Who collects old cookin' stuff?

[gizamo]

Doesn't matter if it's just cast iron pots and pans...

Anyone here cook and use the older stuff...? Have favorite recipe's from old cookbooks or family?

I collect from the 1700's up to the turn of the 1900's. Love cookin over an open fire, or on a cookstove in the kitchen. Been learnin' how to use early dutch ovens this past couple of year's....graduated to doing cooking demo's in period style.

Anywho...

Others here, think that cooking over a real fire, changes the characteristics of what they are eatin' ?....

 

[SAFireman]

Bacon over a wood fire

I love the way bacon tastes when cooked over a wood fire....I guess that it reminds of my younger days in the scouts...

I have been 'hoarding' old cookware....I inherited a cast iron skillet that my great-grandmother used to cook with....I found it interesting because it was made by Husqvarna (the same company that made one of my bolt actions and a chainsaw). I recently acquired my wife's grandmother's deep cast iron frying skillet....I think I need to learn to fry chicken in a pan.

I do have a bunch of family recipe boxes, but was disappointed to find that a bunch were just clippings from cooking magazines.

 

[VM]

Giz - I've always been facinated with your antique tastes and hobbies
My wife has collected antique kitchen stuff for years. She's Italian and cooks well but not over an open fire. She does display alot of her stuff by an open fire though!
She likes old crocks, jugs, enamelware,etc..

 

[DeathGrip]

Giz,I went over to a lead the other day and this guy had good frying pans sitting in the rain.I asked him what he was thinking.He told me he takes them to South Carolina to shoot at his range.???He didn't seem to care that they were still the best stuff one could cook on.
VM your fire place looks great and your wife has an eye for what looks good.I'll bet it looks real nice around Christmas.

 

[TheHobbyist]

It amazes me how much many of us have in common!

Yes, I use cast iron periodically. For special occassions; usually breakfast.

Cookin' ham n' eggs with a lil bacon grease....now that's a recipe.

 

[rpbcab]

I really liked the pictures. We camp a lot in our 5th wheel and we have 6 Lodge Dutch Ovens and we try to do all of our cooking in them. We use charcoal and we have a steel table that keeps them off of the ground so we can reach them easier. Our favorite dinner item is Meatloaf and some sort of potato dish and cornbread and pealed apples cooked with sugar and cinnamon.... YUMMMM......... Lodge Dutch Ovens are actually made here in Tennessee, and they still make them the way they did in the beginning, cast in sand molds. Great fun.

 

[medxam]

Not nearly so old, but Club Aluminum Cookware is the greatest. You can pick it up on fleabay very cheap. I would love to hear from others that use it!

 

[Iggy]

Itchy use to cook everything from peach cobbler, and enchiladas, to Texas Crabs (Lobster) in a dutch oven at ronnyvoo's.

I don't know if we've even got a dutch oven anymore, I'm gonna have to go look.

 

[NE450No2]

I cook a lot, nearly daily in cast iron. I do not use any nonstick cookware.

I have a couple of cast iron skillets I got from my Grandmother and Mother, as well as several pieces of Lodge cast iron cookware as well as some old Revere Ware pans.

One of the "secrets" of cooking in a dutch oven with coals is to put twice as many coals in the lid as you do under the bottom of the pot.

 

[Dashriprock]

I've inherited two generations of cast iron pans that get daily use. I use a lot of copper, too, steel-lined, collected during my days in the culinary trenches. But the best old cooking gear? This baby right here, it resides in my buddy's hunting cabin and I have turned out some three-star camp grub on it:

 

[SFCHAINLEY]

My wife and I have a large collection of gaurdianware. It was last made in 1956 when the factory burnt down.

 

[JTA]

Awesome collections of old cookware. I don't really collect the cookware, but I do collect old cookbooks. I always find it interesting to look back at recipes printed in the 1940's and 1950's to see how ideas on dinner have changed through the generations.

 

[gizamo]

Awesome collections of old cookware. I don't really collect the cookware, but I do collect old cookbooks. I always find it interesting to look back at recipes printed in the 1940's and 1950's to see how ideas on dinner have changed through the generations.

I collect some recipes from as early as the 1700's... Been amazed at how good some of these earlier recipe's turn out. We cook on everything from early fire iron sets out of doors to Erie and Griswold cookware indoors....and many things in between. It's a great hobby that has led to doing cooking demonstrations...in olden ways.

Food was pretty good, back in the 1700's.....

 

[BlindJustice]

Since receiving an old cast iron fry pan I've gotten it back into
shape with the oil and bake treatment. I find I hardly ever use
my Saladmaster stainless fy pan anymore. The Cast Iron fry pan
works well on top of the stove -and- it's oven ready of course
for the fritata or other dishes.

There's a store over in nearby Moscow ID, Tri-State They have a
great kitchen department with a large selection of cast iron cookware. Every so often C W aka Butch comes up from Grangeville ID and
gives seminars on cooking with cast iron and charcoal briquts Butch
worked for the Idaho F&G for years as well as partnering with a guide
He was camp cook - There's a series on the local PBS with Butch doing
shows of cooking in camp with various cast iron Dutch Ovens
Great to watch on saturday mornings.

if anyone is interested I could probably google around or just
call KUID and see if the series is on DVD - it may not have gone more than just regional.

Randall - ping me off list if interested.

 

[gizamo]

CW was always entertaining on the old RFD Network... Always watched his show when it aired... Great stuff!

 

[Papaw]

I fixed some cornbread in a cast iron skillet about an hour ago. Cast iron is the only to cook cornbread.

 

[delta-419]

All of my serious cook wear is cast iron and goes back 4 generations. My grandmother gave me a cast iron pot that was given to her as a wedding gift in 1901. She gave it to me when I graduated from college. She was 90 at the time. I have most every size skillet and pot made in cast iron, even sauce pots of 1qt.
Most all of it was made to cook on a wood stove. Every meal that we cook at home is in iron. I also have 3 copper bottom pans for light work. My family were all good cooks and my father was in the resturant business for over 40 years. I just don't how to cook on anything else.

 

[feldspar13]

I have my great-grandmothers cast iron thats well over 100 years old and still cooking great

 

[PDL]

My wife and I have a large collection of gaurdianware. It was last made in 1956 when the factory burnt down.

Seems like they're all only talking iron. I've got and use regularly a goodly amount of Gaurdianware stuff as well. Best for a lot of things, I'm not sure I'd put them over an open fire like most of these posts are talking about. But for cooking, they're great.

 

[roarindan]

well she just turned 53,thats the oldest cookin thing I've collected.