Judson Carroll

Here we need to define some terms.  There is a lot of confusion regarding specific techniques of cooking.  A few years ago, I tried writing a cooking blog… few people noticed or cared, so I gave it up.  I will never forget one reader, though.  She was a successful woman with advanced degrees.  She emailed one day, asking how to cook pasta.  That was a very surprising email!  It seemed, every time she tried to cook macaroni or spaghetti she ended up with a congealed mass of all the pasta stuck together at the bottom of the pot.  I was really shocked.  I researched all sorts of stuff in regard to water and pasta… trying to figure out how pasta didn’t just cook in boiling water as intended.  I researched adding oil to pasta water…. Anything you can imagine.  We exchanged several emails.  Eventually. I had her walk me through every step of her pasta cookery.  It turned out that this educated, mature, successful woman had never been taught the basics of cooking.  She did not know the difference between a simmer and a boil.  She honestly thought that water shouldn’t be heated to a strong boil because it splashes out and you have to clean up.  She had been trying to cook pasta in barely simmering water!  Of course, it just sank to the bottom and became an unappetizing mess.

My point is that we have gone long past the time when in our culture, girls learned to cook from their mothers and grandmothers.  Boys have even less opportunity.  So, to the experienced cook some of what I will say may seem simplistic.  For others, this basic information may make all the difference.



Grilling versus Barbecuing

Cooking over fire is the oldest form of cooking.  It is primal.  We all desire the flavor and most of us enjoy the process.  These techniques are simple and basic, but not without nuance.



Grilling is cooking over hot coals.  You can cook over live flames, but not without a cooking vessel.  You can put a pot or a pan over flames.  Flames may be allowed to briefly sear meat, but live flames will burn food.  In grilling, we use either live coals (red, hot burned wood after the flames die down… those that glow in a fire), charcoal, which are those same coals stopped and extinguished before they burn out either through oxygen deprivation or naturally, charcoal briquettes (which are pretty nasty petrol-chemical byproducts) or gas.  I prefer the flavor of wood or charcoal cooked meat, but a gas grill is almost just as good.  Many vegetables, especially corn, are best cooked on a grill.



Barbecue is a different technique utilizing the same elements.  The difference is that barbecue is cooked low and slow over cooler coals.  Contrary to popular belief, barbecue cannot be cooked over gas.  Admittedly, I am a barbecue fanatic and purist.  Cooking barbecue is part of my family heritage.  While a passable substitute may be cooked using any heat source with an offset smoker - smoldering hardwood smoke used to flavor the meat as it roasts, it is not barbecue.  It is roasted meat.  Many will consider this BBQ heresy (I use the term BBQ for fake barbecue).  The key to real barbecue is not only the flavor of the smoke, but the flavor that comes from the fat dripping onto the coals and burning.  It creates a blue smoke as it combines with the steam from the cooking meat.

I made a good bit of my living cooking barbecue for political events.  I well recall on instance in which I was asked to cook for several thousand people with barely a day to prepare.  I did not have a barbecue cooker large enough or near enough to the event.  I was prepared to dig a pit and go old school.  But, at the last minute, someone volunteered a huge, drum style cooker that they used to cook game for a hunting club.  It was gas fired, and the gas burners had to be replaced.  We pulled out the burners and I converted it to a real barbecue pit.  We bought over 800 pounds of pork shoulders, a pickup truck bed full of hardwood, lump charcoal, dry oak and hickory.  The man organizing the event was skeptical.  He bought 200 lbs of cooked barbecue from his favorite gas fired BBQ joint… just in case.  For 24 hours, I sat by that cooker, cooking real barbecue.  People watched in amazement as I put my bare hand on the metal cooker in various places, turned the meat and added wood as needed.  That is how I ensure a constant temperature of around 200 degrees F.  I tended the cooker all night, napping only briefly as curious folks visited and chatted with me every now and then.

In the morning, a few folks helped me unload the beautifully barbecued meat from the smoker, pull out the bones and chop the meat with huge butcher’s cleavers that were on loan from a supporter.  The organizer hauled the cooker to the site of the event so we could use it to reheat the meat and the incredible aroma would draw a crowd.  Of course, I was exhausted, but that is all part of cooking barbecue.  We had only rolls, baked beans and coleslaw to accompany the meat.  I insisted on using an eastern NC style barbecue sauce that contains no tomato or sugar (Scotts).  Eastern NC sauce is little more than apple cider vinegar, salt, black pepper and cayenne.  I combined the chopped or sliced meat with the sauce depending on the preference of the customer.  Again, the organizer doubted my wisdom and brought some sweet ketchupy BBQ sauce (a heresy in eastern NC… even western NC is a vinegar based sauce with just a little ketchup added).  It was very gratifying to see the commercial BBQ go un-served as people lined up for my barbecue and begged for leftovers!  Sworn vegetarians could not help but be allured by the aroma and ate pork that day.  The politician thanked me later and admitted, “I never even liked BBQ.  I’ve eaten so much of yours just plain that I can barely walk!”

Barbecue is an art.



This article is an excerpt from



Available on in paperback on Amazon:

The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: Carroll, Judson: 9798354856374: Amazon.com: Books

Also, I am back on Youtube. Please subscribe to my channel: @judsoncarroll5902 Judson Carroll - YouTube

Read about my new book:







https://sophiainstitute.com/product/herbs-that-heal/

We discuss the 1ness company, its history and excellent products. Jay is a cool guy and he does a great job providing herbal extracts, water purification, DMSO, etc.

https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/p/show-302-an-interview-with-jay-from?r=12ue1r&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Fish On Fridays: Intro and a recipe

Shrimp a la Creole

https://judsonc.substack.com/p/fish-on-fridays-intro-and-a-recipe

We have pretty much covered the basics of what you need to cook, but there are a thousand other things you may need depending on what you are cooking.  If you roll out dough, you will want a rolling pin.  You may want a blender if you like soups, smoothies and mixed drinks.  You may want a serving platter and chafing dishes if you entertain.  A couple of odds and ends I find very useful are a mortar and pestle for grinding spices (and herbs, since I am an herbalist) and a pepper grinder.  While a fork can somewhat substitute for a whisk in very limited ways, a real “balloon” type wire whisk is an essential kitchen tool.

Most folks will need a measuring cup and measuring spoons.  A kitchen scale can also be useful, but I generally estimate measurements.  Ladles and serving spoons however, are essential.  You need a ladle to transfer the soup to the bowl.  You need a large, flatter, serving spoon to put food on a plate.  Spatulas are also essential.  I like heavy metal spatulas for flipping eggs and pancakes, fried rice, or meat such as for a cheese steak or fajitas.  

A pair of tongs is nowhere near as essential as television chefs would lead you to believe!  You can and should actually touch your food with your hands.  Touch is a very important part of cooking.  Where they do come in very handy is burning the spines off of prickly pear cactus or lifting a ramekin out of simmering water.  Otherwise, I just use a kitchen towel or potholder for handling hot things.  Ramekins, by the way, are just small casserole dishes or heavy, heat proof bowls - they are very nice to have.

Various strainers, from slotted spoons to wire strainers and colanders really come in handy and are sometimes necessary.   I do a lot of pickling and fermenting, so various crocks, jars and fermentation air locks are part of my basic equipment.

Beyond that… well, I love my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but anything it can do, you can do by hand… more slowly and with more effort.  The same is true for food processors.  If you like kebabs, you might want to have some skewers on hand.  In other words, your kitchen equipment is very individualized to your tastes, beyond the basics.

This article is an excerpt from



Available on in paperback on Amazon:

The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: Carroll, Judson: 9798354856374: Amazon.com: Books

Also, I am back on Youtube. Please subscribe to my channel: @judsoncarroll5902 Judson Carroll - YouTube

Read about my new book:






https://sophiainstitute.com/product/herbs-that-heal/

Steve and I discuss a wide variety of herbs of women’s health and much more.

 https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/p/show-301-herbs-that-heal-womens-issues

Christopher Weeks wrote:I like this info, but my understanding is that you can't saute in a tall-sided pan (like the Dutch oven example) because it retains too much heat and steam above the food. I was told that by a chef buddy a few years ago who corrected my use of the word. And I just found this explanation in case it's interesting: https://www.ice.edu/blog/sloped-vs-straight-sided-pans. (I could also get by with just a dutch oven, and it's super versatile, but it can't do all things.)

Yeah, it wouldn't be ideal but small amounts usually do pretty well.  You have to be careful not to crowd it.

As I mentioned earlier, I like heavy, sturdy cookware.  The reason is not only because it is quality made and lasts, but it distributes heat evenly and is not as prone to scorching and burning due to sudden fluctuations in heat.  My advice is to get the heaviest cookware you can comfortably use - within reason, of course.  I would not buy something just because it is heavy.  I also look for solid, sturdy handles and inspect the overall condition of the piece.  Something is better than nothing though, so if you have arthritis or are not in the physical shape to handle heavy cookware, buy whatever works best for you.

One Thing I absolutely avoid though, is Teflon coated, nonstick cookware.  I know that the “experts” say it is safe when the coating is unscratched and for cooking under a certain temperature.  I don’t believe them though.  Such coatings are very toxic and many people experience flu-like symptoms even when using the pans as directed… and I have yet to see one that remained unscratched for long. Chemicals from a plant that made such coatings were recently found to have contaminated much of the groundwater in a county where much of my family lived.  Cancer rates and strange autoimmune diseases have become epidemic there. I will not sacrifice health for convenience.  Besides, there are options that are just as good.

In truth, I don’t buy much cookware.  I inherited what seems like a literal ton of old cast iron passed down and collected by several generations.  I have nearly every size and shape of Lodge, Wagner and many unbranded pans, pots, dutch ovens, etc, some dating to well over 200 years old.  There are some modern-ish brands of cookware that I will not pass up if I find one used, for a reasonable price.  Those include (but are not limited to) Le Creuset, which is enameled cast iron, and Mauville - both are expensive French cookware that is actually worth the price.  There are good American brands, too.  I have not had much experience with All Clad stainless steel cookware, but have been impressed when I did.  Recently, a brand called Made In has gotten a lot of good reviews - I am looking forward to trying it.  Many people buy copper ware for the looks, alone, and display it in their kitchens.  They are hesitant to use it because copper tarnishes so quickly.  However, it cleans up and polishes easily with salt and lemon juice.  Quality made copper ware should be used and enjoyed.  I like stainless steel for a roasting pan.  A roasting pan isn’t so much of a pan used for cooking as it is just a vessel in which the roasts cooks while it is in the oven.  Stainless, though, goes easily from the oven to the stove so that pan juices can be used for gravy and sauces.  It cleans up easily, too.  You can choose a model with a roasting rack to keep the meat off the bottom of the pan, or use the old fashioned method of roasting your meat on a bed of root vegetables and celery.

That said, I would not trade my cast iron for all the Mauville in France!  If I had to, I could literally get by with just one piece.  That one piece would be a dutch oven.  That simple item of cookware enabled the settling of North America.  A dutch oven can be used as a soup or stew pot, to deep fry, shallow fry or saute, as a roasting pan for a chicken or a small roast, a stock pot, a brazier, you can make a sauce in it… you can even bake bread in it!  In contrast, a true favorite in my collection is a small, flat skillet, with a slightly raised edge that I inherited from my grandmother.  This little pan is my personal egg pan.  The surface is as perfectly non-stick as any Teflon coating as it has been seasoned through decades of use.  I can make perfect omelets in this pan.  I also use it when making a grilled cheese or quick quesadilla or two for lunch.  Were I cooking for more than one, this pan would not be as practical.  For a large gathering, a cast iron griddle would be more practical.  In between, I have cast iron of nearly every size and depth.  I even have a very old, 2 ft wide, 4 inch deep pan perfect for frying catfish!

In shopping for cast iron, older is generally better.  But, Lodge (at least) still makes good products.  I haven’t had experience with other modern brands.  The caveat is to never buy cast iron that looks red and/or pitted.  Folks used to think the way to restore an old pan was to burn it in a hot fire.  Unfortunately, this ruined the pan.  Many historical pieces continue to be destroyed by burning due to the persistence of this myth on the internet.  Almost as bad is to try to mechanically grind off the rust.  What you should do is to scrub off any gunk, coat the pan in oven cleaner and run it through an oven cleaning cycle a few times.  This will strip it down and clean it.  It will then have to be re-seasoned.  People say you should never wash cast iron, but sometimes you have to.  When you do, it will again have to be reheated.  Rub down your clean pan with vegetable shortening, then bake in your pre-heated over at around 450 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour.  I say “around”, because some people swear 400 degrees is the perfect temp while others state 500 degrees.  I shoot for the middle.  After an hour, turn the oven off and leave the pan in overnight.  In the morning, wipe it down with a paper towel or cloth and it should be ready to use.  With each use, the fat you use will add to this non-stick, polymerized surface.

There are two things you should absolutely NEVER do with cast iron.  One is, don’t drop it on your foot.  I know that seems obvious.  But, most folks who cook with heavy pans will drop one at some time… especially if you have a small dog or cat that is underfoot hoping for scraps.  The second is to never pour cold water into a hot pan or plunge a hot pan into cold water.  A sudden change in temperature will cause the pan to warp or even crack.  Such warped pans are called “spinners” as they will no longer sit flush on a flat surface.  A spinner can still be used on the spider burners of a gas stove or for campfire and outdoor cooking.  I have one small dutch oven that I use for camping, that was purchased as a spinner for just a few dollars.  I don’t mind giving it rough use and although it is a bit heavy, it is an essential in my backpack.

When it comes to casseroles and baking dishes, there are many options from earthenware to modern materials.  I inherited a lot of Corningware and Pyrex made in the 1950s and 60s, and I absolutely love them.  If your only experience with casseroles has been frozen food or those made with canned soup, you are in for a real surprise and a flavor treat when we get to that chapter.  Real, from scratch casseroles are a big part of my French heritage and I am an absolute casserole fanatic!  Baking dishes though, are much like roasting pans in that they are a vessel for holding the food while it cooks.  The main qualities we are looking for are that it be made from a nonreactive material and that it be heavy and dense.  Baking dishes should heat evenly and provide insulation.  Thin materials can cause food to scorch and burn.

Other essential cookware for me would be a saucepan and a stock pot.  I have a couple of stainless steel saucepans.  They are just small pots used for simmering and reducing a sauce.  Again, you want a heavy enough pot so you can maintain an even temperature.  I have two stockpots, a 2 ½ gallon and a 5 gallon.  Both are stainless.  I use the big one mainly for beer brewing.  A stock pot should hold a large capacity so that bones, meat and veg can be cooked at a simmer for hours without reducing to the point it may scorch.  Traditional stock recipes require 12 - 17 hours of cooking.  That usually means leaving them to simmer, unattended, overnight.  Most folks these days use an instant pot.  I still prefer a stock pot.







This article is an excerpt from



Available on in paperback on Amazon:

The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: Carroll, Judson: 9798354856374: Amazon.com: Books

Also, I am back on Youtube. Please subscribe to my channel: @judsoncarroll5902 Judson Carroll - YouTube

Read about my new book:






https://sophiainstitute.com/product/herbs-that-heal/

I discuss the medicinal use of pumpkin, and an herb with a very interesting history. Squill was once considered an essential herb, but has fallen out of use.

 https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/p/show-300-pumpkin-squill-and-slander

Piccolo Rag

I show you how to play Blind Boy Fuller's "Piccolo Rag".  This is a fast paced buck dance that has a lot of ornamentation.  This is the kind of tune that made him a successful street performer.  It is challenging, but it is a lot of fun!

A heat source

A heat source is necessary to cook food, but it may be as simple as you choose.  I like to cook with real fire.  My favorite stove was the gas stove I really learned to cook on in Athens, GA.  A gas stove has extremely little warm up and cool down time.  The heat is exact, even and accurately controlled.  However, it is not essential.  I can cook just as easily on a grill, which is really just a big charcoal burner, the live coals from a campfire, a wood stove or even in a fireplace.  The power goes out frequently and often for long periods where I live in the Appalachian mountains.  I have often cooked on a kerosene heater, which is fine except for the fumes.

An old fashioned, coil burner electric stove, like my mother and my grandmother had would be my second choice.  Each one has its own quirks, but they are reliable and very accurate once you get used to them.  They warm up and cool down fairly quickly.  They also last for decades.  I would never buy a glass top, induction type stove.  I know people think they are pretty and in style, but they are not for cooking.  I spent 3 of the last 5 years having to cook on one.  They are simply horrible.  They heat slowly, provide uneven heat during cooking.  They take forever to cool down.  They wear out and break quickly.  They are expensive and seem to be designed to do only two things: burn your food and be replaced often enough to make a lot of money for the manufacturers, stores and installers.  Frankly, I would rather have a $10 hot plate from a dollar store than a $1,000 glass, electric cooktop.  Such stoves may not be worthless, but they come mighty close!

I am far less picky when it comes to ovens.  All I need from an oven is that it heat accurately to the desired temperature and hold heat at that temp while cooking.  Gas ovens are a little better for bread, but most any electric oven will do. Check the seals and replace them if worn.  Also, don’t trust the temperature dial.  Use an oven thermometer to check your oven’s accuracy and adjust accordingly.

Wood fired, pizza and bread type ovens are extremely nice, but a very expensive luxury unless you build them yourself… which you can totally do!

Even toaster ovens work fine for smaller dishes.  I have one with a convection setting, a feature that circulates hot air to reduce cooking time.  It is a nice alternative to a microwave, that can crisps up food rather than make it chewy or soggy.  I never cook in microwaves, but will use one to reheat food or heat some water for a quick cup of tea - they are useless for my style of cooking.

One of the more interesting alternative energy ovens is the Sun Oven.  The company is owned by a friend of mine, so I have gotten to check them out even though I don’t own one.  The sun oven uses reflective surfaces to concentrate the heat of the sun.  It is a very cool device, but I live on a north/west facing slope and wouldn’t use one enough to justify buying one.

By far, the oldest and easiest means of cooking is a campfire.  But, even better is a barbecue pit.  My family has been cooking barbecue in eastern NC for around 400 years, having learned the technique from the natives in Bermuda.  My grandfather was a brick mason (among a thousand other things) and he built an incredible eastern NC (whole hog) brick barbecue pit in the back yard.  The original barbecue pit though, and the ones still used at many informal “pig pickin’s” still today, is simply a hole in the ground.  For a whole hog, we dig a long, shallow, narrow trench.  For pork shoulders or smaller cuts, you can dig a smaller hole or even use a metal trashcan, cut and adapted.  Simply lay re-bar or other metal bars over the pit to make a grill type grate.  Burn some hardwood in the pit.  Lay your meat (etc) on the grate and cover with some barn roofing tin.  If you don’t have tin, you can use even damp burlap sacks.  Up north, this is a clambake set up.  In Hawaii, this is a luau, in South America they use green wood for the grate and banana leaves.  In Jamaica they used Allspice wood.  Here, we use oak, hickory, pecan and fruit woods.  The key is to cook low and slow.  You have to burn wood to add more live coals as you cook.  It takes over 20 hours to cook a whole hog, and 10-12 hours for a pork shoulder.  I will get into more detail later in the book.   But, cooking can be this simple and essentially free.  There are few things more enjoyable than cooking barbecue all night with some friends, drinking a few too many beers and picking a guitar by a barbecue pit!



This article is an excerpt from



Available on in paperback on Amazon:

The Omnivore’s Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: Carroll, Judson: 9798354856374: Amazon.com: Books

Also, I am back on Youtube. Please subscribe to my channel: @judsoncarroll5902 Judson Carroll - YouTube

Read about my new book:





https://sophiainstitute.com/product/herbs-that-heal/