Before I started working at Bon Appetit I actually did not own a Dutch oven. Sauce pan? Sure. A frying pan? Absolutely. But before I was immersed in the food world every day, a Dutch oven seemed both niche and expensive for my taste. It struck me as a super specific piece of cookware, mostly just for braising big hunks of meat or baking bread (neither of which I really do).
However, perhaps because I unconsciously started seeing a Dutch oven as a piece of status symbol cookware that would demonstrate to any guest how much I had my life together, the idea of becoming a Dutch oven owner took hold in me. After much deliberation, I finally indulged in a 5.5-quart Staub cocotte. I’ve owned mine for a little under a year and not a weekend goes by that I don’t whip it out. I use it for stews, saucy chicken dishes, chili, pasta dinners, or roasting vegetables to blitz up into a soup. For me, it actually functions as a pot and pan rolled into one. Before, I’d cook my chicken in one pan and make my sauce in another. Now I use my Dutch oven to make everything.
I was always going to get a Staub or Le Creuset Dutch oven. They are the pieces recommended by anyone in our test kitchen and my colleagues on the product testing team always had Staub and Le Creuset in the top spots. What ultimately made me settle on the Staub was the black raw cast iron interior. This means it gets a little hotter and, more importantly, it doesn’t show wear as readily over time—especially compared to the Le Creuset’s cream interior. (It does make it harder to notice when things stick to the bottom, though I haven’t noticed that problem too much.) Some people, like associate commerce director Emily Johnson, like the nice patina the Le Creuset develops as you braise and roast in it. If I’m someone who likes to keep everything looking as clean as when it came out of the box.
Here’s the thing about both these heritage French brands: They can be expensive. But there’s good news. Black Friday means big sales on my favorite Staub. You can get a very graciously-sized 7-quart Dutch oven from Williams Sonoma or straight from the Zwilling site (Zwilling is Staub’s parent company) for $170 off right now. You can also get a more petit 4-quart model for over 50% off. It doesn’t get any cheaper than that to begin your own Staub journey.
Source link
