Cast Iron Cookware

It’s all about taste and using cast iron cookware is going to give your meats a unique flavor when you’re cooking dinner for the family. Just like meats smoked with hickory, it gives it a different flavor than meat smoked with other wood or cooked on a stove or over briquettes.

Slow Cooking

Because cast iron cookware is so thick whatever you’re cooking cooks evenly throughout the whole dish, something that cannot be said of pots made from thinner materials like aluminum. If time is an issue you may want to forego cast iron. Don’t have a pressure cooker? Using a cast iron pot with a lid (like a Dutch oven) you can slow cook a roast over a long period of time just like you would in a pressure cooker. You will also be less likely to burn your roast in a slow cooking cast iron pot.

Pros and Cons

When it comes to cooking with cast iron cookware there are both advantages and disadvantages. A well- seasoned cast iron skillet is stick free, enhances flavor, and can last a lifetime. They are also inexpensive and can be cooked over a woodstove or an open fire while camping. When it comes to post-apocalyptic survival the cast iron pot wins out.

They can be a bit of a hassle to maintain their seasoning. If you forget, or your best friend who came over for dinner forgets, and uses soap your favorite skillet or pot is ruined. Some people don’t like it that they are pretty heavy as well. Many don’t like storing a greasy skillet on their nice wood shelves so that means you have to keep it on the stove or in the oven. If you do that you’re forever moving it from stovetop to oven depending on what you’re cooking.

The Seasoning Process

When it comes to cast iron cookware, most people are a little leery of the seasoning process, but it’s a lot easier than you would think. In the beginning the metal is rough and porous and foods will stick to it if you don’t cook with enough oils or butter. As it seasons it becomes a non-stick pot. To season your new cookware, wash it thoroughly in the beginning. Then preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you’re gently warming your cookware on the stovetop. Using a basting brush or paper towel spread around a tablespoon of natural oil in the pot. Try to spread it on the surface evenly. The last thing you need to do is bake it in the oven for about an hour; that’s all there is to it. If you take care of your cookware properly it will darken and become smoother over time.

Cooking with Cast Iron

Cooking with cast iron has a number of benefits. Here are some great reasons to put away that expensive non-stick cookware and go cast iron.

1. Using cast iron allows you to avoid toxic fumes that come with most non-stick cookware.

2. You can use cast iron cookware pretty much anywhere; stovetop, oven, woodstove, over a campfire, or directly in the coals.

3. Cast iron pots are so much easier to clean up.

4. They are non-stick and the finish doesn’t scrape off like it does with non-stick cookware.

5. By using cast iron you can boost your iron intake. Iron helps boost your immune system.

6. Your food cooks evenly and is easier to brown without burning.

7. Cast iron will outlast you. Not only is it cheaper, but you won’t have to replace those non-stick pans when the finish wears off.

Ideal for Survival Scenarios

When it comes to survival in times of complete economic upheaval the last thing you want to do is lug around or store numerous different kinds of cookware. You may not have the chance to replace it anytime soon so cast iron cookware is the obvious choice. Not only that, but chances are that at some point you will have to cook over an open fire, and a cast iron pot will hold up to the flames a lot better than anything else.

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