Which le creuset should i register for

To help you make an educated decision, we're delving into the history behind Le Creuset, covering the many uses for a Le Creuset Dutch oven and breaking down the pros and cons of adding Le Creuset products to your registry. Plus, we've scoured the web for the best budget-friendly bakeware alternatives to Le Creuset and are highlighting similar pieces from four different cookware brands.

The pair set out to create a foundry for enameled cast iron cookware. In , the Le Creuset brand which translates to crucible or cauldron in English was born and business began in Fresnoy-le-Grand in Aisne, France. That same year, the first cocotte, or French oven, was produced. The cocotte was a smaller version of what would become their famous Dutch oven, which to this day is still the most popular item Le Creuset sells. Desaegher and Aubecq were not the first to create this kind of cookware, but they refined the glazing process that makes enameled cast iron rust-proof, easy to clean and an excellent conductor of heat.

From the beginning, Le Creuset made a name for itself by creating quality, colorful cookware. Incorporating pigment into the glazing process was key to Le Creuset's early success and set the brand standard for both beauty and durability.

Fittingly, it was inspired by the red-orange hue of molten cast iron in the foundry's cauldron. While it remains the brand's bestselling color, Le Creuset now boasts "an unmatched range of vibrant, durable colors and finishes across a spectrum of materials. Since , the brand has incorporated new technologies into its crafting process. The original French foundry is still in use and, in , the factory doubled its production capacity to meet increased demand around the world.

While Le Creuset is still best known for its enameled cookware, the brand has since diversified its product lines to include stoneware, silicone bakeware, stainless steel cookware, non-stick frying pans and porcelain oven-to-tableware. Almost years since its founding, Le Creuset continues to use the hand-crafted techniques and original process of forging and casting to manufacture its cookware.

For every piece designed, two sand molds are made: the first for the interior and the second for the exterior. The raw materials are melted at an extremely high temperature in a large cauldron, then poured into the molds to make the shape. Once the iron cools, it's removed from the mold for the finishing process. After use, each mold is broken and the sand is recycled, so no two Le Creuset pieces will ever be exactly the same. After passing through several finishing processes performed by skilled human hands for cleaning and smoothing, each piece gets two coats of enamel.

The first is clear and helps the second coat of colored enamel better adhere to the cast iron. Once the enamel is applied to the inside and outside, it is air-dried, then vitrified for a highly durable, hygienic and shock-resistant finish. The fact that each piece is unique and the cast iron is never recycled from other metals or materials helps explain the cost. The company also prides itself on its quality control—in fact, every piece of cookware is inspected by no less than 15 different people to make sure nothing leaves the factory damaged or defective.

Close to 30 percent of goods are actually rejected due to imperfections—when that happens, the iron is usually melted back down and used to create new products.

For fans of Le Creuset, the appeal is in both form and function. Not only is the cookware proven to hold up over time and aesthetically pleasing, but each piece comes with a lifetime guarantee that backs up the brand's longevity claim. Collections tend to be passed down to future generations as treasured family heirlooms.

Think of a Dutch oven as the original multi-cooker. It can go from stovetop to oven to table and does virtually everything a home cook needs: baking, slow cooking, braising, roasting, stewing, poaching, shallow frying and deep frying. You can easily make casseroles and one-pot meals in your Le Creuset Dutch oven and, because of its versatility, it's ideal for batch cooking and meal prep. Plus, since you don't need to use other cookware, it really cuts down on clean-up time.

Depending on what you like to cook, how many people you plan to serve and whether you want leftovers, you can use just one or two Le Creuset products as your everyday cookware. Le Creuset Dutch ovens specifically have several useful features that contribute to their superior multipurpose function.

The Le Creuset Signature Round 5. Cast Iron Dutch Oven is one of the most popular sizes because it offers the most flexibility. It's able to fit a five-pound chicken and can cook meals that will serve between four and six people, making it the ideal choice for newlyweds who will be cooking for two as well as the occasional guests. Like the brand says , it's "not too small, not too big, not too heavy and [fits] in most home ovens," making it the "Goldilocks" of Le Creuset's enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens.

The 5. The round Dutch oven is compatible with all cooktops and oven-safe up to degrees Fahrenheit. It's dishwasher-safe although the brand still recommends washing by hand and safe for metal utensils. The smooth enamel interior is light-colored, so you can easily monitor cooking progress, while the tight-fitting lid is designed to circulate steam and return moisture to your food. The ergonomic, stainless steel knob is safe at any oven temperature, and the large, looped handles and wide, flat bottom are made for easy lifting.

The latter have minor imperfections that don't affect how they cook food but require them to be sold at a lower price. It may be the most popular, but you can also get Le Creuset stainless steel, silicone, and stoneware products. Currently, Le Creuset has created about colors, but the favorites are different depending on where you live. Americans opt for primary hues, Germans love Mediterranean blues and Japanese chefs pick pastels. French cooks go crazy for—what else?

The company turned 90 in , and at that time, they'd created more than million products for more than 60 different countries. They've produced heart and flower-shaped pots in the past and cherry blossom-covered cookware in Japan.

Le Creuset made Disney fans' wildest dreams come true with a blue soup pot painted with red roses to celebrate the release of the live-action Beauty and the Beast movie. Kitchen Tips and Tools. Delish Shop. United States. Type keyword s to search.

Today's Top Stories. Courtesy of Le Creuset. The Washington Post. Theoretically, you could do all of this cooking in any Dutch oven, but conventional wisdom is that Le Creuset makes the best Dutch oven that money can buy. The cast-iron also means the Le Creuset can retain that heat for hours on end, so your precious braising meat or thickening stew is really cooking in there.

And the glossy, enamel finish makes it durable and relatively easy to clean, with warm water, soap, and a scrubber brush. But boy, is it a lot of money. That kind of purchase feels particularly excessive when there are so many different brands of enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens on the market that claim to do everything the Le Creuset does, at just a fraction of the price.

So what is the difference, exactly, between all of these different brands of enameled Dutch ovens, and how do they compare to the OG? I excluded Staub from this lineup because, in my mind, it is a very different type of Dutch oven, even if it does come in a rainbow of candy-colored exteriors like Le Creuset. Once the water was boiling, I turned off the heat, covered the pot, and let it sit for an hour. At the hour mark, I took the temperature of the water using my Thermapen , which gave an excellent instant reading in an attempt to gauge heat retention and how tightly the lid sealed in liquids.

In my hourlong heat-retention test, the water in the Le Creuset only dropped to degrees Fahrenheit, making it the best-performing Dutch oven in this category. The AmazonBasics Dutch oven did the worst, dropping down to degrees, but the average temperature decrease across all seven Dutch ovens was 89 degrees, from to degrees.

Plus the Le Creuset brand has a long heritage. My co-worker, for instance, cooks in a year-old Le Creuset Dutch oven and reports that it works great. The question now is: Which Le Creuset dupe is the right one for you?

I broke down your options, depending on what you want from your Dutch oven. But I had never actually used one before, and I was happy to see that, of all the Dutch ovens I tested, it performed the closest to a Le Creuset. In that heat-retention test, the temperature of the water only went down to degrees, the second-best result after Le Creuset. It was also surprisingly stylish. Instead of trying to re-create the gradient of the Le Creuset, this Cuisinart Dutch oven was just red, with a matching red porcelain knob, that gave the whole thing a modern, monochromatic look.