Cast Iron Dutch Oven

The journey for this started with a single problem: I was burning food too often. The root of the problem was an old gas stove that had big flames and thin pot bottoms.

The solutions I thought of to solve this problem were to either get a thicker pot or use a different heating instrument.

At first I thought how to avoid shopping for new pots. I'm not someone who can walk into a store and grab the first thing and feel satisfied. To avoid spending time researching products, I considered the possibility of a different burner. I have a portable burner, it serves a nice alternative to using this stove for when I must simmer food on low heat. However when the choices are a stove with 4 burners vs a single electric burner, it feels ridiculous to have both in the kitchen on the regular. So to avoid cluttering countertops with the portable burner (there's no electrical outlet free near the stove), and using a portable stove on top of a regular sized stove also seems ridiculous; I decided to put away the portable burner and stick with the stove. This stove may or may not be replaced in the near future, however due to unforeseen circumstances nearly a year since setting eyes on this particular stove I realized that I will be living with it for a while longer. An indeterminate amount of time, which means it's a constraint to the problem space.

Thus begins a long trek through the interwebs searching for the right pot. A quick scan of articles proved that dutch ovens were the best design for simmered dishes, particularly those made of cast iron.

I considered for a day the tradeoffs of seasoned cast iron to enameled. I didn't feel like learning how to season raw cast iron pots yet. While I like the price tag, and it sounds very smart to have one it was a little too outside my comfort space. So it was a pretty quick decision to narrow to enameled cast iron pots.

Thus began much research to find out shapes, brands, colors to narrow down the choices. It got so overwhelming I started keeping a table of the items that looked interesting into a table, to be able to easily compare the variables.

From that structured data format I was able to come up with a reasonable choice I felt comfortable with: Tramontina Gourmet Series 1000 - 5.5qt. It helped that this was on sale that particular week online at Home Depot.

Size - I needed something between 4-6 quarts. It wasn't easy to figure out which size was right w/o prior data so I leaned on other factors more.

Color - I was overwhelmed with color choices. I went with white because it was the lowest price model available online, supported by Milo brand all their marketing efforts (one of the co-designers works in fashion and lots of instagram influencers post pretty photos), and I saw a youtube video showing that the bright ceruse color of a LC fades after 5 or so years. Went practical here with the color.

Shape - I liked the flat bottom. Personal preference so that made it easy for me to decide not to go with Lodge.

Handles - I prefer the LC style handles and Tramontina comes close.

Self-basting nubs - Milo says they're a gimmick. Are they really? My thoughts is that it is harder for manufacturers to cast the nibs in, so if most brands have it must be a nice feature to have.  I am curious about the science behind this.

Cost - I grouped the cost of dutch ovens into three groups. $0-50, $50-100, and $100+ and decided to start on the lowest end because I have zero experience caring for enamel surfaces and am at the phase of wanting to collect data.

There is much advice online about being careful with the temperature, when you stir (no metal spoons!), and when you wash. And while the pot can sustain being dropped the paint may not. With the chances of this pot being replaced by something of higher quality in within the next 3-5 years, I figured first get something affordable to arrive at baseline of data from which to make better decisions in the future.

If I wanted a smaller pot, especially if I was taking it from stove to table, or transferring in and out of oven oven, I would go with Marquette Castings 4qt dutch oven because their design has wide large handles.

Here's how it looks! The outside is white, and it isn't that glossy. Maybe a satin finish. Looks nice, unobtrusive.

The inside is a cream color instead of white. Doesn't bother me but it wasn't advertised so some folks may not like that. 

Some initial thoughts since using this.

- After cooking a darker colored stew I gotta say cleaning white enamel requires more elbow grease to make sure stains are rubbed off.

- If you've a housemate who likes to taste test and doesn't have the tenacity to avoid metal spoon on enamel surfaces, don't spend too much on a pot. It might have to be replaced sooner than you hope for ;)