What Do You Use A Dutch Oven For

What Is a Dutch Oven Anyway and Do You Need Ane?

Find out the best uses for this versatile pot, how to buy i and how to cook in information technology.

Before irksome cookers and Instant Pots and super-powered blenders, there was the unproblematic, unassuming Dutch oven. This big clunky pot with its tight-plumbing equipment hat has been cranking out stews, braises, roasts and even bread for 400 years or so. And if yous don't have one, yous need to go one. Information technology can travel from your stove to your oven and back again. Information technology's low-maintenance and nigh indestructible. But, you say, they're expensive. Yes, it's truthful that some are quite expensive. But once you lot know what y'all're looking for, we promise y'all won't have to sell your business firm, your automobile and virtually of your belongings to have one of your very own. Read on below for tips on how to buy and care for your new Dutch oven and what you tin do with it.

What Is a Dutch Oven?

Vegetable Stock with Kitchen Scraps

A Dutch oven is, in essence, a big pot with a lid designed to permit very petty steam escape. (This is useful when you're braising or stewing something and don't want a lot of evaporation.) While Dutch ovens can be ceramic, aluminum or stainless-steel, they are about commonly made of cast atomic number 26, which makes them heavier than your average pot. Cast iron holds onto estrus more than readily and more evenly than other metals, which is a huge reward in a pot that is designed to go from your stove into your oven and is why we recommend going with cast fe.

What Tin I Make in a Dutch Oven?

Whole-Wheat Sourdough Bread

Dutch ovens are great for stews, sauces, soups, braises or any other moist-oestrus cooking method. This pot can melt a goulash or a whole chicken. Yous can brownish meat and vegetables on the stove and let them simmer away or transfer your pot to the oven to finish cooking there. (Most all bandage-atomic number 26 Dutch ovens are oven-safe; cheque your manual for temperature limitations.) Cast-iron Dutch ovens are also the cooking vessel of choice for sourdough and no-knead staff of life.

What Type of Dutch Oven Should I Buy?

Vegetable Weight-Loss Soup Recipe

Which Size?

That all depends on how many people you'll be cooking for, and also how much storage infinite you have in your kitchen. If it'due south too minor you run the take chances of not everything fitting in the pot, and if it's too big you could struggle to heat it properly. For most people, going with a 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven is a safe bet for most occasions.

Enameled or Non?

The blanket on the inside of some pots is in that location to prevent sticking and to deadening down the article of clothing and tear on the cast iron. You can live without it, simply you will have to make certain your pan is "seasoned" now and then with a thin layer of oil that'south baked onto the pan. With an uncoated pot, you'll also need to thoroughly dry out it before storing (fe rusts at lightning speed).

How Much Volition I Take to Spend?

While it's true that a big pretty pot in your favorite color can run upwards of $300, you can easily find one that will perform simply as well for a third of the cost. Our favorite budget pick is Milo: the 5.5-quart enameled cast-iron Dutch oven comes in white and blackness for just $95. Both high-end and middle-of-the-road manufacturers often offer lifetime warranties on Dutch ovens likewise, and then, in theory, you lot'll just have to make this buy once. But brand sure you read the fine print and so you empathize what's covered and what isn't.

How Exercise I Care for My New Dutch Oven?

Sausage, Brussels Sprout & Potato Soup

So you've got your overnice new pot and y'all desire information technology to last a lifetime. That's not hard to practice if you lot care for it. Each Dutch oven will come with specific care instructions merely, in full general, one very important rule of pollex is not to heat your cast-iron Dutch oven on loftier. Bandage iron is slow to warm up, and as irksome to absurd down. Cooking with loftier heat makes it very hard to prevent called-for and can damage the enamel blanket and even void that generous lifetime warranty. If your Dutch oven has an enameled coating, avoid scratching information technology with abrasive cooking and cleaning tools. If information technology's not coated, don't leave it moisture for prolonged periods of time.