Enamled Cast Iron Recommendations

My tradional deep fryer has been a cast iron dutch oven on a propane gas burner in my carport. It's been a winning combination that has a relatively small temperature sag, fast recovery,and turns out institutional grade immersion fryer results. Unfortunately, it can also color the taste of some other foods and can be a mess to deal with and maintain with infrequent use. Over the years I've tried several home deep fryers only to be very disappointed. Last try was an Oster that Cook's Illustrated suggested. Now it's a Waring and popular consensus is a T-Fal/Emiril unit. For more $100 bucks or more, they have a fragile build quality and are almost weightless. I've been so disappointed in the past with the next greatest home immersion fryer, that I'm passing on trying either of these. For most families, the consumer ones are great, if you've ever worked with the real deal, you have higher expectations and already know that temperature sag and recovery are the difference between mediocre chicken and fantastic chicken.
 
So, I've been looking into the enameled dutch ovens. Suddenly there's many choices that are practically priced and not destined to be kitchen showpan adornments.  Cook's Illustrated as usual has been pretty inconsistant with their recommendations and testing between both of their magazines as they ammend their test kitchen winner article by article.  Trying to get a consensus from reviews has been difficult. Unfortunately, I live in an area that cast iron cookware is a rarity and most homeware vendors offer nothing or a few pieces, so I'm selecting sight unseen in most cases. I have seen the cheaper Lodge series (6 qt) and the Emiril (display pieces all badly chipped), and of course the Le Creuset which appeared to be finished significantly better then the others. The word now is the Target brand Chef Mate and the Walmart featured La Tramontina are the ones to buy and are a poor person version of the Le Creuset. Nice to know but neither stores in my area have them in their inventory or plan to.
 
My main interest is using one as a fryer and can be fitted with a correctly fitted mesh basket. (Yes I use a Chinese skim too). I'm interested mostly in inner enamel quality and care and of course the heaviest inner core in the 6-7q range.
 
Any real world suggestions?
 
 
 
 

I know Le Creuset is very expensive but in my opinion it is the best.

I am lucky enough to have a Le Creuset "outlet" store close by in Leesburg, Va. I have a round 7qt...it might be a little more than that I don't remember, dutch oven (they called it a French oven). I also have a 6qt round French oven that is wider than the 7qt, I believe it is actually a bit larger than 6qt's.

I bought them both at the outlet I mentioned about 8 years ago, they are fantastic pots. Neither has chipped yet, they both have a small discoloration on one of the handles, I guess that's why they were sold at the outlet. It's been awhile but I believe I payed around $95 for each pot. I think at the time they both retailed for around $145-150.

I would imagine if you dropped a pan on something hard the enamel may chip, or if you'd plunge a hot pan into a sink full of cold water the enamel may crack......but it seems very durable to me. If you're used to using a cast iron dutch oven there really is no difference between the two other than the maintenance, no seasoning or special cleaning technique with the Le Creuset.

Don't misunderstand me I still love and use all of my cast iron, but like you mentioned I'm hesitant to use my cast iron for acidic foods, plus it can be a pain cleaning and maintaining the cast iron. That's the beauty of the Le Creuset.

Care couldn't be easier, they are dishwasher safe....but I always hand wash with a nylon scrubbing pad. Dry them off and put them away, that's all there is to it.

DawnT


The word now is the Target brand Chef Mate and the Walmart featured La Tramontina are the ones to buy and are a poor person version of the Le Creuset. Nice to know but neither stores in my area have them in their inventory or plan to.
 
  Any real world suggestions?
   

You can order the Tramontina from Walmart.com and get free shipping if you have it delivered to the store.  Here's the link for it.  There are about 86 reviews of this on their site and it looks like the biggest criticism of it is the knob on the lid.

If the knob is a potential problem for you on the Tramontina, you can buy a replacement Le Creuset knob here.

No doubt at all LeCreuset for any enameled cast iron is the winner, expensive, but if properly treated its a lifetime buy.  I've has some pieces for 30 years and still going strong.

I have 3x Le Creuset pots/dutch ovens in varying sizes and they are absolutely the work horses of my kitchen.  They're a good 15 years old, cook and clean up like champs,  and still the first thing I reach for.

Money very well spent, and I don't give compliments out lightly.

Also Dawn if you have a Tuesday Morning store near you, that's a great place to pick up Le Creuset or other high-end stuff that you don't really want to spend retail or anywhere near it for.  You might have to haunt the place for a while.

I've also seen LeCreuset at TJ Maxx.  I have a 6 qt. Martha Stewart enameled cast iron.  I got it at a great price at Macy's ($40), and in 6 months of use, it's cooked very well.  Don't know if it will be as durable in the long run as my LeCreuset pieces.

Yeah, and I forgot Marshall's and Ross--same kind of thing.

They don't appear to be very common down here. Most place have little or no cast iron or enemeled pieces. I was given a suggestion by my cousin to check out Marshall's for a Chantal brand. Nothing in the store that was cast iron. We do have a Tuesday Morning and Ross, but I've never thought to check them out. My last recollection of both was lots of shopworn, open boxes and a general mess of inexpensive homeware. I'll have to stop in and take a look. Thanks Nancy. Ross here is one of those crazy and dishelved places that you leave with your nerves in a frazzle. I was leaning towards Jman's suggestion and ordering the Tramontina from Walmart and picking it up. That's over a 20 mile drive for me in mostly heavy traffic. The more I've been searching the net and reading opinions and reveiws, the more I've been convinced not to waste my time and effort and go with Le Creuset.

I have to respond to the comment about Tuesday Morning. I'm sorry y'all have a bad one. Ours is great... clean, orderly.

There are some off brands, but I have bought top brands there. I particularly like the "weird food isle." All kinds of imported and gourmet items that our regular stores don't carry.

I do not have a Le Creuset but I do have one of the Walmarts and one of the Martha Stewart's and they have been great.  I bought both on price and for about a third of a Le Creuset I think it was a good gamble.

These are my first two enameled cast iron cookers.  If I had known how useful they were I might have sprung for the Le Creuset's.

I have LeCreuset pans & pots.  Rarely use.  My 40+ year old cast iron utensils (similar to Lodge) do the trick 100% of the time.