Whether you’re a soon-to-be customer or a kit-and-caboodle collector, it’s worth knowing what to do when you finally get a piece of Butter Pat cast iron. Unfortunately, the internet has added a bunch of misnomers and malarkey to the process of getting to know your pan—it should never involve a potato, for starters, unless you plan on cooking it. Instead, just follow these simple, common-sense instructions.

In our continued quest to better understand the pros and cons of induction, and in a time of uproar over the dwindling future of our beloved gas stoves, we’ve turned to our chef friends for their two cents on these flame-free appliances. For the most part, they like them. But their takeaways come with some caveats, too.

It was another long, strange year on Planet Earth, but luckily, amidst the madness of the human race, it was full of fine food, drink, books, music, and much more. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorites as a parting gift to all of you. Happy cooking, and happy New Year, y’all.

With cooler temperatures comes a primal desire to fire up our kitchens, and this time of year, few recipes warm the bones and help us weather the coming days of winter quite like confit. Almost any food can be confit’ed—our favorite is duck—and yet the technique remains intimidating for many home cooks. Read on to level the playing field and find a new way to use your cast iron.

We delve into the most important attribute of cast-iron cookware.

Imagine this: You’re stuck in the middle of the desert with a broken-down vehicle and nothing to eat but one damn egg. Which would be easier, frying it on the hot glass of your car windshield or the rugged asphalt on which you stand? Simply put, smoothness impacts your cooking, your seasoning, your cleaning. It matters, indeed.

And the fascinating history of its evolution into a modern-day recipe.

What’s in a recipe? There are the ingredients, of course, and the method, too. For most modern humans, this is common knowledge, but there was a time, not that long ago, when that six-letter word that rules our kitchens was something quite different–and, at one point, not even a word at all.

An ode to the controversial condiment.

There are two kinds of people in this world: the ones who like mayonnaise, and the blasphemous ones who don’t. We, like any good Southerner, are unapologetic about our adoration of this simple condiment, about our personal pantry stockpile, about its inarguable place on every sandwich. After all, it is the secret to every good grilled cheese you’ve ever eaten, especially when cooked in a cast-iron pan.

In modern day, why are we so drawn to something as age old as fire? Other than the fact that it’s made us who we are, of course. “The only thing more rooted in our human behavior than cooking on fire is sex,” says Mike Bertelsen of our sister Cowboy Cauldron Company. “That’s why people keep coming back to it—it’s simply the most satisfying.” We delve into this deep flame and ask our fire-expert friends on tips for getting started.

For many years, there was a ritual in our household during the first few weeks of spring. Sometime between April and the end of May, we would dust off our Coleman grill, pull butter out of the freezer, grab bacon from the fridge, plus whatever alliums we could get our hands on, and cook everything down in a hot cast iron for the season’s penultimate delicacy: shad roe.

There is one word that follows cast iron wherever it goes. One that’s fought over by home cooks and experienced chefs. One that’s a big, overly complicated, equally watered-down waste of hot air and time. Let us debunk a few myths and explain a few mysteries for you about seasoning. (Spoiler alert: it’s easier than you’ve been made to believe.)

A perfect pairing to cast iron, induction cooktops go mainstream.

You know we love a good fire. But we also want to talk about another cooking method that gets our gears going. Induction cooking has been around for decades, but in the last few years, it has started to mainstream, thanks in part to revered restaurants where iconic chefs are moving their commercial kitchens from the gas stoves of yesteryear toward the induction ranges of the future. This is not your uncle’s hotplate.