8 Romantic Ovens Holidays
Dutch Ovens
HOW WE TESTED
A Dutch oven just might be the most significant--and versatile--cooking vessel you may own.
Them perfect for braising meat; cooking soups, stews, and sauces; boiling water; skillet; and even baking bread.
These pots come in all shapes, sizes, and materials; over years of testing and using them every day in the test kitchen, we've
come up with some
preferences. We like round Dutch ovens (oval ones hang off of burners) which hold a minimum of 6 quarts. And we enjoy heavy pots
made of enameled cast
iron, which conducts and retains heat well and is easy to clean and maintain.
At the middle of the Dutch oven world is a pot we adore that meets all of our criteria and looks great doing it : the Le Creuset 7
1/4 Round Dutch Oven.
This beautiful pot performs magnificently and, with good care, should last a lifetime--but it costs a whopping $359.99. And
lately, we've seen some
newer cheaper options on the market. So we decided to see if the Le Creuset was still worth its cost and to determine if we could
find a great Dutch oven for less
Money, setting a price cap of around $125.00 (roughly one-third of the price of the Le Creuset) to get a new testing of these
workhorse pots. We chose seven
Challengers, priced from $24.29 to $121.94, to pit against the Le Creuset, using each pot to boil water, cook rice, fry French
fries, braise beef, and bake
bread. To test for durability, we washed each bud repeatedly using an abrasive sponge, whacked their rims with alloy spoons, and
repeatedly slammed their
Lids onto their bases.
Did any of the cheaper pots make the grade? After weeks of rigorous testing, it became clear that all of the pots can cook food
acceptably, but some make
It a lot easier to do so. And while the Le Creuset is still in its own class, we did find some amazing alternatives.
What mattered? First, material. We included two light aluminum pots in our lineup because one of the most common complaints we
hear about enameled
Cast-iron Dutch ovens is how heavy they are. But cooking with these two mild pots only reinforced our taste for cast-iron cores,
since the aluminum pots
For baskets this hefty, we found that grips were another critical factor: Big, comfortable ones were a must, and pots with skimpy
handles were downgraded
accordingly. The interior color of the pots mattered, too. All the cast-iron pots, save one, had a mild inside that made it
effortless to monitor browning. The
Outlier had a dark nonstick finish that made it easy to clean but hard to see how the food was browning. Our testing also bore a
preference for pots with
Shorter sides, as tall sides made it more awkward to add food to hot oil in a safe, splash-free way when frying.
However, what really made some baskets simpler to use was their shape. Broad foundations with straight sides were best. Two pots
had curved sides that curved in at the
Foundation, reducing some of their possible flat usable cooking surface. Larger cooking surfaces fit more food, so we could brown
beef for stew in 2 batches
Versus three or four, a savings of around 15 minutes. Besides the time savings, prolonged browning can mean that the fond (the
yummy brown bits that
Form on the bottom on the pot) is more likely to burn, which may leave your dinner inedible.
But we're excited to have found a good alternative. Round
Covered Casserole performed like a champ in all of our cooking tests, and it costs just $121.94. It has the same advantageous
shape and attributes as the Le
Creuset--wide with straight, low sides; large comfortable handles; and a heart made of cast iron. The trade-off? It's 3 pounds
heavier than the Le Creuset(which is a hefty 13+ pounds when empty), and it chipped cosmetically along its rim during our misuse testing. But for a third of
the cost, it's an excellent
Alternative that we highly recommend.
METHODOLOGY
We tested seven cheap ($125 and under) Dutch ovens against our winning Dutch oven, the Le Creuset 7 1/4 Round Dutch Oven, using
each to boil,
cook, fry, bake, and braise. We rated them on the food they produced as well as their durability and how easy they were to use and
clean. We purchased all
COOKING: We rated each pot on the food it made; pots that produced perfectly cooked food within recipe time ranges ranked highest.
CAPACITY: We looked at how much food the pots could fit; those with broader cooking surfaces allowed us to cook food in batches.
EASE OF USE: Broad, relatively medium-weight pots with comfortable handles and lower sides rated highest.
DURABILITY: Pots that remained functionally and cosmetically intact ranked highest.
HOW WE TESTED
A Dutch oven just might be the most significant--and versatile--cooking vessel you may own.
Them perfect for braising meat; cooking soups, stews, and sauces; boiling water; skillet; and even baking bread.
These pots come in all shapes, sizes, and materials; over years of testing and using them every day in the test kitchen, we've
come up with some
preferences. We like round Dutch ovens (oval ones hang off of burners) which hold a minimum of 6 quarts. And we enjoy heavy pots
made of enameled cast
iron, which conducts and retains heat well and is easy to clean and maintain.
At the middle of the Dutch oven world is a pot we adore that meets all of our criteria and looks great doing it : the Le Creuset 7
1/4 Round Dutch Oven.
This beautiful pot performs magnificently and, with good care, should last a lifetime--but it costs a whopping $359.99. And
lately, we've seen some
newer cheaper options on the market. So we decided to see if the Le Creuset was still worth its cost and to determine if we could
find a great Dutch oven for less
Money, setting a price cap of around $125.00 (roughly one-third of the price of the Le Creuset) to get a new testing of these
workhorse pots. We chose seven
Challengers, priced from $24.29 to $121.94, to pit against the Le Creuset, using each pot to boil water, cook rice, fry French
fries, braise beef, and bake
bread. To test for durability, we washed each bud repeatedly using an abrasive sponge, whacked their rims with alloy spoons, and
repeatedly slammed their
Lids onto their bases.
Did any of the cheaper pots make the grade? After weeks of rigorous testing, it became clear that all of the pots can cook food
acceptably, but some make
It a lot easier to do so. And while the Le Creuset is still in its own class, we did find some amazing alternatives.
What mattered? First, material. We included two light aluminum pots in our lineup because one of the most common complaints we
hear about enameled
Cast-iron Dutch ovens is how heavy they are. But cooking with these two mild pots only reinforced our taste for cast-iron cores,
since the aluminum pots
For baskets this hefty, we found that grips were another critical factor: Big, comfortable ones were a must, and pots with skimpy
handles were downgraded
accordingly. The interior color of the pots mattered, too. All the cast-iron pots, save one, had a mild inside that made it
effortless to monitor browning. The
Outlier had a dark nonstick finish that made it easy to clean but hard to see how the food was browning. Our testing also bore a
preference for pots with
Shorter sides, as tall sides made it more awkward to add food to hot oil in a safe, splash-free way when frying.
However, what really made some baskets simpler to use was their shape. Broad foundations with straight sides were best. Two pots
had curved sides that curved in at the
Foundation, reducing some of their possible flat usable cooking surface. Larger cooking surfaces fit more food, so we could brown
beef for stew in 2 batches
Versus three or four, a savings of around 15 minutes. Besides the time savings, prolonged browning can mean that the fond (the
yummy brown bits that
Form on the bottom on the pot) is more likely to burn, which may leave your dinner inedible.
But we're excited to have found a good alternative. Round
Covered Casserole performed like a champ in all of our cooking tests, and it costs just $121.94. It has the same advantageous
shape and attributes as the Le
Creuset--wide with straight, low sides; large comfortable handles; and a heart made of cast iron. The trade-off? It's 3 pounds
heavier than the Le Creuset(which is a hefty 13+ pounds when empty), and it chipped cosmetically along its rim during our misuse testing. But for a third of
the cost, it's an excellent
Alternative that we highly recommend.
METHODOLOGY
We tested seven cheap ($125 and under) Dutch ovens against our winning Dutch oven, the Le Creuset 7 1/4 Round Dutch Oven, using
each to boil,
cook, fry, bake, and braise. We rated them on the food they produced as well as their durability and how easy they were to use and
clean. We purchased all
COOKING: We rated each pot on the food it made; pots that produced perfectly cooked food within recipe time ranges ranked highest.
CAPACITY: We looked at how much food the pots could fit; those with broader cooking surfaces allowed us to cook food in batches.
EASE OF USE: Broad, relatively medium-weight pots with comfortable handles and lower sides rated highest.
DURABILITY: Pots that remained functionally and cosmetically intact ranked highest.
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