Packing cast iron

[Trina]

I was wondering, how much cast iron folks tend to take to camp with them..

I usually take 2 frypans and 1 or 2 dutch ovens...usually about 12 inch dutch.. depending on the menu for the week...

what kind and how much cast iron do you pack?

 

[laffingman67]

As little as possible!!! :shocking:
generally a skillet and a dutch oven. like to travel light. That hardly ever happens. :hmm:

 

[Wart]

When the wife and I do an event, we generally have a 10" fry pan and a 6" fry pan - both have high sides. Along with this we have a #10 bean pot - the lid serves both the pot and the larger pan. If it were up to me, we would just have the smaller fry pan but you know how that goes :-( she wins.

Now when I'm on a trek, I have a small tin fry pan and my tin corn boiler - sometimes I just carry the tin corn boiler, depending on how light I want to go.

 

[CrackStock]

When I was in college, we went on a weekend camping trip and a friend actually packed in a dutch oven. We were camping far from any roads and had seen him struggling with a huge and heavy pack, but we didn't think too much on it as it was not on our backs. ::

Once we were at our planned campsite, we unpacked and he brought out this huge chink of iron. We all snickered but nobody said anything partly because we figured that he might have some great recipe in mind.

A couple came along shortly and lingered at our site -- apparently they had hoped to use the same location, but there was another good one nearby. When they saw that dutch oven they laughed openly (No stomache incentive to be polite, ya know!) and commenced to calling him iron pot for the rest of the weekend. This handle stuck with this poor fella for many years until he escaped to Alaska. Come to think of it, he had lots of names for a fella with such a supposedly high IQ.

On the other hand, he cooked a pretty fair cobbler in the huge chunk of metal and it did okay for breakfast, although my little fry pan would have done well for that. (But then I didn't have to do it.)

Nope, I think that I will leave the cast iron in the base camp. I have enough handles for now thank you.

CS

 

[LFord]

In a set camp I just throw my kitchen box in the back of the truck, and it covers almost anything we want to do.
10 " dutch oven
8 & 10 inch skillets
10 inch griddle
2 qt copper saucepan
2 qt tea kettle
1 1/2 gallon brass kettle
grill for fire pit

If we plan on doing a big dinner for a large group I have 2 14" ovens(one 3 1/2" and one 5" deep) and a fire iron set that has two sets of meat forks. I can do dinner for about 20 without any problem with the full set up.

 

[Cruzatte]

I was wondering, how much cast iron folks tend to take to camp with them..

None.
Cruzatte

 

[76monza]

Cookie,

I take one medium size dutch oven with me...and it usually looks good setting in the back of the truck

Smokeydays

 

[The Kansan]

Cookie,

Well, since I store my cast iron in the rondyvoo trailer... And since I almost always take the trailer to rondyvoo, that woud be... Uh... Frying pans - 6, ranging in size from 6 to 24 inches, two w/lids. Dutch ovens - Also 6. Smallest being about 8 quarts to the largest which is (I think!) 30 quarts. Also 2 grills, one small tea pot and one exceedingly neat antique (100 + years old!) long handled, rectangular waffle iron.

As I said, I haul all of this to rondyvoo simply because it's in the rondyvoo trailer. Very seldom do I unload all of it, but it all gets used atleast once during the course of the year. The biggest dutch is great for those times when you're making biscuits for the whole camp! (I can get 3-4 dozen good cathead biscuits in that bugger if I space 'em right and stack 'em up the sides.)

...The Kansan...

 

[lciesla]

Too Much! 3 fry pans, 3 dutch ovens, 2 covered CI pots and a 3 gal caldron. My excuse is I cook for up to 13 people. I have been selling it off bit by bit to get more PC but it is great to cook with. I'm going to more pc tin and tin lined brass pots for reenactments but I love my cast for ronnyvous!

 

[Trina]

Kansan, I want to camp next to you and that wonderful trailer :haha: :haha:


Leon Welcome,

selling it off bit by bit

I thought it was a terrible thing to sell any of your cast iron :haha:
I have cut down what I take these days as well... although this next rondy will find me with 2 dutchs and a fry pan or two.

 

[guncobbler]

Hey Kansan - Can you share your recipe for cathead biscuits? They don't seem to show up in Cookie's recipe folders. Thanks, GC

 

[The Kansan]

Guncobbler,

First off, my apologies for not getting back to you sooner. The past month has been one nightmare after another interrupted only by an all too brief trek followed with a mini vacation, also entirely too brief.

Not much of a recipe, just flour, a little baking powder and a pinch of salt. Water works for the mixing medium although good buttermilk is hard to beat for flavor. I've also used self rising flour and it works equally as well, plus you don't have to spend 10 minutes digging through the chuck box for the !@*&%! baking powder just to find that it's already sitting next to the flour sack. ...Once in a great while, I'll add an egg to the mixture. It doesn't hurt the flavor and seems to make things a little more golden in the "cook till golden brown" department.

When things are mixed to a good "doughy" (duh!) consistency, simply pluck off a piece about a third the size of your fist and plop into the pre-warmed dutch. Continue this process till either the dough is all gone or the dutch is filled to capacity. Then put the lid on, top with coals and ignore for about 10 minutes or so. (I like to brush a little butter on the biscuits about half way through.)

Good luck!

...The Kansan...

 

[The Kansan]

Cookie,

You can camp next to me anytime, but the trailer usually gets parked some distance off just to keep vehicles out of camp.

I used to unload EVERYTHING just in case I needed it, but got tired of friends referring to my stack of much cherished cast iron cookware as "that !#@*&##&*%@! toe breakin' scrap heap!" Now I just unload what I think I'll use on a given outing.

BTW, we used our longhandled antique waffle iron for the very first time on vacation the week before last - I LOVE IT! After a couple of false starts it was producing EXCELLENT waffles! The only problem was that with the eggs and slab bacon we got so full we couldn't eat 'em all! (The dog and camp robber Jays made out like bandits!)

...The Kansan...

 

[donk]

I usually just take one 10 inch dutch and one 12 inch dutch. I have found that I can cook anything in these two that I could cook in the skilets. I have fried chicken in them baked pies and if you flip the lid of the 12 incher over you can make nice sized pancakes on it.

 

[peeweet]

If we pack in on horses 1-10"dutch oven,1-8" and 1-10" skillet.If we have the big tents and pickupsor the travel trailers I will have all 4 ovens,all 3 skillets,the round griddle and the big square griddle.When set up the second type camps there is usually 8 to 15 of us,so I need it all to feed the crew. ::