Cook with Cast Iron Cookware and Keep the Change

Posted by Doyle Bailey for the Cast Iron Cookware Shop

Cook In Cast Iron Tonight or When You Camp

Cook with Cast Iron Cookware and Keep the Change:

My suggestion is in two parts:

First Part:

Make a change that will amp up the flavor of all kinds of dishes. It does not matter if it is sweet, spicy or smoked, garlic is loaded with healthy nutrients and you will love the results.  You may be thinking that garlic’s  most common use is to ward off vampires. Even if you are of “Team Jacob” (from the Twilight books, which I enjoyed), these little cloves from the lily family can help maintain normal cholesterol levels and contain the compound allicin, which has an anti-fungal action and is what imparts that pungent odor. Even as I write this blog post I have a pot of beans cooking with onions and garlic and the kitchen smells delicious.

Garlic & Press/Wikipedia Photo

Lawrence E Karol writes in the March 2010 issue of Body + Soul Magazine:

“In the kitchen, garlic embraces everything it encounters–vegetables, meat, pasta–and when roasted, it’s practically a confection.”

Do not be an “alliumphobe” = fear of garlic, onions or leeks.

Make the change to cooking with garlic and I suspect you will keep the change.

Second Part:

Make the change to cooking with cast iron cookware, if you have not already done so.

Your purchase of cast iron cookware is more than a purchase. It is an investment. Long after you have forgotten what you paid for your cast iron cookware, you will remember the quality of the cookware.

This ultimately means more change to keep in your pocket since you will not be purchasing new cookware every few years.

Lodge Cast Iron Cookware

Your cookware is a legacy you can pass on to your children and grandchildren.

Some of Our "Family" of Cast Iron Cookware

Supersize Your Wallet Not Your Body with Cast Iron Cookware

Good News for Dieters

How can you super-size your “assets” not your, er…body?

Research has shown that dieters who are offered a financial reward as an incentive to lose weight are five times more likely to meet their goal when compared to other dieters who have no potential monetary reward.

This has led to a number of incentive programs:

• companies have started offering everything from gift cards to cruises to employees who shed excess pounds in an effort to cut overall health care costs.
• Corporate Sponsors give cash prizes to obese participants who drop enough weight in a year.

What a healthy and well conceived idea! It is a win/win proposition for sponsor and participant.

This leads me to a question: Is there a pot

Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven

that can help you get rid of or avoid acquiring a “pot” and save you money at the same time? Cast Iron Cookware Shop proposes the following for your consideration:

• cooking in cast iron cookware can be conducive to cooking healthy meals of veggies at home and avoiding the “bloat” that can go with “fast food“. Cast iron cooked meals are “slow food” and can lead to enhanced communication in the family.
• cooking in cast iron can save you money in the long run. Yes, you can find less expensive cookware but you will be replacing it relatively soon. Cast iron cookware is an investment and not just a purchase. You will still be enjoying the quality of your cookware long after you have forgotten what you paid for it and you can pass it on to your children and grandchildren.
• cooking in with cast iron cookware instead of eating out is cost effective and will save you money.
  

  Lodge Cast Iron Cookware

If you want to super size something in 2010, cast iron cookware offers you an incentive to use the cookware that will allow you to taste the food not the cookware.

Offers Incentives for Cooking

Cast Iron Cookware: A Fan Not A Fanatic

Cast iron cookware is the predominant cookware in our kitchen by a long shot.

fry pans,dutch oven, griddle

Do we have and use other types of cookware? Yes. For example this morning I made grits in an aluminum pot and eggs in a Lodge cast iron skillet, sunny side up, to top them off. If you have never tried this, give it a try. You do not have to be from the South to like grits and eggs. I also baked some banana-nut muffins in a cast iron muffin pan.

Lodge Logic Cast Iron Muffin Pan

I can tell you for a fact that the clean-up with the two cast iron pieces was much easier than with the lighter aluminum pan. Just a little warm water for the cast iron cookware, dry them throughouly before putting them away. Never put them in a dishwasher. Use them often and they just get better with use. Cast Iron Cookware is a very old type of cookware. It has made a remarkable resurgence over the recent past. There are reasons for this:

• Cast Iron Cookware is highly regarded for its even heating, versatility and durability. It is relatively inexpensive when you consider it will last for a lifetime. Actually it will last for several lifetimes and you can pass you cast iron pots, skillets, and dutch ovens on to your children and grandchildren.
• Cast Iron Cookware puts you in touch with earlier times in the great American tradition, with close associations with colonial, pioneer, and cowboy cooking. It is timeless cooking.
• Cast Iron Cookware has exceptional heat retention and even cooking  properties; as such it is excellent for stewing, browning, frying and baking. The day is young and already I have done two out of four of these cooking methods.
• Cast Iron Cookware is the truly “non-stick cookware” for me. Again, I am a real fan but not a “fanatic“. However, doesn’t the word “fan” come from the word “fanatic“? Hmmm. After seasoning properly, the surface of the cast iron is totally non- stick meaning you can cook  with little or no oil making it an exceptionally healthy form of cooking.
  

  Lodge Skillet/ Fry Pan

• Cast Iron Cookware is excellent for outdoor use in your fire pit cookouts in your back yard or when out hunting, fishing, camping or hiking.
  

  Lodge Camp Dutch Oven

• Cast Iron Cookware excels with recipes that require cooking at high temperatures such as when searing or frying.

Try cooking with cast iron and you will likely become a “fan“. If you are already cooking with cast iron cookware, add to your selection. You can do so without danger of becoming “fanatical“.

Go Green with Cast Iron Cookware

In conclusion, cast iron cookware is not just a thing of the past. It has been a part of our past and is very much a part of our present and future. Cast Iron Cookware is thriving and outperforming all  other more recent cookware that seeks to compete with it.

TASTE THE FOOD NOT THE COOKWARE WITH CAST IRON COOKWARE

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Eat Pecans for Your Eyes. Use Cast Iron for the Your Palate

For Heart Health

In a study conducted by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), it was found that pecans are particularly rich in antioxidants. The National Eye Institute Age Related Eye Diseases Study reported that patients with macular degeneration who had adequate intakes of antioxidants were 29% less likely to experience disease progression than those with lower intake levels. The most serious of eye diseases, including cataracts and macular degeneration, are caused, in part, by free radicals. The antioxidants you get in nuts and other plant foods fight free radicals to help keep the eyes free of disease.

Heart Healthy Bonus from Pecans: Vitamin E found in pecans reduces the tendency of LDL cholesterol to oxidize and stick to the walls of your arteries. Pecan are also high in phytosterols, plant compounds that are similar to the active ingredients in cholesterol-lowering margarines, such as Benecol.  (Bottom Line’s Health Breakthroughs 2009)

Here’s a recipe from About.com Home Cooking using pecans.

Maple Pecan Scones Recipe

Scones/Biscuits

Scones are called biscuits in America, and these are flavored with pecans maple syrup and . Be sure to start with cold butter and do not overmix the dough. Get them into the oven as quickly as possible. You should be able to have these delicious scones on the table in under 30 minutes.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup cold unsalted butter
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 2/3 cup maple syrup, plus additional for brushing
• 1/3 cup heavy cream

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with a cast iron drop biscuit pan or a cast iron muffin pan.  (Alternatively, grease and flour the pan.)

Lodge Logic Drop Biscuit Pan

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender, two butter knives, or use your fingers, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in pecans.  Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together maple syrup and heavy cream until smooth.

Make a well in the flour mixture. Pour the cream mixture in the center. Stir briskly with a wooden spoon until mixture begins to come together into a dough. Do not overmix.

Drop dough into lightly greased muffin or biscuit molds.  Brush tops with maple syrup.

Bake scones 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Serve warm with butter.

Lodge Logic Straight Sided Muffin/Cornbread Pan

Yield: about 12 scones

Visit the Happiest State in the USA

Consider yourself invited to visit the “Happiest State” in the USA. If you already live in Louisiana, may you contine to enjoy happiness. To refine the search even more, you are invited to visit, what I consider the Happiest Town in Louisiana, Natchitoches.

“Happiness” is difficult to define. A study by the University of Warwick in Britain and Hamilton College in the United States, done over several years and with 1.3 million people, has found that Louisiana is the happiest state in the union. Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona round out the top five.

So, how did the study reach its conclusions?

• Maybe it’s LSU Tiger football or the New Orleans Saints
• Could it have to do with boiled crawfish and other seafood delicacies?
• Louisiana is a Sportsman’s Paradise of hunting and fishing
• Maybe it’s Friday lunch at Galatoire’s
• Perhaps its the Christmas Festival/Festival of Lights in Natchitoches.
• Maybe it’s bonfires on the levees, Jazz Fest or a beignets in the French Quarter
• Maybe it is related to the “joy of life” generally found among the people of Louisiana
• Could it have to do with cornbread cooked in cast iron corn bread pans? Works for me! This Blog has some cornbread recipes posted.
• Maybe it it has to do with the way Louisiana cooks!  Could it have something to do with the fact that cast iron cookware is big in Louisiana?

• 

  Lodge Cornbread Wedge Pan

It could be some of these factors plus a lot more that makes Louisiana’s “joie de vivre” a reality. It is a fun place to live, dine, visit and enjoy. The people of Louisiana really do know how to live a good life, and as they say in South Louisiana, “pass a good time“.

In case you are interested, here are the top ten states:

1. Louisiana

2. Hawaii

3. Florida

4.Tennessee

5. Arizona

6. Mississippi

7. Montana

8. South Carolina

9. Alabama

10. Maine

1. 

   Cornstick Pan

   

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How to Properly Store Cast Iron Cookware

First a confession. As a Harley rider, I do not really like the idea of storing a bike nor of transporting it on a trailer. Reality suggests that at times both must be done.

Likewise the idea of cast iron cookware being put aside in storage is not my favorite image.  Cast iron is best when it is used every day. Using it properly and cleaning it correctly keeps it in peak condition and allows it to build up the best seasoning and patina. However if it must be stored, here are some things you might want to consider:

• place a layer of paper towels or a cloth if you prefer on the shelf
• turn the cookware upside down to store
• make sure air can circulate around your cast iron cookware
• do not place the lids on the dutch oven or  frying pan. Cast iron needs to have ample circulation of air and the lids will lock in air and will cause the baked in oil to become rancid.
• never store food in your cast iron cookware.


Lodge Cornbread Wedge Pan



Our Cast Iron Cookware

When you are ready to use your cast iron cookware again, and hopefully that will be soon, you will want to:

• rinse your cookware with warm, non-soapy water (never in a dishwasher!) Soap will remove the seasoning from your cookware.
• dry carefully with a clean cloth or paper towels

Cast iron cookware is a joy to use and can make the most modest cook seem like a professional chef. It retains and distributes heat in a remarkable fashion and is a great nonstick cooking surface.

Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven

This cast iron cookware would love to live at your house:

Lodge 10 1/4 Inch Skillet/ Fry Pan

Cast Iron Fajita Skillet

Cast Iron Cookware Shop and Help For Camp Cooking “Pack Rats”

When you pack for your camping trip, do not be a “pack rat“. Learn to take only only the bare essentials. If you need a skillet, take your camping dutch oven and use the skillet lid for small cooking tasks. The skillet can stay home.

Lodge 6 Quart Camping Dutch Oven

The camp dutch oven is so versatile it can be used in lieu of other pots and pans if you plan your menu with campfire recipes for casseroles or “one pot campfire meals”. If you feel you really must have another pan, select one that will “nest” in your camp dutch oven.

The Lodge 6 quart cast iron camping dutch oven is small enough to pack easily and large enough to feed a family or group. The flanged lid will hold hot coals to facilitate cooking and to keep ashes out of the pot. The cast iron camp lid can be turned upside down for use as a griddle. The dutch oven legs provide stability and safety for use over your campfire or fireplace. This camp dutch oven is a skillet, saute pan, casserole cooker and fry pan all in one. A cast iron pot is a lifetime investment. In our family cast iron cookware is passed down from one generation to the next. The cast iron dutch oven was originated for outdoor cooking and for centuries has done it’s job.

Setting up your camp kitchen should be fun.

Doing the actual cooking can be fun.

The clean-up can even be fun and not burdensome.

Some ideas you might want to consider:

1. Plan your meals. If you need two pots, why take three?
2. Use your cast iron griddle as a campfire grill.
3. Use large pieces of firewood to support the griddle over the fire.
4. A camping cast iron dutch oven has “feet” to sit directly on a bed of coals.
5. Leave pieces at home you do not really need.
6. Paper products that you can discard can be substituted for plates and cups.
   

   Camp Cooking at its best with Cast Iron

   

   Lodge Grill/GriddleGrill Great and Eat Healthy with Cast Iron

Cast Iron CookwareShop On Eating Out, Eating In and Eating Well

Grill Great and Eat Healthy with Cast Iron

Cast Iron Cookware Shop has some suggestions for your consideration:

EATING OUT:

Eating out can be a tricky business. To make more healthy decisions to control what ends up on your plate and in your body, look for these key menu words to avoid, compiled by the American Heart Association.

Sub these terms

1. Fried
2. Au gratin
3. Crispy
4. Scalloped
5. Pan fried Sauteed
6. Stuffed

Look for these more healthy terms:

For these healthier ones

1. Steamed
2. Broiled
3. Baked
4. Grilled
5. Poached
6. Roasted

When you cook with cast iron and eat in, you can take advantage of all 6 of the healthier ways of cooking.

Here are some cast iron products you can use to enjoy saving money, cooking healthly and delicious meals and in the truly non-stick cookware.

TASTE THE FOOD NOT THE COOKWARE WITH CAST IRON COOKWARE

Lodge BBQ Grill GrateCast iron Enamel Red Roaster/ Grill Pan Lid by Kinetic

Cast iron Enamel Red Roaster/ Grill Pan Lid by KineticKinetic Enameled Casserole with Grill Pan Lid

Cast Iron Cookware Shop and Cooking Over A Campfire

Portable fuel-burning stoves have made things much easier when it comes to camping. Most public camping areas have been picked clean of available wood for a campfire. I can see where portable stoves are useful. However, there’s a certain mystique about cooking over a wood fire while camping that the little stoves can’t begin to approach. Besides is it really camping without the smoke, sometimes in your eyes?

HERE ARE SOME TIPS CONCERNING COOKING OVER A CAMPFIRE;

First, you have to build a fire and let it burn down to a good bed of coals. It is the coals that you want to cook over rather than the fire itself. They produce and ashes and more heat. Also the heat is more consistent and controllable. It is really nice and helps you to control the heat when you use a camping tripod to hang your dutch oven (with a bail), coffee pot or cast iron kettle over the bed of coals.

Lodge Tripod With Dutch Oven

The densest wood you can find makes the best coals. Oak, cedar, mesquite, pecan, or other hardwoods make good coals, while pines, aspen, and other light woods don’t. Before you attempt to cook, you need to build up at least a couple of inches of live coals and then let the main fire settle down a little.

For fire safety and convenience, dig a fire pit at least 8-10 inches deep and around 2.5 feet square, bigger in both dimensions if you plan on staying a few days or if you plan on having a “bonfire” at night. Keep the dirt you remove from the fire pit to fill in the hole when you break camp.

There are several designs of fire pits. Perhaps the easiest and most convenient is the Keyhole Pit. This pit is dug in the shape of a “keyhole” with a little side chamber out from one edge of the main pit. The main area is used for the fire itself and the side chamber is used for the actual
cooking. The cooking chamber should extend a couple of feet (up wind)
from the main fire and should be about a foot wide and only about 4
inches deep. When you’re ready to start cooking, shovel some
coals from the fire to the side chamber and you are in business.

Some Tips You May Find Useful:

1. Two ways to control your heat are to (1) add or subtract coals
or (2) raise or lower your cooking pots or pans. This is where a tripod is extremely useful. You can use
multiple cooking chambers (cast iron camp dutch ovens have feet to sit on a bed of coals and be stacked to give additional cooking chambers).

Lodge Camp Dutch Oven

2. You can use a small grill over the coals, or you can pre-arrange rocks for the pot to sit on. (not too stable. can tend to “rock and roll”). If you use a grill, it should be easily moved so you can tend the bed of coals.

3. Here is a tip that can save you a lot of “elbow grease”. Make some dinners and wrap them in foil before you leave home. These are pre-packaged meals ready to throw in a coal bed for a few minutes of cooking. You start with some heavy-duty aluminum foil, preferably a double thickness about 2 feet square after folding. Then you lay out a piece of meat (anything from ground round to steak) along with some potatoes and veggies like carrots, onions, or corn and your favorite seasonings. Then fold over the foil and crimp it several times at the seam and at both ends. What you should get is a tightly-wrapped, sealed-off meal inside the foil. Then later, just sprinkle a few coals on the ground and lay the package on top. Then cover with a few coals and wait about fifteen minutes. You can cook baked potatoes the same way but they take a little longer. Remember a FEW coals. A little goes a long way. When you’re through, the fire will eat the foil and all you’ve got to clean is your fork.

4. Aluminum and other shiny cookware gets very dirty over a wood fire and is hard to keep from turning a permanent black. Frankly that is why is much prefer cast iron camping cookware. Here’s a trick to help in that department. Before you put the pot on the fire, make a paste from water and powdered soap. Apply the paste to the bottom and up the sides of the pot. Now start cooking. The soot will all stick on the soap, which washes off very easily when you’re through. Just don’t rub the soap off by sliding the pot around on a grill, etc. On frying pans, you need to come up close to the lip with the paste. Just don’t get any where it will fall into the food.

Lodge BBQ Grill Grate

5. If you are car camper, try using a Dutch oven for baking or like a crock pot for stews and such. A true Dutch oven is a cast iron pot with three legs about an inch or two long, and a lid with a lip around the outer edge. Pots with no legs and no lip on the top are called ranch ovens and they are just regular cast iron cookware. You set them on a shallow bed of coals and then sprinkle more coals on the lid. Just like the foil dinners, you should take it easy on the number of coals you use both underneath and on top. In addition to stews or casseroles, you can bake biscuits or cobblers that always taste better outdoors.

6. Here’s a tip for the care and maintenance of your Dutch oven or any cast iron cookware. After washing, dry immediately. Then use a paper towel to wipe on a thin layer of vegetable oil (no animal fats) inside and out. Then put on the fire (or in a hot oven) for 4-5 minutes. This will cause the oil to glaze and bond to the iron, protecting it from rust and other bad things.

7. For fire safety, you should keep your shovel stuck in the pile of dirt removed from the fire pit. A little folding camp shovel works fine. Also you can keep several buckets of wash water for the next meal near the fire pit as well. When you are ready to leave, police the area for trash and throw that into the pit. Then, drown the fire and fill in the fire pit. Remember, a good camper “leaves no trace”.

Hopefully some of the ideas will be of use to you as you cook over your camp fire or fire pit. Enjoy the great outdoors or your great back yard and remember:

CAST IRON COOKWARE ALLOWS YOU TO TASTE THE FOOD AND NOT THE COOKWARE.

Rome Firepit Cookout Set

For really fun things to do with your campfire, get a Rome Industries Firepit Cookout set. Make tasty sandwiches or fruit pies with your pie irons, roast dogs or marshmallows with the handy hot dog roasters or make s’mores, everyone’s favorite. Rome make campfires more fun for you and your family.

Cast Iron Cookware Shop With Healthy Dinner Suggestions for Your Family

Salmon with Tarragon Mayo

Salmon with Tarragon Mayo (Reader's Digest)

Salmon is not a mild-tasting fish, so what do you do? Make a creamy sauce of low-fat yogurt, mayonnaise, and herbs. This will balance the flavors and makes the dish cool and refreshing. Serve the salmon on a bed of couscous flavored with the light, wine-based poaching liquid from the fish. This will eliminate a high sodium broth.

Preparation and cooking time: 35 minutes

Ingredients You Will Need:

4 (4 ounce) salmon steaks or fillets
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 to 2 bay leaves
Strip of pared lemon zest

Mayonnaise
4 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped
fresh tarragon

Couscous
1 cup couscous
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
3 scallions, chopped
2 cups watercress, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Place the salmon in a deep-sided, nonstick skillet. Pour the wine over it and add the bay leaves, lemon zest, and seasoning to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and poach the salmon until just cooked, about 5 to 6 minutes. It should still be very slightly translucent in the center.

Cast Iron Skillet/Griddle

2. Meanwhile, stir together the mayonnaise, yogurt, grated lemon zest, and tarragon. Season lightly with salt and pepper and spoon the mixture into a serving bowl.

3. When the fish is cooked, drain off most of the cooking liquid into a measuring cup, and add enough boiling water to make 1 1/2 cups. Cover the pan with a lid to keep the salmon warm, off the heat.

4. Pour the diluted fish broth over the couscous in a bowl and leave for 3 to 4 minutes for the liquid to be absorbed. Fluff up the couscous with a fork and stir in the chopped tomatoes, scallions, and watercress. Drizzle the olive oil and lemon juice over it, and stir to blend everything together. Season slightly with salt and pepper.

5. Serve the warm salmon with the couscous salad and the tarragon mayonnaise.

Serves 4

Some More Ideas:
Low-fat sour cream can be used for making the sauce in place of the yogurt and mayonnaise.

For a watercress sauce, replace the tarragon with 1/4 cup chopped watercress.

For special occasions: Cook a whole salmon and serve it garnished with twists of lemon and sprigs of fresh tarragon. To cook salmon, season and wrap loosely in a large sheet of foil coated with cooking spray, then bake in a preheated 350°F oven until fish flakes easily with a fork, allowing 10 minutes per pound.

Plus Points:
# Combining mayonnaise with plain low-fat yogurt makes a lighter sauce that is lower in calories and fat than mayonnaise alone.

# Incorporating low-fat dairy products into sauces and soups is a good way to increase calcium and protein intake. Exchanges: starch 2 1/2, vegetable 2, meat (lean) 3, fat 1

Nutrition Facts:
Per serving: calories 463, calories from fat 138, fat 15g, saturated fat 3g, cholesterol 73mg, sodium 247mg, carbohydrate 46g, fiber 4g, sugars 11g, protein 33g. Excellent source of niacin, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, thiamine, vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, vitamin C.

(Readers Digest, taken from from Eat to Beat Diabetes)

Cast Iron Fajita/Griddle Pan

TASTE THE FOOD NOT THE COOKWARE WITH CAST IRON COOKWARE