Cast Iron Politics?
This is part 5 of a 7 part series on my exploration of past-iron. Its best to read them in order:
Part 1: Return of the Cast Iron Cookware
Part 2: The Search for Cast Iron Knowledge
Part 3: A Steak Pun is a Medium Well Done
Part 4: Rare Stake or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cast Iron
Part 5: Cast Iron Politics?
Part 6: A Brief Walk Through the History of Cast Iron Cookware
Part 7: Heritage
Anyone who reads my blog, or knows me personally, knows I’m going to get political sooner or later. It’s in my blood, it is just going to happen. Politics is vital to understanding our society, and at some level, I dislike it when anyone says, “I don’t talk politics or religion.” Anyways, for those following my blog’s Bitcoin posts, you can see how I clearly link those two together. However, you are probably asking yourself, “how on earth will he like cast iron cooking and politics together?” Good question faithful reader! I went out searching for something, anything, relating the two. I figured there must have been some protest movement where people sat around cooking in cast iron. Or make cast iron. Or beating the evil capitalists over the head with cast iron. Well, I couldn’t find such a movement in the 15 minutes I spent google searching.That doesn’t mean I didn’t find some interesting things, so prepare to get political.
It is possible to turn everything into something political, or find politics related to it. And it is always fun to do that. The first thing I found was a fascinating article from 2013 in the online political newsletter “The Fix” from the Washington Post. Long before the days of Trump, the Tea Party was the bane of US politics. The newsletter made the argument, however, that calling the group of Republicans in the House of Representatives who were opposing the then-Speaker John Boehner, “Tea Partiers” was not truly descriptive in what they were. Partially as a joke, the column held a contest inviting readers to send in what they should name these conservatives. After receiving a large number of ideas, the writers organized a panel to decide the best name from the suggestions. They ended up with calling them cast-iron conservatives. One of The Fix commentators commented:
The word ‘cast-iron’ is not often used, but means: ‘not allowing for any exceptions or loosening of standards’; it also has other useful connotations that are relevant to these people who do not want to compromise no matter what political reality is around them. It also has some positive attributes about resiliency, etc, and since this isn’t a negative term, they may just actually like it!
They make a good point, those conservatives were (and are) very hard to remold, even at intense heat! Just like cast-iron. And I’d consider it a compliment, and he’s right that they probably would too. It hits to the idea of backwoods America, standing up for (what they perceive as) American values. Of course, I consider it an insult to cast-iron to connect such a nutty group with such a wonderful tool and piece of art.
The second thing I came across was a blog post made about a cast-iron Facebook group. The website I found this on was pretty much a fellow’s ramblings (so basically just like this blog), but much of it revolves around cast iron. Apparently there was some big hubbub about Chinese cast-iron skillets having lead in them, that would seep out when cooking (seems its not really true). Some cast-iron chefs have taken to boycotting any of the Chinese cookware and even leaving the Facebook group over a disagreement.
Others in the group, including the writer of the blog I found, argued that there was no evidence that Chinese cookware had lead in it. His post had a lot of insightful comments about globalism, American patriotism, and consumerism. It goes to show that even some of the simplest forms of cooking can be drawn into larger questions of globalism and what it means to workers. And that there are forms of cast-iron activism; the folks boycotting the Chinese are engaging in activism, even if its a little misguided.
The final piece I want to talk about is cooking in general as activism. I came across another fascinating Washington Post article about one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, Alicia Garza. Garza subscribes to the idea of the kitchen — and the dining table — as a place for activism to be born. She grew up learning from her mother how to cook, and developed her ideas on social justice while cooking such favorites as corn bread and greens.
The WaPo article outlined the idea with a quote from Julia Thurshen in her book Feed the Resistance:
They’re also safe and familiar places to gather, connect, organize, plan and to recuperate. Food not only changes the feeling in a space, it also shifts behavior. When we feel safe and comfortable, we’re free to have uncomfortable-but-important conversations.
Cooking offers a great opportunity to sit down and plan out political actions. It allows us to combat the injustices of society, and you can’t cook well without cast iron!
Well, that’s it for politics. It goes to show that I can, in fact, make just about anything political, because at the heart, everything is political! Cast iron is no different, it makes great food, but it also allows for some important conversations to take place, and can find itself in the middle of some political arguments. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting back to some non-political stuff next time.
