Just was watching a show called Mudbumms. They were cooking with cast iron. They kept piling coals on top of the covers while cooking or baking. My question is when they opened the cover they NEVER had any ash fall inside the kettle. Is it that easy or were they lucky? I haven’t cooked with cast iron but admit it kind of intrigues me.
It sure but a small amount of ash won’t have any affect on your food , flavor or health.
I’m guessing some still falls in one way or another.
I own only one cast iron skillet but I was telling my wife I want to buy a couple more skillets of different sizes. I love it.
If you buy a lodge brand, you can get the rough texture out by sanding off the scale with sanding or deburring discs. Simply reseason it and you have a high quality cast iron pan.
I’ve read that cooking in cast iron is a good way to get iron in your diet and may ba a contributor to people with iron deficiency. Don’t roast me on this if it’s untrue, just what I heard.
They make lids to use when cooking with coals on the top to minimize ashes falling into the chow.
cast-iron-lid.jpg
They make lids to use when cooking with coals on the top to minimize ashes falling into the chow.
Yep. They work pretty well. I’ll get a little ash in, but I’ve never had a coal fall in. I try to do a couple dutch oven meals each summer. I’m not great, but when you’re camping, food seems to taste better. 
Dutch oven cooking seems like an art all to itself. The margin for temperature variations is so wide that it has always scared me away from even trying it.
Check out cowboy kent Rollins on YouTube for some good cast iron tips and recipes.
Dave, it’s not too hard. Good videos on Youtube can get you going. Just add patience and you’ll be surprised at what you can do. Give it a try!
It’s actually very easy. You can look at books or websites that tell how many charcoal briquettes to use under and on top for a recipe. One briquette contains a certain number of heat calories, and is equal to a certain number of degrees. Yah, you can dial in the temp with x number of briquettes. Probably the best all around way to cook.
Johnny Nix campfire cafe is a good one to learn from as well.
I just wish we had the foresight to tape moms cooking way back when as we could of been rich by now.
almost every meal we ate came from a skillet,dutch oven,griddle,and even a cast iron waffle maker.
cooking on an open fire made it ten times better for some reason,shoot,anything cooked outdoors is better,even a danged old hot dog on a hickory fire is awesome.
I cook every day with my favorite Lodge Cast Iron Pan. The 10″ is my favorite. Perfect omeletes, steaks, over easy eggs, etc….biggest thing I’ve learned is to sear steaks on med-hi, then drop to medium to cook thru to your preference. Everything else, I never use higher than medium heat. I always use a small amount of olive oil. I also have a Lodge Dutch Oven with lid and a Lodge 13″ pan. They are harder to clean and less practical.
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