Cast Iron or Stainless Cooker

[Countrytime]

Thinking about buying a new fish cooker, need experience from all you crappie chefs. How do you maintain a cast iron dutch oven far as cleaning, storing, seasoning and such, or should I go with stainless steel cooker. Will stainless steel do as good of job as the cast iron with less hassle? Not much said about stainless steel cookers here in the past. Please compare the two.

[DRPEPPER]

I have never used stainless before. I know some caterers that do. But, I have never thought to ask them of any advantages. I use a cast iron dutch oven. A new one should be seasoned by heating grease inside of it. If you are single you can use your oven but any woman is not going to understand or appreciate smelling up her house. I used my grill on the last one. Just wipe some grease inside and bake it. After I have cooked fish in it, I simply hose it off/out then let it dry. Do not use detergent or you will be cleaning out rust and re-seasoning. I store mine sealed up in a trash bag. Oh BTW....if I am camping or cooking out on the bank and no hose is handy, I just walk out into the lake with it and wipe it out real good.
DP

[joejv4]

I've got the "el-cheapo" aluminum deep fryer that comes with the least expensive propane cooker from BPS - it cleans up fine, heats quickly and evenly and gives me no problems at all. The cooker base can be set up for either a fish fryer or a turkey fryer, so this fall, I'm getting a turkey fryer kit for it.

[rancrappie]

cast iron will hole heat better

[freeflow_23]

I agree. Nothing better than cast iron.

[wefish]

It is almost impossible to cook outside without dealing with some wind. If you plan to cook any outside you will not have good results with anything other than cast iron. If all cooking will be inside maybe some of the others will do as good.

[Buffy]

I have used both, well aluminum, stainless and cast. Unless you are cooking outside in serious wind, I can't tell the difference, yeah cast will hold heat better, but if you are frying, not really an issue for me. Also cast is HEAVY. I have really weak wrists, so this matters a lot to me, also for camping, hiking anyway, no way. Cast is easier to cleanup, but not all that much, since I recycle my oil, I never leave it sitting. Hope I have not rambled too much. Basicly I like stainless better.

[hpcrappieman]

castiron is great to fry mulitple pans of fish, it holds the heat great.. but just one fixin',aluminum is good,heats faster and cleans easy..

[Eager Beaver]

I use the Stainless Steel cooker and wouldn't use anything else on a large amount of cooking, like I did over the week-end. I had at least 70 people here and it works great for large groups. For our own family use, I use a Fry Granddaddy and will cook for groups of 20 or less with it. My cooker uses about 1-1/2 gallons of Canola Oil. and my Fry Daddy uses only about 1/2-3/4 of a gallon. The Stainless Steel cooker is very easy to clean once it cools down and I can vacuum strain the oil and use it again, unless I have gone thru a lot of fillets like I did this week-end. If I use the larger pot and Deep Fry Turkey's then I will use Peanut oil instead of Canola oil. This way I use my cooker for double duty and just use a larger pot for other things that I cook.

[NIMROD]

My fish cooker had an Aluminum pan which the oil burned quickly and then cooled too fast. I changed to a Cast iorn pot and love it. The cast iorn can be heated and wiped clean with paper towels after removing the oil. Do not wash unless it's absolutely nessasary.