The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook has recipes for stovetop, oven, grill and campfire

The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook Some people covet their grandmother’s silver or the 200-year-old cabinet brought over by ancestors from the old country.

My heirlooms are the sort that don’t need polishing. Yet they shine with the patina of three generations of family meals. They’ve traveled from Louisiana to California to New Jersey and points in between. They’ve sauteed okra with onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic, and they’ve fried up floured cuts of savory chicken, and fish dredged in cornmeal. Knowing that meals made by my mother and late grandmother have helped “season” my decades-old cast iron skillets is a big part of what makes them my most treasured possessions.

I now use this seemingly indestructible cookware for everything from scrambling eggs to baking. And when it’s time for the annual camping trip with friends, I can be counted on to bring the huge, jet-black skillet that means we’ll have pancakes and bacon cooked over fire. For these reasons and others “The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook” (Oxmoor House, $24.95) is a delight. Nevermind that it helps market the cast iron skillets, griddles, bakeware and even a cast iron grill made by Lodge Manufacturing; it has a chapter devoted to “Nothin’ but Cornbread.” The 27 recipes range from a sweet one made with cranberries and orange juice to savory cornbread meals stuffed with beef and salsa, or bacon, broccoli and shrimp. How about bacon and gorgonzola corn muffins to hold those mini burgers known as sliders?

The cookbook also elevates okra, an often maligned vegetable that won’t be slimy when cooked properly. Beautiful photographs make okra tempting with corn and other vegetables, stewed in gumbo, deep fried or grilled whole. There are more than 200 recipes, along with essays that speak to the durability of cast iron — and how to create or replace its essential coat of cooked-on oil, the “seasoning” that stops rust.

A chapter on outdoor cooking covers grilling, frying, stewing and even bread-baking. Dry cast iron is heated to sizzling on the grill for searing porterhouse steaks, strip steaks, veal chops or halibut. The technique: marinate or season the meat, then sear for 2 to 6 minutes on each side, depending on thickness. Of course, the marks come with Lodge grill pans. “The cast iron pan creates constant indirect heat that browns food beautifully,” according Elizabeth Karmel, a grilling expert among cast iron fans quoted in the book. Her Lodge pan transforms refrigerator dough into grilled pizza with a “gorgeous, crispy, slightly smoky crust.” See American-made Lodge cookware and recipes for cast iron at lodgemfg.com.