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Cooking - Making Meals with Lodge Cookware

Thursday, September 18th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

Making Meals with Lodge Cookware

Lodge brand cookware is made in the USA of cast iron. Some pieces are painted with an enamel coat, but the company is definitely most famous for its bare cast iron. The company makes cookware in sizes from tiny skillets for warming butter to giant Dutch ovens for cooking a whole goose. They also make griddles, pans for cornbread and supplies to cook over a campfire. Iron is an excellent, longlived material for cookware and costs a fraction of the price of copper or alloy pans.

However, whether you have lodge bare iron cookware or that with an enamel coat, a few tips will make it easier to cook with iron.

Heat

Iron cookware takes longer to heat up than pots and pans made of thinner material like copper. So, Lodge cookware cannot give the chef fast heat, but it is perfect for long lasting, even heat. When you buy iron, however, invest in some heatproof handle covers. The handle of a skillet on the stove is hot enough to burn your hand, and of course the handle of a skillet in the oven is as hot as the rest of the dish.

Also, bare iron cookware can withstand the highest cooking temperatures, when you need major heat for blackened dishes. There is almost no way to scorch Lodge cookware. Many cooks advise against cooking very acidic foods, like sauteed tomatoes, in bare iron, as the acids can break down the seasoning coat and react with the metal underneath. This is not an issue with enamelcovered pans.

The inside of the pot usually ends up better seasoned than the outside; it always has oil in it, and cooks are usually more careful to oil the inside after each meal. So if the outside of your Lodge cookware is relatively less seasoned, don’t cook anything that might boil over. It will be extremely difficult to wash off.

Iron cookware is especially well suited for bread because they give dishes a good crust. An empty iron pan can be put into a hot oven while it preheats and you get the dough ready. When pan and oven are hot, pour the dough or batter into the hot pan. You will hear it sizzle as a thin little crust immediately forms. If the pan is well seasoned enough, it is possible to make cakes and breads without greasing the pan first.

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