Do you have an old cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven sitting idly by because it’s got a little rust on it? Don’t throw that pot away or neglect it one more day.

At the recent chuck wagon cook-off in Hondo, I sat down with a couple of campfire cooks, Gerry Self and Sandra Julian of the Rafter TS Wagon catering company in Lampasas, who were more than willing to share a couple of secrets on how to season your cast-iron and put it to use again.

The first process is if the rust is on the outside of the pan.

First, take a steel wool and scrub off all the rust that’s there, Self said.

If you’re seasoning a Dutch oven, then fill it with about 3 inches of water and “boil the piss out of it” over an open flame or on top of your oven, he said. Obviously, you would fill a skillet less full but with enough water to make give it a good boil.

Once you’ve done that, take a knife and paper towel to clean it out, scraping the sides and drying it thoroughly. Then put the pot back over the fire to dry out any moisture that might be there, he said.

If you don’t have a backyard pit, you may want to use either a gas oven or a gas grill, which works better than an electric oven to dry the skillet.

While the pan is hot, dry “and its pores are open,” spray the inside and the outside with a little Pam or other cooking spray, said Julian, who also owns the celebrated Yumm Factory restaurant in Lampasas. Wipe it off with a paper towel once it’s cool enough to handle.

Your pan is now seasoned and ready to use.

If there’s rust inside the pan, the procedure is similar, but you have to take a couple of preliminary steps. First, boil a mixture of half water and half vinegar in the pan, again for a lengthy time, Self said. “The rust just pops off,” he added.

Once the pan is cool again, submerge it in another mixture of water and vinegar, wipe it off and begin the process as listed above, Self said. (Do not pour cold liquid in a hot cast-iron pan, because it could crack.)

Julian and Self were both partial to using cooking spray rather than the lard, shortening or oil used in olden days, because it was less likely to get rancid if any traces were left in the pan.

Unless you use your pan on a daily basis, clean it with a little soapy water before rinsing and drying it thoroughly. This will prevent any leftover oil from becoming rancid.

It may take several hours to season your cast-iron pans, but the effort is well worth it. Cast-iron cookware heats evenly and consistently. You can cook with it on top of the stove or inside the stove. Once your pan is seasoned, it will serve you and your family into future generations. And without problems.

Nothing sticks to cast-iron, if it’s properly seasoned. As Self said, “It’s the original Teflon.”

Glenn Dorn has no idea how old his chuck wagon is. He bought it back in 1967. At that time, it was at least 80 years old, according to the earliest documented mention of it. But it’s likely to be 10 years older, he said.

In the 43 years he has owned it, the St. Hedwig resident has traveled with his restored wagon to countless shows around the area, meeting up with other chuck wagon enthusiasts, all of whom love to haul out their collection of cast-iron pots and pans before preparing a meal under the open skies.

Last Saturday, Dorn’s was one of seven wagons on display at the Medina County Fairgrounds in Hondo. This Saturday, he’ll take it to at the Heritage Gathering Chuck Wagon Cook-Off in Boerne.

These are generally charitable events, with last Saturday’s benefiting the D’Hanis Independent School District, while proceeds from the fifth annual Boerne Chuck Wagon Cook-off and Heritage Gathering go to support the city’s Agricultural Heritage Museum.

“All of these wagons are old,” he said of the gathering. “I’d say all are over 100 years old.”

All have been taken care of with the same love and respect that Dorn has shown his. The wood gleams in the light, Each has a collection of antique tins, scales and other equipment you’d have found on a wagon stationed on a ranch in the late 19^th century or one accompanying a trail ride. They also have a variety of humorous touches adding to the hominess of the camp site.

Dorn, for example, had a pair of red long johns hanging on a clothesline outside the tent.

The menu at each chuck wagon cook-off reflects what the cowboys ate back then: meat and potatoes, beans, bread and peach cobbler. The meat is chicken-fried steak with gravy. The beans seasoned with specks of pork fat. The cobbler made with canned peaches.

Yet that’s where the similarities seem to end. Some pound their chicken-fried steak out thin, others opt for a thick cut. One cook may produce a cobbler with bits of doughy dumplings, another might add a touch of almond or a little extra butter. One offers a cobbler made with dried apricots on her catering menu.

Some show up specifically for the competition. Dorn likes being a part of the scene, regardless of who wins. “We just come for the camaraderie,” he said.

Dorothy Douthit brought her Fiddle Fire wagon, built in 1606, down from San Angelo. She has had it since 2003.

On one level, having the chuck wagon gives the teacher a chance to bring a part of Texas history alive to her students and help them understand something of life on the trail during the westward expansion.

It’s also a chance to offer a Texan-style catering set-up, with a menu that goes beyond the cook-off list to include fajitas or even a turkey dinner prepared over an open fire.

She throws in her fiddle playing as part of the experience.

Douthit won’t be able to make the Boerne event because she plays in the San Angelo Orchestra, which has a performance scheduled for that evening. On those occasions, her fiddle becomes a violin.

But she would love to be there, and at any cook-off. “We love to come to competitions,” she said. “It helps us to stay in the loop.”

On the side of her wagon is a stuffed buzzard, aptly named Buzz. “We let him take care of anybody who bothers the cook,” she joked.

It takes a team to operate a chuck wagon smoothly.

Douthit and her business partner had a few students helping them out. Meanwhile, Dorn’s companion, daughter and son-in-law all pitched in last Saturday to make the work easier.

Then the wagons roll off, not drawn by horses. These antiques are too precious to be wheeling down today’s highways. They’re loaded up on flatbeds before heading off into the sunset.

For more information on how to care for cast-iron cookware, click here.

The fifth annual Boerne Chuck Wagon Cook-Off and Heritage Gathering will be from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Agricultural Heritage Museum, 102 City Park Road, Boerne. Tickets including a meal are $20 apiece. Admission to the grounds without the meal is $5 for adults. Call (830) 249-7277.

“101 Ways to Make Kimchi.” “Low-Fat Mexican.” “Great Chefs of San Francisco.” When you look over your cookbook collection, do you see titles that you just don’t use? Well, don’t let those recipe collections continue to gather dust.

You can take them to a used cookbook swap set up for Saturday morning by the Twig Bookstore in conjunction with the Pearl Farmers Market and Melissa Guerra’s Tienda de Cocina.

The rules are simple, manager Claudia Sharp says. “If you bring one cookbook, you can take one cookbook; if you bring five, you can take five,” she says.

The swap will be in the studio space near the bookstore, located in the Full Goods Building at the Pearl Brewery, 200 E. Grayson St.. It will take place from 10 a.m. to noon.

At the same time, there will be a gathering of cookbook authors to sign new copies of their books, which will be for sale.

The lineup includes Michael Flores with “My Family, My Friends, My Food: Recipes Celebrating People and Food”; Susan Dunbar Snyder with the “New Braunfels Smokehouse Cookbook”; Pat Mozersky with “Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier”; Scott Cohen with “Texas Hill Country Cookbook”; and Guerra with “Tienda de Cocina Cookbook.” Cooking demonstrations using foods from the farmers market, which runs 9 a.m.-1 p.m., will also be offered.

Also at the Twig, at 10:30 a.m. that morning, dance lovers will be served with a sampling of “Coppelia,” the latest dance to be presented by the San Antonio Ballet Company. A storybook reading of the tale behind the dance will be presented for children and a pair of dancers will perform an excerpt.

For more information, call the Twig at (210) 826-6411.