Fritz Appleby is an iron man. A cast iron man, to be more specific.

“Cast-iron cookware came into vogue with the advent of wood stoves,” says Appleby, park manager at Bradbury Mountain State Park. “It is truly the original nonstick cookware, and it’s regaining popularity.”

Appleby’s love of cast iron, as well as his quest “to find a way to increase use of state parks in the fall,” led him to pioneer “Cast Iron Cook-Off 2014” earlier this month.

The rules for participants were simple. Essentially, competitors had to use at least one ingredient that was produced in Maine, they had to be registered to camp at Bradbury Mountain State Park on the night of Sept. 13 and they had to be receptive to allowing the public to visit and view their methods of cooking.

The daylong event also included a skillet toss, a cooking demonstration by Louisa Picard and a discussion led by Appleby regarding cast-iron identification, care and history.

“I met Louisa Picard a couple months ago at her garage sale,” says Appleby. He asked her if she had any cast-iron cookware and she told him that she did, but it wasn’t for sale.

Originally from Madawaska, Louisa Picard has been cooking competitively using cast iron for 20 years.

On the day of the cook-off, Picard used a cast-iron Dutch oven – a heavy, covered pot — to make quartered peaches sauteed and baked in olive oil, and served with blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. “Peaches are really sweet, and cooking them like this pulls out the sugars,” caramelizing them, she says.

“Most cast-iron cookware has a flat bottom,” says Picard. The Dutch oven she used, however, had legs or poles. “You set it on the fire and the poles” allow heat to circulate underneath the pot.

When cooking outdoors with a flat-bottom Dutch oven, you can regulate heat by hanging the pot from a spit or pole above the fire, adjusting the height as needed. An alternative is to use a hinged iron rack to hold the pot or to accommodate a smaller frying pan, she explained to the folks who had gathered in the state park’s pavilion.

In a pan set on such a hinged rack, Picard made corn fritters, a recipe that she created herself, served with Maine maple syrup.

Meanwhile, over at the campground, a dozen or so competitors were busily preparing their dishes over wood fires or charcoal that they would enter in the competition for sampling by judges later that afternoon.

Sally Langerak and Christina Maiorano from the Portland area are both nurses at Maine Medical Center. They often exchange recipes and ideas and, says Langerak, “our friendship grew over our passion for food.”

“We love to cook together,” adds Maiorano.

For this cast-iron competition, the friends made a “surf ‘n’ turf”” of short ribs and lobster risotto, Maine blueberry shortcake and corn bread made with native corn and served with maple butter and homemade chokecherry and strawberry rhubarb jellies, winning prizes in both the entree and dessert divisions.

For both Peter Powers of Sebago and Peter Casey of Naples, the cast-iron cooking competition represented a successful first effort.

Powers took the top prize in the entree division with his pan-seared rib-eye steak marinated in Shipyard beer and Blacksmiths blueberry port wine, with blue cheese and a crab bearnaise sauce, topped with fresh Maine crab meat and local herbs, all served with asparagus.

Not to be outdone by his friend, Casey’s peach cobbler made in a cast-iron Dutch oven with Maine peaches, Maine butter and cream took first place in the dessert division.

Heather Thauer of Scarborough learned cast-iron cookery as a 4-H leader in Tennessee.

“Today is my son’s birthday, and we were looking for a place to go camping . . . and I thought this would be great,” she says. While Thauer’s son participated in the skillet-toss competition, Thauer created pizza and cornbread in skillets over the fire at her campsite.

Tag-team sisters Rosa Nowak of Topsham and Melody Thibodeau of Woolwich, along with Nowak’s husband Toby, created an apple cobbler in a “4 in 1” pan that Toby got Rosa for her birthday. They also made a pot of hearty chicken stew.

Nowak cooks for the Topsham Head Start program, and her apple cobbler took third place in the dessert category.

When asked what inspired her to make a chicken stew, Thibodeau shivered and said, “It was cold last night and it’s supposed to be even colder tonight.”

Jack and Jeanibeth Turransky from Lowell, Mass., became interested in cooking with cast iron a month or so ago, and when Jack heard about the contest it was: “Hon, let’s go camping!”

Their entry, “pigs in the cornfield,” was made with cream of onion soup, poblano and queso soup, potatoes, yellow onion, kielbasa, corn still on the cob, jalapeno pepper and thick pork chops. Seasoned with Cajun spices, cayenne, salt and pepper, it cooked for about two hours in a Dutch oven with hot coals on top and underneath the pot.

Bob and Bridget Gavitt from Stonington, Conn., created a “southern Yankee pot roast” that took second place in the entree division.

Made in a Dutch oven with Italian sausage, pot roast, duck, potatoes and carrots, the Gavitts finished their dish with wilted kale and served it with a home-style biscuit.

“The duck fat creates enough fat to blend with the beef fat juices, a cup of red wine helps break down the fat, and the vegetable base of peppers and onions help to create the stock. . . . We cooked it 2.5 to 3 hours at a low heat,” Bob says, noting that the layer of kale was added near the end of the cooking process, heated just enough to wilt it.

According to Bob, “Cooking duck is a lost art.”

Julieanna Choi and Sammy Park of Cumberland, along with their 8-year-old son, Aaron, made a pork stir-fry in a cast-iron skillet with vegetables seasoned with maple syrup and soy sauce and served over rice. They also made a little pot of chicken noodle soup because, according to Aaron, “I don’t like healthy food.”

All of their vegetables — chives, green onions, squash, zucchini, beets, colored peppers, carrots, eggplant, garlic and onions — were homegrown by Julieanna and her friends. The dish also included fresh mushrooms and Maine farm-raised pork.

“With all those vegetables,” said Julieanna, “you don’t need a lot of seasonings.”

The event’s grand-prize winner was an apple dump cake created by 10 Girl Scouts and their leader, Leslie Searfoss, from Troop 3222 of Pownal, Durham and Freeport.

“It was their first time cooking in cast iron,” said Searfoss, and between the cake and the other dishes they prepared, “the weekend was spent working on cooking badges.”

Continuing the tradition of cooking with cast iron over the campfire, Appleby is already making plans for next year’s Cast Iron Cook-Off. “These pans are built to last,” he says and, apparently, so is this new tradition at Bradbury Mountain State Park.

Sally Langerak’s and Christina Maiorano’s:

Short ribs

6-8 short ribs

1/2-3/4 bottle good red wine (not sweet)

Beef broth (about 1 carton)

Olive oil, a few tablespoons

3-4 bay leaves

4-5 cloves of garlic, rough chop

Fresh rosemary

Fresh thyme

Salt and pepper

2 anchovies

Onions, either several small or 2 large, chopped in big chunks

Celery, 2 or 3 stalks chopped in big chunks

Carrots, 2 to 4, chopped in big chunks

6-8 slices of bacon, chopped

1/2 small can tomato paste

1/2-3/4 can tomatoes (crush tomatoes with hands or masher)

Short ribs can be very fatty; if you want to trim some of the fat, do so. Pour olive oil over ribs and season with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from oven and set aside. Brown each side of the ribs in the bacon grease in a very hot Dutch oven, working in batches as to not overcrowd the pan. Set ribs aside. Add vegetables to oven and saute for a few minutes. Add anchovies, garlic and tomato paste and saute for just about 1 minute. Add wine to deglaze and let cook for a few minutes. Add tomatoes. Return ribs and bacon to Dutch oven. Add broth to cover ribs. Bundle rosemary and thyme in cooking twine and add to oven with the bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook in oven at 350 degrees until ribs are fall-off-the-bone soft, approximately 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Or, if cooking over an open campfire, place in area where ribs aren’t boiling, only simmering. Check them often in case they need to be rotated or you need to adjust the temperature of your fire.

Lobster risotto (a labor of love)

A couple cups of arborio rice

1/2-3/4 cup white wine

2 shallots, finely diced

Olive oil, a turn around the pan

Meat from 6-7 lobsters

Lobster stock, several cups

Chicken stock, several cups

Approx 3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 stick of butter

Use the water that you use to steam the lobster in as stock. Strain it through cheesecloth to ensure there is no grit. Have both stocks warm and ready. Make sure they stay warm as you are stirring the rice. Heat olive oil in skillet. Add rice and shallots and stir for a few minutes. Add the white wine and stir, stir, stir! As it starts to dry out, add the stock a little bit at a time, alternating. Be sure to check flavor because you don’t want to overdo it with the lobster stock as it can be really salty and make the risotto taste too lobstery. The secret to risotto is to stir, stir and stir some more. Keep adding stock until the rice is soft. When it is, add the lobster meat, Parmesan and butter. Risotto should be creamy and velvety. It takes about 45 minutes of stirring and that is why it is a labor of love!

Native Maine cornbread

2 ears of native Maine corn, husked

1 can cream-style corn

1 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup butter, unmelted

1 cup white sugar

4 eggs

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup cornmeal

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Wrap corn in foil and roast over open fire or on grill. When done and cool, remove from husk with a sharp knife. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in cream-style corn. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. Add husked corn to dry mixture and toss. Add dry mixture to wet and stir until smooth. Put unmelted butter in hot cast-iron skillet and melt. Pour mixture into hot skillet and bake over open fire, covered and with hot coals on top — or in a 325-degree oven — until slightly brown on top and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve with maple butter and homemade strawberry rhubarb jam, chokecherry jelly and/or maple syrup.

Blueberry sauce for shortcakes

1 quart Maine blueberries

1/4 cup Grand Marnier

Sugar to taste

Squeeze of lemon

Slurry of cornstarch made with 2 teaspoons cornstarch and 2 teaspoons water

Warm blueberries, Grand Marnier, sugar, lemon and a splash of water in pan until they just start to bubble around edges. Add cornstarch slurry to thicken.

Serve over shortcakes with fresh blueberries, fresh mint and whipped cream.

Louisa Picard’s:

Corn fritters

A box of Jiffy corn muffin mix

Omit the milk

Add 1 egg and 1 can of creamed corn

Mix and drop by the spoonful into hot olive oil in a cast-iron skillet over a fire.

Serve corn fritters with Maine maple syrup.

Heather Thauer’s:

Campfire pizza

Crust:

Mix together:

2 1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup warm water

Let sit for 5 minutes, then add:

1/8 cup olive oil

1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic

Mix together:

2 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Dash of cayenne pepper

Add half the flour mixture to the liquids and mix well. Add the remaining flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let it sit for approximately 20 minutes.

Roll/pat dough into a large circle, to fit your pan plus 1.5 inches.

Cover the bottom of your cast-iron fry pan (12-inch to 14-inch) with cornmeal.

Place the dough in the fry pan and line the edge with mozzarella cheese. Fold the edges over the cheese and crimp the edges to seal.

Cover with a lid and bake over coals – with coals on the lid too – for 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, top with your favorite cheeses and toppings, then cover, put coals back on the lid, and place over the fire for another 10 minutes, checking after 5, until the cheese is melted.