Cast-Iron Cooking For Dummies®
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Copyright © 2004 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2003112837
ISBN: 0-7645-3714-8
Manufactured in the United States of America
16 15 14 13
Tracy Barr has been a part of the For Dummies phenomenon for almost a decade. In that time, she has served as editor, editorial manager, writer, and consultant to folks who write and edit For Dummies books. Most recently, she helped write World War II For Dummies, with Keith D. Dickson, and Religion For Dummies, with Rabbi Mark Gellman and Monsignor Thomas Hartman. She also is the coauthor of Latin For Dummies and Adoption For Dummies. An avid cook, she was introduced to cast iron as a young girl when her mother inherited a few pieces, and she has since made cast iron the workhorse of her own kitchen.
To my husband, Larry, who likes everything I cook, and to my children — Adam, Sarah, Mary, and Alex — who are more honest.
I would like to thank the following people: From Lodge Manufacturing in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, Jeanne Scholze and Bob Kellerman, who were very generous with their time and expertise; Gayle Allen-Grier, for the Tennessee milkshake recipe, and her husband, Robert, for the tip on how to get through Nashville without getting stuck in traffic. From Wiley: Editors Mike Baker and Esmeralda St. Clair, for the time and effort they gave to this project.
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our Dummies online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/ .
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
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Project Editor: Mike Baker
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Technical Reviewer and Nutrition Analyst: Patty Santelli
Recipe Testers: Emily Nolan, Kate Brown, and Keith Brown
Editorial Manager: Jennifer Ehrlich
Editorial Assistant: Elizabeth Rea
Illustrator: Liz Kurtzman
Cover Photos: Lodge Manufacturing
Cartoons: Rich Tennant, www.the5thwave.com
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Title
Introduction
About This Book
Conventions Used in This Book
What You’re Not to Read
Foolish Assumptions
How This Book Is Organized
Icons Used in This Book
Where to Go from Here
Part I : Coming Around to Cast-Iron Cooking
Chapter 1: Welcome to Cast-Iron Cooking
Coming Down on the Side of Cast Iron
Showing Special Consideration to Your Prized Possession
Chapter 2: Selecting Cast-Iron Cookware
Ironing Out the Cast of Characters: Pots, Pans, and Specialty Items
What You Need to Get Started
A Shopping We Will Go
Other Items You Need If You Use Cast Iron
Chapter 3: This Little Pan of Mine, I’m Gonna Make It Shine: Seasoning Cast Iron
Seasoning a New Pan
Reseasoning a Pan
What to Do with a Preseasoned Pan
Chapter 4: Caring for Cast Iron
Cleaning Tips and Tricks
Rub-a-dub-dub, Removing the Grub
Super-Cleaning for Old — or Abused — Cast Iron
Storing Your Cast Iron
Hitting the Road with Your Cast Iron
Chapter 5: Cast-Iron Cooking Techniques
Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire: Heat and Temperature Control
Tuning in to the Tricks and Traps
Ending the Exile of Your Metal Utensils
Part II : Main-Dish Cast-Iron Recipes
Chapter 6: It’s Meat for Dinner Tonight
Beef Tips
Holy Cow! Cooking Beef
Perfect Pot Roast
Beef Stroganoff
Corned Beef and Cabbage
Slow Brisket of Beef
Veal with Mushroom Sauce
Chisholm Trail Swiss Steak
Pan-Seared Filets of Beef with Peppercorn Sauce
Pepper-Crusted Filets of Beef Tenderloin
Pigging Out
Dutch-Oven Thyme Pork Roast
Good Ol’ Green Beans and Pork Chops
Apricot-Ginger Glazed Pork Rib Roast with Fruit Stuffing
Country Ham and Red-Eye Gravy
Something for the Kids
Corn Dogs
Carving Like a Pro
Chapter 7: Tastes Like Chicken (and Turkey)
Chicken Basics
Roasting Guidelines
Dutch Oven Chicken
Southern Fried Chicken: The Ultimate in Comfort Food
Southern Fried Chicken
Down Home Favorites
Honey Barbecued Broilers
Smothered Chicken
Country Captain
Chicken Potpie
Chicken Dishes for the Uptown Crowd
Chicken Marsala
Chicken Picata
Chicken Stir-Fry
Talking Turkey
Orange Honey Ginger Turkey Breast
Dutch Oven Turkey
Carving Made Easy
Chapter 8: One Amphibian
Gone Fishin’
Blackened Redfish
Skillet Salmon
Pan-Fried Catfish
Shellfish Galore: Shrimp, Scallops, Oysters, and More
Seafood Skillet
Pan-Fried Soft-Shell Crabs
Fried Soft-Shell Clams
Hosting a Fish (and Shellfish) Fry — Cast-Iron Style
Deep-Fried Shrimp and Oysters
Nice Legs, Baby
Fried Frog Legs
Chapter 9: One-Dish Meals
Soupy Sensations
Brunswick Stew
Louisiana Seafood Gumbo
Cajun Shrimp and Okra Gumbo
Seafood Chowder
Rallying around Rice
Gullah Rice
Pork and Sausage Jambalaya
Making Cornbread the Main Dish
Shrimp Cornbread Supreme
Hamburger Cornbread Surprise
Buffalo Chicken Cornbread with Blue Cheese Mayo
Blue Cheese Mayonnaise
Ham and Cheese Main Dish Cornbread Salad
Part III : Cast-Iron Sides and Sweet Endings
Chapter 10: Vegetables Even Your Kids Will Love
Cast-Iron Favorites: Potatoes and Beans
Skillet-Fried Potatoes
Easy Dutch Oven Potatoes and Onions
Oven-Roasted New Potatoes
Skillet Yum-Yum Sweet Potatoes
Herb Roasted New Potatoes
Southern Green Beans
Slow-Simmered Black Beans
Squash Anyone?
Acorn Squash with Sugar and Cranberries
Patty Pan Squash and Vidalia Onion
Skillet Squash Casserole
Enjoying Corn On and Off the Cob
Creamy Corn Pudding
Corn Maque Choux
Fried Corn
Loading Up on Southern Staples
Pan-Fried Okra
Spicy Stir-Fried Okra
Turnip Greens Southern Style
Fried Green Tomatoes
Basic Veggie Crowd-Pleasers
Surprise Veggies for a Crowd
Cornbread Salad
Deep-Fried Veggies
Seasoning Mix
Fried Eggplant
Chapter 11: Cornbread and Biscuits
You’re Cookin’ Cornbreads Now
Real Southern Cornbread
Yankee Cornbread
Spoon Bread
Hushpuppies
Broccoli Cornbread
Sour Cream Cornbread
Mexican Cornbread
Cheesy Green Pepper Corn Muffins
Raspberry Dazzler Cornbread
Simple Cornsticks
Buttermilk Cornsticks
Dilly Cornsticks
Ain’t Nothin’ Better Than Biscuits
Baking Powder Biscuits
Buttermilk Biscuits
Buttermilk Drop Biscuits
Cornmeal Biscuits
Drop Biscuits
Bacon Biscuits
Cheese Biscuits
Chapter 12: Pancakes, Muffins, and More
Baking Easy Yeast Breads
Savory Dill Bread
Sheepherders Bread
Spoon Rolls
Setting the Pace with Quick Breads and Muffins
Old-Time Banana Bread
Breakfast Muffins
Chocolate Muffin Cakes
Mini-Muffins
Pumpkin Muffins
Lemon Glaze
Sugar Muffins
Flipping Over Pancakes and Popovers
Buttermilk Pancakes
Corncakes
German Pancakes
Basic Popovers
Breads at Home on the Range and in the History Books
Skillet Bread
Hoecakes (Johnnycakes)
Scalded Hoecakes
Chapter 13: Delectable Desserts
Having Your Cake and Eating It, Too
Almond Star Cakes
Almond Cake Glaze
Double Cherry Tea Cake
Orange Glaze
Nutty Funnel Cakes
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
January 1900 Jam Cake
Old-Time Icing
Skillet Caramel Frosting
Perfectly Easy Pastries and Other Super Sweets
Skillet Chocolate Pie
The Best Meringue
Apple Maple Tart Tatin
Dough for Apple Maple Tart Tatin
Blueberry French Toast Cobbler
North Carolina Hillbilly Apple Sonker
Dough for North Carolina Hillbilly Apple Sonker
New Orleans Pralines
Part IV : Cast-Iron Cooking for the Great Outdoors — and Beyond
Chapter 14: Cooking Around the Campfire
Roundin’ Up the Outdoor Hardware
Temperature Control
Finding Other Folks Who Like to Cook Outdoors
Dutch Oven Main Dishes
Pork Chops ’n Potato Sauce
Enchilada Casserole
Campsite Beef Stroganoff
Mountain-Man Breakfast
Sides: Always the Bridesmaid, Never the Bride
Dutch Oven Veggies
Creamed Corn Cornbread
Baked Pears
Dutch Oven Desserts
Apple Crisp
Lazy Cobbler
Baked Stuffed Apples
Almost Pumpkin Pie
Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Chapter 15: Anyone Game?
Establishing the Game Rules
Watching the Birdie
Dutch Cornish Hens
Fried Duck Tenders
Pheasant Faisan
Love That Dove
Game Animals
Hunter’s Venison Bourguignon
Baked Rabbit
Chapter 16: Going Global with Recipes from Around the World
Pizza: An All-American Italian Favorite
Homemade Cheese Pizza
Quick Pizza Dough
Pizza Sauce
Chicken Parmigiana
Classic Chicken Parmigiana
A Vegetable Soufflé
Calabasa Skillet Soufflé
Famous Rice Dishes: Arroz con Pollo and Paella
Arroz con Pollo
Paella del Caribe
Fabulous Fajitas
Marvelous Fajita Marinade
Pico de Gallo
Guacamole
Fabulous Fajitas
Feeding That Sweet Tooth
Beignets
Aebleskiver (Pancake Balls)
Part V : The Part of Tens
Chapter 17: Ten Ways to Make Your Cast Iron Last a Lifetime (or Longer)
Reseasoning After Each Use
Never Put Cold Water in a Hot Pan
Don’t Use Soap
Don’t Even Think about Using the Dishwasher
Keeping Water Away
Using It Often
Don’t Let Teens Threaten Each Other with It
Storing Appropriately
Avoiding Acidic and Alkaline Foods at First
Appreciating Its True Value
Chapter 18: Ten Dishes Best Suited to Cast Iron
Biscuits
Cornbread
Fried Chicken
Fried Eggs
Fried Potatoes
Game — Any Kind
Old-Fashioned Green Beans
Pineapple Upside-Down Cake
Steak
Stew — Any Kind
Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Surefire Success
Seasoning and Reseasoning
Preheating Your Pan
Using the Right Size Pan
Controlling Your Temperature
Modifying Cooking Times
Coating with Oil or Cooking Spray
Cooking with Quality Cast Iron
Using Quality Ingredients
Sticking Around
Having Fun
: Appendix
Metric Conversion Guide
In some circles, cast iron has a bad reputation. It’s old-fashioned, heavy, and hard to take care of. And really, how often do folks nowadays need to hitch up the mule and wagon and leave civilization and Teflon-coated sauté pans behind?
True, cast iron is old. It’s been around since the Middle Ages. And it is heavy. No one can dispute the fact that even a small pot made of cast iron has a heft to it that no other cookware has. It’s also true that most people who set out for parts unknown today are more interested in packing swimsuits, scuba gear, or snow skis than the pots and pans from their kitchens.
Nevertheless, cast-iron cookware has a place in today’s kitchens, and I’m not talking about hanging from a wall as a decoration. Cast iron has much to offer modern-day cooks. It’s easy to use, easy to care for, economical, versatile, and durable, and let’s face it, it has a nostalgic appeal that no other cookware possesses. But more compelling than all those reasons is that it’s a great cookware that makes great food.
For as simple as cast-iron cooking is, it remains an enigma to many modern cooks. To clear up the mystery, this book tells you just what you need to know. Each chapter contains information about cooking in general and cast-iron cooking in particular, like
When and how to season a cast-iron pan
How to clean your cast iron (you can’t use a dishwasher or soap)
What cast-iron pans are available and where you can find them
How to get a biscuit to rise
How to get that great cornbread crust
What to look for when go shopping for ingredients
How to recognize quality cast iron — old or new — at a garage sale or the mall
In addition, this book contains many cast-iron recipes, from the traditional fare, such as pineapple upside-down cake, corn bread, and fried chicken, to dishes with a modern flair, such as Apricot-Ginger Glazed Pork Rib Roast with Fruit Stuffing.
Simple and straightforward, this book has few conventions that you need to be aware of before you head to the kitchen. In fact, you only need to know a few things about the recipes:
Each recipe indicates a size and type of cast-iron pan to use. But because cast iron is so versatile, you can use just about any cast-iron pan that you have on hand. Just keep the following in mind:
Make sure the pan that you use is suitable for the task at hand. If the recipe calls for deep-frying, for example, a skillet won’t do because it isn’t deep enough, but a Dutch oven will work fine.
If the pan that you use is larger or smaller than the one specified in the recipe, especially for baking recipes, such as cakes, you may have to adjust the cooking time. Baking a cake in a 9-inch skillet, for example, takes longer than baking a cake in a 12-inch pan.
So feel free to use whatever cast iron you can. Some good candidates for swapping are as follows:
One of the fun things about cast-iron cooking is that it’s as much an art as a science. Many older cast-iron recipes have been handed down from one generation to the next and passed from cook to cook. Many recipes have made it to this book in just that way. So, you’re getting authentic cast-iron recipes that have stood the test of time.
Another typical characteristic of these types of recipes is that they often don’t use precise measurements or give specific time guidelines. Instead, they tell you to “Add just a smidgeon of salt,” or “Simmer the sauce until it’s nice and thick.” So that anyone from the culinary novice to the seasoned cast-iron cook can have success with the recipes in this book, the impreciseness is kept to a minimum:
Measurements: The recipes largely give precise measurements (a half teaspoon of this or 11/2 tablespoons of that, for example) or indicate a range (1/2 to 1 teaspoon, for example).
Times: The recipes also indicate approximate prep and cooking times and times for the tasks within individual recipe steps.
But, at the end of the day, to be true to cast-iron’s heritage, some ingredient amounts are occasionally left to your cooking judgment. (Don’t worry, I’m talking about things like salt and pepper here.) Continuing a long-standing kitchen tradition, as soon as you make a recipe, that recipe becomes yours to do with as you please. Take advantage of this flexibility and feel free to adjust any of these recipes to suit your own tastes and cooking style.
And now just a few more quick words about the ingredients. Unless otherwise noted,
Butter is unsalted.
Milk is whole.
Eggs are large.
Salt is common table salt and pepper is freshly ground black pepper.
Fruits and vegetables are washed under cold running water before using.
And all temperatures are Fahrenheit.
This book is full of need-to-know information about cast iron — info that you don’t want to skip or miss, because it contains details that are vital to using cast iron successfully. But sprinkled among all this need-to-know stuff is information that’s interesting but not vital. Because I assume that you’re a fairly busy person (see my assumptions about you in the next section), I’ve made skipable information easy to recognize. You can safely skip the following text:
Text in sidebars. The sidebars are the shaded boxes that appear here and there throughout the book. They contain historical side notes, more detailed explanations, and other cast-iron related information, but sidebars aren’t necessary reading.
Anything with a Technical Stuff icon attached. This information is interesting but not critical to your understanding of cast-iron cooking.
In the writing of this book, I made some assumptions about you:
You found yourself the proud owner of cast iron, but you aren’t quite sure what to do with it.
You’ve had cast iron for a while and are looking to expand your repertoire of cast-iron recipes.
You’ve had bad experiences with cast iron but are willing to give it another go.
You don’t own a lick of cast iron, but you’ve been hearing so much about it (or you’ve tasted something cooked in it), and you want to give it a try.
You don’t have time for long treatises on the joy of cast-iron cooking and just want practical cooking tips and cut-to-the-chase directions.
If any of the preceding assumptions describe you, you have the right cast-iron cookbook in your hands.
I wrote this book so that you can find information easily, regardless of whether you’re looking for recipes or cast-iron cooking tips.
Cast iron isn’t a hard cookware to figure out, but you do need to know how to season it and how to care for it before you can use it successfully. This part gives you that information. But just knowing the basics isn’t enough, not if you really want to enjoy cooking in cast iron. So this part also shares with you the tricks that cast-iron cooks have had up their sleeves for centuries.
In this part, you can find all sorts of main-dish cast-iron recipes: Roasted dishes, stir-fried dishes, blackened dishes, fried dishes, dishes using poultry, beef, veal, seafood, shellfish, and more. The selection runs the gamut from down-home favorites, such as Southern Fried Chicken, to uptown tastes, such as Chicken Marsala. And yes, I’ve even included a corn-dog recipe. You can also find tips and suggestions for finding ideal cuts of meat or softening up a tough cut, taking care of prep and presentation tasks, such as carving meat and poultry, and protecting yourself from food-borne illnesses.
Some of the best cast-iron dishes are the side dishes, such as roasted vegetables or fried potatoes, breads (corn bread, biscuits, and more), and desserts (pineapple upside-down cake says it all). So, in this part, I gather a bunch of recipes and throw in information that can help you get the results you want.
Cast iron is a part of Americana. The first colonists to hit the shores of the New World brought cast iron with them, which may partially explain why their trip across the ocean was so perilous. Then their descendents carried it westward.
With its history as the cookware of adventurers, pilgrims, and pioneers, cast iron is great outdoor cookware even for the modern cook. A quiet twilight, a cast-iron skillet, and a recipe from this part is all that you need to see why cooking outdoors with cast iron is still so popular. Of course, if you’re talking about the great outdoors, what better recipes to talk about than fresh game? Those recipes are here — along with tips on how to get fresh game, even if you’re not a hunter.
And don’t forget that cast iron isn’t just an American cookware. It’s used in other parts of the world, too. So in this part, you get a mix of recipes from other cultures, as well.
Want to know how to make your cast iron last a lifetime? How about a list of recipes that, ingredient for ingredient, just taste better when they’re made in cast iron? Think you need help getting your cast-iron recipes to come out right? This part offers lists of ideas, suggestions, and a few opinions that you may find helpful.
The icons in this book help you find particular kinds of information that may be of use to you:
This book is organized so that you easily find whatever you want to find. Have some potatoes that you need to use and want some recipe ideas? Head to Chapter 10. If you’re interested in outdoor recipes, because a camp out is coming up, go to Chapter 14 for that. You can use the table of contents to find broad categories of information, the index to look up more specific items, or the Recipes at a Glance section at the front of this book to find the right recipe.
What’s great about this book is that you decide where to start and what to read. It’s a reference that you can jump into and out of at will.
If you don’t currently have any cast iron or you’re not sure how to cook with cast iron, you may want to head to Part I. It gives you all the basic info that you need to get started. After you’ve digested the tidbits in Part I, you can go anywhere your heart — or your taste buds — takes you.
In this part . . .
E