<p>“Le Creuset! Le Creuset! Le Creuset! Le Creuset!”</p>
<p>They weigh a lot, but are the best!!! Have had mine for years. Would never consider cooking my soup or chili in anything else. Great for pot roasts. I would rather own one piece of Le Creuset, than three pieces of Martha.</p>
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<p>My vote for comment of the day. :)</p>
<p>If the Martha Stewart is the same as what used to be sold by KMart, its quality isn’t anywhere close to Le Creuset.</p>
<p>We have finally worn the coating off our oldest LeCreuset, one that we’ve had for 30 years and treated horribly. MIL just gave us her dutch oven that size that has to be 50 years old.</p>
<p>The deal on LeCreuset is seconds at the outlet stores. Small imperfections like a tiny bubble or scuff in the enamel – nothing compared to what you will do to them in the first few years. The main outlet store is in Yemassee, SC, but there are others. We have at least a dozen pieces of Le Creuset seconds including the wok which is utterly fabulous.</p>
<p>If I were starting over, I’d mix and match LeCreuset and an aluminum stainless combo like AllClad. Skillets and saucepans in the stainless, dutch ovens and chicken fryer and wok in Le Creuset cast iron.</p>
<p>For non-stick, just buy a 2 or 3 piece set of decent quality on clearance at TJMAX or whatever, use it for two years and throw it away. I would never pay big bucks for non-stick because it all disintegrates after a year or two of use. You can find decent quality AllClad non-stick knockoff sautee pans for a reasonable price – Emerill, KitchenAid, etc. – at the outlet stores.</p>
<p>For those who don’t want to shell out big bucks for All Clad:</p>
<p>Cook’s Illustrated recently rated Tramontina tri-ply cookware almost as highly as All Clad, giving it a “Best Buy” rating. If I remember correctly, Tramontina got dinged in the review for the small pot sizes in the reviewed cookware set. Everything else was pretty much equal. Tramontina is about one-third the price of All Clad and is sold at Walmart.</p>
<p>I was intrigued by the review, so I ordered a set of tri-ply Tramontina that includes larger sized pots and pans. I had planned to test the set and then pass it on to my daughter. Much to my surprise, I love the Tramontina! As a result, I will be keeping it. DD get my old pots, including my old All Clad.</p>
<p>And from the January 2008 Cook’s Illustrated review of dutch ovens:</p>
<p>“Shelling out hundreds of dollars for a Dutch oven is less necessary than ever. We put two new low-cost models, one from Tramontina ($39.86) and another from Lodge ($49.86), to the test and liked what we found. Both are crafted from enameled cast iron, and both produced glossy, deeply flavored Belgian beef stew; fluffy white rice; and crispy French fries in the test kitchen. But the Tramontina oven’s larger capacity (6.5 quarts to the Lodge’s 6 quarts) and even lower price made it our preferred choice. We recommend the Tramontina as an inexpensive alternative to our favorite 71/4-quart Dutch oven by Le Creuset ($229.95).”</p>
<p>I too shop the Le Creuset outlet… there is one in Kittery Maine… I couldn’t choose a color, so now I have lots of different colors… orange, blue, red, green… they are fun and brighten up the kitchen… I definitely think one LeCreuset is worth the money… especially as you have been waiting for years for this special treat…I have had NO issues with cleaning mine…and I even have many of the casserole dishes too… they clean up beautifully… I just wish they made a few with higher sides!!</p>
<p>I cannot speak for the Tramontina brand… but Cook’s Illustrated is usually spot on with their reviews… </p>
<p>Congrats to you LakeWashington for your reward to self…</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I see this month’s Cooks Illustrated just did a head to head comparison of Le Creuset and Staub. They say they didn’t include Staub before since it was less available and just as pricey as the LC. Le Creuset still comes out on top - the editors didn’t like the dark interior of the Staub, which they say makes it hard to tell if fond is developing or if there is burning. The 8 qt. Staub also weighs 6 full pounds more than the 7 1/4 quart Le Creuset. On the other hand, an advantage of the Staub is that it comes in 6 1/2 as well as 8 quart sizes - the larger one makes it easier to brown beef in fewer batches. Both do perform very well, however.</p>
<p>I love my Le Creuset dutch oven (I think I have the 5 quart round). I would love to get the next size up for bigger batches of soup. I have a small saucepan and a small frying pan and they hardly get used. I think its payoff really comes from making soups over beautifully even heat and recipes where you want to pop it in the oven.</p>
<p>Here’s my favorite recipe (should cross-post with the Artisan Bread thread since I get the impression this is a similar approach). The best loaf of bread I’ve ever made.</p>
<p>No-Knead Bread
Published: November 8, 2006, New York Times
Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery
Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising</p>
<p>3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. </p></li>
<li><p>Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. </p></li>
<li><p>Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.</p></li>
<li><p>At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.</p>
<p>Apparently,the Target stores in NJ no longer carry Tramontina. Also, don’t tell anyone but though I am no big fan of non-stick, I bought a large non-stick skillet and paid peanuts at…IKEA. Good NS coating, adequate weight, sturdy handle, feels comfy in the hand. So far so good.</p>
<p>“Former Nor’westerner now living in the “Center of the Universe” for longer than I care to remember.”</p>
<p>Waaaiit, there is another Center of the Universe? I thought that honor belongs to a certain neighborhood in Seattle :)</p>
<p>Costco occasionally has LC. I saw some LC pieces at our local Costco around last Christmas, but I was not ready to shell out $90 for a pot.</p>
<p>Gawd Bunsen, you’re not talking about the ‘would be Berkeley,’ Fremont, are you?</p>
<p>TJ Maxx carries LC all the time. (I assume its cousins Marshalls and Homegoods do too.) Also noticed it on Amazon, but haven’t compared prices.</p>
<p>If anyone is interested in Tramontina, be sure to check out the Walmart website. I found that the selection of Tramontina in Walmart stores is spotty to non-existent. Choose the site-to-store shipping option and shipping is free.</p>
<p>Another confirmation that our TJ Maxx/Home Goods often have LC pieces. I swear my brother and his wife look forward to their visits to our area from NYC more for the trip to TJ’s to get LC pieces than for seeing us!</p>
<p>The main difference in cooking qualities:</p>
<p>An aluminum core pot like an AllClad conducts heat very quicky. It responds quicky to changes in burner heat – getting hotter and cooling down. Plus it heats evenly across the bottom of the pan. This makes them ideal for saute pans, expecially because they are light for flipping food.</p>
<p>Cast iron is relatively poor heat conductor. It is slower to heat up and cool down, but it has very high thermal mass so it tends to stay at a very even heat. That’s absolutely ideal for pot roasts, stews, deep frying, etc.</p>
<p>The wok is the perfect workaround for wimpy home burners. Real wok cooking is done over very high heat industrial burners. It’s hard to get a domestic range hot enough. With the cast iron wok, just leave it pre-heating on high burner until it is smoking hot, then add the stirfry ingredients. The thermal mass allows the wok to stay hot enough for real stirfrying.</p>
<p>Lake Washington… the Martha Stewart cookware at Macy’s is better quality than her brand at Kmart, but there is no comparison to Le Cruset which carries a lifetime warranty. Reason enough to go with LC. (They’ll replace any damaged piece for any reason forever.)</p>
<p>LC is available at reasonable prices at outlets, TJ Maxx, and Costco; also at Tuesday Morning. LC frequently updates colors and TM carries the “old” colors. When my S got married last year, I bought a whole set from TM to start them off: three Dutch ovens, a couple of skillets, ramekins, and LC ceramic bakeware (don’t think the bakeware’s warranteed for life, though). I examined the pieces very closely and didn’t see any imperfections. Because of the discounted price, I was able to buy twice the number of pieces–simply because it was a color no longer offered at retail outlets like Williams Sonoma.</p>
<p>If you go with stainless steel, the best are 12/10 tri-ply like All-Clad or this Tramontina, which is relatively cheap and well-reviewed by Cook’s Illustrated:
[Walmart.com:</a> Tramontina 8-Piece 18/10 Stainless Steel TriPly-Clad Cookware Set: Kitchen & Dining](<a href=“http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-8-Piece-Cookware-Set/5716478]Walmart.com:”>http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-8-Piece-Cookware-Set/5716478)</p>
<p>You’re right: the kind with the disc attached to the bottom can separate under high heat.</p>
<p>In addition to the C’sI reviews mentioned on this thread, the April issue rates large saucepans. All-Clad won with Cuisinart Multiclad a close second. The Tramontina tri-ply lost points for a too-thin handle, making it feel somewhat unbalanced to some testers though it cooked close to the All-Clad.</p>
<p>I use well-seasoned cast iron skillets, too. Lodge Logic is a good brand at a very reasonable price, “highly recommended” by C’sI.</p>
<p>I also have the Tramontina Dutch oven from Walmart–like Mom2M (post#7) and mapesy (posts #24 and #32). Love it. Here’s the link:
[Walmart.com:</a> Tramontina 6.5-Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven, Red: Kitchen & Dining](<a href=“http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-6.5-Quart-Cast-Iron-Dutch-Oven-Red/11989387]Walmart.com:”>http://www.walmart.com/ip/Tramontina-6.5-Quart-Cast-Iron-Dutch-Oven-Red/11989387)</p>
<p>Liked your post #34, interesteddad. I’ve never bought a wok because of the high-heat issue, so I learned something! Might give it a try…</p>
<p>Williams-Sonoma is running a special on LeCreuset Dutch ovens right now - $129.95 vs. regular price of $255.</p>
<p>I love my LeCreuset pieces. I’m not fond of LeCreuset for frying pans, but for the Dutch Ovens and sauce pans I love them. My husband loves his cast iron fry pans - keeps them seasoned and lovingly put away, but they are too heavy for me so I have my “own” fry pans. We’ve got a conglomeration of pots and pans and not all one brand.</p>
<p>During the weekend I received a belated birthday gift…LECRUEST!!! After all these years of pining for one. LOL. But…</p>
<p>A few days ago I treated myself to the Marth Stewart dutch oven that was discounted at Macy’s. Didn’t tell the “donor” about my gift to myself. Didn’t want to spoil the moment. LOL. So now I have two ceramic covered cast iron dutch ovens. I’m tempted to return the Martha Stewart to Macy’s because I haven’t opened the box yet. But there is a good reason to keep both; one is oval and the other is round.</p>
<p>After 30 plus years, my beloved and large Dansk, the coating on the bottom has begun to flake off. I didn’t see a large enough Mario Batali and the large Le Creuset was both too heavy and expensive so I did buy an 8 1/2 Martha Stewart from Macy’s-all clad, with a glass top. You cannot use the glass top in the oven, but my Dansk top fits on it perfectly… The Martha Stewart Macy’s was very reasonable especially with the Macy’s sale coupons-so far, so good.</p>