Ubiquitous 5 quart Dutch oven: most versatile pan, most essential pan, or kind of the most useless pan? Discuss.
I got one from Staub for $100 several years ago and then never used it. I’ve recently started using it and I love it.
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I also have a Staub, originally bought for no-knead breadmaking in the thick of the pandemic.
Do I use it to make bread? No.
Do I love it? Yes.
For me, the clad cast iron helps compensate for the lack of responsive heat control on my electric smoothtop range. So when I need to reduce the temperature of a burner while cooking and the heating element responds too dang slowly, I just move the Dutch oven off the burner for a bit and the cast iron retains sufficient heat.
I use my Dutch oven on the stovetop for soup, stews, chili, greens, curries, mashed potatoes, beans, risotto, and even pasta (for two). In the oven, as you would expect for long-cooking dishes like pot roast and chicken coq au vin.
A kitchen workhorse for me. Except that no-knead breadmaking never became a habit.
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I got a Le Creuset about a year ago and use it regularly - as recently as last night to make pozole. I like the height/depth, and tend to reach for it for soups, beans et al.
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It is an extremely useful shape and size. In the oven where heat dispersion is not an issue, they are excellent. You can certainly use them on the stove top, but they require attention to ensure hot spots do not lead to scorching, that garlic is pulled before carryover burns it, etc. So I would say it is neither the most useful nor the least useful. I find a heavy, highly conductive rondeau more useful. I find a paella pan, the thin carbon steel one made to be used over a fire, not very useful. The big DO is excellent for French fries. They are viewed by many as quite decorative. My kitchen decor seems just fine without that splash of color.
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I have an “Amazon Basics” 5.5 quart dutch oven.
I didn’t pay much for it and I use it for all manner of dishes. (including this chic pea & pork stew that cooks in the oven for about 2 hours).
I really like this dutch oven, so much so, that I want the 7.3 quart version… I’m hoping Amazon has an “After Christmas” sale and I can pick one up.
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5 qt is sort of an inbetween size, basically 25cm diameter, keeping Le Creuset dimensions in mind. I have several dutch ovens, and I tend to use my 3.5qt (22 cm) the most closely followed by my 4.5qt (24 cm). That has more to do with the type of dishes I make then the amount of people I cook for.
I do use my 5.5qt (26 cm diameter) from time to time, but just less often.
Of course dutch ovens can be from any material and brand. After over a decade of trying out different ones, I now use Le Creusets only. They do everything I want from a dutch oven, using them more often on my stovetop than in the oven.
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Very useful shape and capacity for an individual or small family. Something approximating this geometry is essential, but size, materials, construction and handles can vary. IMO, a 5Q saucepan would be just as useful, provided it fits in an oven.
A lot will have to do with our cooking style and dishes. For me, it is not the most useful cookware. I have 1 cast iron (4-5 quart) Dutch oven and 1 enameled cast iron (Le Creuset) Dutch oven. I have to say that I do not use them often. The last time I used the bare cast iron Dutch Oven was more than 6 years ago, and the last time I used the Le Creuset was 1 years ago.
I use my stainless steel clad pots far more (almost everyday) and even my clay donabe more (2-4 times a month).
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I was mainly referring to the combination of size and shape. Materials can vary. I personally don’t find cast iron to be especially useful for this type of pot (be it seasoned, enameled, or bare), and copper is overkill. Conventional wisdom says this type of pot should be amongst the most, if not the most, versatile in one’s batterie. But I think that only applies to a relatively small kit. Once you get beyond four or five pieces, this pot becomes pretty superfluous. I have better pieces for anything I might cook in it, and it’s just a slightly oversized water boiler. It’s roughly the same volume as my petite stocker, so it’s a less efficient secondary soup pot. And for that purpose I would be fine using a 3.5 quart saucier, or my Falk 5 quart stewpot. And all other applications I would rather use a rounded stewpot, braiser, oval casserole, or rondeau. I am just thinking what am I doing with this thing other than boiling corn? Even then, I usually use a sauté or rondeau because the surface area means much less water to boil and much greater efficiency.
I have a very large kit. Basically rondeaux in any size, starting from 20 cm up until 32 cm (all copper). Saucepans in all sizes, frying pans, specialty pans like jam pots and so on. And I still use my Le Creuset dutch ovens the most.
I think it depends very much on the type of dishes one likes to cook. There are dozens of cooks who would have no use for a dutch oven. But for me the shape gives a good balance between things I would otherwise cook in a rondeau or a soup pot. The dutch oven is shallow enough to fry some onions before adding liquids, for example when making soup (my way).
I also use other pans and pots, a rondeau for example quite a lot, but sometimes I need the volume a dutch oven provides without having to resort to soup pots with a 1:1 ratio of height and width. Two concrete examples in the past few weeks: large crab for a stew and a soup of pumpkin.
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5 qt is roomy for my needs; 4 qt I use the most. A 7 qt waits in the wings (I.e the closet) for its close up.
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I’ve got 2 of the round 7.5 quart LCs (I bought the 2nd planning to return the first for what I thought were enamel defects - people here helped me understand that they were not, defects and that LC insists they are not defects). Then decided to keep both and gift one to whichever kid starts having lots of babies.
I’ve used the 7.5 for stews, large roasts, and soups that would overwhelm a 5 quart. But with most of the kids not here full-time, what I’ve been making ends up being a meal for 2-3 people plus 2 more meals of leftovers for 2-3 people. If something tastes good to me I’m fine eating it several times over a week, but my wife is less loving of leftovers. Luckily a couple of daughters come home a couple of times a month and raid the fridge (and pantry), and they like my leftovers. For one, though, it needs to be GF and mostly vegetarian - she’s gotten to where she’s okay with my broth because she knows (a) I won’t stop eating meat, and (b) it’s at least making a use of stuff that would otherwise go to waste.
To OP’s question, we don’t have a 5 but do have a 4.5 quart. It’s Aldi’s “Crofton” brand that was a birthday gift from my MIL to my 3rd daughter, I think about 5 years ago. Before college, she used it quite a bit for bread baking for family & friends, and less often for soups. Now that she’s in college I still use it for bread on occasion, but more often make free-form loaves, so it mostly sits in the pantry.
I need to get better at downsizing meals, so I really should start using her 4.5 qt instead of continuing to make 8+ servings in the 7.5 qt.
I don’t think that’s true. Certainly, this size/shape IS versatile–in the sense that it can contain X quarts of food, has a floor that can be fried upon, is tall enough to roast and bake in, and fits in an oven. But it’s a Crescent wrench–if your toolbox has much beyond it, you might not value the versatility.
Pans like these are usually sold one at a time, and to/for newer cooks who don’t already have a set of flared-end tubing wrenches.
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Right. For most of the things I might most logically choose a 5 quart for, a four quart would be better. All the items I would want the extra volume for I would prefer either something taller or wider. I am pretty particular about optimizing my batterie, partially because my space is not unlimited. That five quart Dutch oven just doesn’t justify the real estate it occupies.
Just a slightly off topic observation: copper daubieres are showing up on Etsy in a good variety of sizes and at prices that compete with Le Creuset ECI. I am using mine more and more. I am just polishing off a large adobo braised pork shoulder I made this weekend.
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“Ubiquitous 5 quart Dutch oven”
Very likely to be too big for what you’re cooking.
Cooking in too large a pot leaves a cheap, pressure cooker taste behind. I can taste it every, single, time.
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Fascinating descriptor
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Agree that it’s based on what you cook and how you cook. For me, I appreciate having it and it gets used maybe 6-10 times in a year, but it’s not indispensable. It’s a luxury to be honest. My regular old 4/5 qt pot, my wok, and my sautee pan are indispensable.
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What is a pressure cooker taste -pressure cooker are a technique among many other available and don’t create any inferior food
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