# Do you use Cast Iron Cookware?



## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

I was walking through the store the other day and noticed how much of the cookware made these days has plastic and delicate coatings on them. Most are thin and light weight which is nice if you have to carry it around much I will admit. A lot of the pots and pans have delicate coatings which make clean up quick and easy if you burn something in the pan to the bottom. It seems too the manufactures are quiet proud of these modern marvels of cookware.

But I got to thinking...and you know how dangerous that can be lol. What if the SHTF long term and you couldn't cook on a stove or an oven due to lack of gas or electricity? How would these modern marvels hold up? How durable would the prove to be? How well could you cook a meal in them?

I have a few Cast Iron pots/pans etc... I use them pretty frequently. Here the last couple of years, I have also found myself ditching a lot of my other cookware in favor of more cast iron cookware. Why? Well I like the way it cooks dishes more evenly. I like the way it really holds the heat better keeping dishes piping hot incase I want seconds at the dinner table. Keep them seasoned and they are pretty low maintenance as well. While they work well over modern day stoves...if I needed to, I could easily cook with them over a open fire or a BBQ grill. No plastic or wood handles to melt or catch fire! No Teflon or other high tech coatings to wear off the cookware's interior either! Yeah they are heavy I will admit and I would not want to really take them on a hiking trip to the high mountains. But on the flip side they are built like that proverbial Brick Crap House! I am not sure how one would go about damaging one beyond use with out straight up abusing it and even then they will sure take a lot more of that than most people can dish out. I mean seriously...I got one 12 inch skillet passed down from family through the generations that I am fortunate enough to be in possession of that was made in 1858!!! Yes I still use that baby and yes its still kicking butt and taken names!!! Yes that pan is well over 100 years old and you'd be hard pressed to beat it 8 days a week. If it could talk I can only imagine the stories a pan that old could tell.

So is anyone else using cast iron cookware or adding any to their collection of food prep supplies, or am I just that old school and stubbornly stuck in the past?


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Gotta admit, I like cast iron over the regular stuff. I own a fair amount.


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

I do indeed love that ancient cast iron skillet I have had for years now, but I recently got a 3.5 qt enamel coated Pot that makes some of the most incredible stews and soups in. Last night I got a smaller light weight skillet than has an enamel coated bottom that should be the shiznick for one person sized stir fry meals. Im already choppin at the bit to get a 6qt enamel coated pot for larger batches of stews and soups. I might even add a dutch oven to the mix as well later. There just aint too many things in this world that's as good as a cobbler cooked in a dutch oven. If there is I haven't yet found it!!!


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Yes I have a good set of cast iron pans, still nothing better for making corn bread


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## Boss Dog (Feb 8, 2013)

Got a small set (about 6 pieces) that we use most every day. My mother, sister and one daughter also prefer iron.


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## wallyLOZ (May 12, 2013)

We've got a skillet that's well over 30 years old, and a few other pieces that we picked up a couple of years ago. Can't beat the flavor that cast iron imparts to your favorite dishes. Also agree with Smitty, can't be beat for cornbread. If we have to bug-out by car, it all goes with us.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

I PREFER CAST IRON!

If you find the OLD stuff (THICKER IRON) in garage sales and thrift shops you can take it to a machine shop and have them mill the cooking surface (or you can do it yourself with a wet-stone and a $#!+ load of hours and elbow grease). Making the cooking surface as smooth as possible and polishing it to a mirror like finish before seasoning or glazing it makes it more non-stick than the commercial stuff.

I like to use the hard white fat that you find in beef or steak to season mine. I think some people call that "tallow." I know a guy that saves the fat from his Elk if he gets one to use for the same thing. Elk is LOW FAT and when you do find it, the fat is pretty dense and has a HIGH melting and smoke point. So you basically heat the fat on a long low burn to render it and then let it coat the metal - then increase it right up to before it smokes and let it harden to a glaze.

Here is the trick to cooking with CI - and this is where modern cook ware excels... TEMPERATURE CONTROL IS CRITICAL. You can over cook and use temps way too high in modern cookware. This ruins food taste and some of the proteins and nutrients in the food, but the cook ware makes recovering from these sins easy with non-stick clean up.

With CI you need to watch the heat - easy over gas or alcohol, but a little more of a challenge over a fire. Cooking too high on CI makes it a mess to clean up. BUT! If you get good with controlling the temp, CI cleans up just as easy if not easier than the Non-Stick coated modern stuff does and I think CI cooked food tastes better.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

My favorite is the 10" chef's skillet. It's perfect for eggs and other things. 

My wife only makes cornbread in the 12" skillet. I had a cornstick pan but I'll be darned if I can find it.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

inceptor said:


> My favorite is the 10" chef's skillet. It's perfect for eggs and other things.
> 
> My wife only makes cornbread in the 12" skillet. I had a cornstick pan but I'll be darned if I can find it.


 Subjects have a way of coming up on the threads . Just a couple days ago My 31 year old daughter and I got into a conversation about Corn bread.
I challenged her to make some use oil and some using lard in a cast pan . 
Corn bread make with bacon drippings,lard in baked in a cast pan ,it don't get any better.


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

We have a bunch of lodge cast stuff, some of it was my moms and my wife moms.we use it for camping and cooking outside now as we have a ceramic cooktop.one of these days I want to plumb our kitchen for gas,we have a gas furnace and water heater,why the previous owners left the kitchen 220v and didnt run the extra 20 ft of gas line is a big mystery to me.and why they installed a newer fireplace and venting instead of a wood stove is beyond me too.


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## sparkyprep (Jul 5, 2013)

I have several pieces of cast iron cookware. I love them. Admittedly, I also have a very expensive set of modern cookware that I use the most often. However, there are some dishes that must be prepared in cast iron, corn bread being just one example. We also use cast I iron when we camp, or BBQ.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

http://www.prepperforums.net/forum/general-prepper-survival-talk/6662-rendering-fat.html

The topic of seasoning cast iron gave me an idea but since I didn't want to thread-jack LFI's thread, I posted a new branch off of this thread.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Mrs Inor only allows me to cook over an open wood fire. Therefore, all of my cooking tools consist of a long handled fork and tub of ice water when I am smoking sausage. But in her kitchen, Mrs Inor has at least one of everything Lodge makes I think. She even has the Aebleskiver (spelling?) pan and a pan to make cactus shaped cornbread. - Great stuff!


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## PrepConsultant (Aug 28, 2012)

Cast Iron is our go to cookware. We are always using it. I have a a few skillets and a dutch oven that has been around for a long long time and is still is great shape. We also pick em up whenever we see them at a garage sale or thrift store if they are a good price. Seems a lot of people know what they are worth and will charge damn near retail for them..It's hard to beat cast iron, especially for wood stove and open fire cooking.

Which is something we have been doing more of that we are in Montana and actually use a wood stove for home heating.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

One cast iron pan dedicated to roasting coffee, several skillets, dutch oven, chicken fryer, Corn bread pan and maybe a couple others I can't remember off hand. Many years ago Inor got me a pot and pan set (that I wanted since it was recommended by my church moms). Calphalon non stick. So far one fry pan, and one pot have bit the dust and most of the rest are ready to be trashed. Problem I have is now deciding what to replace them with - I have heard good things about All-clad. It is hard to spend a couple hundred on a pot and discover it isn't what you want. Suggestion are welcome.


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## Arizona Infidel (Oct 5, 2013)

Inor said:


> Mrs Inor only allows me to cook over an open wood fire. Therefore, all of my cooking tools consist of a long handled fork and tub of ice water when I am smoking sausage. But in her kitchen, Mrs Inor has at least one of everything Lodge makes I think. She even has the Aebleskiver (spelling?) pan and a pan to make *cactus shaped cornbread. *- Great stuff!


LMAO. You can always tell someone's house who has moved from the upper Midwest to Arizona....They are the ones growing cactus in their yard. :lol:
My wife's mom died a couple years ago. She was old enough to be my wife's grandmother. She had a collection of old cast Iron. Skillets, Dutch oven, etc. We don't use it. It is much easier to use the modern day stuff in the house and every day........................... But we got it.:wink:
We also have a cast iron stove.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

Arizona Infidel said:


> LMAO. You can always tell someone's house who has moved from the upper Midwest to Arizona....They are the ones growing cactus in their yard. :lol:


The same can be said about California Real Estate Speculators. Who ever had our home before us put Queen Palms all over the property. I'm tired of maintaining them and spending all that money on water and minerals. So they are in the process of dying and in the not dead but not pretty stages right now. Later I'll replace them with something else - something more native and drought/disease tolerant.

Anyway... I digress. Cast Iron Cookware ROCKS!


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## LunaticFringeInc (Nov 20, 2012)

Wow didn't expect this topic to get so busy so quick or that there were that many folks still using cast iron cookware.

I agree there are some things that are just better in CI. Corn bread is just one of several things that are so much better in cast iron. And like I have often said before...What self respecting Southerner would even consider fried okra in anything other than a old black cast iron frying pan? I mean really. Cooking it any other way is just heresy, I tell you!

Gonna have to check out that other thread that was created! I am familiar with CI cook ware and care but Im really still a bit of an amature at it.


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## bigdogbuc (Mar 23, 2012)

I have skillets and a dutch oven. I'm the only one in the house that uses them. And cleans them. I have, or should say "had", some really nice non-sticks until my daughters useless douche bag unemployed never had a job cause I'm waiting for a management position boyfriend ruined them. Apparently the concept of not using metal spatulas or other cooking utensils in one of these pans escapes him. Even when you say "Hey moron dip shit retard, don't use metal spatulas in my pans". Which is of no surprise as most things usually do escape him, primarily on how not to be a mooching low life bum. But what do I know?


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

We have as complete a set of cast iron as I have ever seen and we use it. I have a crepe pan, frying pans from 4 to 16 inches, several pots with covers two dutch ovens (one is big enough for a small turkey), two cornbread pans (one in the shape of small ears of corn), and three different sizes of cauldrons. For those of you who don't know what a cauldron is or what it is used for it is a deep pot with legs on the bottom so you can cook soups and stews on an open fire. They also have a hanging wire handle to hang on a hearth hook so you can cook the same soups and stews in the fire place. They make the best ham and pea soup you have ever tasted!


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## tirednurse (Oct 2, 2013)

Cast Iron are the only pans we have in my house. I wont use anything else. I tried the fancy "non stick" crap and every thing stuck. had to use more fats to get anything cooked, plus that non stick coating wears off and it ends up in your food. I don't want to eat that in my food. I have frying pans that my great grandma, as well as my grandma cooked on and they look brand new. I have 20 some frying pans that I have collected over the years measuring 3 - 16 deep, several dutch oven of various sizes from sauce pan to giant stew pot size. As long as you respect the fact that they need to be cleaned and dried and greased after use they will never fail you. 
As for clean up--most of the time a wipe out with a paper towel is enough. If you do burn something and make a mess of them, just put enough water in the pan to cover the mess put it back on the stove and heat water to a boil and that will clean off even the most horrendous mess with no scrubbing.


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## Infidel (Dec 22, 2012)

In our house we have 2 different set of cookware, mine and hers. Hers is all teflon coated non-stick stuff, mine is cast iron some of which belonged to my mother. Her cookware has been replaced multiple time since we've been together, my cast iron has never been replaced and is still going strong. I do probably about 50% of the cooking in the house so mine gets used just as much if not more than hers. I am always on the look out for more cast iron at a good price.

-Infidel


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

I make my fresh morning eggs on cast Iron. Nothing beats it


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Just a Dutch oven and a bean pot. Will have to keep my eyes open at the garage sales. I'l like to add a nice frying pan.


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## dwight55 (Nov 9, 2012)

Smitty901 said:


> Subjects have a way of coming up on the threads . Just a couple days ago My 31 year old daughter and I got into a conversation about Corn bread.
> I challenged her to make some use oil and some using lard in a cast pan .
> Corn bread make with bacon drippings,lard in baked in a cast pan ,it don't get any better.


Now, Smitty, . . . I got all kinds of respect for them stripes you own, . . . I'm sure you have lots of experience, . . . and I know you truly believe all you said.

But, . . . pardner, . . . gotta take issue with the "it don't get any better" statement. It DOES get better.

The second pan.

The third pan.

The fourth pan.

Providing of course that there are appropriate accouterments for the corn bread: green onions, butter, buttermilk, brown beans, just to mention a few.

My wife has the slickest little black cast iron skillet for making corn bread, . . . best not use it for anything else either, . . .

Better get off here, . . . gonna have to go fire up the oven if I don't.

But to answer the OP, . . . (I'm 69) got my grandmother's cast iron bean pot with the 3 little legs, . . . got a Lodge dutch oven, . . . and probably 6 or 8 other ass'td parts and pieces to cook with should the SHTF. Probably run out of food long before I run out of ways to cook it.

May God bless,
Dwight


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## PrepConsultant (Aug 28, 2012)

I make some with bacon and jalapenos that is awesome


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