Hot Iron

I spent all day Saturday baking.

Not cakes or cookies, I was cooking CAST IRON.

We just acquired several pieces of cast iron cookware, something I hadn’t cooked with since my days in the Boy Scouts, and although they say it comes from the factory    “pre-seasoned,” all the experts advise doing it again before use.  The stuff we bought was made by Lodge Manufacturing, a family-owned business that has been making cast iron cookware in the hills of Tennessee for over 100 years.

The seasoning process involves wiping each piece down with melted Crisco or oil (I used canola)  heating it in the oven for a couple hours and then allowing it to cool slowly, which with heavy cast iron, seems to take forever.

Thank goodness it was a nice day, because the whole house began to smell like a foundry (or at least  like a blacksmith shop) and we had to open the front and back doors and set up a fan to help control the odor and the heat.

Was it worth it?  YES!

So far, we’ve only used the big Dutch oven, but yesterday I cooked the best pot roast we’ve ever tasted!

I coated a 3 lb. chuck roast with sea salt and fajita rub, and after it set for a while, I seared it on top of the stove.  Then I removed the meat, de-glazed the pot with beef broth, put the roast back in and popped it in the oven at 300 degrees.  After it cooked for a couple hours, I added onions, celery, carrots, potatoes, a little garlic and half of a poblano pepper and cooked it for another hour.

By then, the smells were driving us crazy; we couldn’t wait any longer.  The meat was melt-in-your-mouth tender, the potatoes and carrots done to perfection, and the whole thing was unbelievably tasty.

If there is a downside, it is that Honey may never cook again.  She can hardly lift the lid on that big, heavy Dutch oven, and getting the fully loaded pot from the oven to the stove top could give you a hernia, or at least strain your back.