Home cooks and hallowed chefs share their secrets for cast-iron cooking.

OFF THE LAND

OFF THE LAND

The first time we met Evan Tate, he wasn’t standing over cast iron but a massive stainless steel stock pot, filled with 60 pounds of pork, at least one bag of oranges, and a cornucopia of seasonings and spices. It was a hot summer day in Lockhart Texas, and before a live-fire grill with a wide straw cowboy hat, a thick dark mustache, and a bottle of Asian hot sauce labeled with a piece of painter’s tape that read “not just sriracha,” we knew this third-generation cattle rancher was our kind of people.

August 05, 2022
TRIAL BY FIRE

TRIAL BY FIRE

At 28 years old, Ivan Guillen is an old soul—a toro antiguo, as he puts it—and it comes across in the art that is his cooking. It was a romance born in his native Mexico, that then lured him to Los Angeles, and eventually into the vast western wilderness of Mosca, Colorado, where he is now the executive chef at the Zapata Ranch of the conservation-minded Ranchlands. When not hogtied by local drought, his food sings over an open flame. “I think of the old ways of doing it,” says Guillen. “I always say that it’s a primitive thing.”

July 01, 2022
AN HOMAGE TO SPRING

AN HOMAGE TO SPRING

North Carolina chef Katie Button shares the secret of pan-seared scallops.

May 25, 2022
PANS IN SERVICE

PANS IN SERVICE

D.C. chef Opie Crooks puts cast iron to work in a restaurant kitchen.

“We use cast iron everywhere,” says chef Opie Crooks of No Goodbyes in Washington, D.C.—from the open hearth to a French top range to gas burners to the oven to induction. “My advice to home cooks is don’t’ be so precious with it. Use it all the time. Use it for everything. It’s a tool, and it’s meant to be used that way.”

April 20, 2022
A LOVE LETTER TO APPALACHIA

A LOVE LETTER TO APPALACHIA

Virginia chef Travis Milton shares the wonders of Appalachian cooking.

March 17, 2022
SLOW COOK YOUR WAY THROUGH WINTER

SLOW COOK YOUR WAY THROUGH WINTER

When Elliott Moss left his hometown at the age of 20, he made one simple declaration: “I’m never eating rice again.” The Buxton Hall Barbecue chef had grown up on the eastern edges of South Carolina, much of which was once riddled with rice plantations, with the grain irrevocably rooted into the local cuisine today. And with it came many iterations of one-pot Southern staples.

January 21, 2022
FINALLY, A FOOLPROOF METHOD FOR CHRISTMAS GOOSE

FINALLY, A FOOLPROOF METHOD FOR CHRISTMAS GOOSE

Wade Truong didn’t grow up cooking wild game. From a young age, the Virginia native worked at his parents Saigon Café in Harrisonburg, then climbed the ranks to become executive chef at the popular Kybecca in Fredericksburg. But it wasn’t in these restaurants that he learned how to smoke turkey, sous vide duck, or roast venison—the kind of cuisine he’s become known for today.

December 20, 2021
A GUIDE TO EATING (AND COOKING) YOUR VEGGIES

A GUIDE TO EATING (AND COOKING) YOUR VEGGIES

For North Carolina chef-turned-farmer Jamie Swofford, there are more than four seasons in a year. Thirteen times more, to be exact, with the Piedmont native abiding by the ethos that every week—52 in total—brings a new peak for local produce, and with it, an opportunity to savor that fleeting moment’s sense of place. Particularly when roasted in a cast-iron pan.

November 23, 2021
BUY A STEAK, BUILD A FIRE, AND BEGIN

BUY A STEAK, BUILD A FIRE, AND BEGIN

There are certain things in life that just go together. Eggs and bacon. Blue jeans and t-shirts. Dogs and humans. And, of course, campfires and a cast-iron pan. To Denver chef (and bona fide meat master) Justin Brunson, this is a universal truth, learned over a lifetime of cooking meat over an open flame. ““There’s just something so primal and raw about it—almost romantic.”

October 27, 2021
HOW TO PERFECT A SOUTHERN STAPLE

HOW TO PERFECT A SOUTHERN STAPLE

“When you are born into Appalachia, some of your very first tastes are things like cornbread,” says Sean Brock, who grew up in rural Virginia. “Those flavors are our earliest and strongest memories, and they become part of our subconscious brain, where we also find nostalgia. That’s why we crave those things so much, because they make us feel safe and secure and nurtured.” 
January 31, 2021
BREAD BAKING: ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT

BREAD BAKING: ALL THE COOL KIDS ARE DOING IT

Despite its simple, three-ingredient recipe—flour, salt, and a naturally occurring leavening agent, aka wild yeast, aka a starter—sourdough is anything but easy, as much a science as it is an art. It’s not about fancy, foolproof tricks learned in a French kitchen, or even on YouTube, but rather the time and test batches and industrious resolve that one puts into perfecting their own method..
January 31, 2021
SERVE IT FORTH

SERVE IT FORTH

If M.F.K. Fischer were still alive and well today, we’d think she’d want to share a sherry and pâté with Kara Mae Harris. Few writers have spent more time deeply considering the art of the recipe, with the Baltimore historian devoting the last decade to collecting some 60,000 of them for her online database and regionally beloved blog, Old Line Plate. But more than just archiving these meals for the culinarily curious, she also delves deep into the history behind them, discovering the ways in which they have shaped the Mid-Atlantic’s sense of place along the way. Just in time for Thanksgiving, we caught up to talk about the weird and wonderful of what we eat, especially around the holidays.

November 21, 2020