Cast Iron Meals: With Beverly Granberg

Archive for the ‘Cast Iron Recipes’ Category

Some of my best recipes “require” a cast iron skillet. You’ve never had a more delicious pineapple upside down cake until you make it in a cast iron skillet. Many people might be amazed that you can find cast iron skillet recipes for baking, but it’s really great for that.

Until I was grown and had cornbread that had been fried in a cast iron skillet, I always had cornbread that was baked in one. A cast iron skillet is wonderful for baking cornbread, biscuits and cakes.

I remember my grandmother cooking up incredible meals using her old cast iron skillet. For breakfast, she might bake the biscuit, fry bacon and eggs and then make gravy in the same pan. One of her cast iron skillet recipes for cornbread that I make to this day doesn’t have measurements, but basically, here it is:

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Pour between 2 and 3 cups of self-rising yellow corn meal into a bowl.

Add one egg.

Add enough buttermilk to make it into a cake-batter consistency.

Stir until well blended.

Preheat your oiled, cast iron skillet in the oven. Pour the cornbread batter into the hot, oiled skillet and bake for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Besides the excellent cooking benefits of cast iron, keep in mind that cast iron skillet recipes yield a very healthy meal because of the iron you receive. Yummy and healthy – what better reasons are there to use cast iron skillet recipes?

In just a minute, I’m going to share my own cornbread cast iron recipe, but if you’re new to cooking cornbread, or anything in cast iron, take a look at the Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned Festival Corn Bread Kit (see below). Everything you need comes to you in a neat package – a Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned, 10.5-inch square cast iron skillet, hot handle mitt and a 40 page cookbook with dozens of recipes to choose from.

Whatever recipe you use for cooking corn bread in cast iron cookware, remember that Texans never use sugar in their corn bread. That said, many people prefer to add a bit of sugar to corn bread recipes and that’s okay. Just be sure to cook corn bread in a cast iron pan to get the true corn bread texture and taste.

A favorite corn bread recipe:

True Texas Corn Bread

1 cup Yellow Corn Meal
1 cup Buttermilk
1 tsp. Salt
1 ½ cup Cheddar Cheese (Sharp is great)
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 Onion, Chopped
2 Eggs, Slightly Beaten
4 Jalapeno Peppers (Seeded and Chopped)
1-8oz. Can Cream Style Corn
¼ cup. Cooking Oil

Combine all ingredients. Grease a 9-inch square, cast iron pan. Preheat oven to 450° and put greased pan in oven until it sizzles. Remove from oven; pour mixture into pan (this will make edges crusty) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Enjoy with a big pot of beans made in a cast iron Dutch Oven!