Cast Iron Skillet One-Pan Meals: 75 Family-Friendly Recipes for Everyday Dinners

Cast Iron Skillet One-Pan Meals is a specialized cooking guide with recipes for cast iron one-pan meals by Jackie Freeman. Released 1st Nov 2022 from Sasquatch Books, it's 208 pages and is available in paperback and ebook formats. 

I love my cast iron ware. Some I've inherited from my family members (who inherited from earlier generations - my dutch oven has been in near constant use for more than a century), some I've bought at flea markets and estate sales. Cast iron is tough, useful, healthy, easy to care for, and incredibly durable. I love the connection and gravitas that utility items in constant use for decades develop - they have (literal and figurative) heft.

This book begins with an introduction and short care and maintenance guide for cast iron cookware, and iron's suitability as a material with regard to durability. There's a good tutorial on conditioning and caring for the cookware. These pages fill out ~8% of the total content.

The recipes are arranged by category: meatless, fish & seafood, poultry, beef, and pork. I really appreciated the inclusion of plant based dishes. These are -hearty- main dishes which are tasty and varied enough to get non-vegetarians to the table without complaining. 

The recipes are given with imperial (American) measurements. Recipe ingredients will be easily found at any average well stocked American grocery store. Some very few ingredients might require a trip to an international grocer or healthfood store. Nutritional info is not included. Cooking directions are straightforward and easy to follow. 

There are a wide variety of cuisines represented here, from variations on paella to kimchi and all destinations between. There are enough recipes to keep even the most ardent cooks going for quite a while. Most of the recipes (circa 75% by my very rough count) contain one or more photos. Serving suggestions are attractive and appropriate. Graphically it's a very appealing book.

Four and a half stars. Really well done. Highly recommended for public library acquisition, home use, and definitely for gift giving. Lovely gift suggestion (bundled with a reconditioned cast iron skillet in a generous size for a family member leaving the nest?).  

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.