It was great waking up in the tipi this morning, pulling the door flap back and seeing 6 inches of snow on the ground.  It got down to 14° last night, but the roaring fire kept the inside of the tipi warm until we went to bed, then the wood stove kept us toasty warm through the night.  

There were still plenty of coals in the fire pit and the stove to quickly get fires going and then we prepared a wonderful breakfast using our cast iron skillets and vintage copper coffee pot.

It’s easy to use your cast iron cookware on any type of wood stove – even if you don’t have a tipi!  Enjoy the experience!

Folks who aren’t used to cooking with a cast iron skillet, or have only used it over an open fire, may be reluctant to cook with it on an electric stove.  You can use a cast iron skillet on the stove, but you just need to be a bit cautious.

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.

Cast iron cookware retains heat so well that once you’ve started cooking, you can usually turn the burner down pretty low to continue cooking.  It’s easy to adjust the temp up or down just a bit as necessary.

It’s sort of like brain surgery, you’ll get the hang of it if you do it enough!

Whether you’re using your cast iron skillet to cook on top of the stove or over an open fire, it’s important to have the cooking surface at the correct temperature prior to cooking.  This can help decrease cooking time or keep your food from burning and possibly sticking to the surface.  Of course, if you’re a technology nut and have one of those laser gizmos that can detect surface temperatures you’ve got it made.  But whipping one of those out at the rendezvous, or even in your camp site, just isn’t very cool.  So, we have to resort to the good ole, tried and true method.

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 this method a few times.

P.S. – Spit works just as good but tends to freak some folks out!

Using a cast iron dutch oven to bake desserts can be a lot of fun.  This simple recipe is for fruit cobbler that I have baked many times at the rendezvouses and I’m sure it will be a hit in your home or camp. 

I’ve listed all the ingredients with estimated quantities, but of course, the exact amount depends on the quantity of cobbler you want to make, how moist you want it, and how much crust/dough you prefer.

Supplies and Ingredients

• Medium to large cast iron dutch oven
• Medium sauce pan (optional, if you want to cook the fruit)
• Bowl – for mixing the dough
• Fruit of choice (fresh, frozen, or canned) – amount depends on size of dutch oven
• Bisquick
• Milk
• 1 Egg (optional)
• 1/2 cup sugar (if you are using unsweetened fruit and you prefer the cobbler to be sweet rather than tart)

  Directions
  

• If you prefer to cook the fruit first, add just enough water in a pan to cover the fruit and add the sugar.  Bring it to a boil and cook until the liquid thickens a bit.  While the fruit is simmering, you can make the dough.
• Add Bisquick to the bowl, add the egg, and stir in the milk (or water if you prefer). You can add spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, more sugar or whatever.  Kneed the dough until it’s thoroughly mixed and fairly stiff.  On a surface sprinkled with Bisquick (or flour), roll out the dough to a thickness of no more than 1/2″.  Cut into strips about 1″ wide and the appropriate length for your dutch oven.
• Place the dough strips on the bottom of the dutch oven about 1/2″ apart.  Spacing of the strips will depend on how much dough you prefer in your cobbler.
• Pour off, or strain, the liquid from the fruit.  Poor about 1/2 of the fruit into the dutch oven and spread it out evenly.  Put another layer of dough strips on the fruit.  Pour the rest of the fruit into the dutch oven and cover it with dough strips.
• Add the strained water to the dutch oven.  A lot of the moisture will cook out of the fruit and dough, so adding a significant amount of the strained water is recommended.  I think it’s better to have soggy cobbler than real dry cobbler.
• Cover the dutch oven and place in the oven at 350° for 30 minutes (give or take a few).

If you prefer to not make a mess in your dutch oven, read our blog post titled, “No Mess Baking In Your Cast Iron Dutch Oven.”  You can’t make as much cobbler, but it’s great not having to clean your dutch oven!

If you’ve ever done any cooking outdoors, you know that you definitely want to choose items that are more durable than your average cookware. After all, pots, pans, and utensils that aren’t heavy duty are liable to warp or be destroyed in the extreme heat put off by butane camping stoves or campfires. That’s why so many people who cook outdoors prefer items like Old Mountain cast iron.

If you choose camping cookware made of cast iron, you can cook your meals without any concern for them being destroyed, even in the most intense heat. They will also prove easy to clean, which is another major benefit.  Alth0ugh cast iron is heavy, there are several types of small skillets that are sutiable for back packing.  If you’re car/truck camping, take the whole cooking set!

Folks who have been using a cast iron dutch oven for a long time have probably learned many innovative methods to make the process as easy and clean as possible.   I often use our cast iron cookware over an open fire and in/on coals produced naturally by burning down hard wood to an excellent bed of coals.  That process is inherently a bit messy what with the soot, but I learned a real neat (literally) method of baking in any size dutch oven that totally eliminates any mess at all inside the dutch oven.

You can use a dutch oven with or without legs for this method of baking.  Here are a couple simple things you can do when baking in a dutch oven to eliminate the mess and to help create even heat distribution inside the covered dutch oven:

For no-mess baking:

• Get a non-stick cake pan that will fit inside the dutch oven.

• It’s best to lightly grease all surfaces of the cake pan.

• Put whatever you’re going to bake inside the cake pan, then put the cake pan inside the dutch oven.

If  done properly, there will be absolutely no mess in the dutch oven.

For even heat distribution:

• Get four large hex nuts – the size depends on the size of your dutch oven. I usually use at least ½” hex nuts, and if you’re using a really large dutch oven, I suggest using lug nuts. 

• Place the hex nuts on the bottom of the dutch oven so that the cake pan will rest evenly on them.  If the nuts happen to move while handling the dutch oven, the cake pan may tilt and the contents of the pan may spill onto the bottom of the dutch oven.

You can place the dutch oven directly on a layer of coals since the cake pan is not in direct contact with the bottom of the dutch oven.  This allows for faster baking time.  The use of a dutch oven with legs also helps prevent the bottom of whatever you’re baking from burning.

Although, the cast iron stays hot for a long time after removing it from the fire or coals, the bottom will cool more quickly, especially if the dutch oven is placed on a cool surface – and especially in the winter.  The hex nuts keep the bottom of the cake pan off of the cast iron surface, allowing for even heat distribution even after cooking.  So your dish will stay nice and warm for a long time.

Send us your innovative ways of using cast iron cookware and we’ll share them with our readers.    Hope to hear from you.

This is another subject for which there are many opinions.  Pamela and I attended a cast iron cookware care and cleaning seminar at one of the primitive rendezvouses and we were told that you can use Coca-Cola – the acid and carbonation supposedly eats the rust away.  I didn’t drink a soda for a couple days!

You can find old cast iron cookware at garage sales and antique stores, and even though they may be rusty, they can clean up pretty nicely and be very functional.

In our continuing quest to share our experiences and knowledge about cast iron cookware, we have come across many methods of removing rust.  All seem to be effective, but some are essentially on the dangerous side – using caustic chemicals – and others seem to be very messy and time consuming.  I’m the kind of guy who likes to see excellent results with minimal time, effort, and mess. 

Before attempting to remove the rust, the surface should be clean and free of all debris and oil.  This can be accomplished by scrubbing the surface with a stiff brush, hot water, and soap.  Be sure to dry it before removing the rust.

I prefer using one of the following methods:

• Scour the entire surface with steel wool until all of the rust is removed and the surface is nice and smooth.  The coarseness of the steel wool necessary depends on the thickness and amount of rust present.  An alternative is to use an SOS pad and water.

OR

• Put a wire brush wheel in your electric drill and go to town.  The amount of pressure necessary will depend on the depth of the rust.  This works really well for getting into tight corners and rounded surfaces.  Caution:  You should wear safety glasses when performing this procedure.

Once you’ve removed the rust:

• Wash, rinse, and dry the pan.  A good way to make sure it’s completely dry is to place it on low heat until all the water has evaporated.
• Re-season the pan.  See the blog posted on Jan 4, 2010 – How To Season New Cast Iron Cookware.

When most folks pull out their cast iron skillet or pot (Pam suggested I should probably say “pan” here) to prepare the evening meal, they probably don’t experience a mind-boggling time warp, but if you think about it, they’re actually doing something that their great, great, great, great,  grandparents did – and that is using cast iron cookware!  Cast iron has been around for centuries, and there are many pieces of cast iron cookware that have been handed down from generation to generation and are still in excellent condition.  We use a large cast iron skillet that belonged to my great grandmother, and we know it had been in her family for at least a couple generations.

Do you have a wood stove in your house or workshop?  If so, you can really get a feel for what it was like for our ancestors to cook on the wood stove.  Try cooking something in your dutch oven in the fireplace.  You can have all sorts of fun while experimenting with unique recipes and ways to use your cast iron pots and pans.

I often use my cast iron cookware to cook on the wood stove in my tipi……but that’s another story.

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

From time to time, you may experience a slight metallic taste when eating food prepared in your cast iron cookware.  Is this a problem?  Well, the taste may not be very appealing, but it may actually be a good thing.  Seriously, one advantage of cooking in cast iron is that a little iron may leach out into your food and can help provide the iron that your body requires – but don’t count on it to get your daily recommended dose of iron.  If you don’t like the taste, you can easily resolve the problem.

A metallic taste usually means one or more of the following:

• Your cookware has not been properly seasoned
• Your cookware needs to be re-seasoned
• The food reacted with the cast iron
• The food has been in the pan too long

  Remember, it’s not a good idea to store food – especially acidic food – in cast iron.  As soon as possible after cooking, the food should be removed just to make sure you don’t get that metallic taste.

  If you think your cast iron cookware needs to be re-seasoned, simply follow the procedure for re-seasoning your cast iron cookware.