Cast Iron Cookware for Every Day or Gormet
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
It really does not matter if you are a professional chef or a beginner, cast iron cookware is easy to use and very forgiving of your mistakes. It allows you to be the chef.
Lodge Cast Iron Cookware
Cast Iron cookware comes in a variety of cooking forms. You can choose from many sizes of frying pans, dutch ovens, , griddles, and even flattop grills.
Choose from:
- cast iron pie irons, single and double
- old fashioned cast iron waffle makers
- dog’brat roasters
- cast iron panini makers
- cast iron bread bakers
- camping cookware and accessories
Professional cook, beginner or anywhere in between, cast iron cookware gives you great flexibility for the same pot, or pan, will go from cooking on the stove-top, directly into baking mode in the oven, making cast iron very adaptable for a number of dishes, both every day and gourmet.
CAST IRON COOKWARE ALLOWS YOU TO TASTE THE FOOD NOT THE COOKWARE
Cast Iron Cookware for Every Day and Gourmet
Have Your Comfort Food and Eat it Too With Castiron Cookware
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
My wife claims that nothing tastes better than hog fat. She may be right but it is not so great for the body.
“Fat adds flavor,” says Millicent Braxton-Calhoun, program officer with University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. But she adds some good news. Recipes can be modified and it is easier than you might think Take macaroni and cheese, a leading comfort food.
- start by not adding salt to the pasta water
- use low-fat milk and low-fat cheese
Other popular comfort foods are meatloaf and lasagna.
- reach for ground beef that is 90% lean and 10% fat instead of the 80% lean and 20% fat
- choose ground turkey breast meat
Braxton-Calhoun notes that modern non-stick cookware also will help us to cook with less fat, because a little non-stick spray or a little bit of oil goes a long way.
Cast Iron cookware, when properly seasoned, is excellent for cooking non-stick dishes and for adding vegetables to increase the flavor and nutrition. It is also a good way to sneak vegetables by “picky kids”.
Our Cast Iron Dutch Oven with Veggies
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven
Other substitution ideas can be found on the internet.
Cook In Cast Iron for Health, Flavor, Comfort and Convenience
Rome’s Original # 6977 Picnic Ready Mini Folding Grill
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
What’s not to like with this Picnic Ready Mini Folding Grill from Rome Industries, makers of quality outdoor cookware since 1964. This extremely handy and transportable charcoal grill
- assembles in less than one minute with no tools required
- folds flat for storage
- chrome plated grill measures 11 1/2 ” x 8 1/2 x 6″
- baked enamel steel frame for endurance
- idea for tailgating, picnics and camping
Picnic Ready Folding Grill from Rome (imported from China)
Cast Iron Camping Cookware and Camping Cookware Accessories
Listen And The Plantations On Cane River In Natchitoches, Louisiana Will Tell You Their Story
Posted by Doyle Bailey for
Tour Natchitoches with Barbara
“They huddle close upon this tarnished field,
In dusty gray companionship. But once
Life surged about them, throbbing fast with song”
(Lois Kingsley, Slave Cabins)
Slave Cabin At Oakland Plantation
One mile to the north and 12 miles to the south of where Barbara and I live are slave cabins. At Magnolia Plantation there were 70 at one time. At Oakland Plantation there were not so many. I have often wondered which cabin was the home of Oakland’s accomplished blacksmith Solomon Williams and his wife Laide. When you visit Oakland, you can still see the augers and drill bits this true craftsman designed.
Solomon Williams also made hinges, pad locks, iron pots and most of the hardware used on the Oakland Plantation. The iron pots used for cooking, washing clothes, scalding pigs, making lye soap and more, were made on the plantation in the blacksmith’s shop. Not all the songs sung on the plantation came from the fields. Many voices would have been heard in songs around the daily tasks of keeping the plantation, literally a colony of people, operating to survive and produce cash crops.
Oakland Plantation, Louisiana with Iron Pot
The enslaved people who lived on the plantations had remarkable skills, and perhaps due to their enormous suffering, a beauty of soul and spirit not often seen. They lived lives and told stories that deserve to be told still. If you will go to where they lived, slow down and listen, perhaps you will hear.
When Barbara and I cook in cast iron cookware, which we do on almost a daily basis, we feel we are in touch with an amazing line of Southern cooks who give true meaning to expressions like “soul food” and “comfort food” to say nothing of incomparably delicious food. If these pots could talk, what a story they would tell!
Slave Cabin At Magnolia Plantation
Oakland and Magnolia Plantations are now part of the Cane River Creole Historic National Park on the Cane River in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
For Information on Plantation Tours in Natchitoches, Louisiana Click Here
For Information on Cast Iron Pots, Pans, Skillets and Dutch Ovens, Click Here.
Experience That Old Black Magic Cooking In Cast Iron Cookware
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
Cook With That Old Black Magic In Cast Iron Cookware
Black is back! In fact it never really went away. The same black cast iron cookware your mother and grandmother cooked with is gaining in popularity every day.
Black Cast Iron for Southern Cooking
The colorful enamel ware in cast iron is beautiful and you can even serve your food from it. However, my favorite is black pre-seasoned cast iron cookware.
I also love to “rescue” pieces of cast iron cookware from flea markets and garage sales. To see a skillet or dutch oven that was covered with rust restored to usefulness is a greatly satisfying experience. The patina of the black cookware is only matched by the glow of satisfaction I feel.
Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes and Apples Cooked In Cast Iron
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
PORK CHOPS WITH SWEET POTATOES AND APPLES
C'est si bon
Adapted from “KitchenAid Best-Loved Recipes.”
• 4 slices bacon
• 4 pork loin chops (1 in. thick), fat trimmed
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and shredded
• 3 medium apples, peeled, cored and shredded
• 1 small onion, shredded
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. dried chervil
• 1 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cook bacon in a 12-inch skillet
Lodge 12 Inch Skillet
over medium-high heat until crisp.
- Drain all but 1 tablespoon fat.
- Crumble bacon and set aside.
- Rub pork chops with lemon juice.
- Brown in bacon fat.
- Remove from pan and set aside.
- Drain all but 1 tablespoon fat.
- Add sweet potatoes, apples and onion to pan.
- Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add salt, pepper, nutmeg and chervil.
- Mix well.
- Place vegetable mixture in a lightly oiled dutch oven pan.
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven
- Arrange pork chops on top of mixture.
- Sprinkle with chopped parsley and bacon.
- Cover tightly and bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes, or until pork chops are tender.
- Serve immediately.
Food Just Naturally Tastes Better When Cooked In Cast Iron Cookware. It allows you to taste the food not the cookware.
Cook In Cast Iron for Flavor and Convenience
Create a Family Tradition with Rome’s Pie Irons and Cook Your Way to Family Fun
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast iron Cookware Shop
There is no way you can have too many irons in the fire with Rome’s Cast Iron Pie Irons unless you want to limit family fun.
“Pie are square“? Sometimes “Pie are Round“! Round or square, Pies are Cool and fun.
- toasty and juicy with your favorite sandwich filling
- fruit pies are incredible
- children love to make their own and are safe with the extended handle
Discover the pleasure of “Pudgie Pies“, “Carlitos” or if you just call them “toasted sandwiches“and at the same time begin a tradition of family fun when you use Rome’s cast iron pie irons. When you camp, use them in your kitchen, in your back yard fire pit or over a bed of coals in your fireplace, you will be cooking with quality and fun.
Double Your Delicious Output
Rome Round Single Cast Iron Pie Iron
Cook In Cast Iron for Health, Flavor, Comfort and Convenience
Rome’s # 122 Popcorn Popper Is A Fun Accessory for Cast Iron Camping Cookware
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
Popped Corn Is Fun
Great Camp Cookware Accessory
made of sheet steel construction, has a removable lid and handle for easy cleaning and storing. It measures 9 inches in diameter and is 3 inches deep. The overall length is 27 inches with a steel and wooden handle that protects from the heat. Use this delightful popcorn popper over your campfire, with your tripod grill grate, over coals in your fireplace or in your kitchen.
Rome #122 Popcorn Popper
Kids and adults will love popping corn the old fashioned way. No packaging waste for which the environment and the clean-up crew will thank you.
Your popcorn popper will last and last. What a fun snack to go with a campfire cookout and ghost stories.
Cook In Cast Iron for Health, Flavor, Comfort and Convenience
Rome Cast Iron # 1005 Bread Baker from Cast Iron Cookware Shop
Rome Cast Iron # 1005 Bread Baker
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast iron Cookware Shop
Baking bread is fun anyway you do it:
- at home in your oven
- camping with a cast iron camping dutch oven
- over your camp fire or fire pit with a Rome Cast Iron # 1005 Bread Baker
The bread baker may be the most fun way of all and is a great activity to do with children while you camp. The toasty crust gives a new meaning to “bread sticks” as well.
Have Fun Baking Bread on Your Next Cookout or Camping Trip
The ABCs of Natchitoches, Louisiana Cooking in Cast Iron Cookware
Posted by Doyle Bailey for Cast Iron Cookware Shop
Not everybody in Louisiana cooks with cast iron cookware, just those Louisiana cooks who want their food to taste great and their cookware to last for generations.
Visitors to Louisiana may feel as if they are in another country. You do not have to have a visa or show a passport to enjoy our food but maybe an ABCs of Louisiana cooking will help:
Andouille: is a Cajun smoked sausage, used in gumbos, jambalayas and other dishes and gives the food a special flavor. Be on the lookout for it and you will be rewarded.
Bisquits: are popular for breakfast throughout the state and are frequently eaten with jellies, jams, syrup or honey. They are also a favorite with fried chicken.
Bread Pudding: is a dessert made with stale bread (do not let this bother you) in a sweetened custard, often served with a whiskey or rum sauce. It is particularly popular in South Louisiana.
Catfish: is a great favorite and is eagerly eaten with great gusto throughout Louisiana. Many restaurants offer you the choice of baked, broiled, fried or blackened catfish, either whole or in fillets.
Cornbread: what can I say about this “bread of life”? There are many versions available, some even slightly sweetened. It goes great with red beans, rice and sausage or just about anything else.
This is your invitation to visit Natchitoches, Louisiana, the oldest City (1714) in the Louisiana Purchase Territory. It will be our pleasure to arrange a tour of this enchanting French Colonial City and tours of French Creole Plantations, walking/driving tours in the historic downtown, shopping and all the Louisiana foods posted here plus many more in wonderful restaurants. Natchititoches has exceptional Bed and Breakfast Inns. Go here for more information.
Want to cook like a Louisiana cook in cast iron cookware?
You can make great gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans in a cast iron dutch oven. It travels well and you can take it camping with you or get a cast iron camping dutch oven with feet to set right on a bed of coals.
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven
Lodge 6 Quart Camp Dutch Oven
A castiron skillet or fry pan work wonders to prepare your cat fish or even to make cornbread. If you want more crunchy crust, use a cornbread wedge pan or a corn stick cornbread pan.
For making biscuits, you can bake them in your camping dutch oven with its special lid that allows you to place coals on the top hence getting the oven effect for baking. Or you can use a drop biscuit pan to bake your biscuits.
Lodge Logic Drop Biscuit Pan