Seven Cheers for Cast Iron Cookware!

Our Annual Dutch Oven Gathering is coming up fast, and cast iron cookware is on everyone’s mind. Here’s a small list of reasons to choose cast iron cookware.  Share your reasons with us at countrylife@lehmans.com.

1. 

   If you season your cast iron properly, it’s nearly non-stick. Who needs those pans with chemically formulated non-stick coatings? You don’t, if you use cast iron.

2. If you tend to be low on iron, cooking in a cast-iron pot or skillet will add trace amounts of iron into your food as you cook. Nearly all cooking vessels (except enamel coated ones) leach in some manner, transferring to the cooking food. Use cast iron, and get what’s good for you!
3. Cast iron cookware goes anywhere: range top, oven, even over the family campfire. You can’t put a plastic-handled pan in your oven to finish a chicken breast after you’ve browned it, and that lightweight aluminum pan is risky over the fire. The high heat will warp it in no time. Not so with cast iron. It’s sturdy and versatile.

4. 

   Cast iron cookware has the highest heat retention and most even heat distribution of any cookware. It does take a little longer to heat up, but that’s just the heavyweight pan working for you, spreading the heat evenly through the vessel, and using the greater thermal mass to heat more efficently in the long run, unlike many modern cookware pieces.

5. Cast iron grill pans, skillets or Dutch ovens make it easy to brown beef, chicken, fish–any meat protein. The even heat gives quicker caramelization, a consistent level of browning, and the properly seasoned pan means no matter what you cook, it won’t stick.
6. The nubbed pan lids of a cast iron Dutch oven recycles steam back into the pan, keeping food moist and tasty. This is especially important when cooking with lean meats or less tender cuts of meat. The very design of the Dutch oven will help tenderize your food.
7. The cast iron skillet is the perfect pan for making cornbread. If you haven’t tried cornbread in a cast-iron skillet, please do! You’ll never go back to your old way of making it after you sample the perfect crust and tender, moist interior of a cornbread batch made in a cast iron skillet.