…… Cast Iron Cooking for SHTF

[Burt Gummer]

Greeting to all. Lots of people swear by Cast Iron cooking. So, I started watching YouTube videos to learn the secret of cast iron and being able to cook with it and it being non-stick. Well, I have discovered it is very easy and I can cook a beautiful steak that any steak house would envy. Eggs never tasted better for breakfast. It actually pretty easy. Part of the secret is the seasoning and using a bit of oil each time I cook. SO here is the question; If you use CI for SHTF what's your plan for a continues supply of oil to make it possible? You can't really store it for years, or not that I have heard about. So where are you gonna get the oil to use your cast iron??????????

 

[West]

Beaver glands, for making strawberry flavored pancakes.



Really once you season a good old iron really good, you don't and will not need much grease at all.

Find a naighbor that has a pig or cow that you could barter some fat from.

Also look into rendering different types of animals.

In a worse case scenario... a little fat zombie will render fat or grease.

We have Armidillios in our AO. And I've read to catch them alive and finish them off with corn and alike, much better eats than the grubs they usually eat. And once finished off they will render down into some good fats or cooking oils.

There is many different ways to get cooking greases. I'm not worried about that at all.

Get you started...

How to Render Fat the Simple Way (Lard or Tallow)

Learn how to render fat, which can be used for cooking, making soap, candles and more! It's also shelf-stable and will keep for a long time.

thehomeintent.com

 

[Kathy in FL]

Unlike modern cooking that is all low-fat, low-carb most cooking that was done in cast iron in the old days including plenty of fat.

I don't know how you grew up but I grew up with a grease catcher on the stove top. Any time my mother made bacon, the grease was poured out of the skillet into this grease catcher ... there was a sieve type thing (similar to an old fashion percolator insert) where solids stayed in the top and grease drained to the bottom. My mom used that bacon grease to flavor everything and even used it in the cast iron pan she made cornbread in.

Looked something like this and stayed on the range top at all times.

 

[West]

Here's a duck recipe for rendering its fat....

How to Render Duck Fat (And Why You'd Want To)

A unique main dish, this Peking Duck is easy to prepare. While we prepare it, we'll show you how to render duck fat and why you would want to.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com

Vary interesting. Mostly because I don't really like duck or goose. Or at least the wild ones. Eating farm raised duck or goose that's been finished off right and cooked right is vary good.

 

[Meemur]

Kathy beat me to it.

I save bacon grease in a metal coffee can (old!). I use it in cast iron pans, for cooking kale, and occasionally with scrambled eggs when I need a little more fat (mainly in the winter!)

 

[Kathy in FL]

Here's a duck recipe for rendering its fat....

How to Render Duck Fat (And Why You'd Want To)

A unique main dish, this Peking Duck is easy to prepare. While we prepare it, we'll show you how to render duck fat and why you would want to.

www.curiouscuisiniere.com

Vary interesting. Mostly because I don't really like duck or goose. Or at least the wild ones. Eating farm raised duck or goose that's been finished off right and cooked right is vary good.

Most grease off of ducks or geese comes from the area called the pope's nose. My grandfather won trophies for duck hunting. I just couldn't get passed the smell of getting the feathers off. My mother would always have me off doing something else during chicken and duck culling time. There's nothing worse than when one person start heaving and it gets contagious.

 

[West]

Most grease off of ducks or geese comes from the area called the pope's nose. My grandfather won trophies for duck hunting. I just couldn't get passed the smell of getting the feathers off. My mother would always have me off doing something else during chicken and duck culling time. There's nothing worse than when one person start heaving and it gets contagious.

Isn't that where the word "foul" comes from?

We only had wild goose and duck to eat for a few early springs, after we done eat the big game and mostly deer and salmon from the fall.

By the time the spring runs came and the lake trout started bitting again. We had to live off the geese and birds plus what ever fish we could catch in the winter.

I was raised with the foul smell, and it doesn't bother me hardly at all. But still it's foul!

To me a chicken or alike smells just as bad

But speaking of birds, they too can be rendered down to make cooking greases. Especially the fatty skins.

 

[philkar]

While much great advice has been given here, the Foxfire books have a great section on rendering fat if you need more information!

 

[West]

Most grease off of ducks or geese comes from the area called the pope's nose. My grandfather won trophies for duck hunting. I just couldn't get passed the smell of getting the feathers off. My mother would always have me off doing something else during chicken and duck culling time. There's nothing worse than when one person start heaving and it gets contagious.

Isn't that where the word "foul" comes from?

We only had wild goose and duck to eat for a few early springs, after we done eat the big game and mostly deer and salmon from the fall.

By the time the spring runs came and the lake trout started bitting again. We had to live off the geese and birds plus what ever fish we could catch in the winter.

I was raised with the foul smell, and it doesn't bother me hardly at all. But still it's foul!

To me a chicken or alike smells just as bad

But speaking of birds, they too can be rendered down to make cooking greases. Especially the fatty skins

Unlike modern cooking that is all low-fat, low-carb most cooking that was done in cast iron in the old days including plenty of fat.

I don't know how you grew up but I grew up with a grease catcher on the stove top. Any time my mother made bacon, the grease was poured out of the skillet into this grease catcher ... there was a sieve type thing (similar to an old fashion percolator insert) where solids stayed in the top and grease drained to the bottom. My mom used that bacon grease to flavor everything and even used it in the cast iron pan she made cornbread in.

Looked something like this and stayed on the range top at all times.

We just use small glass jars. To this day

 

[hiwall]

Cooking oils would likely last for years in the freezer.
If things are so bad that you have no access to any cooking oil, I bet you would have more pressing issues to deal with.

 

[Babs]

You can press sunflower seed oil fairly easily. I plan on growing a lot of sunflowers, if I get into a situation where fat becomes scarce.

 

[WalknTrot]

Cast iron ain't just for SHTF.
Use it every day.
Butter, bacon grease, pork fat, beef fat, chicken fat, oil (last in preference).
And yes, clean, saved grease keeps well for later use.
If there's no butter, meat fat or oil..well..last ditch has historically been plain water.

 

[WalknTrot]

Also, don't forget about the fat that is canned with pork and beef products. There's always a skim of fat on top of canned meat - some more than others, and when fat is scarce, it's like gold. There's enough fat in a couple slices of lightly pan-fried Spam, corned beef or canned ham to keep your eggs from sticking.

People may turn up their nose and think that canned meat products are trash/inedible, but there's a darned good reason they exist and are still a valuable commodity. They keep forever, and make life a lot more enjoyable when the usual resources are scarce.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Unlike modern cooking that is all low-fat, low-carb most cooking that was done in cast iron in the old days including plenty of fat.

I don't know how you grew up but I grew up with a grease catcher on the stove top. Any time my mother made bacon, the grease was poured out of the skillet into this grease catcher ... there was a sieve type thing (similar to an old fashion percolator insert) where solids stayed in the top and grease drained to the bottom. My mom used that bacon grease to flavor everything and even used it in the cast iron pan she made cornbread in.

Looked something like this and stayed on the range top at all times.

I grew up with my mom and grandmother doing the same thing, using that same type of grease catcher. Thing is, I still use almost that exact same can, today, for the same reason. It sits on my countertop right next to my stove. If I start getting an abundance of bacon grease, I pour it into bowls to keep in the fridge, until my can is empty. Heat it up and pour into the can. I also store a lot of oils, olive, sesame, coconut, and vegetable, along with many pounds of butter.

 

[nomifyle]

We have a few cases of rendered port fat, plus several gallons of coconut oil and olive oil in tins, seems to last longer in tins.

I imagine the oil I have stored will outlast me.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We have a few cases of rendered port fat, plus several gallons of coconut oil and olive oil in tins, seems to last longer in tins.

I imagine the oil I have stored will outlast me.

I always thought rendered pork fat (lard) would go bad in about a year if it wasn't frozen. My grandparents always cooked out lard when they killed their hogs each year. It kept for a year in a lard tin. It goes rancid after a while. If it was sealed in jars, I guess it would last much longer.