The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook Recipes for the Best Pan in Your Kitchen

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The cast-iron skillet is the original gourmet-cooking tool. This cookbook aims to show modern cooks how this inexpensive cast iron tool is the best pan in their kitchen. Fusing new and traditional recipes and gathering farm-fresh produce and ingredients, the authors show cooks how to make delicious food in this versatile skillet. Recipes include: Succulent Seared Pork Chops with Plum-Mustard-Cornichon Sauce; Dutch Baby (puffed pancake with lemon and powdered sugar); Grilled Prosciutto-Wrapped Radicchio; and Warm Pear Upside Down Cake.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great recipes and that look appetizing but recipe instructions are lacking.
I bought this cookbook because almost every recipe in it is something that sounds delicious. I specifically bought this cookbook because of one particular recipe, the herbed chicken and dumplings. The book even has a full color picture of the recipe that looks so good I think it should’ve made the cover.

Please note that this review is based off the only recipe in this book I’ve made so far, the herbed chicken and dumplings.

The finished product was fantastic. I’m a single girl so I took it to work to share and I got rave reviews from my coworkers.

But I do have a few criticisms:

Criticism #1: The recipe tells you that you can use a 10″ or 12″ skillet. This is incorrect and is my biggest criticism. You need a cast iron chicken fryer. The chicken fryer has higher sides than the regular skillet. Luckily I noticed that the picture in the book showed the chicken fryer cast iron pan so that was what I bought, but if I had just purchased a standard 10″ skillet I would have ran into serious trouble. My finished dish came all the way to the top of the chicken fryer. This is the reason that this is a “4 star” review instead of a “5 star” review.

Criticism #2: The ingredient list is not in order of when they are added to the dish. That’s kind of annoying. It’s a small thing but it makes a recipe so much clearer.

Criticism #3: After making the recipe I now know a couple of things that the recipe doesn’t make clear. First, when you are browning the chicken, don’t worry about cooking it all the way through. It will cook some more when you put it in the oven. My chicken came out slightly tougher than I would’ve liked. Secondly, you should make the dumpling dough first and put it in the fridge to keep the dough cold. This way you don’t have to RUSH to get the dumplings done so you can add it to the pan.

I am a novice cook and it took me a full hour and a half from start time to finished product. I think could have lessened that time by doing the prep work on all the ingredients before I started cooking. Live and learn.

I do recommend the cookbook and I can’t wait to try more recipes from it.

4 Stars Cast Iron Cooking
This is an easy to use cookbook with very tasty recipes. My wife, being an excellent cook, has modified some of the recipes, turning sweet custards into savory quiches. We bought this on a whim because we had seen a cast iron skillet recipe in a magazine, and we are glad we chose this book!

5 Stars Best Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook
I give this book an A+. Very simple to read and do recipes and has some good tips on using cast iron pans.

5 Stars Fantastic and Practical!
This is the first book I bought for my new Kindle and on Christmas Day I made two of the recipes from the book (Savory Dutch Baby and Rosti) …both turned out beautifully, were a huge hit with the husband and were so simple that I had everything I needed on hand. There isn’t a recipe in the book I don’t want to make and I love that all of the items are relatively easy to acquire (I don’t live in or near a big city either!). The one instance where a recipe called for preserved lemons, the authors gave you a very simple recipe for making your own if you couldn’t find them.

I love the serving suggestions and the little “extra” recipes that go along with some of the main recipes. Easy to read, basic recipes that are delicious and most of them seem very easy and quick to put together. I have a small collection of cast iron cookware but this book made me want to go out and buy more!

The info on how to care for cast iron cookware is wonderful to have at your fingertips as well. I like this so much I will probably add the hardcover version to my cookbook collection.

5 Stars Love this cookbook!
I purchased this when I bought my 12″ cast iron pan, both of which I love. Many of the recipes are for a dutch oven as well, which made me realize I needed one of those and received as a Christmas gift. It was a great investment! I use them both religiously and am now looking for an 8-9″ cast iron pan for Cornbread and recipes that require a smaller pan. I’ve tried many of the recipes in this cookbook (breakfasts, banana bread and Braised Spare-ribs in a Merlot sauce to name a few) and they all came out very good. The Braised Spare-ribs gets right to the brim in my 12″ and could probably be done also in a dutch oven – but needless to say the recipes are awesome. I gave my sister a 12″ cast iron pan and this book and she loves it too. I’m looking forward to trying more of the recipes in the coming year. I highly recommend this book.

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