Packing Iron

The farmer bought an old cast iron Dutch oven from our mailman who was moving. It was a Wagner Drip Drop Baster as it said on the lid. It also said the patent had been applied for.

We really do like packing a lot of iron and have developed a special spot in our hearts for Dutch ovens. The farmer cleaned and oiled that pot and we put a beef roast on to cook. Oh the smells that filled our home were good. When we opened that old oven we were thrilled with how it had cooked that piece of meat. The self basting lid is amazing.

Self Basting Lid

The farmer felt just a mite guilty that he’d only paid $5.00 for it so he looked the mailman up the next day and gave him a 20.00 bill. it’s been worth every penny. We’ve used it so many times in the last ten years.

A well-seasoned Dutch oven is a prize today, as it was on the cattle drives of old.

Clifford Teinert

We have baked chicken in it and made all kinds of casseroles and other great dishes. We use this one mainly in the house in our oven as it has that domed lid so charcoals cannot be placed on top to use it if using charcoal. But that’s not a concern of ours because we have plenty of other iron pots. That farmer has a pot of every size. Once we did see a huge old cast iron oven that took up the whole trunk of a car. We don’t have that one. I have no idea how you’d ever be able to pick it up.

Wagner cast iron is antique cookware that is regarded as one of the best in the market. Despite its age, it still works fine. It is bought by people who prefer vintage cast iron cookware or collectible enthusiasts.

The Wagner cast iron ware ranks among the top rated of the 19th and 20th centuries. The ware is known for its durability and exceptional functionality.

The Wagner Hollow Ware Company was officially launched in 1891 by two brothers, Bernard and Milton Wagner.  As the company got into full production, two other brothers joined the operation.  William and Louis, joined in 1891.  Their company was in Sydney, OH and some of the Wagner Ware pots were stamped with Sydney on them.

“Only a fool argues with a skunk, a mule, or a cook.”

  • Cowboy saying

The farmer and I, well it was mostly the I in this story made a delicious Dutch Oven Chicken Pot Pie.  I like to make it without any crust because I like to make my Sourdough biscuits separately and put the pot pie on top of them. 

Sourdough Biscuits

Recipe:

Add one Tablespoon unsalted butter to Dutch Oven

Add one carrot, diced

Add one stalk celery, diced

Add one onion, diced

Add one clove garlic, minced garlic      

Add one bay leaf

Cook until the vegetables begin to soften, 5 to 8 minutes.

Add cooked diced chicken to the pot, and chicken stock with 1 T. parsley,

1 T. chopped rosemary,

1 T. sage, salt and pepper to taste. 

One bag of frozen vegetables and

three potatoes, diced

Place Dutch Oven in oven 350 degrees and bake 1-2 hours until vegetables are tender.

Remove from oven and add 1 cup milk and thicken with cornstarch.

Chicken Pot Pie

Our little lightweight camper is packing iron.  It’s full of cast iron pots because you just never know when you need to feed a bunch of cowboys and cowgirls.

  • “Always take a good look at what you’re about to eat. It’s not so important to know what it is, but it’s critical to know what it was.”  Cowboy Quote

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s