Cast-iron Cooking

I've been cooking with a large cast iron skillet for years.  I love it.  I love that I can scrub the bottom of the pan and not stress about it!  But, I also love the natural way that my family can get some iron into their diet by my cooking with this pan.  My family has low-iron levels so this matters to me.

Recently, I received a new cookbook titled aptly, Cast-Iron Cooking.  In the beginning, the author explains why one would cook with cast-iron.  The author's explanation was more information than I

was aware of!  I had never considered how it conducts heat--though I knew from experience and cooking with my pan for fifteen years.  The next few pages of the book explain how to season and take care of cast iron pans.  The explanations were simple and make it sound very easy to keep a pan seasoned--which it is.

Then, the cookbook goes on to include recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The picture on the Table of Contents page is actually of raw steaks on a skillet--which is one of our favorite things to make with our cast iron pan.  The first recipe in the breakfast section is for a Dutch Baby with a blueberry sauce.  The blueberry sauce takes a long--- time to cook, so be sure to start it first and then take a look at the dutch baby directions.  The recipe recommends making the sauce while the dutch baby is baking, but I'd recommend starting with the sauce instead.  Next, I tried the Grilled Cheese.  The directions are a little unusual.  You spread the bread with a light layer of mayonaise and cook your grilled cheese.  I will say it was one of the most evenly browned grilled cheese sandwiches I've every made, but it got mixed reviews in my family.  I liked it, but didn't love it, my son loved it, and one of my daughters didn't like it.  We were evenly split.  Lastly, I liked the fried chicken recipe.  This is the method I've used for making fried chicken for several years and it works quite well.  I would take the cayenne pepper out of the recipe, but that's because my kids aren't crazy about that spice.

Each recipe includes an appealing photo which definitely made me want to go cook.  Photographs can make such a difference in a cookbook!  They can make recipes appealing--or unappealing.
The formatting and writing of the recipes made them easy to follow and there's enough room around the recipes to write changes on the pages if you're one of those kinds of cooks (like me) who writes down modifications to directions and ingredients according to your family's tastes.

This cookbook is definitely a helpful one if you're wanting to explore cooking more in a cast-iron pan. The recipes can be made in another type of skillet as well--they don't require a cast iron pan, but the author did pick out some that are particularly good in a cast iron pan because it can go in an oven.  
My middle daughter has already made the Dutch Baby recipe twice!

Please note that I received a complimentary copy of this cookbook from Storey Books.  These opinions are my own and this review is one that I have chosen to write.