When my children were younger we used to congregate around the table every evening to eat dinner as a family and share our stories from the day. As the children have grown older however, it’s become increasingly difficult to find time to get everyone around the table together.  We’re lucky if we eat as a family more than once or twice a week. Still, I like to prepare home cooked meals to ensure everyone is getting the nutrition they need.

Since everyone eats at different times, I have to think of ways to keep the food warm and fresh for a couple of hours at a time. Dishes like stews and chilies are the obvious choices, but you certainly can’t serve them every night. One of my personal tricks for keeping the food warm is using cast irons pots and pans. When I cook a meal in a cast iron pan, it retains the heat for much longer, which means I don’t have to reheat the dishes or keep the oven running indefinitely.

I sure do miss the homemade bread that my grandma used to make.  It was a yeast type bread and I swear I could smell it baking a block away from her house!   Grandma had somewhat of a schedule – or routine I guess you could call it.  On certain days she did specific things, and Sunday morning was always bread baking day.  They had moved from the farm into town a long time ago, but their internal alarm clock was still on farm time – they were up before the crack of dawn, and shortly thereafter, Grandma was baking bread. 

Although, I was much younger in those days, I wasn’t that much of an early bird unless I was going fishing or on a motorcycle ride, so I usually got to Grandma’s house after the bread was done.  I never thought much about it, but even when I arrived quite some time after the bread was out of the oven, she would cut a slice for me and it would still be warm.  Thinking back on it, and picturing the kitchen and the associated surroundings in my mind, I can see the cast iron bread pan sitting on the stove.  Those of you who cook with a cast iron skillet, dutch oven, or baking pan, know what I’m talking about.  They hold heat for a very long time after removing them from the oven, and your food stays nice and warm – even for the late-comers.  Ah, the good ole days!

Something that’s easy and fun to make with your kids or grand kids are muffins – cornbread muffins, cake muffins, oatmeal muffins, or you name it.   As with anything else you cook, using a cast iron baking pan is healthier than using aluminum, Teflon, or other modern non-stick cookware.  Using a properly seasoned cast iron baking pan can make it quick and easy.

Just whip up your favorite muffin batter, poor it into the lightly greased baking pan molds, and bake according to the instructions on the box.  Of course, if you prefer to make your muffins from scratch – like Grandmas used to do – you have a pretty good idea of how long you should bake them.  A great benefit of the cast iron is that it heats up evenly, and distributes the heat evenly throughout the baking pan.  This really helps eliminate cool, or even unbaked, centers in your muffins.

Dusty and I are really getting excited about our trip to TN next month.  The kids have graciously volunteered (it helps when we pay them!) to stay at the house and take care of the critters.  I don’t know about you, but we start planning and organizing our camp gear about a month ahead of time, and that includes making sure we have all of our camp cooking gear ready to go.  Since Dusty will be cooking just for the two of us, I am packing the bear essentials – one large cast iron skillet, the deep fry skillet, one dutch oven, and one cornbread baking pan.

We plan to do some fishing on a 550 acre lake that is not too far from our property and it’s known to be an excellent large mouth bass and crappie lake.  Of course Dusty will clean all of the fish, and I’ll fry it up in our deep fry cast iron skillet.  We’ve tried many recipes, but our favorite – especially for crappie – is tripple dipping fillets in a thick beer batter and deep frying them until golden brown.  It doesn’t get any better than that!  And  nothing goes better with fish than home made sweet cornbread.  We can’t wait!

Seasoned cast iron cookware has many advantages:

• Inexpensive – investing in a complete set of cast iron cookware, or several necessary pieces, won’t affect your budget because it is quite affordable.
• Non-toxic coating such as in Teflon or other modern non-stick surfaces
• Ideal heat conductor
• Allows for even heat distribution and consistent cooking temperature without hot spots
• Extremely durable
• Will last a lifetime – actually many lifetimes
• Old-fashioned way for fat-free, healthy cooking
• Non-stick surface
• Can be used on or in any heat source – on top of stove, in oven, over an open fire, or in the coals
• Healthy choice for every day cooking
• Easy to clean

You can cook anything in cast iron cookware that you can cook in other types of cookware.

Acidic items, like tomato products, will leach out some of the iron, and will turn a littler darker.  That can be a good thing health wise, especially for folks with iron deficiency.

It is best not to store acidic items in your cast iron pans.  In fact, you should never store food in cast iron cookware.

Even though your great great grandma, great grandma, and grandma probably used their cast iron pots and pans to boil water, it’s probably not a good idea – unless of course, you’re boiling water in a cast iron tea kettle.  It’s totally safe, and a good thing if you want additional iron in your diet, but it’s not the best thing for the cookware.  You may see tiny specs of oil floating on the surface, and the boiling water may break down the seasoning.  If that happens, you will need to re-season your cookware.

Experiment with recipes that you are used to cooking in other types of cookware, and you may likely discover that they are easier to prepare and more flavorful when cooked in your cast iron cookware.

Cooking in your cast iron cookware, whether it’s a cast iron skillet, cast iron dutch oven, or a cast iron baking pan, is essentially the same as cooking in the same type of pan made of other material – only it’s much healthier and you will probably find it’s easier.

Of course there are many opinions on how best to use your cast iron cookware, but some of the basics tips are:

Pre-heat the pan before putting the food to be cooked in the pan.

To check the cooking surface to see if it’s at the correct temperature, simply put a few water droplets into the pan.  They should sizzle and roll around before evaporating.  If they evaporate immediately, the cooking surface is too hot.  If the water just sits there, it’s not hot enough.  You’ll get the hang of it after using your cast iron cookware several times.

Be very careful when cooking with cast iron cookware on an electric stove.  Electric heat sources provide a very concentrated, focused heat that can create hot spots on the cast iron and cause it to warp or crack.  It’s best to slowly heat the cookware and keep the burner temperature set on medium or medium-low.

Although properly seasoned cookware essentially has a non-stick surface, if you let something burn in it, it may stick a bit, and you may have to re-season it.

You want to make sure your cast iron cookware is seasoned prior to use.

Seasoning is a simple process which causes the cast iron to absorb oil into the pores, and will result in a black, non-stick surface.

Some folks suggest seasoning your new cast iron cookware simply by frying, and frying, and frying, …….  Every time you cook in cast iron cookware, you are actually seasoning it again by filling in the microscopic pores with oil.  The more you cook, the blacker and smoother the surfaces becomes.

Most all new pieces of cast iron cookware – cast iron skillets, cast iron dutch ovens, and cast iron baking pans – have a protective coating applied at the manufacturer, and ideally it should be removed prior to use.  Unfortunately, removing that coating may also remove the seasoning.  So, even though your cast iron cookware is seasoned when you get it, it’s best to scour off the protective coating and re-season it.

• Scour all surfaces with a stiff brush, dish washing soap, and hot water (as hot as you can stand).  You may even want to use a steel wool scouring pad.
• Thoroughly dry all surfaces.
• Preheat your oven to 350-500 degrees.
• Completely coat the inside and outside surfaces with melted shortening or vegetable oil.  Some folks prefer to use melted lard or bacon fat.  If the cast iron cookware has a lid, be sure to treat it in the same manner.  We suggest turning the pan upside down in the oven so oil does not pool in the pan and become gummy.  Be sure to put a flat baking sheet or foil on the grate under the pan.
• Place it on the middle rack of the oven for about 30 minutes.
• Remove it from the oven and wipe all surfaces until almost dry – removing pooled oil, but leaving a thin coat of oil.
• Place it back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
• Remove it from the oven and wipe off any residual oil, but be sure to leave a thin coating on all surfaces.
• Repeating this process prior to use is recommended because it helps create a better seasoning.

If you notice the oil pooled and became gummy, simply scrape the gummy oil out and either re-season it applying oil only to that spot, or you can re-season the entire pan.

Happy Creative Cooking!