The Everything Cast-Iron Cookbook

In the past six months our family has been trying to convert all of our cookware to cast iron. Although we still have a few items to replace we love cooking with our cast iron and we love this cookbook to go with our new cookware.

The first thing that I noticed when I got this book is that it is full of recipes that our family will actually eat. Not many crazy exotic ingredients that I can’t find and the ingredient lists aren’t so long that they overwhelm us. The instructions are easy to follow and most recipes are really easy to make.

Some of our family’s favorite recipes include: Irish Soda Bread, Not So Fancy Apple Turnover, Ebelskiver (a Scandinavian pancake), Refried Beans (I had never made homemade refried beans before this book and these are delicious, way better than out of a can!), Malassadas (Portuguese fries donuts), Scones, Almond Shortbread Cookies, Early American Johnnycakes, Swiss Steak, Sweet and Sour Pork, Ginger Chicken, Kansas City Barbecue Sauce (we freeze this so we always have some on hand), Chipotle Orange Sauce, and Turkey Mole (we usually use chicken though because we eat a lot of chicken). There are so many great recipes in this book.

The recipes are broken into the following categories: Recipes to cook in a new skillet, recipes for one in a small skillet, sauces, vegetables in a skillet, chicken and poultry in a skillet, fish and shellfish in a skillet, pork in a skillet, beef in a skillet, lamb and game in a skillet, recipes for a grill pan, recipes for a griddle, recipes for a chicken fryer or fryer kit, recipes for a dutch oven, soups and stews, and recipes for bakeware and desserts. These categories make it easy to find something for dinner based on the ingredients that we have on hand.

I really like the layout the books in “The Everything” series has. They always start out with a great introduction chapter and The Cast-Iron Cookbook is no exception. The introduction chapter, entitled Getting Back to Basics with Cast-Iron Cookware, has a lot of great tips and information. It gives the benefits of using cast iron, how to choose a new or used pan, how to season or reseason a pan, how to clean and prep a pan once it is seasoned, how to clean and store, tips, and precautions. Since we have started using cast iron my husband has been doing a lot of research on cast iron cookware and all the information in this chapter agrees with most of the information he has found.

I would recommend this cookbook for people who are looking to try cast iron cookware out or people who already are experts at using their cast iron. The wide variety of recipes is great – there are 300 recipes to choose from – so everybody should be able to find ones they like.

I received this book for free to review. However, this did not influence my opinions.

(Posted on 8/8/12)