Miscellaneous
Showing Off the Iron
October/29/2008 10:58 PM
Posted by Kathy Mansfield
Where, oh where, do I store all of this cast iron? That is certainly the question that has plagued our household over the past year. We’ve owned various cast iron pieces over the past years, but after a trip to the Lodge Store in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, we faced the dilemma of where to put the 17 new pieces of cast iron!
Rick and I already had a wrought iron baker’s rack from Ashley Furniture that showcased our cookbook collection, so we decided a matching baker’s rack would be the perfect partner piece to display our cast iron cookware. Although some assembly was required (by Rick, not me!), we are quite pleased with our new means of highlighting our cast iron in our home.
As you can see in the pictures, our heaviest pieces (dutch ovens) are on the bottom rack. We have smaller pieces such as fajita pans and loaf pans on the middle two shelves. The top shelf is reserved for cookbooks specific to cast iron aficionados. I was even able to find wrought iron book holders at Wal-Mart to help spotlight our favorite cookbooks.
Will another baker’s rack be in our future? Well, one more trip to Lodge just might do it!
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Kathy directly at kathy@cookingincastiron.com.
Where, oh where, do I store all of this cast iron? That is certainly the question that has plagued our household over the past year. We’ve owned various cast iron pieces over the past years, but after a trip to the Lodge Store in South Pittsburgh, Tennessee, we faced the dilemma of where to put the 17 new pieces of cast iron!
Rick and I already had a wrought iron baker’s rack from Ashley Furniture that showcased our cookbook collection, so we decided a matching baker’s rack would be the perfect partner piece to display our cast iron cookware. Although some assembly was required (by Rick, not me!), we are quite pleased with our new means of highlighting our cast iron in our home.
As you can see in the pictures, our heaviest pieces (dutch ovens) are on the bottom rack. We have smaller pieces such as fajita pans and loaf pans on the middle two shelves. The top shelf is reserved for cookbooks specific to cast iron aficionados. I was even able to find wrought iron book holders at Wal-Mart to help spotlight our favorite cookbooks.
Will another baker’s rack be in our future? Well, one more trip to Lodge just might do it!
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Kathy directly at kathy@cookingincastiron.com.
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Apologies for the Hiatus
September/25/2008 09:55 AM
Hey folks, my apologies for the month-long hiatus.
Even though we have a panel of contributors, posting
to the site is dependent upon me (Rick Mansfield). To
make a long story short, I got sick and got behind on
my “daytime” responsibilities. Everything snowballed
and I’m just now starting to catch up.
We have a number of great articles in the pipeline, so please continue to come back and check in with us.
We have a number of great articles in the pipeline, so please continue to come back and check in with us.
Green Iron: The Environmental Benefits of Cast Iron Cookware
July/25/2008 12:48 PM
Posted by Rick Mansfield
Around here, we often refer to our cookware of
choice as “black iron.” But in many ways, cast iron
is green if you think about it, too. No, I’m
not referring to enameled cast iron such as the
skillet pictured to the right (but it makes a great
image for this post!). Rather, I’m referring ot the
environmental benefits of cast iron.
Perhaps you’ve never thought about it. I mean, most folks who have been cast iron aficianados for a while are familiar with the other benefits. Of course there are healthy benefits to cast iron. Cooking in cast iron is a great way to introduce trace amounts of iron into one’s diet. Plus, there’s no flaking Teflon to worry about getting into one’s food. Then, on another front, there are economical benefits to cast iron because these pans--except for the enameled variety--cost MUCH less than other kinds of cookware.
Bur you may or may not have ever thought about the environmental benefits of cast iron. These benefits can be divided into at least three main areas: (1) Toxicity (or lack thereof), (2) production, and (3) longevity and recyclability.
First, as mentioned above in regard to health, cast iron cookware is a smart alternative to Teflon-coated aluminum pans. According to the Environmental Working Group website,
This is obviously not a concern with cast iron cookware which builds its non-stick surface naturally through the carbonization process of heating oils and fats on the cooking surface. What about the cast iron that comes pre-seasoned--is that coating harmful? Not at all. Pre-seasoning is nothing more than vegetable oil (and it’s Kosher vegetable oil if you get a Lodge pan!) heated at high temperatures. Yes, it can flake off, but it won’t hurt human beings or animals and this vegetable oil coating is fully biodegradable.
Second, many cast iron foundries incorporate
steps in the production of cast iron that greatly
reduces waste and impact on the environment. My wife,
Kathy, and I were able to tour the Lodge
Manufacturing Plant in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, in
April. We found that the production of the cast iron
cookware Lodge produces was eco-frindly in all
stages. The picture on the left shows the scrap iron
used in the process before it has been melted to be
poured in the sand casts. Part of the production of
cast iron also involved pounding the pans with rocks
to create a smoother surface on the molded cast iron.
Lodge uses rocks taken directly from the Tennessee
River bed for this process. Production of cast iron
dates back to 600 AD in China, and even though the
process is more mechanized today, it is still
essentially the same process that has been around for
over a millennia. Lodge also has a special page devoted to
Eco-Responsibility, incorporating measures
even down to the cardboard packaging they use.
Finally, cast iron pans can last for
generations. Pictured on the right is my
grandmother’s cast iron skillet. It is at least
seventy years old, and it may very well be older. Now
tell me--if you had one of the original Teflon pans
from the 1940’s, would you dare eat from it? Are
there any of those pans even still around? Well, my
grandmother’s skillet is still in use and has a
prominent and permanent place on my stovetop where it
is used regularly in our cooking.
Since cast iron, if treated well, gets better with age, my grandmother’s skillet actually has a greater non-stick surface than the skillet I got brand new in the nineties. Certainly, the cast iron in the pan itself can be recycled, but the best way to recycle a pan is to pass it on down to a family member. I fully intend that my grandmother’s pan will outlast me, and I’ll be able to pass it down to my children or grandchildren.
Consider this as well: because cast iron is a lifetime investment (and a low-cost one at that!), you won’t have to completely replace your pans every decade or so as some people have to do with cookware made of other materials.
So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence in regard to whether or not you should make the jump to cast iron, now you have even more reasons to do so. And if you already use cast iron, you can feel good about the fact that cast iron is a smart, economical purchase, is healthy for you and your family, and is friendly to the environment as well. That cannot be said of any other kind of cookware.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Rick directly at rick@cookingincastiron.com.
Perhaps you’ve never thought about it. I mean, most folks who have been cast iron aficianados for a while are familiar with the other benefits. Of course there are healthy benefits to cast iron. Cooking in cast iron is a great way to introduce trace amounts of iron into one’s diet. Plus, there’s no flaking Teflon to worry about getting into one’s food. Then, on another front, there are economical benefits to cast iron because these pans--except for the enameled variety--cost MUCH less than other kinds of cookware.
Bur you may or may not have ever thought about the environmental benefits of cast iron. These benefits can be divided into at least three main areas: (1) Toxicity (or lack thereof), (2) production, and (3) longevity and recyclability.
First, as mentioned above in regard to health, cast iron cookware is a smart alternative to Teflon-coated aluminum pans. According to the Environmental Working Group website,
Statistics reported by the Cookware Manufacturers Association indicate that 90 percent of all the aluminum cookware sold in the United States in 2001 was coated with non-stick chemicals like Teflon (Cooks Illustrated, September 2002). Chemicals and tiny, toxic Teflon particles released from heated Teflon kill household pet birds. At least four of these chemicals never break down in the environment, and some are widely found in human blood.
This is obviously not a concern with cast iron cookware which builds its non-stick surface naturally through the carbonization process of heating oils and fats on the cooking surface. What about the cast iron that comes pre-seasoned--is that coating harmful? Not at all. Pre-seasoning is nothing more than vegetable oil (and it’s Kosher vegetable oil if you get a Lodge pan!) heated at high temperatures. Yes, it can flake off, but it won’t hurt human beings or animals and this vegetable oil coating is fully biodegradable.
Since cast iron, if treated well, gets better with age, my grandmother’s skillet actually has a greater non-stick surface than the skillet I got brand new in the nineties. Certainly, the cast iron in the pan itself can be recycled, but the best way to recycle a pan is to pass it on down to a family member. I fully intend that my grandmother’s pan will outlast me, and I’ll be able to pass it down to my children or grandchildren.
Consider this as well: because cast iron is a lifetime investment (and a low-cost one at that!), you won’t have to completely replace your pans every decade or so as some people have to do with cookware made of other materials.
So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence in regard to whether or not you should make the jump to cast iron, now you have even more reasons to do so. And if you already use cast iron, you can feel good about the fact that cast iron is a smart, economical purchase, is healthy for you and your family, and is friendly to the environment as well. That cannot be said of any other kind of cookware.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Rick directly at rick@cookingincastiron.com.
Cast Iron Accessories
July/02/2008 06:52 PM
Posted by Kathy Mansfield
What girl doesn't enjoy accessorizing? Well,
I've discovered ways to do just that with my cast
iron cookware. I think my first cast iron accessory
was a simple potholder to fit over the handle of our
skillets. I was forever burning my fingers when
grabbing onto the handle of a skillet while cooking
bacon or eggs. I happened to see handle covers while
shopping one day, and my worries were over. We now
have 5 or 6 of the handy pads, and I keep them on my
main skillets on top of the stove. We've recently
purchased a couple of fajita pans that came with pads
decorated with hot peppers. The Lodge Outlet store in
Tennessee has many designs available, but I've seen
the handle covers in most cooking stores. It is an
invaluable resource to me.
Another accessory I came upon recently was
cookware protectors from Pampered Chef. These are
fabulous! Since trapped moisture can cause cast iron
to rust, it’s very important to keep at least a
minimal amount of air flow between a lid and a pan or
pot when not in use. My husband would place old
towels between our dutch ovens and their lids. Since
we display most of our cast iron, this was not
acceptable to me! The cookware protectors from
Pampered Chef come in two sizes: 16" diameter and 20"
diameter. Each size fits nicely on our dutch ovens.
Last, but not least, is another Pampered Chef
product. It's not quite an accessory, but more like a
necessity -- a nylon pan scraper. These were
originally marketed through Pampered Chef to use as
scrapers for their baking stones, but we've
discovered they work great on our cast iron because
even the best seasoned cast iron can occasionally
have stuck on food. We keep one handy on the sink at
all times. A package of 3 only cost a few dollars.
They are dishwasher safe and fairly indestructible.
No, I don't sell Pampered Chef, but I sure am pleased with the great products I've discovered through that company to help keep our cast iron looking fabulous in every season!
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Kathy directly at kathy@cookingincastiron.com.
No, I don't sell Pampered Chef, but I sure am pleased with the great products I've discovered through that company to help keep our cast iron looking fabulous in every season!
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Kathy directly at kathy@cookingincastiron.com.
Welcome to Cooking in Cast Iron
June/26/2008 09:00 AM
Posted by Rick Mansfield
Cast Iron Is Hot (Pun Intended)
We’ve now come full circle. Everywhere I go--whether a neighbor’s kitchen, the gourmet kitchen store, or a campfire in the woods--I’m seeing more and more cast iron. Now, even celebrity chefs have their names on their own lines of cast iron. But it wasn’t always that way. In spite of the fact that cooking in cast iron was the only way for most people to prepare meals for centuries, cast iron began to fall on hard times in the 1940’s with the development of modern artificial nonstick surfaces. And so in recent years, cast iron went into a kind of teflon-inspired exile. If you wanted to find a good cast iron pan, often you had to visit the hardware or sporting goods store (in the camping section, no less) or simply resort to mail order.
But of course, great cooks such as your grandmother who would have never dreamed of giving up her cast iron skillet or Uncle Ted who can’t imagine camping without his dutch ovens have remained true to the black iron. So, they aren’t surprised when recent studies tell us that those artificial non-stick coatings may not be so safe and healthy afterall. And suddenly lots of folks are starting to come back to cast iron.
A Cast Iron Renaissance
I believe we’re in a bit of a “cast iron renaissance.” I began to see signs of this two and a half years ago when Mark Bittman published an interesting article in the New York Times, titled “Ever So Humble, Cast Iron Outshines the Fancy Pans.” In the article, Bittman traces his own journey through twenty years in which after using more modern cooking surfaces, he had returned to an old standby: cast iron--in both his own cooking and in regard to what he recommends. And he’s not alone; suddenly there is lots of talk in the food industry about cooking in cast iron.
So what brought about this return? Well, perhaps a number of things, not the least of which is the sudden concern over chemically-based nonstick pans already mentioned above. But years ago, those modern pans also brought a seemingly bad rap for cast iron. The new pans were marketed as being much easier to use and care for than cast iron. And there was probably some truth to that. In the past, when buying a cast iron pan, the pan had to be “seasoned”; that is, you had to add a cooked on layer of oil or fat to the pan before it could be used. Plus, you had to be very careful how cast iron pans are cleaned. You can’t just throw them in the dishwasher like the “fancy pans.” And as people began to eat out more often, the lessons from the previous generations about how to care for cast iron were less frequently passed down to the next.
Then, just in the last four or five years, cast
iron companies did something truly new for the first
time in perhaps hundreds of years: they introduced
pans that were pre-seasoned. While still in the
factory, a coating of vegetable oil is sprayed onto
cast iron pots and pans and then baked in furnaces
creating that sought after black coating so eagerly
sought after in cast iron pans before they even hit
the stores. Now, I’ll admit, that initially I was not
crazy about pre-seasoning. I thought that I could do
it better on my own (and I still do). However,
there’s one thing I can’t argue with. Companies like
Lodge Manufacturing in South Pittsburg, Tennessee,
state that during the period in which they had both
pre-seasoned and non-seasoned pans on the market, the
pre-seasoned pans far outsold the non-seasoned
variety by a significant and wide margin. Resellers
started ordering the pre-seasoned pans to the
exclusion of the original non-seasoned pans. The
differrence in sales was so significant that Lodge
now no longer even sells anything but pre-seasoned
and enameled cast iron.
I still think I can do the seasoning process better myself, but I’ve come to peace with pre-seasoning which I’ll write about at a later date. What’s important for right now, however, is that pre-seasoned pans have allowed cooks who were previously intimidated by cast iron to come back to the basics. That, and inflating fuel prices, which give way to higher food costs are allowing smart consumers to cook for themselves more often than perhaps in previous years. The family meal is making a comeback, and we’re discoving that the pilgrims, pioneers, and grandma had it right: cast iron is best for preparing almost any meal.
A Black Iron Romance
If you cook with cast iron long enough, it slowly wins you over. There’s something attractive about cast iron; it has its own culinary kind of seduction. I reach for a cast iron pan first now. If I don’t have something I need for cooking, I look to see if there’s a cast iron variety of whatever it is. I now even grill on the back patio completely on cast iron.
Since I got my first computer in 1982, I’ve
always considered myself technologically savvy. But
there’s something decidedly (and wonderfully)
low-tech about cast iron. It’s solid in the
oh-so-most-literal sense. I don’t have to worry about
replacing it because a newer, more powerful, and more
efficient model might come along. It is what it is,
practically immutable with the exception that one way
cast iron does change is that it gets better
with age. The more you cook with it, the more
non-stick it becomes.
I can pick up a cast iron skillet or a dutch oven, and I know that I hold in my hands a quality instrument that, baring great clumsiness on my part, will certainly outlast me. If the house burns, I can grab my family members, the pets, and the picture albums if time allows. The cast iron can be retrieved after the fire because it’s that tough. In the event of apocalypse, we can still cook in cast iron! Cast iron is solid, and its weight when I hold it in my hand says to me that it will still be with me when I come to the end of my days, waiting to be passed on to the next generation.
Striking While the Iron Is Hot
So why this website? Well, I and my other contributors consider ourselves “cast iron advocates.” As stated in our purpose statement, our goal is “to promote the use of cast iron cookware across all spectrums of culinary pursuits--from the gourmet kitchen to the old fashioned campfire and everything in between. Our goal is to both educate and advocate cooking in cast iron.” There are a lot of great cooking/culinary-related websites out there, and there are also quite a few sites that talk about the use and care of cast iron. We hope to provide something a bit unique by offering new articles every few days about the use and care of cast iron. Our goal is not meant to simply be informative in our primary posts, but to be personal as well.
Some of our contributions will come in the form of news, interviews and reviews. We will also post informative/how-to articles. Our goal is to create a monthly video podcast devoted entirely to cooking in cast iron--something that I haven’t found anywhere else. We’re setting up the home page of this site in the form of a blog, but it’s so much more than a blog. Nevertheless, you will be able to interact with the writers and other cast iron users through the comment system.
And perhaps you even have an idea for which you might want to submit free-lance style yourself. We’re not set up to pay for submissions yet, but we hope to be there one day. Regardless, we welcome your ideas now.
We hope that you will bookmark cookingincastiron.com, subscribe to our RSS feed and/or check back here often. Whether you’ve been cooking in cast iron all your life or have a skillet rusting at the bottom of your pantry, we believe that we have something to offer you, and you have something to offer us.
Come back and check for new posts soon.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Rick directly at rick@cookingincastiron.com.
Cast Iron Is Hot (Pun Intended)
We’ve now come full circle. Everywhere I go--whether a neighbor’s kitchen, the gourmet kitchen store, or a campfire in the woods--I’m seeing more and more cast iron. Now, even celebrity chefs have their names on their own lines of cast iron. But it wasn’t always that way. In spite of the fact that cooking in cast iron was the only way for most people to prepare meals for centuries, cast iron began to fall on hard times in the 1940’s with the development of modern artificial nonstick surfaces. And so in recent years, cast iron went into a kind of teflon-inspired exile. If you wanted to find a good cast iron pan, often you had to visit the hardware or sporting goods store (in the camping section, no less) or simply resort to mail order.
But of course, great cooks such as your grandmother who would have never dreamed of giving up her cast iron skillet or Uncle Ted who can’t imagine camping without his dutch ovens have remained true to the black iron. So, they aren’t surprised when recent studies tell us that those artificial non-stick coatings may not be so safe and healthy afterall. And suddenly lots of folks are starting to come back to cast iron.
A Cast Iron Renaissance
I believe we’re in a bit of a “cast iron renaissance.” I began to see signs of this two and a half years ago when Mark Bittman published an interesting article in the New York Times, titled “Ever So Humble, Cast Iron Outshines the Fancy Pans.” In the article, Bittman traces his own journey through twenty years in which after using more modern cooking surfaces, he had returned to an old standby: cast iron--in both his own cooking and in regard to what he recommends. And he’s not alone; suddenly there is lots of talk in the food industry about cooking in cast iron.
So what brought about this return? Well, perhaps a number of things, not the least of which is the sudden concern over chemically-based nonstick pans already mentioned above. But years ago, those modern pans also brought a seemingly bad rap for cast iron. The new pans were marketed as being much easier to use and care for than cast iron. And there was probably some truth to that. In the past, when buying a cast iron pan, the pan had to be “seasoned”; that is, you had to add a cooked on layer of oil or fat to the pan before it could be used. Plus, you had to be very careful how cast iron pans are cleaned. You can’t just throw them in the dishwasher like the “fancy pans.” And as people began to eat out more often, the lessons from the previous generations about how to care for cast iron were less frequently passed down to the next.
I still think I can do the seasoning process better myself, but I’ve come to peace with pre-seasoning which I’ll write about at a later date. What’s important for right now, however, is that pre-seasoned pans have allowed cooks who were previously intimidated by cast iron to come back to the basics. That, and inflating fuel prices, which give way to higher food costs are allowing smart consumers to cook for themselves more often than perhaps in previous years. The family meal is making a comeback, and we’re discoving that the pilgrims, pioneers, and grandma had it right: cast iron is best for preparing almost any meal.
A Black Iron Romance
If you cook with cast iron long enough, it slowly wins you over. There’s something attractive about cast iron; it has its own culinary kind of seduction. I reach for a cast iron pan first now. If I don’t have something I need for cooking, I look to see if there’s a cast iron variety of whatever it is. I now even grill on the back patio completely on cast iron.
I can pick up a cast iron skillet or a dutch oven, and I know that I hold in my hands a quality instrument that, baring great clumsiness on my part, will certainly outlast me. If the house burns, I can grab my family members, the pets, and the picture albums if time allows. The cast iron can be retrieved after the fire because it’s that tough. In the event of apocalypse, we can still cook in cast iron! Cast iron is solid, and its weight when I hold it in my hand says to me that it will still be with me when I come to the end of my days, waiting to be passed on to the next generation.
Striking While the Iron Is Hot
So why this website? Well, I and my other contributors consider ourselves “cast iron advocates.” As stated in our purpose statement, our goal is “to promote the use of cast iron cookware across all spectrums of culinary pursuits--from the gourmet kitchen to the old fashioned campfire and everything in between. Our goal is to both educate and advocate cooking in cast iron.” There are a lot of great cooking/culinary-related websites out there, and there are also quite a few sites that talk about the use and care of cast iron. We hope to provide something a bit unique by offering new articles every few days about the use and care of cast iron. Our goal is not meant to simply be informative in our primary posts, but to be personal as well.
Some of our contributions will come in the form of news, interviews and reviews. We will also post informative/how-to articles. Our goal is to create a monthly video podcast devoted entirely to cooking in cast iron--something that I haven’t found anywhere else. We’re setting up the home page of this site in the form of a blog, but it’s so much more than a blog. Nevertheless, you will be able to interact with the writers and other cast iron users through the comment system.
And perhaps you even have an idea for which you might want to submit free-lance style yourself. We’re not set up to pay for submissions yet, but we hope to be there one day. Regardless, we welcome your ideas now.
We hope that you will bookmark cookingincastiron.com, subscribe to our RSS feed and/or check back here often. Whether you’ve been cooking in cast iron all your life or have a skillet rusting at the bottom of your pantry, we believe that we have something to offer you, and you have something to offer us.
Come back and check for new posts soon.
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below, or you can contact Rick directly at rick@cookingincastiron.com.