Cult of cast iron is growing
George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, so loved her cast iron cookware that she specified in her will who should have her “iron kitchen furniture” upon her death.
Anyone who has inherited a piece of cast iron cookware – its black patina a testament to long and loving use – from a beloved aunt or grandmother can well understand Washington’s attachment to her “furniture.”
For that matter, anyone who owns treasured cast iron, passed down or not, surely appreciates the culinary regard for this indispensable, indestructible work horse. In the South especially, where the foundry-born pieces are commonplace in the kitchen, cast iron remains the favored cookware for family recipes handed down through generations.
The cult of cast iron is synonymous with the culinary South. And it’s growing.
Which makes the arrival of The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook: A Treasury of Timeless, Delicious Recipes compiled and edited by Pam Hoenig (Oxmoor House, $24.95) particularly well timed. The cookbook, which contains more than 200 recipes and photos, is Lodge’s most comprehensive guide to cast iron cooking. And the company, founded in 1896 in South Pittsburgh, Tenn., is well suited to tell the story of American cast iron cooking: Lodge is the only existing American manufacturer of cast iron cookware, which it calls “America’s original cookware.”
“The whole game plan was to show the versatility and durability of cast iron,” Lodge spokesman Mark Kelly said about the book’s publication. “I steal a line from Field of Dreams: If you can think it, you can cook it in cast iron.”
As the cookbook demonstrates, cast iron can be used for frying, searing, broiling, baking, sautéing, braising and even stir-frying. From corn bread to desserts, from home kitchen to campground, from Low Country to high-end haute Southern cuisine, cast iron pots and pans can be seen as the heart of American cooking.
While there’s a mother-knows-best sentimentality attached to cast iron cookware, Lodge admits that the heavy pans, prized for their superior heat conduction and retention, suffered an image problem. The care required to keep the cookware clean, shiny and rust-free (or “seasoned” as users call it), made it inconvenient for some home cooks.
In 2002, however, Lodge introduced its Logic series of pre-seasoned pans that afforded a natural non-stick cooking surface that only careful seasoning by the user could produce. Lodge released 25 of 80 pieces pre-seasoned in 2002 and quickly saw positive public response. In July 2005 all Lodge cast iron cookware went Logic; today the company boasts 120 pieces of pre-seasoned cast iron cookware that include the popular skillets, griddles, Dutch ovens and cornstick pans.
More people are cooking with cast iron according to market figures. Cast iron cookware sales have grown from 4 percent of the entire cookware market to 10 percent in the last 10 years, Kelly said. From 2007 to 2011, sales of cast iron grew from $103 million to nearly $114 million.
A revival of Southern cooking coincided with the new Lodge cookware, Kelly said. “Now, you see everyone using it, from Bobby Flay to Martha Stewart to Paula Deen and Guy Fieri and Rachael Ray,” Kelly said. “It’s been a huge metamorphosis.”
On Friday, the World’s Championship Bar-B-Que competition at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo will hold its third annual Dutch Oven Dessert Contest. No doubt a lot of much-loved iron kitchen furniture will be employed.
Savannah Red Rice
Recipes from The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook
Serves 6
4 tablespoons bacon drippings
5 tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 cup diced celery (inner leaves included)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon kosher salt or more to taste
2 cups canned organic whole plum tomatoes, undrained, chopped
2 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons pepper vinegar or cider vinegar (if you use cider vinegar, add a pinch of red pepper flakes)
1¼ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
2 bay leaves
2 dried chiles de arbol, chopped or a pinch of red pepper flakes
2 cups long-grain rice
½ pound andouille or chorizo sausage, grilled and sliced ½-inch thick
1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and cut into bite-size pieces
Instructions: Heat 2 tablespoons bacon drippings and 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted. Add the onion, celery, garlic, and 1 tablespoon salt; cook, stirring often until the onion and garlic are tender. Add the tomatoes, stock, vinegar, 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon black pepper, the thyme, bay leaves and chilies; simmer 15 to 20 minutes, tasting for seasoning.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons bacon drippings and 2 tablespoons butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat until foamy. Add the rice and cook, stirring frequently, until it is opaque, about 5 minutes. This step is very important to the final flavor of the dish, so don’t skimp on the time – but also don’t let the rice burn.
Add 4 cups of the tomato mixture to the rice; stir to combine, and cover. Set a timer and cook the rice for 25 minutes over very low heat. Do not lift the lid. After 25 minutes, turn off the heat and let the rice stand for 5 more minutes. Again, do not lift the lid. While the rice cooks, add the sausage to the remaining tomato mixture in the pan; cover and keep warm over very low heat.
While the rice is standing, melt the remaining 1 tablespoon butter in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat until foamy. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring just until cooked through; add the remaining 1 teaspoon of salt and ¼ teaspoon black pepper Add the shrimp to the sausage and tomato mixture, and stir well.
Pour the shrimp and sausage mixture over the rice. Remove and discard bay leaves. Gently fluff the rice (you don’t want to break the grains) to combine. Serve immediately.
Iron Skillet Roasted Mussels
Serves 6
½ cup white wine
¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter
1 leek (white part only), rinsed well and chopped
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 pounds mussels, scrubbed and debearded
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions: Combine the wine, butter, leek and red pepper in a 10- to 12-inch cast iron skillet or 5-quart Dutch oven and bring to a boil over medium-high heat
Reduce the heat to medium; add the mussels and cover. Cook until the shells open and the mussels are plump, about 8 minutes. Discard any mussels that don’t open.
Sprinkle the parsley over the top and season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve right from the skillet or Dutch oven with sliced bread.
Fresh Peach Crumb Coffee Cake
Serves 8
Topping
1½ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, melted
Cake
½ cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup sour cream
2 large eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 pound ripe peaches (3 to 4 medium), peeled, pitted and sliced
Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter the bottom of a 10-inch cast iron skillet
Place all the topping ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well to make a dense, smooth dough; set aside.
To make the cake batter, cream the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sour cream, eggs and vanilla and beat well. Place the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a small bowl, stirring to combine; add to the batter all at once, stirring well to combine. The batter will be stiff.
Smooth the batter into the prepared skillet. Arrange the peach slices on top in a single layer. Crumble the topping mixture into big chunks and sprinkle on top of the peaches.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with crumbs clinging to it, about 45 minutes. (The cake will remain quite moist because of the peaches, but be sure you don’t have streaks of raw batter on the toothpick.) Cool a little before cutting into wedges.
This Ain’t No Yankee Cornbread
Serves 2-4
2 tablespoons bacon drippings
1 cup white cornmeal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk, or more if needed
Instructions: Place 1 tablespoon bacon drippings in a 6½-inch Lodge cast iron skillet; place skillet in the oven while it preheats to 450 degrees.
Whisk together the cornmeal, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
Whisk together the egg, buttermilk and remaining 1 tablespoon bacon drippings in a medium bowl.
Add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk mixture and stir just until combined. (The mixture should pour like pancake batter; if not, add a little more buttermilk.) Pour the batter into the hot skillet.
Bake until the crust is dark golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.
_____________________________________________________________________
If you require a high quality printout of this article, just click on the printer symbol next to ’Share and enjoy’, and we will do the rest. This site is hosted by (click on the graphic for more information)
Return from cast iron to Home Page
If you want to increase your site popularity and gain thousands of visitors – check out these sites THEY ARE FREE. Spanishchef more than doubled its ‘New Visitors’ last month simply by signing up to these sites:
Follow spanishchef.net on TWITTER
