Cast Iron Camping
Rachel and I just got back (a few days ago) from our anniversary camping trip! It was all kinds of fun, and details and pictures are coming soon over at our private 
site (ask me about it if you don’t know about it). This particular post is about my new cool pan we used for the first time. It’s an 8″ cast iron skillet, and I absolutely LUFF it.
I bought it (at a garage sale for a buck) because I needed something heavy duty that would be able to easily withstand the heat of cooking over an open fire (or even ON an open fire if I have to set it right down on the wood). Little did I know that cast iron is also naturally non-stick, as long as it is seasoned and cared for properly. I’m very excited about my new toy, and have already had all kinds of fun cooking with it. I know that this pan could easily be with us for many many years.
As a side note, I learned all about how to restore and care for my new favorite pan from Linda Stradley over at WhatsCookingAmerica.net. If you ever need info on cast iron skillets, this is the place to go.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
hey i had one of those but something happened to it. if i recall right it was involved in a grease fire but then again i never picked up a new one. they are great things
June 11th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Cast iron always scares me a little, but I’m happy for you. Whe the say seasoned, deosn’t that just mean it has bits of food on it from the last 500 meals cooked in it? *BLECH*
BTW, I just found out that I haven’t posting all this stime ’cause I couldn’t remember my password for all the blogs……. and yours doesn’t require a password.
September 29th, 2013 at 10:39 pm
Justin, Seasoning of a cast iron skillet or cookware is a little more complex than just grease and bits of food from your last meal. Seasoning can be done with clean oil too. The key is to bring the oil up to its smoke point (using a drying oil such as flax is the easiest) which causes the oils and fats to Polymerize, essentially forming the same kind of nonstick coating you’d find in a teflon pan, except with hydrocarbon chains instead of Teflon’s Fluorocarbon chains.