What are the benifits of cooking with CAST IRON? I am thinking of getting some cast iron for use when the power goes out and I am using a propane stove or multi fuel stove for cooking.

Is cast iron "better" than standard pots and pans in such a use?

I hear cast iron is very durable and will not burn through on hot stoves like standard pots and pans may.

Any input is appreciated.

Oklahoma

Heavy cast iron pans, have the advantage of spreading the heat evenly, so you won't get hot spots and thus preventing things from burning. This also allows you to use heavy cast iron pans as ovens.

Not sure what the advantage is of cast iron, during a power outage. Unless you really want to bake something...

What he said, plus it can be pretty much non-stick.

Before cast iron really starts to work properly you have to get it well seasoned, something I have never had much luck at. My mom had a cast iron skillet that was jet black, and smooth as a babies butt on the inside, cooked great, nothing would stick to it. Only took her a lifetime of use to get it that way...

Having cooked with cast iron most of my life, both at home at at camp, here's a few of the reasons why I prefer it, especially in a more primitive environment. Please keep in mind this is for regular cast iron, not the enamale or porcelain clad stuff:

1) Perpetual stick resistance - Properly seasoned cast iron maintains a carbonized coating that resists having foods stick to it. It isn't foolproof, but with a minimal effort it can be maintained indefinitely.

2) Ease of cleanup - No matter how bad my cast iron gets fouled in the cooking process, even if I burn something in it, I need scant more than hot water and a fire to clean it to optimal condition again. Because of how it is seasoned and used, it is the only cookware I know of that can be "fire cleaned", that is, cleaned out by nothing more than direct heat. It is a worst case scenario when a casual soaking will not loosen truly baked on messes and I have to put the pot on the fire and let it burn the gunk to ash, usually requiring that I also re-season the pot thoroughly. However, usually the case is I just need to scrub the pot briefly with hot water (never soap), heat it up to a sterilizing temp (350-450 degrees for about 10 minutes), and occasionally "smoke" a layer of cooking oil, shortening or lard on the surface, which is simply applying a thin layer while it is hot enough to scorch the oil and let it go till the smoke quits, then let it cool off the flame on its own.

3) Versatility - because of the thickness of the pot and that cast iron doesn't conduct heat as readily as other metals, you have pretty good temp control for cooking just about anything, and I have. The trick is to balance the heat application to the type of cooking you do. For frying, boiling, simmering and sauteing, bottom heat is all that's required, so a stove, either gas or electric works fine, and a skillet is the dominant utensil. For baking and roasting, more heat needs to be applied from above, so if using wood or charcoal at camp instead of the range oven in the kitchen you need a pot with a lid that will retain embers or coals so the heat can convect down into the food as well as up from the bottom. With this option, I've baked some of the best biscuits, rolls, breads, cakes, quiches, casseroles, and roasted chickens, turkeys, hams, rib roasts, pot roasts, and ribs that my family and friends say they've ever feasted upon. For more delicate dishes like quiche or souffle, I simply use a trivet in the bottom of the pot and place the pan containing the delicacy inside to bake just like using a range oven at home. Even a water bath for custards is not that difficult.

There's other reasons too for using cast iron cookware, but I think you get the idea. The big drawback of course is that cast iron is not the lightweight, backpacking type cooking utensil. You will never find any cast iron in my backpacks, which is why I like mules. If you are gonna pack it in yourself, then I would stick with those gadget type cookware ensembles like jetboil and bakepacker that allow some variation to just being able to boil water, yet don't add twenty pounds to your pack.

During a power outage at home, I can and do use my cast iron for cooking anything I need or want. I can use other pans for frying and boiling things, but if I want to bake or roast and there's no electricity, all I need is a fire and I have a meal.

Let me put it this way, if I can make a meal of stuffed cornish game hens, twice baked potatoes, glazed carrots, sourdough rolls, and bumbleberry cobbler up at elk camp, in November, during a heavy driving snow, then it should suit me well back home when the lights go out.

My oldest pot is going on 25 years now. I've a cast iron muffin pan that is about 80 years old as well that I still use. I've seen pots in use that are pushing 200 years old now (a "spider" skillet used for hearth cooking, home made even).

Without damageing the pot, you can usually cook with cast iron over charcoal, wood coals, coal, gas, electric, just about whatever you want.

There's only two downsides to cast iron.

1) It's HEAVY. Not a problem in the kitchen but even car camping I don't use one anymore.
2) If you don't take care of it, it will rust. You can also get bacteria growing inside the pours of the metal if you don't maintain it's seasoning.

while all the above are correct i would not use cast iron
for survival cooking.you want to use every BTU you can squeeze
out of a propane tank. just the fuel you would burn to heat
up a Dutch oven to the point where it would start to cook
something could be used to cook several meals in stainless
steel..i have and use cast iron pots but they are just used
in car camping where i can carry a lot of weight and have
a big pile of firewood.. remember that cast iron was used
in the "good old days" because people cooked on big heavy
cast iron stoves..very slowly..that slaveing over a hot
stove to cook a meal is 1850's not 1950's..and---i'm really
on a roll here..they used cast iron because it was the best
avalable at the time..tin was for poor people--

There are several booklets on dutch oven cooking, all worthwhile to acquire. They are called dutch ovens because of the german market in America among the Pensylvania Dutch, and were first cast for that market in England. The coal catching lip and three legs are a design improvement by our own Paul Revere. Sizes range from a small 8" up to 16' ( 16" cook differently and are truly the realm of professionals anyway.) The most usefull size being a 14" that can cook full meals or side dishes with reduced quantities. You will need a 'Gonch Hook' to move the ovens, a wisk broom to clean off ashes and a set of tongs to pile your coals. Forget about the iron hanging sets. They are not needed and just complicate things. I use old aluminum trash can lids to control my base embers and if showing off have stacked ovens 4 high on each other. After the Northridge earthquake I arrived at my Grandmother's damaged home with the Coleman 2 burner, enameled camp coffeepot, enamel tub and 4 ovens. Most of the nieghbors were people she knew since everyone arrived in Model Ts in the 20s. The power of course was off everywhere. Within minutes these ladies had hot coffee brewed,beans in the tub and two cobblers, stew and cornbread cooking.I was getting yelled at to bring more firewood for coal making and stay out of the way. Most of the vegetables and fruit had been canned from their own backyards. that was a bitterseat meal, most of those people are passed on, the nieghborhood declared 'run down' by speculators who now have multiple occupancy units in place of the backyard gardens and orchards.

It doesn't get any better than a dutch oven when you're cooking with a fire.

Central OK,
Google "dutch ovens" and you will find all kinds of websites and users who will preach the gospel of cast iron. OK and Texas seems to be a hotbed of such groups, as is Utah.
Intersting history behind cast iron, most notably for use on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Anyplace that was "settled" has a lot of the old time recipes and interest in cast iron cooking.
Me, I keep my eye open at yard and estate sales as many of the "kitchen cowboys" today seem to feel spending $800 on AllClad pots and pans is the only way to go. I have a couple $3.00 Dutch ovens and frying pans.
Full disclosure: I also have AllClads in my Kitchen, but a nice set of cast iron in my garage closet for camping, tailgating and sometime use on the outdoor grill. My Dutch Ovens sometimes get used inside.

Suggestion: Only buy American, Lodge prefered, as the asian cast iron is inferior in everyones opinion... older the better. Check out Ebay as well.
I would rather have an old one than a new one anyway.

Cast iron cookware doesn't work with alcohol stoves. You need a good source of heat for cast iron cooking.

DO NOT attempt to season your new cast iron in winter, with all the doors and windows closed. If you must do it then, do it outdoors. It stinks.

Once again, we don't need to go into exactly how I know this...

Sue

We won't discuss how I know that you are 100% correct either,,,please.

I have a 10" cast Iron skillet that I have used in the house for years, My wife won't use it and keeps trying to get me to "get read of the old dinosaur", I informd her that the skillet was here before her and would be here after she and I are gone.

Minute traces of iron will leach into your food during cooking and thus iron cookware becomes a source of dietary iron.


Cast iron is made to be used, not stuck back in the pantry for a once a year use. Ya gotta use it to season it. If yours isnt seasoned, it is because you aren't using it.






pathological bacteria? link?

The bacteria thing is something that's debated as much as the 'should you wash your cast iron with soap'. I don't have any references but if you google 'cast iron bacteria' you'll hit on a pile of pages with differing oppinions. Some say the pan gets so hot no bacteria can survive. But if the pan is not seasoned up or properly cleaned for that matter and you get bacteria in there during storage, you can get cross contamination when you pull it out, touch it, touch other food...touch yourself

I say better safe than sorry...especially if you're camping and the pan can come into contact with all kinds of things. As long as it's rightly seasoned and properly cleaned between uses (I like to scrub it down with a bit of coarse salt when water alone won't cut it) it's really a non issue.

Hmm, I suspect any bacteria living in the pores of the metal would become yet another dead ingredient in my meal once I re-season the pot. I don't know of too many strains that will take a constant 400+ degrees for long.

I do not worry too much about it, as I use mine regularly, have done so professionally, and have never had anyone get sick from my cooking yet.

However, I suppose it is possible, if a cook is sloppy enough.

There sure were an awful lot of chuckwagon meals cooked up for cowpokes for a lot of years off the back end of a wagon. Wood wasn't the only source of fuel they cooked with either. Interesting notion to consider eating biscuits and beans from a dutch oven that had a pile of cow dung laid over the lid. Do you reckon the cook was careful about keeping the ashes from falling in the pot when he checked on them?

IMO cast iron has several advantages.

1. It lasts for generations with proper care.

2. No known health risks as with Teflon (cancer) coated and aluminum (Alzheimer's) cookware.

3. It can be used with almost any heat source without damage.

4. Versatility. While it does take longer to heat up and will require more fuel for simple frying or sautéing, it's heat retaining qualities are great for slow cooking and deep frying foods evenly as well as for baking.

5. Everything tastes better when cooked in cast iron IMO. Your mileage may vary but try cooking some real southern fried chicken in a cast iron fryer vs. any other cookware and you'll see what I mean.

FWIW, I use real lard and shortening (made from genuine animal fat) as well as real cheese, butter, cream and milk as much as I can when I cook.

Besides the rustic nature of using something our forefathers used there is not much more benefit if using a stove to cook on. The main disadvantage is your use more fuel to heat up a cast iron pot then a stainless steel equilivilant. If your cooking with charcoal then cast iron is fun and the way to go.
Durability is good but then so is tank over a VW. But there is a weight issue too. I have never heard nor seen a stainless steel pot burn through on a gas stove. If you got to those temperatures I imigine a cast iron pot is just as likely to melt as a SS pot.
I love cooking with my Lodge castiron dutch oven as I do on the weekends quite a bit on the back porch. It is fun but just like a lighter is better then a bow drill for starting a fire so is more modern technology cookware.
cheers

Perhaps something else to consider is the sheer versatility of one pot for cooking in. Using a wood fire, I can literally cook any type of recipe I could do using all the other cooking utensils in my modern kitchen. Using my 12" deep camp dutch oven, I can roast, fry, parboil, or saute any meat, make crepes, pancakes, omlettes, muffins, coffee cake, any type of quick bread or yeast bread, or flat bread, boil, fry, saute, roast, or bake any sort of vegetable, make custards, quiches, puddings, jello molds, aspics, pasta, rice, beans, casseroles, souffles, cobblers, pies, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, brownies, jams, jellies, syrups and sauces. All this from one pot and a wood fire and a few mixing and handling utensils.

If you're in a shelter in place scenario without any other modern utility based heat source, you can at least build some sort of fire and use your cast iron pot.

Incidentally, the list above also represents just about everything I have cooked in my cast iron dutch ovens.

Oh yeah, they boil water pretty good too.

I will grant it takes more feul to heat up cast iron but that heat is retained in the iron and people who use castiron regularly can tell you that they will remove the heat 2-4 minutes befor the food is fully cooked and it will continue to cook countering the time it took to heat initially. IMO it's six of one half a dozen of another it just depends on what you like. Me personally I wouldn't trade my cast iron skillets and dutch oven / pot for the best non stick in the world. As far as the lighter being better at starting fire than a bow drill, it's just faster not neccesarily better.

Currently, Lodge and Camp Chef make production run Camp Dutch Ovens from 5" diameter (1/2 quart) up to 16" diameter (12 quart).

Maca Foundry in Utah casts heavy duty dutch ovens that go up to 22" diameter (45 quart). They are heavy enough that it usually takes two people to carry them, empty. However, they will do a fine job of cooking a 72 lb turkey, or a deer hindquarter, or half an acre of oats. I've been itching to get me a set of those Macas, except when I think about having to lug them around.

There are also some companies out there making Potjies (African cooking pots), some of which you could bathe in. I am guessing those aren't intended as man-portable cooking devices.

If the scale of my cooking ever gets that massive, I think I'd opt instead for a spit and do a pig roast, or else dig a pit and do it luau style, with all the fixins'.

p.s. Lodge (on-line) is having a 20% off sale on their top sellers, including skillets and 5-qt dutch ovens, for the next few days.

http://www.lodgemfg.com/

Just to muddy up the thread here, I have heard before (maybe on this site) that if you were about to be stranded on an island and you could only take 2 things from the kitchen, what would you take?


A strong case could be made that it is not the Dutch oven, but rather a Wok and a sharp knife. I have a small collection of woks as well, mostly yard sale stuff, and it is one item I am OK to see the label "made in China".

The bacteria scare is largely myth. What you can encounter is a oven with to much seasoning applied and improperly stored go rancid. A little used trick is to give the pot a splash of apple cider vinegar before storage to balance the PH and never store with the lid fully on. For new users a bit of insurance against scorching is a tortilla placed on the bottom. If you see Doug Ritter in the tortila remember to send 50% of the EBAY proceeds to the website.

"...I have never heard nor seen a stainless steel pot burn through on a gas stove..."

My late mother-in-law managed to turn the burner on under my "antique" (my parents used it when I was a kid) SS coffee pot one day, and melted a three inch in diameter hole in the bottom of it. So I can happen...

"...I can roast, fry, parboil, or saute any meat, make crepes, pancakes, omlettes, muffins, coffee cake, any type of quick bread or yeast bread, or flat bread, boil, fry, saute, roast, or bake any sort of vegetable, make custards, quiches, puddings, jello molds, aspics, pasta, rice, beans, casseroles, souffles, cobblers, pies, cakes, doughnuts, cookies, brownies, jams, jellies, syrups and sauces..."

Wow! Can I go camping with you???