Anyone cook with Cast iron ?

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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I have been thinking about maybe getting some Cast Iron cook pots that I could use both at home and on the campfire, I just wondered if anyone else used Cast Iron and what your thoughts on it were.
This is one brand that I have looked at because i can get them locally....

http://www.lodgemfg.com/
 
peachcobbler.jpg

Good for peach cobbler :D

Potato pancakes too
Latkas.jpg


It's a lodge and it rocks.
I also like to broil my steaks, bake meatloaf and just fry stuff in it.
Season it good, don't wash it with soap (thanx Jim & CatFish) and you'll be a happy camper.
 
Darn. I should have taken a picture. I got my dear departed Mom's old cast iron skillets. Black, heavy, and well seasoned. I made the prettiest cornbread you ever saw on Monday, to go with my ham and beans. Nice pretty brown crust as only cast iron can do. Once you get 'em seasoned, those cast iron skillets will make you into a better cook. :D
 
oooo forgot about the cornbread!
Good call HD.
Get that pan to smokin before you pour the batter in (thanx again CatFish) and the nice brown crust is a sure thing.

Carp, now I'm hungry :D
 
my woman loves cooking... specially with cast iron. they cook great and are more non-stick than teflon (the power of fat!). as far as i know, unseasoned pans are cheaper - take a long time to season. and seasoned pans can be very expensive. as far as camping goes, unless i was going in a car with less than a few miles to hike ok, but those suckers are heavy! aslong as they stick in the kitchen you got some good meals commin! -CB
 
We have a 12" skillet, a 6" skillet, and a flat tortilla pan. All of them get used, but the big skillet sees the most action. They cook well, but you have to care for them properly (not hard, just different), and (as has been said )they're HEAVY. :thumbup:
 
I hardly cook in anything except cast iron. I use my skillets almost every day at home and also anytime I go car camping. I have a big ol' kettle that I use for chili and I also use it for baking casserole type dishes. As has already been mentioned, the skillets are perfect for baking cornbread. I'm looking forward to getting a good dutch oven this year and trying my hand at doing some baking. Can't wait to see people's reactions to fresh baked corn bread and maybe some mini pizzas around the camp fire!
 
All the time when car camping. I love the stuff. I have a camp (Dutch) oven, 2 fry pans and a BBQ set with 2 large hot plates (plain and grill).

Can't comment on brands. My oven is some cheap no name thing and my fry pans are hand downs from my grand parents. BBQ is made by a guy here in Aust but his name escape me ATM.

Their downside is they're very heavy. There's no way I'd consider taking them if I had to trasnport them via anything other than car.
 
If I had to pick one type of cookware for the rest of my life it would be cast iron. If I had to pick on brand of cast iron, it would be Lodge. A well seasoned cast iron pan will be almost as non-stick as the best teflon pan. Tons of recipes online if you look for them. There are many good sites too on how to care for them to keep the seasoning going. Highly recommended you look those up too. Have fun learning. It is different to cook with because it holds the heat so well so you will have to get used to that. You will probably make crispy critters of a few things.

Here is my easiest fav...500 deg. steaks.
1) Heat oven to 500 deg. F. Turn burner on high, for electric let it get cherry red.
2) salt, pepper and lightly oil (peanut oil is best because of the high smoke point) one or two 3/4" to 1" ribeye steaks.
3) Place steaks in preheated (good and hot) cast iron pan on stove top. Don't move them for 2 mins. flip and don't move them for 2 mins. This will create an awesome crust.
4) Place pan with steaks into oven for 2-3 mins per side depending on if you like your steaks medium rare (best) or medium.
5) remove steaks from pan and let them continue cooking for 5 mins under tin foil. Set them up on something...chopsticks, whatever...so they don't cool in their own juice.

Eat well....and by the way...do this in a well ventilated kitchen. I saw Alton Brown do this on TV, tried it and been hooked on this method ever since.
 
We cook on/in cast iron...period. There's nothing else as good
for even heating.
If you're going to use new cast iron, go with Lodge.
For used cast iron, check into Wagner...you can sometimes
find it in antique shops very reasonably priced.
 
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I cook with cast iron almost every day. Cast iron is an integral part of my car camping kitchen.
 
I taught my wife to cook on cast iron. (well, I taught her to cook, period)

We use cast iron daily, on the stove, on the grill, on fires. We have a 2 burner griddle, 2 8 inch and a 10 inch skillet, a square 8 inch griddle skillet, a few assorted 4 inch thingies, a dutch oven, an aebleskiver pan (viking pancakes) and a muffin pan. We also have a lot of enameled cast iron for various other uses.

tips:

Crisco is good for One Thing and ONLY One Thing in the universe, and that is seasoning pans. I won't buy, well haven't had to buy, preseasoned and wouldn't want to. season with crisco or really GOOD, CLEAR lard if you're superstitious.

I live in an area where the water is so mineralized that I do in fact go to a lab I have access to and use DI water (distilled, for all intents and purposes) after washing, but the key is wash and rinse ridiculously well before seasoning. crisco. you'll love it.

take your seasoning instructions, cut the temp by 50 degrees and double the seasoning time.

cook lots of non goopy stuff (eggs in butter, deep fried stuff, etc for a while to let the seasoning...season.

DON'T OVERHEAT.

oil regularly.

kind of like a good carbon steel knife.


oh, the consumerist brand thing. Don't matter. I have everything from chinese to Lodge to antique WagnerWare and from LeCrueset to Ikea Knockoff. doesn't matter. Doesn't Matter. DOESN'T MATTER. only thing that matters is that it is cast out of something reasonably approaching what a 19th century frontier smelting operation could produce and if it's THICK enough. (and don't assume that the chinese stuff is going to be thinner than walmart-contract-low-end-not-quite-real-Lodge)
 
I'm to the point where I have almost forgotten how to cook with with anything else. Fried eggs, chicken, burgers; there's nothing better, IMHO.

(Don't forget! Hot iron/cold oil.....No stick).
 
You just can't have a good wilderness hunting camp or car camp without cast iron, IMO. In a permanent camp, we keep the cast iron dutch oven going all the time, either baking pies, biscuits, breads, or slow cooking the evening meal. Nothing like the all-day aroma of a fine stew, roast, or round steak with potatoes, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, etc., wafting every little camp breeze. Food always tastes better cooked in cast iron!

Lodge is great stuff. Learn to season and maintain it properly and it will serve you well for a lifetime. An old, well-seasoned pan or oven is a thing to be treasured. :thumbup:

The dutch ovens with legs work great over coals. Coals are also put on the flanged oven lid for more even cooking (number of coals depends on the food being cooked and temperature desired).
camp-dutch-oven.jpg

Note the flanged lid.
lodge-camp-dutch-oven-deep.jpg
 
Food always tastes better when cooked in cast iron IMO, kind of like it always tastes better over a wood fire. I also heard that food cooked in cast iron is better for you.
 
Cast iron is the perfect material for a dutch oven. Used with charcoal, it bakes beautifully.
 
It is not hard to season a piece of cast iron. Crisco+heat+a bit of time, will get you what you need. Doesn't really matter where the heat comes from, but I prefer to use the oven for an initial seasoning. Or an open gas flame. Wood flames, have too much soot in them for me, but it works too.

Never use soap to clean it -- it breaks down the oils that build up in the seasoning. Just use hot water, and then grease/oil it up good again before putting it away.
 
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Rarely does a day go by without one of these being used. Not shown is our cast iron wok. :D
 
Cast iron is great. I have a Lodge dutch oven that is great for cobblers, stews etc... If you get a dutch oven get the one that has legs to keep it off the coals and a flat lid that allows coals to be put on top. I find that using charrcoal briqests are best especially on the lid. I also have an old school Griswald skillet. These have not been made in years but can be found in antique shops. Heavy but so well seasoned that it nearly maintance free. One thing to look out for is the aluminum look alikes. These don't have the same properties as cast iron and are no good.
 
sixgunner455 said:
Never use soap to clean it -- it breaks down the oils that build up in the seasoning. Just use hot water, and then grease/oil it up good again before putting it away.
Click to expand...

I always heard that the pores in the cast iron would trap the soap when the metal cooled and then would be released into the food next time it was used. Anybody else heard of this? Any truth to it or is an urban legend?
 
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