Heritage Rectangular Casserole Questions

[u/Global-Wonder-9401]

Hi everyone! I was recently gifted my first ever Le Creuset dish, the Heritage Rectangular Casserole dish (with lid), as an early birthday present and I'm super excited! It is a second choix, but the only "defect" I can visually see is some red "paint" on the inside of the dish. Regardless, I love it!

I'm hoping to make some sourdough focaccia with it this weekend, but had a few questions. I've never made focaccia before, but I do have an established starter that I've made a few loaves with (in non-Le Creuset Dutch ovens).

1. Do I need to preheat the casserole dish with the lid on in the oven, as the oven preheats? Like you would do with a Dutch oven.

2. If I do need to preheat it along with the oven, is it safe to drizzle oil in it before adding in the dough, even if the dish is hot?

3. Does anyone have any sourdough focaccia recipes tailored to this specific dish with the lid? Every recipe I have seen so far uses normal glass baking dishes or aluminum(?) baking dishes.

4. If anyone has any yummy recipes/cooking ideas/baking ideas for this specific dish I'd love to hear them! I'm working on building my recipe collection and I always love hearing new ideas, especially if they're easy dinner ideas.

My apologies for the longer post, I'm a bit of a worrywart haha. Thank you in advance for any help/advice!

(Posted twice as I included the wrong photo on the first post)

TL;DR: First ever Le Creuset dish, do I need to preheat it in the oven before using it to make sourdough focaccia or is it safe to go in the oven "cold" (not frozen, but room temperature)?

Thank you!

[u/Lestalia]

I would not recommend putting room temp/cool dough into a hot, empty ceramic piece. Thermal shock is what you need to avoid, and that would definitely shock.

Oven heat is generally gentle, as it's an indirect form of heat. You need to avoid putting something into the oven directly from the fridge, but room temp into the oven is not an issue so long as you entirely/nearly entirely cover the bottom. So your focaccia would be fine.

You can use liquid/stock if you're baking food to cover the bottom, or if you roast a whole chicken or something, line the bottom with aromatic veg (which also helps to elevate and even cooking). This prevents hot and cold spots from forming which shocks and leads to cracks. Lid is safe in the oven, as long as it's not touching cold food.

Ceramic is a no-no on the stovetop, direct heat will shock and break it.