Monte Cristo Skillet – and Your Cast Iron Memories
This delicious recipe is at the bottom of the post. Hope you get to try it soon!
Be sure and share your special Cast Iron memories in the comments below!
(more details at bottom of post)
Today I’m thrilled to bring you a guest post from the good folks at Martha White, along with a fun announcement! The National Cornbread Festival is coming up! The cornbread festival is held each year in the neat little town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and this year Martha White has asked me to be a judge. So I get to participate in the festival AND taste all of the yummy entries, to boot! The festival is a weekend long family event with all sorts of fun activities taking place, including tours of the Lodge Cast Iron Factory. Click the Cornbread Festival logo at the bottom of this post to visit the official homepage and learn more.
I’m really looking forward to meeting more of the Southern Plate Family! We have a page over on Facebook where folks can RSVP that they are coming so if you plan on coming out for the fun this year so click here to head on over there and let me know so I can look forward to seeing your face and keep you posted on times and location of the Southern Plate Family meet and greet.
I’m also hoping some of you will enter the competition. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a member of the Southern Plate family won it? I happen to know that y’all are a group of extremely talented cooks – who cook for the love of family and friends – and I can’t imagine a dish tasting better than one made by one of you. For the official rules of the competition, click here. To go ahead and enter, click here.
This Monte Cristo Skillet was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 National Cornbread Festival. It caught my eye because I recently had my very first Monte Cristo Sandwich and absolutely loved it. Southern Living sent me to Charleston to do some presentations for the Taste of Charleston Festival. Have you ever been to Charleston? Oh my goodness gracious, is that a beautiful town! With every sight and sound I became more determined to bring my family back there someday so I could experience it with them (It is hard to enjoy a trip without the folks you want to share it with beside you).
As I’ve started traveling from time to time I’ve taken a queue from my adventurous counterparts at SL and started making it a point to try something new in each place if possible. In Charleston, I had my first Monte Cristo Sandwich and it was right up my alley. I ate it in the cafe of a beautiful hotel right downtown. The flavors were a unique combination for me: Ham, cheese, battered and toasted bread drizzled with a sweet fruit preserves and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. It was part lunch, part breakfast, part sandwich, part dessert, and all the way good!
So when Martha White offered to guest post I got to nosing around for what recipe I thought would appeal the most to everyone and as soon as this skillet came before my eyes, my heart just settled on it.
This recipe is quick to throw together and feeds six people. I like strawberry preserves with mine but feel free to use whichever you like best. I also omit the turkey and use additional ham in it’s place. Lunchmeat ham works just fine!
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Love Your Cast Iron?
Be sure and pick up this month’s special Cast Iron issue of Taste Of The South. It is filled to the BRIM with delicious recipes for your cast iron skillet, gorgeous food photography,
and those sweet people even put my name on the cover!
I don’t know who is more tickled, me or my mother!
![Easter Fun and Menu Ideas [year]](https://southernplate.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/crop.jpg)
I grew up eating chicken fried steak, and fried chicken (with the cream gravy made from the drippings) fried in a cast iron skillet. Mom always used her 10 inch to bake the cornbread in for the dressing. Now, I’m the proud owner of her skillet. Wouldn’t take anything for it!
I can’t believe you’re doing this post today on cast iron cooking. I just this morning made my pineapple upside down cake in my cast iron chicken fryer. I always use I stick butter, or you can use I stick of ICBNB. I cup of packed dark brown sugar. Melt the butter on medium heat in the skillet, add brown sugar.drain one 15 oz can crushed pineapple, using any juice in cake mix instead of part of the water. Stir until mixed. I top with pineapple cake mix( made on the side in a seperate bowl) and pour the cake mix on top. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.
When you pull the skillet out if the oven, I have a large plate that I lay on top on with much care, flip the skillet and plate over.
Not as pretty as using pineapple rings, but much tastier. Also, the cast iron takes care of my weight lifting for the day!!
I too love my cast iron. Did you know that it also hols health benefits? I have gone to the doctors several times and they always brag on my iron levels. One nurse argued with me that I had to be a smoker that she had been a nurse 40+ years and had never seen a person with as high of iron levels as I have and not be. Well I can tell you never have and never will smoke. The doc came in and I told him of our conversation and asked him about it – as we discussed — I don’t eat dark leafy greens or anything like that and I told him I cook almost nightly in cast iron – he said well there you go! Small portions of the iron leaches into the foods and it is good for us!
Happy Cooking To You All!!!
If you have hemochromatosis, an genetic inability to rid your body of iron, you CANNOT use cast iron. This is because it leaches into the food and you absorb it. I have this condition and even though I was raised on cast iron cooking and love it, I sadly cannot use it.
OH I do so love my cast iron skillets. I have several sizes and shapes but ONE is my all time favorite! This particular one is square and was a wedding gift to us in 1968. The woman who gave it to us helped raise my husband after his father died; My mother-in-law was left with four children ages 11 and under, and this woman was a Godsend to the family. She cooked, she cleaned, she ironed…and she had one arm. This skillet is my ‘Sook’ skillet, as that’s what the children called this wonderful woman.
I have 4 cast iron skillets. An 8″ for cornbread, a 9″ for most everything, one 9″ for fudge only and a 10″ for fried chicken. I also have a dutch oven that I use for beef stew, soups and as a deep fryer. I learned to make fudge at the age of 9 in an iron skillet. It’s the only way it turns out for me. BTW, all the pans except one of the 9″ belonged to my mother or my grandmother.
My cabinets are well stocked with cast iron. I have my Mothers cast iron skillet, which she got when she married in 1929 and come September it will have been in use for 82 years.
We cook nearly everything in cast iron skillets .Mine are old belonging to family members .
I had to cut done on fats in my diet years ago .The skillet was my best friend .I fry everything in the oven .Preheat the pan with oil .Then add veges,potatoes or just any breaded vegetables .If frozen thaw a few minutes in the microwave and then batter .Do not over batter with meal .Sometimes I mix my veges and cook them together .Spray the pan with cooking oil before adding veges ,then on top .cook at about 400 or 450 .Turn once –do not stir they will be mushy .spray the top again with oil .I like to add chopped onions when you turn them .They are so good and not greasy .