cast iron cooking

Ooh la la.

^^^^ Favorise le culottage......

I'd run past a pallet of those marked "free-take one!" for a Griswold block-Erie 5 & lid, or just a lid for my Wagner 13.

The stamped-steel ones just don't have the appeal of cast iron to me, and I can't really say why.

If you find that pallet, point it out to me.

After following the initial seasoning instructions, I sauteed a crusted chicken breast and the following morning fried some eggs. Worked beautifully.

I inherited a bunch of Danish enameled cast iron pots and pans, Copco brand, when my parents passed. Heavy duty stuff with bright colors on the outside, orange, green, blue, and white inside.

Old as in 40-50 years or so, but very good quality.

Deal.

If you find those CI items listed point them out to ME.

I was actually thinking about adding a small dutch oven to my camping cookware arsenal. Probably around a 4 qt. or less.

Question. Has anyone had any luck baking Bisquick biscuits in the dutch oven on top of an open flame fuel stove? I see the charcoal trick but it would be nice not having to stash coals in the panniers.

I was looking into the internet and this thread but can't find a straightforward answer and hope to shed some light on this before I commit to spending $40.

Most (really, all?) biscuits and breads I've seen in dutch ovens seem to require heat coming from the top as well (in the form of coals placed on the lid).

I can't imagine getting even cooking without top-heat. With a Bisquick mix, a sole bottom-heat seems better for pancakes.

Bisquick??? Look up Bannock recipes.Bring some lard...!

I carry two Cast Iron camp (dutch) ovens with me when car camping, where weight is not an issue. But when travelling on the bike I use one of these.

http://www.southernmetalspinners.com.au/camping-page.html

You can pack plenty of stuff in it when travelling, and the 10" one fits in the pannier nicely. (No affilliation with this company. Just like the product).
mungo

That "Camp Oven Mate" from that site seems ideal to get top-heat without coals, and seems to be what rbmgf7 is looking for.

doesn't have to be charcoal. I use sticks. start it with small twigs and then just add more, broken up about the length of a pencil and up to thumb thick. just scatter them across the lid in a somewhat circular pattern.

Thanks for all of the help and tips. I think the 1 or 2 qt. oven will do just fine.

Just an update... Ended up getting a 10" pan to go with the 12". I'm really liking these.

They take just a little bit of practice and a slightly lower cooking temp, but they're doing well. This morning, I cooked a couple of pieces of breakfast sausage, wiped out the pan with a paper towel, then an over medium egg. The egg white was cooked completely through, a little crisp at the edges, and the yolk was just starting to thicken. It turned easily without sticking.

Why did you wipe out all that sausage yummyness?

I'm sort of at a loss for these. If I got one I'm pretty sure I'd season it like a cast iron pan (in the oven at very high temps a few times) as opposed to a much slower seasoning process, and the need to boil water in them after each use (I don't know about you, but when I'm done cooking, it's time to get eating... not boiling water).

If the goal is to get an overall black seasoning anyway, I wonder why they're going about it in such an uncommitted manner?

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hQwCiYPW1Fg?feature=player_detailpage" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" width="640"></iframe>

I also noticed that they didn't really show the pan after cooking an egg in it... I can only guess it didn't slide out, or a film of egg stuck to the pan?

I mean, they're dead simple, and I can't say I won't own one eventually. But the video raised more questions than answers for a cast iron user.

Yup.

Although I don't soap them as a rule, I don't panic if there is soap in the sponge when they get a quick scrub in the sink.

That's how you clean a cast-iron, too. A little water to deglaze to get up any bits stuck to it, then a quick rinse and a wipe with a paper towel. I'll use a little soap every now and then if I've cooked something that I'm concerned about the oil or fat becoming rancid if I don't know if I'm going to be using it again soon, then wipe with a dot or two of fresh oil.

Also, that's how cast-iron was seasoned by your Grandmother and her mother and those before that. An initial seasoning, if that, and then the rest was taken care of through just cooking things in a "uncommitted manner". I think this hype about the ridiculously finer aspects of seasoning a piece of cast iron is a more recent invention.

The egg I cooked came out without leaving a trace of egg in the pan. It doesn't slide out like Teflon, but there wasn't any scraping, lifting, or sticking.

I really like this video. It kind of takes the same "uncommitted" approach to seasoning and it's almost exactly like the video of the steel pan. Just a little oil, heated on the stove top, then used to fry an egg. Pretty much the same outcome as what I did yesterday morning, except I have a couple of previous uses. That, and she's got big hooters.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zjgP-6W_YN4" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

http://www.richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp

Ah. No. Didn't clean the pan, just wiped out the excess so there was just a very thin coating of sausage grease in the bottom of the pan.

:huh

Sorry pal, but no, boiling water in my cast iron after each use is not how I go about using mine. They get a wipe-out when hot, and some oil, but that's about it. An occasional boil with water, yes, but that's rare.

I've seen that video a while ago, and I posted the link (http://www.richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp) to the page it comes from on page three of this thread... thanks, but you aren't showing me anything I don't already understand. (The whole reason I got into cast iron was from the permaculture forums, that video, and the videos Paul made)

As long as you're assuring us that they actually don't need water boiled in them after each use, that's all that really needed to be said. I think we all understand the rapid seasoning vs. the seasoning built up over time. I don't understand the instruction to boil water after each use, but ... as you say, the people making those pans must not know what they're selling.