Cast iron skewers!

[Jenise]

How cool are these?

Skewers.JPG

Found them while slumming at TJ Maxx the other day. Couldn't resist--the twig shape is so cool looking, and between the heat conductivity of cast iron and the irregular shape that should hold stuff in place brilliantly, these seem like what a skewer should have been all along. Vastly superior, at any rate, to my old skewers, on which meat and vegetables twirl as soon as cooking shrinkage sets in or bamboo. Which has a lot to do with why we don't kabob more often.

Is there an insulating handle? Otherwise, you might find out how good the thermal conductivity is and gain a new appreciation for the term "specific heat."

Those look great. I'll have to see if ours has those. I know what you mean about the stuff spinning around on traditional skewers.

I love TJ's and Marshalls and even Ross for cookware and even unique things for the house. I grilled some chicken tonight and coincidentally was admiring my rectangular serving platter that I got from one of those places years ago. Whenever I take it someplace I get compliments on it.

Is there an insulating handle?

I've never had any metal skewers that had insulating handles. I just always pick them up with either cool rubber-grip tongs, or a pot holder.

And I love the way these look!

I think they look neat, too. But why didn't you purchase them in a more expensive, upscale outlet?

For your spinning kabobs.....look for the kabob cages they have now for using on your grills. When I do shrimp, I snug them up together, on the tight side. For veggies, I try to tuck a cherry tomato into the concave side of a bell pepper....that type of thing. I make up my skewers with like foods.......all shrimp, or all veggies, or all beef. I seem to be able to better control the spinning that way. Since your skewers will have a lot of one single item, I prefer to unload the skewers prior to serving, onto a large oval or square platter. I line everything up together and folks can pick what they want from the platter.
It looks pretty to have a row of red cherry toms, orange bell peppers, white potato chunks, red cherry toms, yellow bells peppers, and purple potatoes, etc.. I usually put the beef, chicken or pork on a separate platter separated by shredded lettuce or cabbage, as some vegetarians dislike meats touching any of their foods. Shrimp also is on a separate platter with one or two types of dipping sauce and lemons. The platters look so pretty with all the colors and grill marks.

Good grief, Karen, now I'm hungry!

cool skewers.....to solve the spinning issue, I've always skewered everything on a pair of 'em.

I've never had any metal skewers that had insulating handles. I just always pick them up with either cool rubber-grip tongs, or a pot holder.

And I love the way these look!

Shows how little experience I have with metal skewers!

[Jenise]

cool skewers.....to solve the spinning issue, I've always skewered everything on a pair of 'em.

I finally resorted to that, too. But it always seemed so silly, trying to make a poor design work. Always thought a flat or ovel/eliptical shape would work better, wondered why no one made such a thing. Though you can't see it from the picture, these 'twigs' are that--not just irregular in direction but flatter, too. Can't wait to use them--I'll let you guys know if they work well.

I love TJ's and Marshalls and even Ross for cookware and even unique things for the house. I grilled some chicken tonight and coincidentally was admiring my rectangular serving platter that I got from one of those places years ago. Whenever I take it someplace I get compliments on it.

Funny, I have a rectangular platter that I bought at Maxx and ditto. Hope you get lucky there. If not, wouldn't be awful to pay regular retail--the box doesn't include the usual "suggested retail", but these were $6 for each box of four so MSRP likely wouldn't exceed $12.

Karen, those cages: why even use skewers if you're going to restrain the ingredients that way? Couldn't you just put the objects in there? Most I've seen are narrow enough to just about hold everything in place.

Flat, iron skewers would be grand. Good luck with the twigs!

For your spinning kabobs.....look for the kabob cages they have now for using on your grills.

What keeps me from buying/using the cages is the clean-up. Just thinking about cleaning the little pieces of charred meat and veggies out of all of those little squares gets me stressed.

[Jenise]

For your spinning kabobs.....look for the kabob cages they have now for using on your grills.

What keeps me from buying/using the cages is the clean-up. Just thinking about cleaning the little pieces of charred meat and veggies out of all of those little squares gets me stressed.

I had one once. It's disappeared and I have no idea where it went and I guess I didn't love it enough because in all this time I've never considered replacing it. Used to use it to grill shrimp, but HATED storing it. It ended up on a hook in the broom closet because it's shape just fit nowhere else without creating a logjam.

Those look great Jenise...can't wait to see how they work.

As for flat skewers...I've seen several places that do them. I know Alton Brown talked about them on one of his shows. They do exist...here is one website:

http://www.alacook.co.uk/item--Flat-Sid ... WER30.html

Haven't tried them, but don't do too many kabobs. I mostly use skewers to do shrimp, and I thread them on all through the shrimp so they do spin.

Seems to me that cast iron would have a rust problem.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

Seems to me that cast iron would have a rust problem.

Umm ... no black-iron skillets in your kitchen, then?

[Jenise]

Seems to me that cast iron would have a rust problem.

-Paul W.

I'll keep 'em seasoned, no problem!