Melic

I've had this oven for more than 3 years, and it's the best money I've ever spent on an appliance. Big enough to handle almost anything I need an oven for, love the convection feature, everything comes out perfect, and as a bonus it makes better toast than any toaster or toaster oven I ever had. I got the cutting board too, and as others have mentioned, keeping it stored on top of the oven takes care of the hot top problem just fine. Only "issue" is the time limit on the controls, but since I've never done a braise in the oven, it's just something to note and deal with if I ever decide to use it for more than 2 hours. Definitely worth the money.

Real Caesar Salad - boy will I second that!!! I got so fed up with the last "Caesar Salad" I was served - basically mayonnaise coated leaves with shaved Parmesan on top - no anchovies, no garlic, no taste, no nothing, that I went home and, next day, made my own. Anchovies - including both fillets and paste in the dressing - check! Coddled egg - check! Heck, I'd just use a raw egg yolk. Lemon juice - check! Worcestershire - check! Really good Parmesan, fresh-grated by me - check! Good croutons - check! Good oil - check! Fresh-ground pepper - check! Prepared in a large wooden bowl - check! Perfect hearts of romaine - check! I think I made a bathtub full - and I Ate The Whole Thing. I didn't even get sick ... Boy, do I remember those tableside preparations and presentations! Even as a little kid, it was one of my favorite dining treats. I swear, I will never order Caesar Salad in a restaurant again. It just infuriates me to have to deal with the pitiful plates of fake Caesar Salad that populate the food universe. Yes, I understand the legal liabilities with coddled or raw eggs. Newsflash - I understand that pasteurized whole eggs are available to the restaurant trade. But to leave out any taste or hint of anchovies (never mind the fillets; no one serves them w/o a request) or garlic or Worcestershire - just call it watery mayonnaise salad with Parmesan crusty flakes. That'll bring the dining universe to your doorstep, yessiree! And for my next trick, Steak Tartare

Cutting open those !@#$%^&!!*& plastic clamshells that everything seems to get packed in these days. Like FatGuy, I have 3 different kitchen shears: poultry shears, regular "take apart" kitchen shears, and little red-handled shears. Sometimes, those plastic clamshells have to be tamed with the poultry shears; the regular kitchen shears just aren't tough enough. Idle question: how in the heck to folks get them open if all they have are regular scissors? But I digress ... As someone else already mentioned, I also use my kitchen shears to cut up pizza. Herbs - yep - the red-handled ones or the regular shears. And I'll snip stuff in a stew or soup, scissors right in the kettle, if my knife skills (such as they are) have left some things too untouched. Whatever works ...

The 8 quart is what I got for a gift for friend. It arrived yesterday and I haven't opened it up yet to check it out Honestly, if the Staub had gone on sale before I got my large Le Creuset on sale at Amazon a couple of weeks ago, I'd have gone for the large Staub. I will confess to having gotten the chicken roaster for myself. I have a larger oval Le Creuset that I've had for years, but that smaller chicken was just sqawking out to me. I hope the chicken won't report me it if I prepare something other than chicken in it ... BTW, if you do a lot of shopping at SmartBargains, you can join their SmartShoppers club for $9.95 per year and all shipping then becomes $2.95 per purchase, regardless of weight. I've bought enough heavy stuff in the last year that it was worth it for me. Unfortunately.

www.smartbargains.com No choice of colors (different for each piece) but I just picked up a birthday present for someone. coq au van 6-qt with rooster knob - 159.99 reg 220.00 (I don't know if this is round or oval - the picture and the description contradict each other) black enameled 4.5 qt chicken roaster - 129.99 reg. 200.00 (I just saw this one in Williams-Sonoma) also: 3 qt round cocotte - 99.00 8 qt round cocotte - 179.99 (2 colors - blue and yellow) (same price I just paid for my 7 -1/4 qt Le Creuset on Amazon ) 12.75 qt oval - 249.99 4.25 oval - 99.99 5 qt round cocotte - green with snail knob -129.99 there are some other pieces - frying pans and smaller cocottes. Usually only one color for each piece. http://kitchen-and-dining.smartbargains.co...d-dining&isrw=1

Hate to ask a stupid question, but does "satin finish" mean that they are not enameled? I noticed that their list price is less that the Creuset's specifically labeled "enamled", and wondered why their was a difference. ← Yes, the piece is fully enameled. Only a few pieces are reduced in this color. Most are the same price or even more than the colored ones. The interior is their high temp enamel, which will hold up better over time and take higher temps without damage. The exterior is a different matte black enamel. It's very stylish if you don't mind all that black, and a great deal. Nice to not have to worry about the light interior staining or losing it's shine over time. If you look to the right on that page you will see cooking.com has it for $259.99 now, which is the usual price. It's quite a buy! ← The red 7 1/4 qt round oven is on sale again on amazon.com right this minute for 169.99. It was on sale late last night for 169.99 - and by morning it was 259.99 again. This has happened for several days. I think they only put it on sale after 10:00 pm or so EST and keep it on sale for maybe a few hours - but by midday it's always up again. So maybe this is a deal for chronic insomniacs. Mine came today; I haven't unboxed it yet...

You made your purchase just in time! As of right now, the 7.25 quart is back up to $259.99. It looks like the price is going up and down every other day. ??? ← It looks like the price goes up and down about every 12 hours. Go figure. I snagged one very late last night, after missing the deal the first time and then unsuccessfully arguing with myself that I'd been satisfied with the smaller 5 1/2 quart model for decades. I've bought almost no kitchen/cookware stuff from Amazon since they discontinued the $25 off purchases of $125 or more deal they used to offer. I'm glad I don't actually need to buy anything kitchen-related. It's gotten noticably more expensive in the last couple of years - and good deals on things you'd actually want to have in the first place seem fewer and farther between. Not surprising to me.

I redid my kitchen 2 years ago. The original kitchen had a double-bowled sink in a corner - two square sinks on either side of a 90 degree angle with the faucet in the middle. The two square bowls were so small I had to wash larger pots in the bathtub! (I live in a condo and don't have a laundry sink) - shades of college! So when I redid the kitchen (a lot was cosmetic - I kept the old cabinets as much as possible and resurfaced them - along with spiffy new countertops, an extra cabinet, and roll-out storage everywhere - there really wasn't much I could do as far as reconfiguring the kitchen space) I shifted the sink to one side and opted for a huge, deep, single sink. I don't remember the brand -- nothing fancy -- but I swear it's the size of a small bathtub. I asked the designer to put in as big a sink as possible, even if it ended up being slightly off-center to the design. I got my great big honking sink! I'm in heaven. If I want to wash greens or something, I have an over-the-sink-colander thingy that I just set to one side of the sink. One bowl or two, it's just nice to have one bowl large enough that I don't have to wash kitchen stuff in the bathtub anymore. How much more grown-up can you get?

I've dealt with cookware n more on several occasions and my experience has been that they're topnotch with customer service. If they can't find a "second" that they think you would like they won't ship it. And they'll proactively call and/or email you about your order if there are any issues. (They've called me to ask about alternatives if there is something I've ordered that isn't in stock) And twice a year they have an additional 20 percent off on single orders of cookware - no need to buy 4 to get the extra discount. IIRC those sales are in November and March. If you want All-Clad, IMO they're the only place to go. What makes the pieces "seconds" are cosmetic blemishes so small (think a wee non-gouge scratch on the outside of the pan the size of your little fingernail) they'd probably occur naturally the first time you used the cookware anyway. I haven't bought any cookware recently - simply because I now have Everything In the World and I have no more space to store anything! I wouldn't buy All-Clad any other way. Certainly not at full retail!!

Ooof. I've had a real issue with OXO Not the "tool" -- a set of wee kitchen measuring cups -- but the "tools" who saw fit to package them in a blister pack so bulletproof that it took my poultry shears to disassemble it. Oxo, originally I guess, prided itself on its adherence to Universal Design principles -- oh look! They still do: What We're About I guess that doesn't include packaging that can be opened by a human being without resort to poultry shears or tin snips. Or a chain saw. Or explosives. I was really very, very angry and disappointed with OXO and I sent of an email to OXO *gently* pointing out the apparent discrepancy between their mission statement and their packaging practices. Did I ever get a reply? No. Just an observation YMMV.

I have all kinds of high end stuff, but if I am just dumping for frying or some kind of quick dressing, I use the 365 stuff from Whole Food. It's good, it's cheap, and has the convenient spout thing that keeps me from pouring it all over the stove when I am multitasking. ← The Whole Foods 365 is my #1, for all the reasons you mentioned. I sometimes think I buy it like laundry detergent The 'high end' stuff goes rancid long before I've even begun to use it up. Trying to keep a few small bottles in the fridge right now, which causes its own set of problems.

I just used mine to help scrape off stubborn wallpaper! Multitasker ...who knew?

Ok ... I confess ... I ususally don't make the horizontal cuts either. Why bother? I opt for radial and then perpendicular to the board. If for some reason I *do* bother (notice I didn't say "for some *good* reason") with the horizontal cuts, I do them first, after the onion has been halved along the axis but before the vertical/radial cuts. I'm such a slacker

This is exactly what my Uncle does with his pans and stove grates. Puts them into a small bucket with the ammonia solution, seals the whole works up in a garbage bag and lets it sit in his garage. Apparently it works like a hot damn. ← Back in the days before self-cleaning ovens (but after the invention of the television) I once watched a local news guy give a tip on how to make cleaning your oven easier: fill a small pyrex bowl with ammonia and leave it in the oven overnight. I tried it (and no, you do not turn the oven on ) and it actually, truly, really softened up the gunk on the oven walls. I was surprised ...

Plop a generous dollop of it in a big, tall glass of iced tea. My neighbor used to do that. It's actually quite good.

Expensive, yes, but ... but .... they have RED handles!!!! I keep my shears in my knife blocks (of which I have too many; wonder why?) so they don't sink to the bottom of the bottomless utility drawers, crocks, and other kitchen black holes where everything I'm looking for goes to hide out. My knife blocks have various large slots for carving forks and cleavers, and I have bravely limited myself to just one cleaver (um, except for the huge Chinese one I keep wrapped in brown paper) and one weapons-grade impaling fork, thus freeing up homes for the shears. Prime objects of kitchen objects loss: zesters, tiny scoopers, my little bitty whisk that will fit nicely in a coffee mug, champagne stoppers, apple corers. There is no way to keep these things from disappearing, and then reappearing after I've gone out and bought a replacement. Which brings me to another kind of shear I have: a Toss n' Chop. OK, I've admitted it now; I don't chop a salad with a couple of 3 foot chef's knives. As for the Toss n' Chop, it's not perfect, but helps in space-challenged settings. Good, especially if someone gives you one as a gift...

Three kinds of shears here. Spring-action poultry shears, Henckels I think (whatever Williams-Sonoma had at the time), which work so well I feel positively guilty for not having to hack through bones and shell with a knife anymore Regular pull-apart kitchen shears. Buy whatever's on sale. Good for cutting up stuff, cutting into packages, whatever. Definitely a must-have. Dainty-ish, slender Joyce Chen Chinese shaped scissors with the red handles. Great for snipping parsley and other herbs. Beats chopping with a knife any day. No bruised leaves, and you can control where the snippage lands...

I love my Rosle I had one of the first take-the-top-off-without-making-a-sharp-edge (was it an As Seen On TV Model ... it was white plastic) which was clunky and hard to clean. The Rosle ... rocks. My cat food comes with pull-top rings. This may eventually put an end to the need for can openers, as it has, I guess, for Church Keys (beer can openers) ... although I still keep a Tap Boy, just in case ...

The Chefmate tri-ply (i.e. straight gauge) cookware set that was $99 is now on sale through the Target website (and amazon) at a clearance price of $49.99 I think the Amazon reviewers are confusing the copper disc bottom Chefmate pans with the straight gauge ones. Based on what I read here a couple of years ago, I bought the straight gauge set when it was $99 and nothing has delaminated or in any way failed to perform. At $49.99 the triply set is an even better deal. The copper bottom set is on clearance, too. Evidently Target's phasing both out. ←

I have this pan. I got it either at TJ Maxx or Marshall's well over a year ago. It's 10" and very flared; the inside diameter on the cooking surface is about 7 3/4" and the diameter of the magnetic disc base is about 6 3/4". I don't know if the base is too small for the pan (it certainly is way smaller than the max diameter at the top of the flair, but about in keeping with my similarly sized Sitram which, being less flared, has an interior diameter of a little more than 8" on the cooking surface and a little more than 7" on the disc. The Sitram is one of the newer ones with a copper-encapsulated magnetic/induction capable disc - I forget the model name.) I always thought that when discs are copper-encapsulated they are thinner than when they are aluminum-encapsulated. That's been explained, so I don't have a problem with the thinness of the disc. But this de Buyer pan has just never captured my fancy, even though it's induction capable. Nothing wrong with how it cooks; who knows - maybe it's because I think the handle's ugly. It's residing in the "gets dusty" part of the pan drawer. I have no good explanation for this, however (the lack of use, not that things get dusty ).

I have 2 (because one is always "missing in action") plus those nifty Joyce Chen red-handled snippers which are great for a lot of things, including the dismemberment of herbs and such. So I guess that makes 3. My 2 "real shears" are Kershaw (big with lots of nooks, crannies and some things I don't even know what do do with) and Mondial. The Mondial shears are smaller; they tend to travel out of the kitchen for other duty and then get lost. I don't cut my hair with them, though. (joke) I actually also have poultry shears - Henckels, that stay locked and loaded in a knife slot. I think I could cut apart a pteranodon with them...

Sure they do, you just have to know where to shop . I've never actually seen brisket sold as anything other than a whole or half. My local butcher shop *only* sells it by the whole or half, Sam's Club and other such places also sell them in the normal fashion. The grocery stores around here don't usually sell it, but if you've got a grocery store with a real meat department you could certainly order one. The local grocery stores sell such a pitiful quality of beef that I'd rather just go to my butcher tho. Then I get middling to top end choice, rather than ungraded beef that'd have a tough time making Select. Emily ← Actually, the smallish briskets I get now are "local beef"- from a farm that AFAIK raises Black Angus cattle mostly for breeding/sale to other operations. They do cull a small amount of beef; it's from young animals, and aged 28 days before it's even sent to the store. If I ordered in advance, I could get a 'whole' brisket - or a standing rib roast before the store I shop at butchers the roasts into Delmonico steaks. I think they only get 1/2 side of beef per week from the local farm. People either love the beef or hate it. I'm in the former category I just keep forgetting to order. Whole Paycheck's briskets-in-the-case are also tiny, and not IMO as good as these local ones. As an aside, couple of years ago, I ventured into what is arguably the best specialty butcher around here--one that advertises their extra super special prime beef, and asked for a large brisket. The guy disappeared into the back, and presented me with a still-cryovac'd slab of Something From A ConAgra Company. Ugh. And it tasted awful, too. I guess they didn't get too many requests for brisket there. Another problem with brisket is the stores' compulsion to trim off all the fat before the brisket is packaged. I'd rather cook it first and trim the fat before serving. I can't remember the last time I bought either meat or poultry (or fish) in a large chain grocery (Whole Paycheck excepted). That doesn't mean I buy expensive cuts; I just get to know where the stuff comes from and who's cutting it. edit: this is where the beef come from: Roseda Black Angus

The buffet casserole is total magic for brisket. I, too, have found that I use the buffet casserole (I have the 3.5 quart size) more than any of my other Le Creuset pieces. I've actually just ordered the smaller size, but I can't report anything because it hasn't arrived yet. ← Well, my 2 1/4 qt flame-colored buffet casserole arrived late yesterday afternoon, and it hardly had time for a quick bath before it was plunked in the oven with a wee brisket (why is it that I never see large ones in the case any more ...) and its accoutrements nestled inside. The pan size was perfect; the contents divine. I've had some le creuset pieces for bazillions of years - gifts from my mom. They are round ovens - and are enamelled on the outside bottoms - but those outside bottoms are ridged, kind of like a grill pan. The insides of the pots look like regular le creuset. The knobs are strange - a phrenolic cap that slips on and off of a regular metal knob - except on the smaller pot where I melted the phrenolic knob onto the metal one . I long ago ordered replacement knobs, but I can't get the old knob off the small pot. The screw must be rusted shut. I haven't used these older pots since I got my smoothtop range (no, there is no gas line in my bldg) because I'm concerned that the ridges mean that the bottom of the pot only partially contacts the cooking surface, and I thought that was a no-no for smoothtops. Of course, most grill pans (or at least the all clad and calphalon ones I've seen) have these same ridged bottoms (except the ridges also extend into the interior of the pans) - and I assume the respective companies wouldn't be foolish enough to manufacture cookware that cannot be used by a significant portion of their target market - or would they? Anyone out there have any experience with these old le creuset pots, or with ridged pans on a smoothtop???? ← ← Oh it was really small - 2 lbs tops, probably less. Looked about the size of a sirloin steak. I swear it's more like matching the longest dimension of the uncooked brisket to the diameter of the pan than thinking about the weight. But brisket shrinks! Boy does it shrink! It never ceases to surprise me. The largest brisket I've ever bought slightly overfilled my 3 1/2 qt le creuset buffet casserole (it was kind of wavy stuffed in) to begin with, but when I lifted the lid a couple of hours later, there was more than enough room to spare. Granted, the really big briskets of yore (7 lbs or so, I'll guess) don't find their way into prepacked meat sections these days. OK - for the 2 1/4 qt le creuset buffet pan - brisket was somewhere over 1 1/2 lbs. Less than 2 lbs. for the 3 /12 qt le creuset buffet pan - brisket was over 2 lbs. Probably 3 lbs tops. If it doesn't quite lie down flat ... it will flatten out. Now ... I've just gotten a 3 1/2 oval oven - and returned from the store with a 5 1/2 lb chicken. What to do, what to do ...

The buffet casserole is total magic for brisket. I, too, have found that I use the buffet casserole (I have the 3.5 quart size) more than any of my other Le Creuset pieces. I've actually just ordered the smaller size, but I can't report anything because it hasn't arrived yet. ← Well, my 2 1/4 qt flame-colored buffet casserole arrived late yesterday afternoon, and it hardly had time for a quick bath before it was plunked in the oven with a wee brisket (why is it that I never see large ones in the case any more ...) and its accoutrements nestled inside. The pan size was perfect; the contents divine. I've had some le creuset pieces for bazillions of years - gifts from my mom. They are round ovens - and are enamelled on the outside bottoms - but those outside bottoms are ridged, kind of like a grill pan. The insides of the pots look like regular le creuset. The knobs are strange - a phrenolic cap that slips on and off of a regular metal knob - except on the smaller pot where I melted the phrenolic knob onto the metal one . I long ago ordered replacement knobs, but I can't get the old knob off the small pot. The screw must be rusted shut. I haven't used these older pots since I got my smoothtop range (no, there is no gas line in my bldg) because I'm concerned that the ridges mean that the bottom of the pot only partially contacts the cooking surface, and I thought that was a no-no for smoothtops. Of course, most grill pans (or at least the all clad and calphalon ones I've seen) have these same ridged bottoms (except the ridges also extend into the interior of the pans) - and I assume the respective companies wouldn't be foolish enough to manufacture cookware that cannot be used by a significant portion of their target market - or would they? Anyone out there have any experience with these old le creuset pots, or with ridged pans on a smoothtop????

The buffet casserole is total magic for brisket. I, too, have found that I use the buffet casserole (I have the 3.5 quart size) more than any of my other Le Creuset pieces. I've actually just ordered the smaller size, but I can't report anything because it hasn't arrived yet.