In addition to height, what is the best general overall material and design for a rondeau?
Should it ideally be clad, or disc bottom? Thick alu / stainless?
Is it better to have a rondeau with a have a high heat capacity, or can copper be suitable for long braising?
You will of course hear different opinions here, but in my personal experience based on 20 years of cooking, I prefer enameled cast iron. I have Le Creusets in sizes 20, 22, 24, 26 and 28 (low) centimeter. Used the 20 cm yesterday.
I have used Mauviel bimetal copper, tinned copper (3+ mm), thick alu disc bottom (Fissler) and high quality clad (Demeyere), and have now settled on Le Creuset. Itâs just foolproof and consistent.
All this time later I made a rare change in my cookware. Usually I acquire more, but the kitchen is pretty full. My large ECI found a terrific new home, still in the family, and I got a reasonably large rondeau. (10 1/2" by 3 3/8" and 1/8" thick). The rondeau has yet to produce a braise that was less than wonderful and earned a spot as a highly favored pan. I also finally snagged a splayed saucepan. (8" by 3 5/16" and 1/8" thick). If I could restart my cookware acquisition journey, which began over half a century ago, several acquisitions made in recent years would have been very early purchases: the rondeau, the splayed saucepan, and, surprisingly to myself, a ceramic roasting dish. Also, now cooking only for two, a 9" fry pan has been a superb addition.Towards the end of its time in my kitchen, my ECI was being used for deep frying. Now I use the wok to fry and like it fine for those rare nights when the day has been challenging enough that only a martini and steak frites will put me back in a happy place without taxing my cooking skills and energy.
Are you sure you want to take us back through this?
If you expect your rondeau to be (a) larger than your burner, i.e., larger that 24-28cm; or (b) sit stop an uneven burner, you will benefit from a thick, highly conductive bottom. You will also benefit from a material that responds relatively quickly to changes in heat settings. If you want to use it in an oven, you should pick according to your views on shiny v dark bake ware.
I think sidewall heat in a rondeau is a nice plus, although saute-like preps donât gain much. Stews, do IMO.
âHeat holdingâ doesnât matter much to me in the positive directionâboth thick copper and very thick aluminum will tend to hold heat that rivals most cast iron.
Linings donât matter to me, but unlined CI is a no-go.
All those factors for me add up to the conclusion that extra fort copper is the best choice. Practically speaking, that means a tin lining and all the tertiary and quaternary issues that go with that choice.
Iâve never believed lid seal makes any difference. In fact, Le Creset covers are designed NOT to tightly seal. Iâve even tried the old trick of sealing lids on with bread dough --theyâre was more water retained, but the flavor wasnât any better.
My second choice would be one of the very thick aluminum commercial braziers or the thickest disk-based pan I could find.
Get the cover that was made for the pan.
Thanks. Apologies for resurrecting anything tedious from the past.
It sounds like no rondeau can meet all those characteristics, except perhaps very thick copper.
Thick aluminum disc bottom wonât be as responsive on the burner. It also wonât be clad on the side walls (not sure if Fissler is clad on the side?)
ECI is not very conductive, but holds heat well. And regular 2mm copper has the reverse properties.
Maybe if there was such thing as very a thick s/s clad, then it might come somewhat second to extra fort copper. I wonder if the old All-Clad MC2 ever had a rondeau. I know MC2 had saute pans.
There are the so-called âhybridâ pans, which have thick-ish disks bonded to clad pan bodies. But the clad layers are thin. But better than nothing in the walls.
Start the search for an old extra fort tinned copper rondeau. Search until you find one. It may take a bit, but they are out there!
The best deal on a used large (~12â) thick (3 mm) tinned copper rondeau (or sautĂ© pan) in the US is Mauviel marked Williams Sonoma France.be prepared to pay 350-500, but that is a good price especially if the tin is in decent shape, which is almost always the case.
Replying to myself to give an example of a hybrid pan: Lagostina Accamemia with the âLagofusionâ base. Both disk and clad.
Their rondeau is called a âShallow Panâ.
After many years cooking with different type cooking vessels quite similar to a rondeau, I can honestly say that for what I personally cook in these type vessels, whether I use a Fissler OP with SS body and thick aluminium bottom, a Staub or Le Creuset ECI, a 2.5 bimetal Mauviel copper or a 5-ply SS Mauviel it doesnât really effect the final cooking result.
They all work just fine in my gas stovetop and it doesnât matter that much if the sidewalls are 1-2 cm lower or higher. Itâs mostly in our minds it matter.
The more years I cook, the more I realise that one can cook great food in just about every type pan as long as the stovetop and pan is of decent quality.
I know it sounds boring in a cookware sub to say this, but I for one 8 years ago really wanted to believe different type materials of cookware meant the world to how the end result turns out, but here 8 years later I have to admit itâs more basic cooking technique and good quality oven and stovetop that matters.
I still live to use my many different pans, but itâs really more a gimmick than anything else.
Same with kitchen knives. Itâs a gimmick.
If you feel itâs more fun to use a fancy knife chances are youâll cook more often and thatâs fine. But all you really need is 3 cheap Victorinox knives and youâre ready.
Same with a rondeau.
You can cook the same in a stewpot as in a rondeau and the same in a sauter pan as in a rondeau. Will the end result be that different when made in the different cooking vessels ? Maybe, but weâre talking very minor differences.
A good home chef with a good cooking technique using a good quality oven and stovetop can make the dish so it will taste great no matter what type rondea/stewpot.
Beautifully said! I certainly enjoy collecting and using certain kinds of cookware, but most any decent cookware would serve quite adequately.
Considering that you have curated a wide and deep collection of the very best pans, this may not be saying a lot. I doubt youâd be happy cooking on mediocre-and-below cookware. So âdecentâ for you may be different than it is for many other cooks.
The same goes for cooktopsâmy bet is you have benefitted from top-quality hobs for a long time.
Something particular to rondeaux is size. Much larger than 28cm, and on all but the largest and most even hobs or flat tops, average-quality pans tend to suffer. Combine small or weak hobs and the need for a large pan, and few cooks would fail to appreciate a best-quality rondeau.
One of my last Le Creuset pieces is a 28cm âbraiserâ. I still use it at the beach house because it: (a) fits in my Breville oven; and (b) is small enough that it gets evenly heated by my largest radiant hob. But if it was on a builder grade gas hob or induction, I would not be happy using it stovetop.
There are plenty of gimmicks in the cookware trade, but itâd be a gross exaggeration to say itâs all or mostly gimmickry.
Thanks. I wonder what the thickness of the aluminum layer is on that Lagofusion.
And no flared rims. HmmâŠ
Way back when, Andrew or damiano gave a figure. I remember lamenting that the âcladâ layer was so thin in relation to the disk aluminum. I think they were around 1mm and 4-5mm respectively.
Iâm hoping to buy a rondeau this weekend, but Iâve been reading the threads here about them, and Iâm a bit concerned about the depth of the ones Iâve been looking at. Could people elaborate a bit more on the limitations? Iâve read some other columns elsewhere where it didnât seem like it was such an issue, but the sizes specified seem taller than the one Iâm looking at (https://misen.com/products/6-quart-rondeau).
Iâm sure there are other ones, but this is particular one is about where my budget falls, but if people have other suggestions in that range, that would be great. This is my first major pan purchase as an adult, and my birthday present to myself, so I really do want to get something functional and of good quality. Iâve pretty much already ruled out cast iron as an alternate (too expensive and pretty heavy for me, and the things Iâve seen in my price range are probably not of a long-lasting quality either).
This is the classic proportion, so I say go for it.
When I was in the market for a rondeau, I had settled on that very one. Had a heavy tinned 28cm copper one not popped up at an extremely good price, I would be happily cooking in that very pan. Do it!
Oh, good. Iâm going to get it! Very excitedâŠalready planning what Iâm going to cook in it! Thank you!
It is cold here. Last night I made a BB style pot roast and served it with egg noodles. The house smelled great!
I ended up indulging a little more than planned and got a dutch oven and fish spatula too. They werenât supposed to come until Monday, which I was disappointed about, and then showed up Friday. Obviously, I canât really comment about them at this point, but I had a lot of fun with them this weekend. Maybe a little too much fun: both sinks and the dishwasher are full and my feet feel like I hosted Thanksgiving! I mostly do vegetarian meals these days, but the pot roast sounds really good - would love the recipe if you donât mind. Thanks.
