- A 6- to 8-Quart Enameled Cast-Iron Dutch Oven
My enameled Dutch oven is the first pot I owned that made
me think to myself, Wow, you’ve really got something
special here. It’s a blue oval Le Creuset number, and it’s
still alive and kicking today, working at least as well as it
did the day my mom bought it for me fifteen years ago. A
good enameled Dutch oven will stick around for life.
Because of its weight and heft, it’s the ideal vessel for slow
braises, in or out of the oven. See, all that heavy material
takes a long time to heat up or cool down. This means that
even if your oven is cycling on and off with its temperature
making sine waves that stretch a good 25 degrees hotter and
cooler than the number on the dial, the interior of your pot
will show barely any fluctuations at all. This is a good thing
for dependability and predictability in recipes.
Le Creuset sets the standard for quality when it comes to
enameled cast iron, but it’s also insanely pricey. If you buy
one, you’ll cherish it forever, and only partly because
you’ve spent so much money on it (they’re kinda like kids
in that way). Lodge makes a perfectly serviceable version
for about a third of the price, but buyer beware: I’ve seen a
couple chip and crack in my day. - A 3- to 4-Gallon Stockpot
The big daddy of pots: this is the guy you pull out when you
want to make pasta for twenty, when you’ve got a half
dozen lobsters to boil, or when you’ve got several
carcasses’ worth of chicken bones sitting in the freezer just
waiting to be turned into awesome stock. Until you own a
big stockpot, you will never realize how much you needed
nandana
(Nandana)
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