Le Creuset

[mechtilde]

I've got an le creuset baking dish and one of their pottery pie dishes- they are both excellent. I've also got some similar covered casseroles and baking dishes, as well as frying pans from another manufacturer.

I love them all, but they are heavy. I'm fine, but my mother can't lift them!

[Perfect Circle]

I have a fair amount of their stuff and adore it all. And it is in daily use in my house at least.

[siamesecat2965]

I have several a 5qt (I think), a ginourmous one I almost never use, and a braiser. As well as some of their stonewear baking dishes. I love it. In my oven, I may soup, cook pasta, tomato sauce, etc etc etc. i've also made rouladen in it, searing the meat, then braising, etc.  Pricy, but well worth the cost. Mine have all come from outlets and TJ Maxx, and are fine.

my favorite of the stoneware is the pie plates. i have three; and while i don't make pie, i use them for mac and cheese, ziti, etc. i live alone so it makes enough for one meal, and leftovers, but not a huge batch

[Lynnv]

I have a 7qt round and a 6.75qt oval French oven.   I use them for all sorts of soups, stews and braises.   I also like the round one as a really big casserole dish for things like macaroni and cheese.   I make Cincinnati and regular chili in the oval one-it is just the right size.   I also use them to simmer stocks down once I have strained out the bones and veggies and am just tring to concentrate them down. 

[mbbored]

Like many others, I'm in love with my dutch oven, which I got initially to make that no-knead bread and now use for everything else.

[siamesecat2965]

The other thing I just found, in the outlet, is a replacement knob, in stainless steel. while you can put it with the lid (and plastic knob) in the oven, only to a certain temp. This one allows you to put it in at higher temps.

[ilrag]

I took have an outlet near me.

I have a round oven (5 quarts), a saucier, and a grill pan. (And a pie bird, but that was more to make me smile then anything functional) I love them all and use them all the time. Bread, stews, risotto, you name it.

[Hillia]

I'm jealous...I look longingly at the Le Creuset and have heard so much about how great it is, but the stuff is just too darn heavy for me to pick up.  I have weak wrists and every pot I try at the store (except of course for very small items) is just painful to impossible to lift.

So more Le Creuset for everyone else!

[Danika]

I have a great story.

When I started dating my DH, he had a large dog. The dog's bowl was a heavy pot that I was unfamiliar with. DH had chosen this pot for his dog's water bowl because when the dog would drink from other dog bowls, the bowls tended to move around. This pot was heavy and stayed put. The dog's metal collar would smack against the edge of the bowl and chip some of the orange enamel off. Occasionally, DH would put this pot in the dishwasher. Most of the time, it was outside in the backyard in the sun.

When the poor dog passed away, I wasn't sure what we should do with the pot. I found a lid to it, which had never been used, so it was a darker orange than the rest of the pot which had been sunbleached. There was a name on the pot and I figured I'd Google it and see if it was perhaps something fancy that one might cook with, in which case I probably shouldn't toss it out in the trash.

It looked like this:


and it said "Le Creuset."

I learned it was some fancy pants expensive Dutch oven that had been in his family for years.

I scrubbed it clean and cooked with it. I really like that Le Creuset Dutch oven.

It's beat up and chipped. It's been in the dishwasher countless times. The plastic handle endures the oven at 450F. I'm very happy with it. Someday when I can afford it, I plan to buy a larger one.

[RebeccainGA]

I scrubbed it clean and cooked with it. I really like that Le Creuset Dutch oven.

It's beat up and chipped. It's been in the dishwasher countless times. The plastic handle endures the oven at 450F. I'm very happy with it. Someday when I can afford it, I plan to buy a larger one.

Mine is one my grandmother bought at a flea market - it was so grimy you couldn't tell what it was supposed to look like. She planned to use it for a planter for some small succulents she was trying to grow. I asked her if I could try some of a new cleaner I'd gotten to see if the color would come through - I thought it was a nice orange, and would be a better planter if it wasn't so gross looking.

Le Cruset, 5 qt. dutch oven, with the metal loop handle on top - the older kind.

When she found me the sauce pot to match, at a garage sale a few years later, I told her that she could buy ugly old planters any day. <G>

[demarco]

Love the dog bowl story.

I have always admired Le Creuset but  I couldn't afford it when I was younger and by the time I could afford it I found that it was too heavy for me lift comfortably.  That  doesn't keep me from looking at the catalogs, though.  My favorite color is Carribean.  Maybe I could get a very small piece. 

Do those of you with several pieces generally stick to one color?  Do you find any of the small pieces useful?

[singingserpent]

One of the most-used pieces of cookware in my house is the heart-shaped casserole http://www.amazon.com/Le-Creuset-Enameled-Cast-Iron-Casserole/dp/B00004SBIA
I use it for oatmeal, couscous, baking, etc. I just leave it on my stove top all of the time because it is so pretty. I really want the pumpkin one too.

[EmmaJ.]

My cobalt blue dutch oven is my favorite thing to cook with.  However, it probably weighs 15 pounds - and that's not including the lid!  I have no problem with stove top cooking, but if I have to put it in the oven, full of food, and with a lid....

Well, I'm sure it's not a pretty sight.  I have to kind of straddle the oven door, do a half-squat in order to reach into the dang oven, all the while making a dying-moose-kind of groan....

Why oh why do our oven doors open top to bottom and force you to reach across a red-hot, 3-foot long slab of metal? ? ?  Wouldn't it be safer if they opened side to side like a regular door?

[RebeccainGA]

Why oh why do our oven doors open top to bottom and force you to reach across a red-hot, 3-foot long slab of metal? ? ?  Wouldn't it be safer if they opened side to side like a regular door?

Because then you'd have a red hot slab of metal that might accidentally swing around and burn your whole side. Best option? Roll up doors. Just slide them into the top, like a roll top desk. Or into the bottom. Either way, it's out of your way. Now someone find me one.

[nayberry]

Why oh why do our oven doors open top to bottom and force you to reach across a red-hot, 3-foot long slab of metal? ? ?  Wouldn't it be safer if they opened side to side like a regular door?

Because then you'd have a red hot slab of metal that might accidentally swing around and burn your whole side. Best option? Roll up doors. Just slide them into the top, like a roll top desk. Or into the bottom. Either way, it's out of your way. Now someone find me one.

**Threadjack**

i have side opening ovens (uk, similar to this in black http://www.rangemaster.co.uk/range-cooking/toledo/ ) ( and i say "i", i mean my parents)
 but i have seen top to bottom opening ones where you can slide the door in as a safety feature

and +1 to infinity on the bread,  there is almost always a loaf proving here i cook it in a large aluminum oblong fish kettle as i make a double  size each time (bread obsessed hubby!) 

and back to the subject in hand....  i wish i could get le creuset but i have weak wrists (darn RSI!) but i can manage cast aluminum pans and they are a good substitute imo