iron pot to the cutting board, some salt was added to the contents of the cast iron pot there:

The lid was placed on the cast iron pot, and the cast iron pot was placed in the now-hot countertop convection oven (and its door closed, of course!):

Cast iron pot placed in hot countertop convection oven

About 45 minutes later — usually I would wait about an hour — I checked on the contents of the cast iron pot, and the contents were just beginning to bubble (hard as it is to see in this photo):

Contents beginning to bubble in cast iron pot

The cast iron pot was returned to the oven, and of course the door was closed:

Cast iron pot placed back in countertop convection oven

A timer was set to an hour and three quarters (an extra fifteen minutes to compensate for the early checkup):

I took advantage of the moment to take out a heatproof container to receive the pulled beef later on:

At the end of the braising time …

… the cast iron pot was taken out of the countertop convection oven …

Cast iron pot taken out of countertop convection oven

… and the lid was removed:

A piece of beef was removed from the cast iron pot with a slotted spoon:

Piece of beef removed from braising liquid

The piece of beef was placed on the cutting board:

Two forks were taken out:

The meat was tested with a fork, and “it passed”, as in it was properly cooked, by shredding off easily:

The piece of beef was fully shredded, and the kitchen knife was taken out:

Piece fully shredded and knife taken out

The shredded beef was fully chopped, since my mom likes it that way:

Shredded beef fully chopped with kitchen knife

The rest of the meat was taken out of the braising liquid, shredded, and chopped, and then transferred to the heatproof container:

The grissol that was in the meat had been put aside, and was placed in a bucket to be sent off with the curbside municipal composting:

Here’s the braising liquid with the onions in it after all the meat was chopped up:

A handheld blender was taken out and plugged in:

The blender was placed in the braising liquid and turned on:

Using handheld blender in braising liquid

When the braising liquid was fully blended and the onions fully pulverized, the blender was taken out of the liquid:

Solids pulverized and blender taken out of liquid

A cast iron frypan was taken out:

Some of the braising liquid was transferred to the cast iron frypan to help speed up reducing the volume, to make a gravy for the chopped meat:

Braising liquid transferred to cast iron frypan for volume reduction

At this point, both the cast iron frypan and the cast iron pot had braising liquid in them for volume reduction, to make a gravy:

Frypan and cast iron pot with braising liquid to reduce the liquid volume

The two front burners on my stove were turned on:

The braising liquid in each cast iron vessel was brought to a boil:

Braising liquid brought to a boil in cast iron frypan

Braising liquid brought to a boil in cast iron pot

The braising liquid in the cast iron frypan began to reduce to a point that I call “gloopy”; it became rather thick, and the sound that the boiling liquid made becomes much more audible and distinct:

Reduced braising liquid having thickened

The cast iron frypan was removed from the stove burner, stopping the boiling and revealing a thick gravy:

Thick gravy produced in cast iron frypan

The thickened gravy was transferred to the shredded and chopped meat in the heatproof container:

Gravy transferred to shredded and chopped meat

The braising liquid in the cast iron pot was again divided in two, and the liquids in both cast iron vessels were reduced to a gravy; said gravy was transferred to the meat in the heatproof container.

The shredded and chopped meat and the gravy were mixed:

Plastic containers were taken out (yes I know that the contrast is very low):

A spoon was taken out to transfer the meat and gravy to the containers:

Meat and gravy was transferred to the plastic containers:

Meat and gravy transferred to a container

Strips of paper were torn off some scrap paper:

Strips of paper torn off of paper scraps

Each strip of paper was identified with the container contents, “chopped pulled beef”:

Lids were placed on the containers, with the identifying strips placed between the containers and the lid:

Finally, the containers were placed in the freezer:

Upon serving her a fresh sample from this batch, Mom said “I don’t just like it, I adore it!”

August 9, 2026

Making (Braised) Pulled Pork — Photos

Following having enjoyed a friend’s pulled pork a few times at church functions over the years, I asked her for her recipe in late 2023 / early 2024. I successfully made her pulled pork … and shelved the idea, because her recipe featured star anise — meaning, there was what I considered a weird black licorice taste to the otherwise tasty pulled pork. Also, I asked my friend “what do you do with the braising liquid afterwards?” to which she responded “Oh keep it in the freezer for the next time, or add corn starch to some of it to add to the pork.” These responses didn’t sit well with me either. I resigned myself to enjoying pulled pork whenever my culinary adventures happened to meet with it at restaurants and the like.

In early 2026, I saw pork shoulder on sale, and decided to buy some “so that one day I can try again to make pulled pork.” A couple of months later, I looked up pulled pork recipes on the internet, did my own experimentation on the spot, and decided upon keeping my friend’s basic method; but instead using a 2:1 mix of commercial BBQ sauce (I settled on Kraft) and molasses for the flavour base to the braising liquid, to which I have kept ever since. Once exception was to have found a generic taste-alike recipe for Kraft BBQ sauce on the internet, which I integrated into the recipe, and which I used to partly make up the BBQ sauce portion in this session. (As a side note, I did *not* show extra photos for this makeup, in keeping with the spirit of the recipe that intentionally simply calls for “barbecue sauce” — meaning, you should use your favourite barbecue sauce.) And, as shown below, I reduce the braising liquid down to a sauce to mix in with the pulled pork. 🙂

Extra note: In a few instances, my photos from the session have shown some kitchen surfaces that were in need of some cleaning, and the aluminum foil lining at the bottom of my countertop convection oven needing changing. All the “extra cleaning” and foil replacement were performed after the cooking session, and during the course of mounting this post. I think I’m going to claim “Welcome to real life!”

Extra note #2: “A photo or two” may have been slightly presented out of order compared to their having been taken, and at least one make-up photo was staged after the cooking session, both for the sake of the narrative.

Making the pulled pork:

First, some frozen pork was taken out — in this case, some pork loin (instead of pork shoulder, which I concede is still more appropriate for the job — but pork loin does well too) — because I had bought a lot of pork loin a few months ago at a not-as-great-as-I-thought-but-still-good sale price given how thick the fat layers were in some cases:

The pork was placed in my microwave oven using the “defrost” function, entering the pork weight that I had marked on the plastic wrap before freezing:

Frozen pork placed in microwave oven for defrosting

The time for defrosting was automatically set based on the weight I’d entered:

Defrosting time automatically set based on weight

In the meantime, an oven-proof cast iron pot with a lid was taken out:

Critically, the use of an oven-proof pot that can be covered, be it with a lid, or aluminum foil, is important — in my case, I use a cast iron pot with a lid that happens to fit in my countertop convection oven, and which allows for pre-heating on the stove.

An onion and a kitchen knife were taken out:

The onion was trimmed:

The onion was cut into rounds:

The onion rounds were then chopped coarsly:

The chopped onion was transferred to the pot:

Olive oil was taken out and added to the pot:

Once the pork had defrosted, I started trimming off excess fat with a particularly sharp knife:

The pieces of fat trimmed off the pork were put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme.

The pork was cut into three pieces, which would fit into my pot:

The pieces of pork were placed in the pot with the chopped onion and olive oil:

Pork pieces placed in pot with onion and olive oil

The stove burner was turned on — and oh my, it’s a bit dirty:

I also turned on my countertop convection oven:

The oven rack was placed on the bottom level of the oven — and oh my! again, a bit of cleaning is needed, including replacing the aluminum foil at the bottom of the oven:

Back to the pork on the stove, the pork was turned over:

Molasses was taken out and measured out:

The molasses was transferred to the pot with the pork and chopped onion:

Molasses transferred to pot with pork and onion

Some barbecue sauce as well as some ketchup to help make up the volume were measured out:

The barbecue sauce was added to the pot with the pork, onions, and molasses:

Just a reminder here: Since my recipe for pulled pork and this post are predicated on the notion of “use the barbecue sauce you want to use”, although the ingredients for a taste-alike replacement of Kraft BBQ sauce are in my recipe for pulled pork, showing the makeup ingredients won’t be done here. Also to note, the apparent measure above takes into account the following steps, which washed out the rest of the barbecue sauce and ketchup clinging to the insides of the bottles used.

Water was added to the pot with the other ingredients, enough to cover the pork pieces:

Water added to pot with the other ingredients

At this point, the stove burner was turned up to maximum:

The pot was brought to a boil:

The lid was placed on the pot:

The pot was placed into the countertop convection oven — the pot just fits!

Pot placed in countertop convection oven

The door to my countertop convection oven was closed — and again I noticed something that needed a cleaning!

After about an hour, the pot was taken out and checked, and the liquid was indeed just bubbling:

Liquid in pot just at the point of bubbling

A timer was set to an hour and a half:

While the pot with the pork and braising liquid was returned to the countertop convection oven:

Shortly before the timer was to run out, a heatproof container was taken out:

And at less than a minute before the timer ran out …

The pot was taken out and placed on the stove beside the counter:

The lid was taken off the pot:

A piece of pork was taken out of the pot with a slotted spoon, and its tenderness was tested: The pork definitely pulled apart easily with a fork!

So I continued “pulling” — shredding if you prefer — the pork with some forks:

The shredded pork was transferred to the heat proof container, and another piece of pork was removed from the pot and braising liquid using a slotted spoon:

The piece of pork taken out, as well as the other piece of pork, were both shredded with the forks, and transferred to the heatproof container:

Pulled pork transferred to heatproof container

Throughout the pulling / shredding of the pork, bits of fat and grissol were separated out and put aside, to be put into a bucket for disposal through the municipal curbside composting programme:

Fat and grissol separated for disposal in composting programme

In the braising pot, a layer of rendered fat had risen to the surface:

Braising liquid with layer of rendered fat on top

A soup ladle was taken out to skim off the rendered fat:

The rendered fat was skimmed off the top of the braising liquid:

Rendered fat skimmed off top of braising liquid

The skimmed rendered fat was transferred to a fat separator with a slotted top:

Skimmed fat transferred to fat separator

The braising liquid at the bottom of the fat separator was poured off:

The ladle was then used again, this time to transfer some of the braising liquid from the cast iron pot …

… to a frypan, in order to help reduce / thicken the liquid more quickly than all at once just in the pot:

Braising liquid transferred to pan for reducing / thickening

Two stove burners were turned on to maximum:

Stove burners turned on to maximum under frypan and pot

The frypan and pot were brought to a boil to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients, by evaporating off excess water:

Boiling braising liquid to reduce the volume and concentrate the ingredients

After a time, as can especially be seen in the pan on the left, the reduced liquid with become what I will characterize as “gloopy”, and the bubbling will be more audible:

Braising liquid especially on the left thickened

Thickened braising liquid becoming a sauce

The now thickened sauce in the pan was transferred to the pork in the heatproof container:

Of course, the pan was scraped to get all of that goodness to put on the pulled / shredded pork!

The rest of the braising liquid was reduced to the desired thickness and transferred to the container with the pulled / shredded pork:

All sauce transferred to container of shredded pork

The (now cleaned) slotted spoon was taken out to distribute the sauce throughout all the pulled pork:

Slotted spoon taken out to redistribute the sauce in the container

Plastic containers of a one-cup capacity were taken out (this is the recreated photo):

The pulled pork was transferred to the plastic containers:

And lids were placed on the containers:

The containers were placed in the freezer for my future enjoyment:

Fortunately, there was a taste, albeit small, of pulled pork left in the container:

The tasty leftover bits were served on a plate, ready to eat:

Yummy!

And as an extra note … I have been asked to bring my pulled pork again to the next church pot luck meal, along with one of my tiramisu cakes!

March 1, 2020April 16, 2020

Home Made Pizza Using Biscuit Dough

I started making pizza at home in about November, 2019. I figured it was time to learn how to make pizza, being somewhat of a pizza fiend.

I started off with the base biscuit recipe slightly modified from my friend’s cheese biscuit recipe, excluding the sugar and cheese, which I also use for “Barbecups” and “Chickencups“. I eventually, for this recipe, also slightly increased the milk content.

Here are some photos from the process, starting from moulding the pizza dough in two #8 (10-1/2 inch) cast iron skillets.

Pizza dough — my recipe makes two pizzas’ worth (see above)

Pizza sauce — about 3-1/2 oz to 4oz per pizza

About 15 x 2inch slices of pepperoni per pizza

Finely chopped onion and finely chopped cooked bacon, half of an onion and one slice bacon per pizza

About 100g of grated pizza mozzarella cheese per pizza

Bake the two pizzas in your oven set to 450F, on the top rack

Baked pizza, after about 24 minutes of baking at 450F

The pizza recipe went through a few minor iterations, mostly to adjust for note-taking, experience with pan size, and the usual corrections for typos, completeness, full instructions, etc.

As a side note, when I first made the pizza, I had also recently acquired two cast iron pans to add to my collection, received from a friend who was breaking up her house; they needed to be run through my oven’s self-cleaning cycle in order to make them usable again (yes, they were rather full of baked on crud and rust spots.) The smaller of the two proved too small for the amount of dough in this recipe, but it has been used for other things. 🙂 I now have two #8 pans at home, and two more #8 pans at the cottage, for making pizza.