Cooking on a grill with cast iron is basically the same as cooking on a stove, except you’re outside. At least that’s what we’re told… but is it true? The marketing team here at Electronic Express decided to put a few Lodge recipes to the test, as well as our own, to see if this statement holds any water. Check out the results below!
Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Oil
Probably the more complicated of the two recipes (the word “complicated” might be a bit of a stretch here) was the Grilled Shrimp with Garlic Oil. We diverted from the recipe just a touch by pre-mixing all the ingredients together with the shrimp, instead of adding the oil mixture after the shrimp have cooked. I wouldn’t say this is a big leap from the recipe, and probably the only difference in our results is that the shrimp sauteed more than grilled. Either way, the shrimp turned out more delicious than any of us thought, and they were quite a crowd-pleaser. As the shrimp got passed around, there began a chorus of “mmmmm”s and “yum”s. Which tells me this recipe was a 10/10 hit.
You can never go wrong with pizza, ever, so this was an obvious choice from the start. Taking our own liberties on the ingredients, we chose to go with a classic pepperoni pizza. The pizza only took about 2 minutes to put together, and then the skillet went on the grill and stayed there. The only real deviation from the recipe was that we didn’t rotate the skillet. Since we were on half heat, that probably should have been done a few times, BUT no regrets. The pizza turned out amazing and everyone loved it.
All in all, these 2 recipes were a big success. Something worth noting though is we used 2 skillets on one grill, which put both skillets using half the central heat from the charcoal and in turn required a longer cooking time than the recipes stated. The shrimp recipe calls for approximately 6 minutes total cooking time, but it took us about 10-12. The pizza recipe says 20 minutes, while ours took about 35 minutes. My recommendation would be to use one skillet at a time, or use enough charcoal so the heat is even across the entire grill.
On top of these recipes from Lodge, our team thought it would be fun to try a few other things, so we cooked pre-seasoned chicken and pre-marinated wings as well. Since the skillets had already been used and were thoroughly heated up these cooked a bit faster, and turned out equally as delicious. We didn’t clean out the skillet before moving on to the next dish, which left the chicken and wings cooking in the leftover scraps of the previous dish. By the end, all the flavors had combined in one way or another, and this just made it all taste that much better. Definitely a win in our books.
In conclusion, and to answer the question originally asked, I would say yes. Cooking with cast iron on a grill is pretty much the same as cooking on a stove. BUT the experience of being outside with friends, talking and laughing over the open grill, that smokey charcoal smell permeating the air, is unbeatable, and it’s all about the experience. At the end of the day, you can get basically the same results right from your kitchen, but it’s just more fun to do it outside on the grill.
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