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Thinking ahead for Christmas, my nephew(7 years old)likes to cook and go camping, so have been thinking of a pie iron for him. I see walmart has aluminum pie irons for $10, and have seen Rome pie irons for $$$. I don't want to buy the cheapest thing, but I don't want to buy the most expensive either. Looking for suggestions on what to look for. Thinking cast iron, will check the local outdoor stores(Scheels, Cabelas, Dunham Sports)...

Normally, I would suggest the cast iron. However, for a 7year old, I would probably go with the aluminum because they are not as heavy as the cast iron. If you are going to be holding a pie iron over the fire, the weight might be too much for a 7 yr. old.

Aaron - I'm a firm believer in starting kids off with good solid equipment (even if it's second hand.) If you go with the single round or square Rome pie iron (cast iron) it'll only run $17.99 at Cabelas, and now and then they go on sale. If they're local, no shipping. Those aluminum ones are only $8 cheaper. $18 for Christmas fits my kid-gift rule - twice the child's age or $20, whichever is cheaper. Drops to $10 when the kid is over 15.

If your nephew is strong enough to manipulate the extra weight of the CI pie iron, I'd say go with that. Another option, if Cabela's has it, is the hamburger griller which is like the round pie iron, but slotted to grill burgers. No reason you couldn't also make sandwiches in it, too - so it would be a multi-tasker. I have one square and one double (rectangular) CI pie irons, and was thinking of adding the griller this year because I don't have a round CI pie iron.

You might also want to take a quick look at ebay - I picked up two vintage steel pie irons this summer which have much shorter handles, and look like they were designed to be used on a camp stove. They're about half the weight of the CI pie irons. I haven't perfected cooking time with them, and since they're lighter, things burn a bit faster. I was going to work on cook time over a diffuser on my indoor stove this winter...the handles are that short.

And if you get your nephew the CI pie iron, and he ends up not using it or losing interest, Uncle Aaron can always rehome it.

A while back I wanted to see if I could make a chile relleno without deep frying it by cooking it in a pie iron.

Went to "Wally World" saw a lightweight aluminum one and gave it a try over a gas flame. It got hot, the aluminum softened, and the handle fell out.

The experiment (making chile rellenos) was a double failure. They didn't have that "deep fried taste" (in retrospect not a surprise as they weren't deep fried) and the cooker melted.

So, IMHO, buy a cast iron one. End of advise!!!

Hope this helps.

Cheers, 73, K,

Gus

Found Rome pie irons at Scheels for $15, bought a round and a square. Not sure which one I'm giving to the nephew yet.
Question on seasoning: The instructions say "moderate temperature", plan on using brothers grill with a thermometer, what is "moderate temperature"?
Thanks

Aaron, I used the same process I used with my CI dutch oven...it was probably about 450 deg. F. but honestly, I didn't measure the temp on the grill.

When I did my CT skillet in the oven, I used 450, too. Whatever will get the iron hot enough so that the oil on the surface isn't sticky. I've also heard 500, but at 500, my kitchen feels like the inside of an engine.