The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook: Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen

by Sharon Kramis, Julie Kramis Hearne

Learn how to season cast iron, clean cast iron, and cook 90 tantalizing recipes in your cast iron skillet. This cookbook aims to show modern cooks how this inexpensive cast iron tool is the best pan in their kitchen. Fusing new and traditional recipes and gathering farm-fresh produce and ingredients, the authors show cooks how to make delicious food in this versatile skillet. Recipes include: Succulent Seared Pork Chops with Plum-Mustard-Cornichon Sauce; Dutch Baby (puffed pancake with lemon and powdered sugar); Grilled Prosciutto-Wrapped Radicchio; and Warm Pear Upside Down Cake.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food, Reference, Foodie

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 4, 2004

Reviews

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars ⭐⭐⭐
Added this as a kindle daily deal.....but while skimming through I realized that I would probably never make any of these recipes.
So I returned it for a refund. Even though I personally own many cast iron pans...including Dutch ovens, an ebelskiver pan and a panini pan ....none of these recipes jumped out at me as must try dishes !
Also there was a noticeable absence of photos ...which I consider absolutely vital in modern day cookbooks.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too many cast iron skillets are lost in the back of a cupboard or in that drawer under the oven in most stoves. Many have been handed down from someone who knew how to use it to someone who does not. Sharon Kramis & Julie Kramis Hearne (a mother and daughter) speak for three generations in one family which relishes cast-iron cookery. Sharon Kramis has worked as a food consultant to Anthony's Restaurants in the Pacific Northwest for a quarter century. Julie Kramis Hearne is CIA trained and cooked at The Herb Farm outside of Seattle. This book includes a helpful section on the care (and rehabilitation) of cast iron skillets; it is a little more work than caring for Polytetrafluoroethylene but well worth the effort. The book includes many "old stand-by" recipes and even some camp-cooking recipes (as cast iron works wonderfully well over the coals of a campfire). There are also some modern and innovative recipes worth trying, e.g. a savory Dutch baby, Cornish game hen with preserved lemons and olives, fennel-Ricotta skillet bread, and ginger-pear upside-down cake. The only other cast-iron cookery book in my collection is by Le Creuset, which is quite a different thing.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun cookbook. If you are looking for breakfast, an appetizer, a main dish, an entree or dessert, it has a recipe for you to cook right up in your cast iron skillet. The recipes are not complicated with for the most part ingredients you would most likely already have on hand and the directions easy to follow.

There is no new flavor, new idea or new recipe to me in this book but it remains a nice collection of dishes that have stood the test of time and a few I would have not thought to try cooking in a cast iron skillet. I have marked 22 recipes as ones I would be interested in trying.

[Sara Wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK - so they really like butter, but so do I! Everything I've tried in this book has turned out. I've tried the meatloaf, banana bread, Irish bread, french toast, and ginger carrots. The ginger carrots were my least favorite, but that could have been me. They were firmer than I usually like. The french toast was evil and oh-so delicious.

[Cat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tad disappointed by this book. Yes there are lots of great recipes, but, sadly, the only photos are all bunched together in the middle of the book! I love seeing the food being prepared and finished products along with the recipes.

[Abbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This recipe book has a ton of recipes in it that I’m sure are delicious, BUT for the average home cook....it’s just a little too involved on the ingredients for me. They weren’t things that would be readily available and inexpensive!

[Klyon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's great. Finally figured out what one of my cast iron pans is for --ebelskivers!

[Rob Orwiler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to follow instructions with a wide variety of meals to try. Yes, I would recommend this book.

[Michelle Smart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only fine. Most of the recipes felt pretentious to me. It was helpful in that it opened my mind to the idea of using my cast iron more broadly.

[Rachel Coyne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of yum here

[LJP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great cook book !

Good reference for Cast Iron cooking. Recipes for any level cooking experience. Highly recommend to anyone cooking with Cast Iron for the first time

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recipes were good, but not the best information on how to restore and old iron skillet or care for the ones you have!

[Jeanette Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love my cast iron pans as much as I hate Teflon! Until people cook with them and treat them well, they don't realize how great they are.

Kramis included a great intro to the care and seasoning of cast iron for the beginner. This is key in learning how to get the most out of your pans.

I saved many of the breakfast recipes for later reference. They look reasonable for a beginning cook but also expansive in techniques and ethnic origins.

The savory dishes took a fairly advanced jump in the scope of ingredients required to complete the dishes. I will probably consult the book again in the future to explore some of them more. They are gourmet and unique; not necessarily short-budget friendly.

The dessert section had many traditional ethnic recipes that I can't wait to try.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a lot more recipes for campfire cooking. Most of the recipes were for the oven, which I use very sparingly. But this gave a great explanation for how to season your cast iron skillet, and also describes why mine turned sticky.

I will probably try the "Dutch baby" and baked apple recipes.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful book. But... not only are there no particularly interesting recipes in here, few to none of them actually have to be cooked in a cast-iron skillet (and the recipes wouldn't even need tweaking if you cooked them in a pan, or a casserole, etc.).

Really no point except for the 'outdoor cooking on cast iron' section, in which there were only three or four recipes. So...

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love my cast iron pan- couldn't live without it. This book definitely gives you a ton of new ideas for using your favourite pan.

My recommended recipe: pecan sticky buns. They have become a family favourite! You will not believe how delicious they are.

[Cailean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proud to say I know the author personally! This is a wonderful book. We finally got a cast iron skillet and have just started learning how to cook with it. This book is an awesome resource for how to cook with it and what to cook with it!

[Cynthia Caprise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cast Iron

I had no idea I could cook so many different foods in cast iron. I'm all over these recipes. On a separate issue I love that the resources link right to the web page. A cool feature on my Amazon fire

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killer banana bread recipe.

[Bridget · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this cookbook and use it all of the time. Cast iron seems to make everything taste better. I suggest that you pick up a Lodge skillet from Wal-Mart and give it a try!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best dutch baby, aka puffy oven pancake, recipe. Top with a little lemon curd, wow!

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Small cookbook but full of great ideas for using my grandmother's cast iron skillet.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really want to try the Pecan Sticky Buns!

I actually bought this book because I found so many of the recipes ones I was willing to try.

[Mckinley · Rating 2 out of 5]

trying one now, seems like several I'd like to try

[Kenzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as many inventive recipes as I'd hoped. Of course you can make anything in cast iron-I guess I was hoping for more traditional uses or new twists on those.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read on the Kindle reading app on my iPad, though it didn't matter much as there weren't many images. A solid cookbook highlighting the versatile ways cast iron skillets can be used.

[Paula]

Great book. Great recipes and care of cast iron skillets.
*****

[Jeannie K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good hints and recipes. The content didn't show well on my tablet, though.

[Liz De Coster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Some recipes call for specialized pans, and some recipes were unreadable because of poor ebook formatting.

[Wanda Shuster · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice pictures and clear instructions. Classic recipes. Some recipes called for more specialized skillets/pans, it seems that most people own 10-12" sized skillets. Excited to try a few recipes.