If you’ve been tightening your budget lately, you’re not alone. Across the country—and the globe—people of every economic standing are cutting back, trying to save more, and stretch what they have a little further.   Many times people look to their food budget to save money, and meats and vegetables are often the first to go.  Steak is definitely expensive, but you don’t need to buy filet mignon to have a delicious piece of meat.

Some of the more cost effective cuts, which we tend to think of as being tough, are ideal for use in your cast iron stew pot. During the low and slow cooking process, the fats and connective tissues in the meat break down, adding flavor and tenderizing the meat.  Stews are also a great way to stretch your food budget, as you can add more stock to increase the volume and the leftovers always taste better anyway.

We would love to hear about your budget-busting cooking strategies!

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.

When we first started primitive camping (rendezvous), Dusty always kept a pair of welder’s gloves close to the fire so he could handle the hot cast iron pots and pans.  He also kept a nice hand-forged hook hanging on the utensil rack and used it to hook the bail of the dutch oven when he lifted it off of the fire to see if what he was cooking was done.

One day, an old timer happened to walk by the camp and saw Dusty lift the dutch oven off of the fire, lift the lid off with the welder’s glove, check the contents, put the lid back on, hook the bail, and set the dutch oven back on the fire.  Sounds like a lot of work, eh? Well, it was.  The old timer said howdy and said he was going to be back in a few minute with something that would make cooking over the fire a lot easier.  Of course, Dusty thought the old timer was going to bring back his wife to do the cooking – yeah, right.  

What he brought us was a cast iron lid lifter.  It’s a very handy tool that is made specifically for lifting  the lid off of a dutch oven while it’s still over the fire or in the coals, and you can do that without getting burned.  You just slip it through the small loop on the dutch oven lid and it stabilizes the lid when you take it off.  It’s great, and made cooking even more enjoyable – for Dusty.  If you use a dutch oven you shouldn’t be without it.

We have mentioned several times over the past few months about how durable and strong cast iron pots and pans are compared to modern cookware.  I’m a bit embarrassed to tell you this, but it really is a good example of how you can get away with mistreating them.  Dusty and I spent two very long evenings packing up the truck for our camping trip to TN.  We usually have most of the gear in a covered trailer that we take to the rendezvouses (primitive camps), so everything is always nicely organized and the time for packing is minimal.  Since we didn’t take the trailer, we had to unpack all the gear from the trailer and load it into the truck.   We joking said that we will look like the Beverly Hillbillies cruising down the interstate!   We were ready to head out and I remembered that several pieces of our cast iron cookware were still on the stove.  I ran in and got them and literally tossed them into the back of the truck between all the other gear.  They survived the 1,800 mile round trip just fine.

We took our first camping trip of the season and once again we discovered how easy it is to use various pieces of our cast iron cookware to prepare the meals.  What we really like about it is the durability and easy clean up.  Depending on your personal preference, cleanup can be as easy as wiping out the debris, applying a think coat of oil, and you’re done.  

Another great aspect of all cast iron pots and pans is that they retain heat for a long time.  So, you can take them off of the fire (or camp stove) set them on the table and the food stays warm – even long enough for those of us who like to go back for seconds!

Whether you are cooking at home or at the camp site, you really don’t need a lot of pots and pans to get the job done.   Just a few basic pieces – and a little ingenuity – goes a long way.  Although Pamela and I have a whole trunk full of cast iron cookware that we take to the rendezvouses, we usually wind up using just a few pieces, and use the same ones at home for cooking on the stove and in the oven.  We can prepare all of our recipes with just a 3-piece skillet set, a griddle, and a dutch oven with a lid.

Call me crazy, but I enjoy the challenge of cooking 3 or 4 dishes at the same time and making sure everything is nice and hot when served.  Cast iron pots and pans makes that a lot easier because they retain the heat for a long time.

In Pamela’s last blog, she referenced how much fun it is to get the kids or grand kids involved in helping you make muffins.  As simple as that may sound, it is really a much greater accomplishment than simply getting them to help you bake muffins.  It’s an easy, fun way to introduce them to a method of cooking that is about as basic as you can get and that has been around for hundreds of years.  Using cast iron cookware is truly about as “green” as it gets when it comes to cooking.  Even very young kids these days know what “going green” means, and teaching them to use cast iron cookware is something that they will appreciate for the rest of their lives.   It is very inexpensive, very durable (will last a lifetime or more), has no toxic coating or chemicals, and it will give them at least a touch of appreciation for the good ole days.   I was fortunate enough to know, and spend time with, four of my great grandparents, and I distinctly remember seeing my great grandmas cooking everything in cast iron pots and pans.  Of course, that was probably about the only thing available at the time, but looking back on those experiences, and remembering how good it all tasted, makes me realize there must have been something to it.  Progress and technology are wonderful, but some things just can’t be beat!

Well folks, it’s been a while since I provided you with insightful advise concerning some things you really should not do with your cast iron cookware, and as with the first two extremely helpful tips, I’m not referring to anything remotely connected to cooking.  I know these things because someone I know has either done them, or knows someone who has – and of course, I’m not speaking of my own experiences because I know better!

Tip #3: A cast iron skillet is a pretty good make-shift shovel on a camping trip if you forgot to pack the real thing.  However, the dirt and rocks will damage the seasoning and you’ll have to re-season  it.  Additionally,  if the only water available is what you carried with you, you may find the next meal you cook has a distinctive earthy flavor and texture.  Hey, but it’s good to know that your cast iron skillet really can hold up to such abuse.

We’re interested in hearing about your unique experiences using cast iron pots and pans.  Just send us an e-mail or a comment through our blog site.

Periodically, we receive questions concerning various health-related issues of using cast iron cookware.  If you own cast iron pots and pans you either already know this, or you’ve surfed the web and have read that most users of cast iron cookware don’t recommend scrubbing it with soap.    The main reason for this is that soap and/or hot water may actually breakdown the seasoning on the skillet, and that can lead to food sticking to the surface, possible iron flavor to your food (but some folks like that), and rust if you don’t dry it after washing.

If you are concerned about the health issue of not washing your cast iron cookware between uses, you can use a very small amount of soap and very lightly wash the interior surface.  If you do this, you will want to heat the pan and apply a light coat of oil after washing and it should probably be periodically re-seasoned (see blog post dated 2/24/2010).

This past weekend, Dusty and I finally had a chance to get away and stay at a beautiful B&B in Winchester, VA.  It wasn’t far from home, and was only a few miles away from a bluegrass concert we were going to attend Saturday night.   We were the only guests at the B&B so we had the opportunity to visit with, and get to know the proprietors.  They are wonderful folks, their home is beautiful, the bed was comfortable, and there was a lot to do without even leaving the house.  It was raining all weekend, so we just hung out and chatted with the owners.

Other than just getting away and spending time together, the best part about our stay was the fantastic gourmet breakfasts.  Later in our stay, the owners took us into the kitchen to show us some of their antiques, and guess what we saw on the stove and hanging on the walls – that’s right, all sorts of cast iron cookware.  We had a feeling that such good meals could only have been prepared in well-seasoned cast iron pots and pans.

There was also a huge fire place with a large cast iron swing arm to hang pots on.  I don’t know if they actually use the fire place for cooking, but it sure is nice.