The Best Cauldrons — er, Dutch Ovens — for Soup Season, Tested
Bubble, bubble, braise, and simmer; we found the best dutch ovens for every type of witches
The cauldron of the kitchen, a good Dutch oven is the best vessel for conjuring all sorts of practical magic (read: soup). Designed for maximum heat retention and long, slow cooking, a Dutch oven is a versatile kitchen essential for the stove-top and oven. Pretty much any time a recipe calls for a ‘heavy-bottomed pot,’ a Dutch oven will do the job. Not only are they ideal for braising and roasting, they’re also great for baked pasta and even deep frying.
I’ve amassed a small, prized collection of Dutch ovens over years of experience in professional kitchens and as a daily home cook for my family of four, and each one serves a special purpose, from baking no-knead bread to cooking up black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day to braising a proper coq au vin. I put these cooking vessels to the test over months, sometimes decades, of regular use; these are the ones that stood up to every challenge.
Le Creuset 4.5 Quart Signature Round Dutch Oven
$390
A beloved culinary heirloom, Le Creuset makes the gold standard of Dutch ovens. I’m still using the one I borrowed from my parents’ kitchen 20 years ago, after who knows how many years of it being used to make our family’s beef stroganoff and day-long bolognese. The enameled interior shows a few signs of wear from over the years, but it only adds to the pot’s vintage charm.
Le Creuset’s lids are designed with raised bumps that function as condensation points, creating what Le Creuset calls a ‘self-basting’ effect, which makes it sounds more like a turkey than what it is — a clever way to keep moisture locked in and moving around so that food cooked in the Dutch ovens stays tender and juicy. It’s also one of the lighter-weight enameled cast iron Dutch ovens on the market, at 9.6 pounds, which is a nice feature if not a huge concern for me, personally. Cleaning the enameled cast iron is easy, but according to Le Creuset, the Dutch oven is dishwasher safe, though I would never. (For any stuck-on spots, I bring a little water and baking soda to a simmer and then go at it with a dish wand.)
Pros: Timeless, classic quality; enameled cast iron is quick to heat and able to produce a nice, even sear
Cons: The nearly $400 price point makes this a considerable investment.
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I Tried This "Brilliant" (and Totally Free!) Trick for Cleaning My Burnt Dutch Oven, and It Saved Me So Much Time
One of my favorite things about the weather getting cooler is how often I get to use my Dutch ovens. I have a huge one that was a wedding present and a slightly smaller one that I added to my collection later. Nothing braises stews or melds the flavors of a soup quite like a Dutch oven, which distributes heat evenly and does a pretty good job of keeping foods from burning. But not always!
#dutchoven #cleaning #food #cooking
I've burnt food in my Dutch oven more than once, and it's a pain to get it cleaned up. Anticipating that it would happen again, I recently decided to try America's Test Kitchen's brilliant burnt Dutch oven cleaning trick. It's the best kind of hack because it's nearly hands-off, and doesn't use any special products.
I've burnt food in my Dutch oven more than once, and it's a pain to get it cleaned up. Anticipating that it would happen again, I recently decided to try America's Test Kitchen's brilliant burnt Dutch oven cleaning trick. It's the best kind of hack because it's nearly hands-off, and doesn't use any special products.
To test the method out, I burned some food in the Dutch oven (on purpose). I put a bit of leftover finely diced onions and bell peppers in the Dutch oven along with some oil, flour, and sugar, which I knew would scorch and really put the method to the test!
So, did it work? The boiling water did a great job of loosening and dislodging some of the mess, and the wooden spoon easily scraped up a good portion of it. But, unfortunately, there wasn't any further flaking, even after I let the Dutch oven dry. I repeated the boil and scrape process again, and got a bit more up, but a stubborn portion of the burnt sugar remained on the bottom of the Dutch oven.
At this point, I decided to use some Bar Keepers Friend and elbow grease, but even that didn't get all the burnt residue off. I added some water to the Dutch oven and let it soak overnight - the next morning, my husband scoured the rest of the residue off.
My takeaway is this: I think I was a bit overzealous in creating my "burnt residue" for my little experiment; burnt sugar is notoriously difficult to remove! (And, honestly, the hack made a big dent even with my unrealistic concoction.) The burnt Dutch oven hack clearly is effective, and is easy to do while cleaning up the rest of the kitchen - just not with burnt sugar. It's the best kind of time- and energy-saving tip, and I'm definitely going to be putting it to good use often.