Atkins Danielle - Skillet love: from steak to cake: more than 150 recipes in one cast-iron pan

Trapped within the iron confines of these skillets are the scents and secrets of a familys culinary history.

JOHN T. EDGE

Things of quality have no fear of time.

UNKNOWN

Fashion changes, but style endures.

COCO CHANEL

MY LOVE AFFAIR with cast iron did not begin forty years ago when I bought an old 12-inch Griswold at an Atlanta estate sale. Someone had cared for that ebony-black skillet. Someone had fried chicken in it. Made cornbread, too. It was shiny and smooth, with no hint of rust or neglect.

I adopted it into my family of pots and pans, and it moved with us from Atlanta to Nashville, and in between was crated and shipped to and from England, where it roasted lamb and potatoes for friends. No matter the kitchen, and no matter the occasion, my skillet fit in, segueing from anniversary dinners of seared salmon to Saturday pancakes with kids.

And yet, I never showered it with praise. That was reserved for the French copper pans I brought back from cooking school in Paris. You could say that this humble iron skillet with the perfect patina had been like a relief player, waiting for the one recipe to get my attention.

Then one July afternoon two years ago, I grabbed the skillet on a whim and poured in a favorite pound cake batter. That cake rose to a glorious height. The crust on top was golden and crackly, and the interior crumb was even and smooth. I had never baked such a perfect pound cake. My skillet, practiced and ready, performed like a seasoned pro and knocked that cake out of the park. In that instant, I fell in love. Yes, in love with my skillet.

It should have been sooner, because I was made for the efficiency of cast iron. Give me a sharp knife and a decent cutting board, and I am ready to cook. I prep many recipes with just a bowl and a wooden spoon. The cast-iron skillet is that same sort of basic tool.

Plus, raising children and being concerned about their health as well as my own, I should have given the iron skillet credit for being naturally nonstick. Unlike the artificial nonstick surfaces on many pans that cannot be placed over high heat lest they impart harmful chemicals into our food, the iron skillet begs for high heat. It is iron, for goodness sake, forged at extreme heat so you can safely crank up the stove or oven and let the pan get seriously hot to sear, sizzle, roast, fry, blister, bake, braise, and caramelize, introducing big, bold, restaurant-quality flavors in the process.

Ive spent a lifetime reading about, listening to, and interviewing famous chefs. I have quizzed them on the little details that make a recipe better. I remembered Lydie Marshalls suggestion in a cooking class decades ago when she advocated cast-iron skillets instead of copper. While writing this book, I tracked down Lydie in the South of France and asked her via email why someone so knowledgeable about French cooking chose iron over copper. Her answer was simple: Cast-iron pans are more affordable.

And therein lies another attribute: The cast-iron skillet is the pan of the everyday. You might desire copper or stainless steel, but you can afford cast iron. It is no-frills and authentic. It is for starting out and paring down. It is the only pan you ever need. And it works with you wherever you are on the timeline of life because it is wonderfully vintage and also modern and relevant. It bakes fruit pies, crostatas, cobblers, and pound cakes with rustic beauty. It sears tuna to perfection. It roasts mussels, corn on the cob, even cashews. It produces crisp-sided no-knead breads and pizzas that taste as if they were baked in a wood-fired oven. And on weeknights, it is a time saver because you can pile the entire meal into it, leaving only one pan to wash.

This book, Skillet Love, is my salute to the timeless, sustainable 12-inch cast-iron skillet. Im not alone in my adoration, as there are collectors and devotees around the globe. But this is my deep dive, and I share recipes, advice, discoveries, and musings in the hopes you will pull out your skillet right now and not wait forty years to fall in love with it.

People might have originally cooked with cast iron because it was the only pan available, but today we have options. I wanted to understand why this skillet makes our food taste good so that we can be intentional about cooking with it.

If you take away one thing from this book, it should be that the cast-iron skillet allows you to cook boldly. Big flavors are achieved by a number of techniques and tricks, but the most important is high heat. The next time you dine out and look into the open kitchen at your favorite restaurant, you will likely see fire and flame. You will hear sizzling, and you will smell char. In the world of food science, that means flavor.