Cast Iron Cooking

Cooking cold meat, using soap, and boiling with water...There's a special hell for those kinds of transgressions, LOL. Seriously though, there are lots of reasons on why to do the right thing, like food tasting better, being cooked to proper internal temps, reducing iron poisoning, accidental consumption of rust, and on and on. We can do better, be better and eat better

If you eat your meat well done or use a glass cutting board, please disregard all of my tips, as I wish you a speedy descent into the 7th circle.

 

Rare and wood or plastic cutting board.

 

Braised blue grouse, served with polenta. It was fantastic!

 

Get that butter flowing

 

Very nice set up. I know I’m a little late

 

My family loves cast iron pans. Mom still uses one she bought from a garage sale in the late 1950s. I picked up a few from thrift shops before CI became popular again. The one I love using the most was made in the 70s. I keep a small jar of pork fat for seasoning.

 

How am I just now finding this thread?
I cook in cast iron often and use 3 Dutch ovens for camping meals.

 

Yeah.....it's tough to beat Cast iron.
One of my favorite things to make is simple Sweet Cornbread.
It comes out about 3 inches thick with a sweet finish.
I'll try and find the recipe.
There's a Cooking with Cast Iron sight out there and it shouldn't be hard to find since there's so few of them out there.
They have some great recipes!!!

 

Yeah there is!!!
We always boil a little water in em and scrape em with a plastic spatula and thats it.
And thats assuming it has some baked on crud.
If not we just give them a rinse put a little oil on em,wipe em off and put em away.

 

I have a friend that has made one wall in her kitchen that is covered with recycled “Barn” Wood. She has all of her family’s cast iron and has a large collection of cornbread and other unique cast iron pans hung on the wall.

 

I saw something similar when I was looking for cast iron cookware storage ideas.

 

Emirle's New New Orleans pasta.

 

Some blackened tuna.

 

That or this: https://modernironworks.com/products/hanging-pot-rack-ceiling-mount-kitchen-94989.

I would love to have a wall like that. But what I use for now is this: https://www.lodgecastiron.com/products/cookware-storage-tower.

It is no joke and stout. Doesn't look like it from the picture but it is really solid. Found an open one on a store floor as a display. Last one and they gave me an excellent deal on it.

 

For the Sweet Cornbread we use the Big Cast iron pot with about inch or so legs on it with the rim around the lid.
Cant remember the number of Charcoal Briquettes but it's X number of Briquettes on the lid and X Number of them under the pot.
Comes out perfect every time.
Also have a Tripod we use for camping.
I made a couple of fire pits out of an old home sized propane tank.
Just cut the ends off,welded some legs on em,and a handle on both sides then welded a six inch long piece of tubing on the side.
Finished em up with an L shaped hanger thats adjustable in height and swings either direction.
You can easily use three different pieces of Cast iron at the same time.
While it's a heavy MoFo it's great for camping!!
Always have a second fire going just to hang out around and feed the other pitt you're cooking out of..
Was kinda worried about the thickness of the propane tank and that it would rust through but they're still going after 15 years.
Let me know if the pics come out...

Ah...this also shows the number of briquettes to use on the lid for the Cornbread.

 

DAMN!!!
Thats a Shitload of Cast Iron!!!

 

Two of our favorite sides in a Cast Iron is a two ingredient recipe Biscuits, and homemade (from scratch), garlic dinner rolls.

 

Love using Mesquite when making a Big Pot of Beans!!
You slide the lid off to the side to get a bit of Mesquite smoke in your Beans or Chile.
Makes for a really unique tasting pot of Beans or Chile.

 

Have a killer Cobbler recipe!!
We've used all kinds of different fruits in it.
Man am I ready for some cooler weather so we can fire up the pitts again!!!

 

Agree on both. I have several berry bushes around my house so when they come ripe, we collect all we can and then make a cobbler with scratch made crust! CI just makes food taste better!

ETA: I am going to be heading out camping with a couple buddies of mine. Going to run some Jambalaya in my Dutch Oven.

 

We have what are known as Dewberries here in Texas.
If you can find a big patch you can pick a Shit Ton of em!!!
They're great for pies and cobbler.

 

Never had them. Are they like a blueberry or Raspberry?

We have blackberry, wild berry, and another kind around us here.

 

If I had to guess they're closely related to the Blackberry.
Very sweet when ripe and a bit tart when not fully ripe.

 

Yeah....used a couple of Horseshoe posts for the handles on the pitts.
Heated em up and bent them.
Replaced the Horseshoe stakes with cold rolled steel posts that were three foot long so they wouldnt get sloppy.

 

Sounds good!

 

Fascinating. They do look like Black Berries. When are they usually come into season?

 

They're usually ready towards the end of April and can be picked till the end of May.
As Kids we'd go out and pick a Shit Ton of em and have my Mom make Pies and Cobbler.
Also made Home Made Ice Cream with them.
The hard part was beating the birds to em.
That and the competition could get fierce. When you found a big patch you never told anyone where you found them.
When we lived in the boonies it wasn't an issue.
If you really worked at it you could fill a five gallon bucket in an afternoon with a little help.
Of course we probably ate as many as we put in the bucket.
And the vines are covered in thorns so your hands would get pretty tore up.
You'd find acorn sized blobs of white foam on the vines that we always called Snake Spit.
Still dont know what it actually was.
Might have to look it up.

 

I can relate with the picking and eating. How many stomach aches I have had by picking one berry, eating three! LOL.

 

Yeah...that sounds familiar.