Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Educate me on cast iron

I wanted an excuse to give Lodge some more of my money. My son and I love cornbread, and I'm a little excited about all those corner pieces I'll be enjoying next week.

Ya gotsta post pics on arrival!

In my kitchen:

Ceramic: Fried eggs, primarily. They slide around, flip, and slide out like SNOT. GREAT pans for this application. Also, crepes, and fried cheese applications.

Regular coated pots and pans: Delicate foods, such as seafood, general steaming, veggies, general low-to-moderate heat sauteing... Sometimes the ceramic can cover these applications too.

Cast Iron (skillets, dutch oven): Deep frying. High heat searing (steaks cooked "black and blue")... Almost any cooking at a campsite. Seared raw ahi. Corn bread/general baking. Fun desserts and the like in the backyard fire pit. Deglasing while making certain dishes. Also, dishes that require a sear followed by oven cooking.

Stuffed pork chops. Preheat cast iron skillet, brown on one side, flip, into preheated 350F oven untill done. One good reason for cast iron.

Drawback, heck if they're too heavy for her then she can't whack you with it!

I was surprised no one mentioned what a nice weapon a CI fry pan can make in a pinch, although I prefer one for its intended use.

Geno

PS, put one in the fridge for a few minutes and use it for an "alarm clock" for the sluggish riser in your house, just slide it between the sheets with them, maybe even on a bare part of the body.

Yes, a stainless pan with a stainless clad aluminum heat sink bottom. Bought in '99 and the whole set of sauce pans, fry pan, and big spaghetti/soup pot are one of the best investments my wife and I made with wedding gift money.

Unfortunately, I can't remember the brand and I'm away from the wife's place for work. I do remember they were a bit "spendy" back then. Similar to the "All Clad" brand.

Geno

PS, back on the cast iron topic, there's nothing quite like a flour tortilla quesadilla nice and toasty from a cast iron comal (griddle).

Put a frozen chunk of meat in a room temp CI skillet to speed thawing, sandwich it between 2 to go faster. Make sure any moisture is taken care of before putting them away.

Not as much available as 10 years ago, but Griswold and Wagner cast iron is still pretty common at the flea markets....

Wife quit using loaf pans and makes her banana bread in a cast iron pan now, 10" maybe? She was fighting the bread not being done in the middle of the loaf, doesn't have that issue now, and I could care less what the shape of the banana bread is in, they all accept a big smear of butter just fine.