I'm not sure if anyone else still has these things around but we have (from 30 years ago) these two pie-makers. One is supposed to put white bread in one side, add pie filling, top with bread and close it shut. Then the whole thing (which has a long handle) cooks over a campfire. It turns out like a toasty turnover.

My questions is: Has anyone tried anything different with these pie-makers? I was thinking of trying refrigerated biscuit dough in them to see if that would make them even better. It might make a complete mess, though. :sad

Nancy

We "inherited" a couple of those things when we bought our (used) Rockwood pop-up years ago. I thought they were a gimmick at first. but turned out they make some good occasional grub. We like to use whole-wheat or rye bread and make impromptu shepherd's pies out of meat and veg mixtures. Excellent way to use up left-overs. You can also make some yummy gooey deserts out of all sorts of mixed-up stuff: peanut butter, Hershey's kisses, M&Ms, marshmallows, (inside some bread of course!), fruit pie filling, and that sort of unhealthy stuff. But I think the shepherd's pies are our favorites.

I KNEW you all would have fantastic ideas! That's a great idea about the shepard's pie. OKay... what other things do you all make with these irons?

Nancy

I have a set I bought at Academy Surplus a couple of years ago, plus the set I inherited from my dad. The older ones are better, slightly smaller and the bread fiills it better. The newer ones are large enough the bread does not meet at the edge and juice leaks . They are still out there , just measure the bread and the pie makers to be sure of a good seal before you buy one.

I've never tried it, but I bet they'd make awesome Calzones.

Calzones! That's a wonderful idea! What would you make the crust from? Runzas would be another variation, wouldn't it?

Nan

Lazy way crusts? I'm sure there are a lot of things, but two things come to mind right away. Pita bread (might be too thin) or flour tortillas.

Rats...now I gotta go get me one of those things. :o And it's all of your faults!

all right, stop right here and tell me what happens to the bread part that sticks out. I have a round one and a square one. both smaller than a slice of bread. won't I get burnt crust?
AND what's a Calzones?

They're like pizza inside of a crust. Italian turnover. Does this help?
Dough:
1) Dissolve 1 pk yeast in 1 cup warm water.
2) Mix 1 TBSP sugar, 2 TBSP oil, 1 tsp salt, 2 3/4 c flour to yeast and water.
3) Mix together till smooth. Knead and cover for 30 minutes. I cover with clear wrap
tightly.

In separate bowl: (this is what I use for a meaty and cheesy calzones. The ingredients are
up to you).
1) Mix 1 small can mushrooms, drained
2) 1/4 green pepper
3) 2 slices of onion
4) 1 jar Ragu (any kind)
5) 1 tsp italian seasoning
6) 1 tsp oregano
7) 1 tsp basil
8) 1/2 tsp garlic salt
9) 4 links of cooked italian sausage
10) pepperoni

Roll out dough approx. 10" circle. Place 1 to 2 cups of sauce mix in center of dough. Add
1/2 cup mozzeralla cheese to sauce in the calzones. Fold over and crimp shut.

Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with melted butter (after 15 minutes of cooking).
Cook for a total of 25 min @ 375 degrees or until golden brown. Cover with remaining
sauce and cheese and enjoy !!!

That isn't my recipe, it is actually one I copied off the web. I just put it up so you could get an idea.

For Campfire Calzones you could just put a little sauce and some cheese in the middle with a little oregano and basil. I think the bread would probably work the best because it would seal better...unless you had some dough that you brought from home that was precut.

Man, I gotta try this. It sounds good!

Thanks Suz.
forget the camping, I want to try it at home. yumyum

>all right, stop right here and tell me what happens to the bread >part that sticks out.

Once you close the iron together, you just trim or tear off what is left sticking out of the mold.

Nancy

Oh :m I guess that is logical. where was my brain? Thanks Nancy

:wave

I like hot ham and cheese in the pie iron. We bought pie irons for our kids that camp. Our's is alum. and their's are cast iron. The girls like the pie filling.

We grew up with these cast iron cookers. Have a Toast Tite brand which is 50+ years old. They make great grilled tuna sandwiches, and my kids loved cut up hotdogs with ketchup.

Susan O
New Hampshire

***grilled tuna sandwiches *** I knew I was going to like you. I never would have thought of grilled tuna. now I'm really glad I got one of these cookers for Christmas.

Get a few chunks of FRESH tuna from a seafood store and grill it right on the barbeque. It's excellent. :)

I never would have thought of grilled tuna sandwiches either. There is nothing better than fresh tuna grilled. Yummm!

When using these pie irons, remember to always spray or grease them before using them or you may be eating the filling out with a spoon! :r

Nancy

Make sure you add some pickles and cheese in with your tuna - the sandwiches are to die for!
We use sandwich irons for lots of treats - peanut butter and banana, ham and cheese, chicken salad ...
You can also fry up a couple of pieces of bacon, sausage or ham, and then fry an egg. Use the egg and meat in between bread or an english muffin and you have breakfast with no dishes!

frying in the pie maker? wow, what a great idea. Thanks for joining up and adding the recipe, Laura. (cute avatar too, Laura)

Ooo, Laura, what a great idea! A breakfast sandwich over the open fire. Yum! I want to go camping NOW!

Welcome to the group, too!

Nancy

Does anyone have a pic or can make & post a pic for me. I have no idea what this pie maker thing is. I've lived a sheltered life.. hoho ho

Dene ... here's a pix of a cast iron pie iron.

Thank your Charles for the picture. I don't know where I have been all these years to have missed this little critter but I'm on the look out now to find one and give some of these good sounding recipes a try. We live out in the country and from time to time have to light off a burn pile of dead tree limbs so I can have a cookout without leaving home just about any time. I can practice here and if it isn't fit to eat we have dogs. They like my cooking...:lol

Dene, my pie-servers or pie-irons are round and are metal instead of cast iron. Camping supply stores usually carry them.

Nancy

We used to use pie irons a lot when the kids were little. Then they discovered baseball. After spending 4 nights a week at the baseball diamond, there was little time left for camping, so we took a vacation from camping for about 10 years.

Just recently got back into camping, with a Scamp instead of a Pop-up.

Have found a few resources for recipes for Pie irons. Did a search for "pie iron recipes" in IE6 and got the following page:

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?srch=10...ie+Iron+Recipes

Some of the goodies:

http://www.greatcamps.com/recipes.htm

http://www.romeindustries.com/recipes.html

Good Eat'n

My gosh, Dave, thanks! I never even thought to do a search on in the Internet. Duh! :r I bookmarked everyone of those recipe sites. We are going to have good eatin' on our two week trip in June. Thanks again!

Nancy

We camped with these pie irons all during my childhood, never going beyond the standard pie filling recipe. Now that I'm on my own, I'm looking for variations on the theme. My newest idea is a take on a crepe I had at the Mall of America this spring--bananas and Nutella (that amazing chocolate-hazelnut spread). Can't wait to try it.

This is a great website: http://www.pieiron.com/ Lots of information and recipes.

Another idea for pie iron desserts is to use slices of store bought angel food cake rather than bread. Yummy!

Tom Trostel

they still sell them. I use it a lot to make campfire apple pie.

Used ours this past weekend for when the kids wanted "Pizza" for lunch...

We used:

Hamburger Buns

Jar Pizza Sauce (Ragu) - 1 spoon full per side

4 slices of Pepperoni per pizza

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (not too much or it mushes out and burns in the iron)

We found that 2-3 minutes per side worked best...not over cooked, not under cooked (first one we did we kept in too long and it burnt...but the kids ate it anyway!! It IS PIZZA remember!)

My 8 year old Nephew had 3 of these...he's a VERY fussy eater

My 12 year old Nephew had 4...even a few bites of the burnt one because he liked it sooo much!!

My 11 year old Niece only had 1...Why? Because there were only 2 packages of buns!! She had a grilled cheese after....which she said was good, but not as good as the "Pizza"!

I never bothered cutting the edges off - they just burn off or once crisped can be broken off easily.

OMG the angel food cake idea sounds amazing!!

I have an older iron but new ones are also sold on www.sportsmansguide.com, RV places and MEC.

My favorite thing these days is grilled angelfood cake (yes, on a grill). It sounds like the same concept. Yum, indeed.

Don't skimp. Next time you do a pizza sandwich, use a whole slice of mozzarella slice and load up on the pepperoni. No cutting into pepperoni slices allowed for better enjoyment. Also don't use alum type irons.

http://www.pieiron.com/

I googled pie iron and found this link.

Enjoy

Oh, I'm in trouble. I can purchase one 4.7 miles from my home!
Now to copy all the yummy recipes members have posted

http://www.campchef.com/search.html?request=pie+iron

You can even send it to your house!
Pam

Okay, these things are only like $15-$20, I am so going to get me one! I like the smaller round one as I will be alone out there. Sounds like a great way to use up all kinds of left overs in a unique way!!

I mean think about it, you have sausage and scrambled eggs for breakfast one day, cook extra. Throw that plus some cheese in one of these deals the next morning and you have a whole new breakfast the next morning, maybe a little salsa too...

You have left over veggies and some ham or some kind of lunch meat that you need to use...Yep good dinner pie

A good pot pie would be a couple slices of meat, a dab of cream cheese and some veggies with a bit of canned soup of some sort (cream of celery) and you got you a single serving pot pie!

For those of you that already have one of these, it sounds like the possibilities are endless!

I learned from my dad; If you just wait long enough.... what is old..... will allways become NEW again.

You folk made me hungry.... and I never even liked pot pie LOL

We bought two of these single pie makers from Joe's. I also bought some brownie mix and thought I would try it next time we go camping. It sounds like all I need to do is spray the irons after heating them, as about 1/2 cup of brownie mix and hold over the fire for about five to seven minutes per side. Is that about right? Has anyone tried this?

We don't have these pie irons but I searched the web and now I'm getting interested. YUM!


http://www.pieiron.com/recipes.htm

http://www.greatcamps.com/pie-iron-dinners...s-contest-7.htm

oooh I see desserts in the making at the NOG! Remember, dark chocolate anything goes with dark beer

Great idea. Dark beer and brownies.

Both of these recipes sound like they would be good with beer. We bought our pie irons from Joes for about 7 dollars each. Not much for the fun we will have trying out new recipes.

Grilled Onions
Place thinly sliced sweet Spanish onions (or Vidalia onions) into cooker cavity. Add a little celery, salt, parsley and a splash of beer. Close cooker and grill until onions are soft.

Rocky Road Treat
Spread peanut butter on 2 slices of bread. Add one large marshmallow and one chocolate bar square between buttered bread slices/ Toast in cooker until bread is golden brown.

Why not? That's what I have!

Alzheimer's concerns most likely. It is almost impossible to find aluminum pots and pans for the same reason. Plus, cast iron gives more minerals and has been shown to be a healthy choice.

Cabela's also have them:

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...rset=ISO-8859-1

Those are exactly the ones we got from Joe's but for 6.99 not 17.99