Cooking is a very important part of camping activities.
When spending a lot of time outside with a variety of physical activities involved, you might find yourself ready for a feast of a dinner when the sun heads down.
We are so used to having multiple accessories in our kitchen. Cooking is getting smarter – making our dinners tastier, easier and quicker.
But that also means it requires less practice and skill. Less failed attempts.
Without all those great enhanced tools, would that dinner taste the same?
I really believe in great skill polished and perfected on basic equipment, where it’s really only about skill, not the tool.
That’s why I want to introduce a cast iron skillet to my cooking routine on camping trips and at home – just to get more experience with using it.
See, my reasoning behind the idea that the cast iron skillet is the best choice for cooking, regardless of where you cook and what you want to serve for dinner (or lunch!).
Easy maintenance
To maintain a cast iron skillet, you don’t need any cleaning liquids which are toxic for the environment.
After cooking, (while the skillet is still warm) simply put the leftover oils aside in a jar (if you want to keep them, and I dare you to do so), rinse with warm water and put 2 tablespoons of salt to soak in remaining traces of food and use a non-metal scrub pad to make it nice and clean.
After it’s nice and clean, warm it up slightly and put one teaspoon of oil of your choice and spread it on the cooking surface.
Wipe dry after a few minutes or so and *voil* !
Your skillet is ready to rest.
Virtually indestructible
Sturdy and simple, made of one piece of cast iron.
No screws to come loose or delicate non-stick coating to get damaged.
A cast iron pan is naturally non stick.
But anyway, it’s always good to have some fat and grease on your food.
If you’re not planning on riding over your skillet, then it’s more than likely you’ll never have to get another one.
Just a little bit of care every time you use it will be enough.
Great heat distribution
Iron as a material is known for its ability to distribute heat evenly, with no fancy technology inside.
It’s just the way a natural property of this metal.
Heat distributed evenly makes it easier to cook the meat through regardless of the type of heat source you have.
That comes in handy if you’re using small camping stoves or fire to warm it up.
Also, it is heat friendly – the handle is okay to go in the oven because it’s made of the same metal.
Remember about using a oven glove or something heat-proof when you take it out of the oven though!
Healthy, simple cooking
I love simple cooking.
It is a very important part of my life, to nourish bodies I care about with healthy food.
By that I mean myself, my boyfriend, my family and friends.
Also, I have a life, and spending more than 2 hours in the kitchen to get the dinner ready is not my kind of cooking.
Cooking with cast iron skillet is quick and efficient and promotes simplicity with one pan dishes which require very little effort to make.
There’s not much more you need than some meat and vegetables to have a healthy, balanced meal.
Eco-friendly
When you get your iron cast skillet, if you maintain it, you will use it forever.
A lot of pans with special coatings, require special care to avoid scratches, the use of silicone tools etc.
On a cast iron skillet, you can cook with a stick you found in the forest.
If you like that vibe.
But it will not destroy the coating, because there is virtually no coating.
Just cast iron.
Buy once, use forever – that’s the best thing about cast iron skillet.
Even if you dream about Le Creuset, the cost per use will be insignificant.
Versatile
What is great about cast iron skillet is its versality.
Not only you can use it on different types of stoves at home, you can put it on a BBQ or place it on an open fire.
It also allows you to make different kinds of dishes.
Most likely you will know, that it is fantastic for cooking steak.
There is much more to add to that.
Stews.
Pizza.
Cakes.
Tortilla.
Fried chicken.
Lasagna.
Some of the dishes you can cook with it I found rather surprising and are oven-derived dishes.
But with a lid and great heat distribution, cast iron skillets can replicate those conditions if you only have access to fire or gas cookers when you camp.
Cast iron seems like a great way of cooking which got a little bit forgotten with time.
I will be sharing my camping cooking adventures with cast iron, and maybe some of my favorite recipes, too!
