Customer Reviews

Cooking in Cast Iron: Yesterday's Flavors for Today's Kitchen

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been cooking with dutch ovens for years. I am also involved in 18th cent reenacting so I do use my cast iron quite a bit. I think this cookbook is great because the recipes are modern, easy to make and use ingredients readily available in the grocery store. Some dutch oven/cast iron cookbooks try to be too authentic and have recipes for poached rabbitt with skunk cabbage, etc., but not this one. The 1st recipe we tried was Shaker style chicken with apple and cream sauce--an A+.

I absolutely adore cast iron and I have purchased a few books on the subject as well as experimenting on my own. I found most of the recipes in this book to be just fine but a little "out there" for your average chef with a big black pan and a pile of burning wood. "Souffleed Bittersweet Chocolate Omelet with Hot Fudge Sauce" and "Sauce Remoulade" are great and all, but where's the "Biscuits and Sausage Gravy?" In all fairness, there is a recipe for biscuits which I haven't tried yet. Overall there seems to be a plethora of recipes which are cute and interesting but likely won't be used very often and a there is a dearth of down-home cookin'. I liked "Cast Iron Cooking: from Johnnycakes to Blackened Redfish by A.D. Livingston" much better.

I love this cookbook. There is a great mix of traditional with a twist and new recipes. It is great if you want to expand on your cast iron cooking. Most cookbooks offer just the basics that most people who have any cooking experience already know how to fix. If you are looking for standard recipes for fried chicken, corn bread or biscuits and gravy only, you might not appreciate the span of this book.

This is a very nice cookbook with very nice recipes, in which the author? the editor? has arbitrarily added the words "cast iron" before some cooking utensil in each recipe. My fave was the one recipe where they forgot, and the "6 quart cast iron dutch oven" became a regular skillet in the next paragraph.

The cookbook makes NO recommendations (in the recipes)about the different methods needed for cooking in cast iron. There is a fairly obligatory section on cleaning and seasoning cast iron at the beginning. But, that's it.

It really looks like the author had written a very nice cookbook, but her publisher said "Cookbooks are a dime a dozen. We need a HOOK. How about Cast Iron? That's all trendy now..."

Take every recipe. Remove the words "Cast Iron" from the instructions, and you'll have a perfectly nice recipe. Oh, except for the Corn Sticks. I think that must have been the recipe that gave the publisher the idea. The author actually includes a nice recipe for corn sticks, with a discussion about corn stick pans.

This book gets 2 stars, because the recipes are very nice. They just have absolutely NOTHING to do with Cast Iron. If you're lookiing for good recipes that utilize the great qualities of Cast Iron, this is NOT the book to buy.

As a fan of cast iron and dutch oven cooking, I enjoyed the history and the "color" she gave in the beginning of the book.
The recipes range from the simple "monte cristo" to more complex historical fare. This book will be used over and over as more exotic cookbooks simply decorate you kitchen.

I can't wait to start trying recipes from this book! All look really good even though there are a few recipes that are a little too gourmet for my liking, but overall this is a must have.

*back to add;
This week I made the "Sloppy Joes with Tri-Colored Bell Peppers", pg 30, and the "Cuban Chicken with Pineapple-Rum Sauce", pg 64.
Both were fantastic and the sloppy joes were better than any I have ever had. The recipes look good reading through them and so far taste even better. Can't wait to try more.

Great Book! The author does a wonderful job of explaining the use and care (cleaning & seasoning) of non-enameled cast iron cookware. Also the receipes are easy and very well thought out. I love this book. I have a cast iron dutch oven, 10in skillet and 3 qt chicken fryer, all of which see regular use in my kitchen. These receipes can easily be cooked in any of them. Many of the receipes remind me of the food my grandmothers prepared in their cast iron cookware. Good hearty filling dishes. All in all this is an excellent introduction to cast iron cooking.

We've tried five of the recipes so far and they have all been delicious. Good instructions, too. All the ingredients so far have been readily available at our rural supermarket. You don't absolutely need to have cast iron cookware to make these, but it sure helps.