Just another vote for Le Creuset. I love my two pans.
Not sure why no one’s mentioned this, but one of the best ways to buy a pan is through ebay. It seems as if there’s always someone there that got one as a wedding present, doesn’t need or want it and is dumping it. I got my two pieces that way at around half off.
Exactly right, Brad; there seem to be a lot of dealers selling new Le Creuset on eBay, but you can also find used (often barely used) items for good prices. I’ve gotten a few and they’ve all been in very good condition, matching their descriptions and photos. EBay’s also a good place to look if you’re missing a Le Creuset lid.
Okay, just what sort of magic do they put in these things anyway? I’m consistently making the best flanken of my life without changing the prep, just the pot.
I haven’t used them for anything else yet, I’m almost afraid to…
Jay, consider yourself bitten. Never gonna need another pot in your life.
Welcome to the club. Just got my ninth piece last week.
I like the Cooks Illustrated review as well. Have used the Le Creuset, All Clad and Tramontina. I use All Clad for most pots and pans and love them. Berndes for non-stick. Tramontina for the “heavy” dutch oven… enameled cast iron. Which I use infrequently. The one Le Creuset I use frequently is the skillet… when I want to finish in the oven… for example a steak or some form of scalloped potatoes.
FWIW, most (all?) All Clads are oven-safe.
Picked up a Classic Oval Dutch Oven 5 qt today at Homegoods. Blue like the others we have, but this one has a little chip near the middle, but at $80, couldn’t pass this up. Hell of a deal. -mJ
I assume the chip is on the exterior, yeah?
Yeah, hope so too.
that is Homegoods thing: they discount closeouts and then discount the slightly damaged (even just the packaging) more. The Homegoods by me has many to choose from these days which tells me many people are not buying $100-$200 cookware as much as they might have last year when they could not keep these on the shelves. From what I understand Le creuset will still warranty these; as long as thier name is on it, you’re good safe.
Yes indeed and is very minimal. I can’t see how it could possibly affect how this pot cooks as it is just a small pot where the paint flaked off because it got whacked by something. -mJ
Tried out a potato and kale soup last night in the French Oven. Not even the magic of Le Creuset could make up for my accidentally adding half the required liquid. ![[oops.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/1/1f129ddad071ffe5db6c99817c3cab666035a70a.gif "oops"){kind=small}
Funny, I just made kale, potato, onion, chorizo and chicken soup in my Le Creuset. One of my favorite winter soups.
Recipe?
Use linguisa and it Caldo Verde.
Any suggestions on whether the 14in long/10in wide/3.75qt oval available at RueLaLa for $25 is worth buying and using? No lid but I thought it could work well for roasting instead of the very large ones that I hate to use for smaller amounts of food - at any rate, I jumped and bought but am wondering if I should have considered it a bit more…
For $25? Deal! You can get lids separately on eBay I think. Or maybe via special order.
Cast iron or stoneware? If the latter, it isn’t supposed to have a lid.
http://cookware.lecreuset.com/cookware/product_3-3%2F4-QT.-Oval-Dish_10151_-1_20002_10313_10087
Stoneware (the one in your link) - so I guess that explains the absence of a lid…looks like it was 50% off full retail which isn’t too bad…
Mine had chorizo as well but no chicken. I was trying out the Gourmet cookbook recipe.
completely different item. The Cast Iron can go from stove top to oven, the stoneware cannot be placed on oven… it will crack. That is from experience =(