Wife was craving comfort food so I made us some goulash in the Lecruset last night.
We have and use both (enamel and plain CI) quite heavily. Some of our enameled pieces are >60 years old with only minor edge chipping on a couple, the rest are completely intact. What I wonder is how people are treating their pans that they manage to chip that enamel.
So my wife lived in Waco 15 years ago and bought a cheapo enameled DO at the grocery store. Her mom liked it and bought herself one there too. Two years later, the enamel on her mother's was cracked and peeling. Wife bought her a replacement. Two years later, same thing. Meanwhile, the original one my wife bought has been the workhorse of her kitchen for 15 years and the only chips it has are exterior ones from damage during cross country moves. I've often wondered if that company's quality control sucked and we just got lucky or if my MIL was that hard on them.
MIL is definitely the culprit
Me too - I have a cousances enamel dutch oven that lasted maybe 20 years, then we moved to a house with a gas cooktop and I managed to get it too hot (with just a bit of oil in it) and flakes of enamel stated flying off!
I'm wondering if there's a way to remove the enamel so I can season it and keep using it.
Cover it in oil and put in a raging backyard fire?
Sounds like a plan
I got a large Cruset for my birthday last year and it has rapidly become my favorite pan. I use it most for ragu and curries, but really any excuse I get. It’s an amazing piece of cookware.
I use my enamel pan for anything acidic, but mostly for slow cooking caramelized onions
Pretty much what ours are for too. If I'm going to let a tomato sauce simmer for a couple hours or make a gravy, I'm reaching for the enameled stuff.
can i be your wife too
I inherited a small enameled Le Creuset and I don't know how to work with it. Scrambled eggs stuck even with plenty of oil. I could probably make naan or tortillas; just not sure what the best use is. I tend to grab the Griswold or the Lodge first.
Yeah, I've read so many reviews that talk about Lecruset like it's non-stick and I've never found mine to be that way. I mostly use mine for making pan sauce (can't beat this one for sausage gravy IMHO) or stuff that simmers a good long while. This goulash for example simmers for like an hour. The hamburger stuck pretty bad while I was browning it but after the simmer with the tomatoes and everything else in, it all came out clean and the burnt stuff on the bottom gives the whole dish just a hint of charred flavor which I'm personally a big fan of.
But yeah, for something like fish or steaks where you need stuff to come off in a single piece, I'm reaching for my lodge or even the wife's non-stick. I think I'd get dressed and go out for breakfast before I'd try to make eggs in my enamel skillets.
I recently got a 28cm cocotte from Staub and I love it.
I have to be more careful and avoid metal spoons and spatulas to not damage the coating.
But I like that I can abuse simmering with lemon juice, tomato, vinegar, wine without weakening the seasoning.
I don't use it for pasta though, unless I'm making sauce that takes hours to cook. For quick pasta sauce dishes (that stay on the pan for 10-30 min, not several hours ) I use one of these.
They are a bastard cookware hiding behind a fragile veneer of porcelain.
But for real, it just seems like its another thing to chip/crack/break. I personally like cast iron because its one giant piece of metal that's practically impossible to damage under regular use. I don't see why I would give that up just to have a candy shell around it.
I use stainless steel cookware so I can scrub the shit out of it without worrying about anything
Contrary to popular belief, you can scrub your cast iron, too. The seasoning (if done correctly) is bonded at a molecular level to the cast iron, so even a hard go with a steel scrubber wont take it off.
Should you do this regularly with a strong soap? No, but its better to scrub off some burnt on bits than leave it on because we think cast iron seasoning will be ruined is we look at it funny.
But if you're cooking with it right, that shouldn't happen too often.
Is there a trick to getting stainless to release food in a reasonable way? I've tried it a couple times and whatever I cook ends up feeling like it's epoxied on. I assume it's a me problem since so many people speak positively about it.
Throw some water and dish soap in it and simmer for like 5-10 minutes. It'll loosen everything right up.
Or, what I usually do is fill it with hot water and soap as soon as I'm done with it so by the time I'm done eating it's good to go.
Is your stainless single ply? I just went back to stainless (and cast iron) after not using it since I was a kid, and have the opposite question. When I was a kid, it was horrible how everything stuck or burned, and such a pain to clean. Now I pretty much never have a problem with anything sticking.
But I have to wonder if it’s me finally getting the hang of cooking, or is it mostly old single ply stainless vs new 5 ply?
For highly acidic dishes
Wouldn't make a difference unless the enamel is on the inside, though?
Yes that is what OP is talking about. The LeCreuset pans have black enamel inside, colourful enamel outside.
The enamel acts as a protective shell for the cast iron, protecting it from the acid.
I think they are over rated. You use them basically the same was as a regular CI, but if you chip the finish of the enamal you can't easily repair it like you could doing a reseasoning.
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