Cooking with Cast Iron Out Back Ole West Texas

Yee Haw! In this "rustic" video, chuckwagon cook-off champion Jerry Baird explains the joys and--yes--frustrations of outdoor cooking with cast iron. He tells us how to season, care for, and use the equipment itself, demonstrates several techniques, and fixes quite a few dishes, including peach cobbler, bacon and eggs, stew, and coffee. Despite Baird's laid-back style, we discover here that cooking à la cowboy is intricate and time-consuming. Those poor old chuckwagon masters must own a complex series of pans, covers, chains, hooks, shovels, tripods, wood, and bricks just to fix breakfast; by the time the eggs in the video were finally ready, most ranch hands could have found the nearest Denny's and then completed their daily chores. And cooking-show enthusiasts accustomed to the refined professionalism of a Julia or Graham will be unnerved by the program's unscripted, casual style. While some might find it charming to be told to "spoon ya out a pretty good little bit of oil," to season your pan, others will be frustrated by not being told just how much "a pretty good little bit" is. These same cooks will also surely notice that Baird picks up a tub of Country Crock(r) spread and calls it "butter," doesn't explain that you'll need to pack down your brown sugar, and in most cases doesn't mention how long things will take to cook. The complexity of this type of cooking, in general, and the imprecision of this video, in particular, make it interesting from perhaps a historical or "Americana" perspective, but as a practical technique? Forget it, pardner. Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (K. Glaser)