Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Classic cast iron cooking?

Well, to us it is, anyway. The many cast iron skillets, griddles and pots we have get lots of use, year round. Frying, braising, stewing, baking, you name it. Admittedly, the most use of the skillets get are with the timeless eggs, ham/bacon/sausage/hash and potatoes, but truly, the use of such cookware makes me smile no matter what I'm tossing in them.

Here's a dead easy dinner for 2-4. Home style sukiyaki. A few veggies (broccoli rabe, scallions, Chinese cabbage, onion and snow peas tonight) some meat of decent quality thin sliced, some tofu if you like, a couple of eggs, a simple cooking sauce (shoyu/soy, mirin/rice wine--for cooking-- and a tiny bit of sugar). Practically no prep other than cutting. Cook until piping hot and bring the whole shebang over to the table. Sit down, crack a brew and dig in. Historically, the dish is said to have originated in the agricultural areas with the peasantry tossing together whatever veggies, and any meat they might have, onto a flat spade shovel and had at it in the fields over open fires.

I know some of you out there *really* know how to make music with their cast iron. Show whatcha' got!

its taken a few years,but I have converted the wife over to cast iron cooking.ham,eggs , chicken,all of it get the cast iron treatment now.

KG: The backyard grill is buried under 3 feet of snow....so....


(just as one example) I seasoned the lamb chops (thick one's from Pace's in Saugus);seared in the cast iron skillet,fast and hot until browned nicely, then put the whole thing in the oven with lid on at 250 degrees for 15 minutes.

Crispy seared outside.juicy and perfect medium rare on the inside. Easy.Veddy good!

If you must cook indoors, cast iron is the true path...nothing else works as well.

Good on you. Now just mind to behave when your lady is in the kitchen mad about something. Catching an iron skillet in the noggin' can't feel anything but bad.

A couple old shots with a different kind of cooking altogether, but the end result allus makes me happy. Several of my very favorites are family hand me downs, and have been used regularly for near 90 years by one side of the family, and around 120 years in the case of one of the irons that originally belonged to WM's great gran in Scotland. Old thing I'd call a griddle with a thin iron handle and hook so as to be used on a cooking surface or hung over a fire. Anyway, love to see or hear of any others and their black gold cookware.

Does simple stuff like sausage, hash browns and eggs (to follow) count? Runnin' cast iron on cast iron in Idaho.

That is a thing of beauty. That stove should make all food taste good.

Even lazyazz cherry pie with ready made crust. He who cuts his own wood is twice warmed, he who cooks with it is thrice warmed.

Awesome pics there guys,

I used cast iron for eggs, bacon, and have no problems with sticking, but if I use it to cook burgers for example then use it to fry eggs in the next day, it sticks.

I try to use a good olive oil for cooking everything. What do yall use in the care and use of your cast iron?

Kamo, I could eat both of those chickens by myself! The skin looks just right. You can keep the tofu tough.

My wife says I have iron skillet fetish. I have several griddles many skillets, one that is square I make cornbread in and a deep skillet called a chicken cooker. I have started picking up a few sheet metal skillets lately and like them also, especially for cooking directly over a fire.

I have never been one to like breakfast espeecially well but I cook hashbrowns and then 2 eggs mixed well and cooked like an omelet and foulded like a taco and 4 HOT sauage patties. I put the taters on the bottom then stack the 2 eggs on top then put the 4 sausage patties on topof the eggs. Easy as it gets and the flavors blend together well and the consistency is good, cremey egg and crispy hashbrowns. You don't even need to salt it, the spicy sausage takes care of the seasoning.

Only thing don't use iron for is making chicken and dumplings.

outdoor fire apple cinnamon cake - tastes better than it looks

Well it look pretty dng good.

That looks fantastic.

KG: That looks like duck(?) Got a recipe?

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I only cok on cast iron. My free range eggs are awsum on cast iron. ALso, it is safer since our bidies need iron and no doubt we get a bit of iron when we cook on it. My sis works at a hospital and she reads a lot about old timers disease. A high percentage of old timers with this disease cooked with aluminum pans for long periods of time. For this reason I only cook on cast. Nice post Camo.

a dutch oven with legs is so versatile - many times we'll flip the lid over and use it as a frying pan while we cook something else in the dutch.

kudo's to the biscuit picture. Thru trial and error we've finally figure out how to make them in a dutch.

every time i go to Leighton's i gain weight.

Kamo, would you mind posting those duck recipes?

ojo i'll see if i can get the recipe for duck gravy from my coonass friend, its damn good.

Love my cast iron.





squirrel





squirrel gravy





bluegill fillets





fried cabbage


Shouldn't have looked/posted on this thread, I'm gettin hungry....


maddog

Bob - That's funny, did something similar with thick cut pork chops last week. Sauteed up some sweet onions and celery, added some chopped up apples to mix and a hint of cinnamon, then hit the pork chops in the hot pan until seared, covered and threw into the over at 325 for 20-25 minutes. Side of basmati rice and brochili. Made for a tasy meal.

Deer camp this year, deer chili with cheesy Mexican cornbread on top - with a can of cream corn mixed into the bread.

I camped next to a bunch of guys at the last bike rally I went to, they were dutch oven fanatics and shared their creations with me. Flung a craving, came home talking about it, so my GF surprised me with a 10" Lodge and all the accessories.
Having fun!

KG,

Funny story about my sweet ol gramma.

Seems like her 2nd husband liked to have a few at the bar before coming home from work.
Once night after how many times of fixing supper only to have him come home late and the dinner being cold she had enough.
Wimpy was his nickname came strolling in with a glow and gramma beaned him over the head with a frying pan knocking him out cock stiff. She stormed off to bed leaving him on the kitchen floor. They had a dog named Bowser so some time later there is some movement and Wimpy headed for the couch. All that was heard in a slurred voice as he got there was "I guess it is just you and me tonight Bowser"

And that is the sweet gramma that before I heard what a holy terror she was with stuff like above I would have never believed it because she treated me like I walked on water.

This story is told whenever we talk about her, she passed away in 2002 and I miss her stories and humor to this day.

Thanks for bringing this up it is a great topic. My mom cooks with cast iron that has been in the family for years and the taste of fresh walleye fillets coming from that pan is a little bit of heaven in a pan.

Showing that squirrel and gills is serious torture.

Killing me Kent with those fresh crappie -

I hear ya!


Im throwing stuff in the car right now and heading to mad dogs house!

Of course, and just fantastic, Ed. I grew up in a Victorian home where our stove and ovens were one giant piece. It was a Glendale (edit: maybe Glenwood) and had 6 burners, 2 ovens, butter melter, bread box, warming/pie compartment.

It was turn of the century vintage, I believe. It was a monstrosity and a tank, and I loved it then and miss it now. It had an interesting igniting system, where you'd have to lift a brass collar, turn on a stove burner then depress a spring loaded button, upon which a four-tongued flame would shoot out from the center to reach the four main burners, igniting any that had gas on. As kids we loved watching and playing with that thing. It was like a mini flammenwerfer.

When Wee Muther eventually decided that she wanted something more modern, my brother and I despaired. Not as much as the boys tasked with installing the new stove and removing the old one, however (part of the new stove sale deal). The look on their faces was priceless. They eventually need to get a total of six guys to get it out of the house. It must have weighed 800 pounds, no joke. I wish I'd have had the foresight to have kept the beast in the garage. I've seen them in places selling for big money. The only thing was that Wee Muther always complained that the ovens were far too small. You couldn't even get a medium sized turkey in one. That said, the cool factor on that old stove, and yours, Ed, is off the charts.

Thanks to all for chiming in. Some awesome stuff. Something about these old things, so many still so useful and often better than the new fangled, throwaway type stuff we have today just floats my boat.

Just looking again at some of the other pics. You boys can flat rock the iron. Outstanding!

I don't own a pan that is not cast iron. I learned long ago that most people use WAY too much oil in them. I can whip up anything from eggs to enchiladas with a stop at oyster stew on the way and it is grand. if you don't have cast iron experience.....get some.

Chickens? Those are wild ducks, you heathen! Mallards, to be specific. It they were teal, which I love to cook and eat whole, there would've been four, which fit into that pan perfectly.

Everyday use.
Everything from steaks to eggs to veggies.

I like using lard/animal fat for seasoning. Cook with different kinds of oils, but mostly peanut, canola and olive.

We only have one skillet that isn't cast iron.

Used to take forever to get them up to temp on the old electric range, now that we have a gas range they come up to temp quick and are even more enjoyable to use. I'm still learning how to relate the knob positions with temp.

It's not exact, but very similar to this one, EB.

http://www.recipe.com/rhenas-roast-duck/

Sweet Jayzus the crappie and squirrel dishes look amazing. A+, cookie!

CI is certainly veratile.












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Bizkits...



Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Great thread. I need to take some pictures of all the cast iron I've acquired over the years. It's an obscene amount.

Thanks for starting and sharing guys!!

Was thinking the same thing.

i only cook with cast iron

great 'foodie' shots KG.

Cast iron cookware has a place in my kitchen, both at home and when camping. There are just some tasks nothing else can do as well.

Even in the oven, cast iron makes good bisquits, I'd rather make gravy in stainless to clean up easy when at home.

Totally agree. They do tons of work well, but that said, it ain't exactly a practical wok, for example.

Corn bread in the CI.

Full batch it the 10"; half batch in the 8"

Nice collection of Griswold

You gotta have this:



To wind up with this:



Steen's Sorghum, Wright's brand thick sliced bacon, and home made biscuits with real butter.

But for camping, I use my sheet iron skillets. I've got three of different sizes. Two of them were made for me while I watched at a shop in Ballarat Aus.

Sticking with the western theme......grin

That reminds me, I need to come get my grill

Yep, it's sitting on the back of the garage. worked well heating the lower on the biscuits. May have to make me one.

Kent

It is all I cook with. Between enameled and bare cast iron, skillets, dutch ovens, pots and pans, I must have 30 pieces.

My daughters thought I was crazy assembling my stuff, but they see the value in it now. They prefer cooking on it too now.

Leighton, you keep posting these kinds of photos and you'll end up on my [bleep] list! I've been working out 2 hours a day and eating like an anorexic heroine addict since Thanksgiving to get back to my college size. Everytime I open one of your posts, the 'fridge takes a beating. You doing this to torment me? No beer and 1500 kcal's/day will make you grumpy after a while!

Here is my trailer with 80 ovens in it including some BIG ones. Feed 50 people cobbler out of one of the square ones!

[img:left][/img]

holy crap.

Gotta like those old Monarch's. My exact stove is on The Shootist.

This one's very similar to the one I grew up with.





Great stuff, y'all. Dennis, you've got enough there to melt down and cast a field artillery piece! Wow!

HOARDER !!

Our scout troop trailer looks like that.

Scouting is the reason I got into cast iron cooking. Before that I never considered it, now I love it.

Almost forgot....when yer fryin' bluegills and/or squirrels, it's nice to have some cornbread to go along with it.





maddog

Hey Maddog - care to part with that receipe?

Thanks

mom raised me on regular cornbread made in a cast iron skillet. I was never a fan - didn't even know sweet cornbread existed until my wife made it for me one night.

I'll knock out a pan of sweet cornbread with real butter.

Well that is one fine collection of cast. A question for the long time cast iron users. Is there any truth to the claim that using cast will increase iron in the blood?

This thread is torture... for personal reasons ;(

I need to buy more cast iron. The older brands, Griswald, Sydney and the like are getting harder to find in any shape at all, and at a price a sane person would pay.
Lodge still makes good quality pieces. The Chinese stuff is very iffy, and I tend to shy away from it.
European enameled cast iron, Staub, Emerald, Le Creuset, while excellent in every way, are VERY spendy.
Ebay can be your friend for the older pieces. So can antique stores, roadside garage sales and word of mouth.
I have very little, compared to some 'hoarders'.

Almost hate to tell you. It's just Martha White sweet yellow cornbread. just follow the directions. I pour it in 8" cast iron skillet, that's been sprayed with canola oil and preheated.


maddog

In a word, yes.

http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/IronCastIron.htm

Most of those weren't mine- I gathered them up to cook for a group of about 400 people a couple of years ago. I do a lot of large group cooking with a couple of other guys. They had the large ovens made and bought a bunch of big 20" ovens before one of the foundries went under. I have only a couple of regular ovens myself, a 16" and a 14".

What we own my wife bought in the past 10 years at auctions and barn sales in north Idaho.