Rome Square Cast Iron Pie Iron

Two slices of bread, a spoonful of pie filling and a few minutes in the coals: that’s the whole recipe for a campfire pie, and the Rome Square Pie Iron has been making them since 1964. Rome Industries is a family-run company that still builds the same design, so it probably looks exactly like the one someone’s uncle used to pass around the fire.

The head is solid cast iron with a 4.25 by 4.25 inch cooking cavity, set at the end of 28 inches of steel rod with wood handles, which keeps your knuckles well back from the heat. Close it on buttered bread and cherry filling and you get a sealed hand pie. Swap in ham and cheese and it’s a toasted sandwich. Rome sizes the cavity to use the whole slice without wasting bread, and the iron ships with instructions, recipes and a 10-year warranty.

It suits the camp cook who likes feeding a crowd one hot pocket at a time, and families who want an easy dinner the kids can help assemble.

The catch: it makes one pie at a time, so a big group means a long line or a second iron. Cast iron also wants to be dried well after washing, or it will rust between trips.