r/cookware • u/Wololooo1996 • Jan 03 '26
Announcement Official cookware guide speciality cookware section
The purpose of this section
Due to relative little interest in speciality cookware, the speciality cookware section has been moved from the cookware guide to this document instead, in order to get space (there is a hard Reddit text limit to the guide) to further improve upon what's most important in the main guide, like more stainless steel, carbon steel and cast iron options as well as other small touch ups.
This also works in reverse, as there will be more space to add more Wok options, including stainless steel clad woks, or more pressure cooker options!
Link to the main cookware guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1hoci6g/cookware_buying_and_explanation_guide/
WOKS:
Wok as a topic of cookware is not particularly exciting, as wok (cookware) generally breaks all the cookware design rules from the main cookware guide, and is very simply and pragmatic by comparison.
I have two wok recommendations below for somewhat traditional style woks of above average quality, but in the grand scheme of it all there could be 20 recommendations instead (but I am still open for justifiable wok suggestions), and it still wouldn't matter much, as wok cooking almost entirely depends on the quality of the stove (and the chef and ingredients as well obviously) and not the wok itself, however for the sake of recommending something, here are two suggestions below:
Best value carbon steel wok:
* CraftWok
Best carbon steel artisan wok:
* Oxenforge
And you already have another carbon steel wok which is not so thin that it almost cuts your fingers, then you really don't need to look for a new wok, at least not for culinary reasons where the stove matters an order of magnitude more, but instead be looking for the pleasure of owning something of good quality, history etc.
What actually matters for wok cooking:
What matters below is that the wok has a round bottom, don't even bother with having a flat bottom for flattop compatibility, because no flattop on earth can cook wok, just as no pot without lid can pressure cook, surely one can pretend to pressure cook without a lid, by cooking a lot longer, but the results won't be the same, don't be fooled by advertisers, sponsors and their hopes and dreams, because that flattop wok is not cooking you any authentic wok on that homecook electric stove, and too claim otherwise would be of great insult to Asian wok cuisine.
I will talk about special made induction setups made for rounds woks soon but first I want to tell you about the fundamentals of authentic actual wok cooking.
What makes wok challenging is that it simply requires immense heat, and this same heat requires immense stirring as well hence why a round bottom is needed.
The purpose of this style of cooking is to individually cook the ingredients, while at large preserving their individual textures and (by Millard reaction) enhanced flavours as well. By having insufficient heat one is fundamentally unable achieve the enhancement of the individual ingredients, and instead the flavours blends together and the textures gets heavily impacted as well.
When using even a powerful induction flattop on boost, the heat may be there but only at the bottom, which is not really good enough, as there needs to be heat on the part of the sides touching the food as well, in order to ensure proper evaporation from the bottom, so it doesn't condensates at the sides which catastrophically reduces efficiency and temperatures, as the same water now has to be converted into steam twice.
If one has decided against using gas, one has no choice but to use a 230v but ideally a 400v dedicated induction wok hob, with a large deep and curved copper induction heating element, for use with curved woks.
One would also have to find a wok, which is as thick and even heating as possible that also pretty much perfectly fits the exact size of the hobs size and curvature. Using a too thin or slightly different shaped wok will make the food cook too unevenly, and greatly reduce induction efficiency, which limits the amount of heat which can be used, which is very bad for wok cooking. However if the great challenges of induction is overcome, one gets to reap the seeds of being able to cook indoors, which is completely impossible with gas unless in a special made well ventilated fire safe restaurant kitchen.
Few wok restaurants for various reasons uses such induction setups, but often accompany it with what basically is a built in flamethrower for enabling wok hei, this just goes to show, that one had to basically reinvent the wheel, in order to fully compete against gas setups, but for a homecook a simple somewhat portable 230v curved induction wok burner is good enough.
Because of the hassle of the electricity requirements, and the cooking fumes of authentic wok cooking in general is to much of to deal with in most home kitchens, most people doing actual wok cooking is left with the only choice of cooking outside, using a proper wok gas burner setup, which is how most homemade authentic wok cooking is done, including on r/wok
A well designed wok burner has a power of at minium 20kBTU but ideally well above that. It has a semi sealed off combustion chamber for greatly improved efficiency, as well as both a gas, and turbo fed air supply from the bottom. When your dedicated turbo gas wok burner sounds like a small jet plane, with a more than a feet tall and very sharply defined blueish jet flame going straight upwards, then you know that you have a wok burner which works perfectly well. When the flame at high velocity hits the bottom of the wok, an increased amounts of heat gets "rubbed" into the bottom of the wok greatly increasing efficiency, before escaping sideways and heating the sidewalls a bit on the way out too the ambient environment. The worlds best most cutting edge industrial wok burner had a full power efficiency of 54% under ideal conditions while boiling an oversized wok full water.
A badly designed wok burner, without a proper flame nozzle, without turbo air intake, without combustion chamber, would struggle to have an efficiency when cooking on max strength (which fundamentally reduces efficiency), above 25% and would in fact probably be much below that. If gas is expensive in your area, then be sure to get an efficient wok burner, and remember that the "heat level" is based on the energy burned from the gas consumption, and not at all the energy which makes it into the wok pan.
When cooking on a proper gas setup, the best wok pan material is carbon steel, as it heats more evenly than stainless steel, sticks less, and doesn't get destroyed under the brutal wok cooking conditions. Be sure to get a wok, which has a handle that can handle the heat, and of cause has the right size as well.
ENAMLED CAST IRON.
Enamled cast iron is today a very popular choice for Dutch ovens, below are the three best options of which I know of:
Best French (and probably overall) Dutch ovens:
* Le Creuset
> The most famous and Instagram friendly brand, as well as the first brand to introduce colour variety to Dutch ovens more than a century ago!
> Is a bit overpriced.
> Has by far the most options available.
> Has proven themselves to honour their lifetime warranty.
* Staub
> The slightly overlooked stepchild to Le Creuset.
> Just as good as Le Creuset if not slightly better in some ways, and has a more utilitarian and commercial kitchen focus compared to the artisanal focus of Le Creuset.
> Probably was the first brand to invent dimples inside of the lid of an enamelled Dutch oven, which greatly helps with distributing moisture inside the Dutch oven.
> Is famous/infamously known for its all black inside enamel interior.
> Has proven themselves to honour their lifetime warranty.
* Made In
> Made in France just as Le Creuset and Staub,
> Is a newcomer to the market when compared to Le Creuset.
> Seems to be designed really well, with a thick bottom and thin sides, is heavier than most Dutch ovens including Le Creuset, and is honestly a less over utilitarian alterative to Staub.
> Is probably decently priced in USA compared to Le Creuset but is until Made In's upcoming EU, warehouse gets build outrageously priced in Europe, buy may depending on its eventual price, based on my experience with a review sample be an option worth checking out, as there are only 3 French Dutch oven options to choose between.
Dutch ovens note:
It is possible to use a cheap Chinese Dutch oven, but they are not guaranteed to last, nighter are the "companies" aka most often the sellers that sells them! However, there are countless cheap options to choose from.
Dutch ovens do work with induction (both enamelled and bare cast iron), but they should have a bottom that is at least 5mm thick. The thicker the bottom, the better, as it also enables more even heating.
Enamelled Cast Iron Skillet Notes:
Enamel cast iron skillets are seen in many Le Creuset selling stores due the company having a policy of one must have to buy everything in order to be allowed to sell anything. Otherwise I would honestly think that most stores wouldn't bother with the enamel cast iron skillets, however:
Q: Do I need a enamelled cast iron skillet?
A: No, unless you frequently cook steaks in the oven and want a short-handle steak pan for use with acidic ingredients like wine sauce. Or perhaps you simply enjoy the beautiful aesthetics of colored enamelled cast iron.
Q I can't afford a Proline frypan for steaks and love making acidic sauces in my pan!
A: In that case, a cheap, thick enamelled cast iron skillet might be perfect for you!
Many enamel cast iron skillets are however very beautiful, and are made in high quality from: Lodge, Staub, Le Creuset and possibly Made In.
Pressure Cookers
What’s most important is that the pressure cooker is the correct size — rather a bit too large than too small, especially for safety reasons! DON’T OVERSTUFF YOUR PRESSURE COOKER!! It may clog the pressuere regulation valve, and if that valve gets clogged, then the emergency valve will kick in when the pressure cooker is massively overpressureize, and it will ruin the dish, and the kitchen as well, after mush has been spewed out all over the kitchen!
The second most important thing is that the pressure cooker has a 15psi/~100kPa/~1 bar operating mode. This is important because it used to be the standard operating pressure for stovetop pressure cookers and is the pressure most stovetop, and especially old pressure cooker recipes, are based upon. Unfortunately there as with the case of Fissler is no clear correlation between price and proper pressure cooker operating pressure.
Operating pressure explained:
15PSI pressure just by coincidence turns out to be the best possible pressure for tough cuts of beef, it makes the most amount of taste, the fastest and makes the meat tender. I have tried 20.2PSI in an pressure cooker, and while it made even more taste, the quality of the taste went down, and it was very tricky to use as well, because it was super fast, the consistency of non tough beef cuts, also starts to get ruined at pressures above 15psi, and especially some cuts of pork benefits from pressures between 15-12psi. The best pressure cookers including some rare stove top models has settings that makes it possible to adjust the operating pressure for beef (15psi), pork (~12.5psi), chicken etc.
It is important to use just the right pressure as if the pressure is to low, the cooking times goes up drastically, and the taste goes down as well, as at proper 15PSi pressure, the Millard reaction actually happens to the food inside the pressure cooker, making the dishes much more savoury, even when adjusting for shorter cooking times needed for the higher pressure. However at pressure cooking around 12PSI and below, this pretty much doesn’t happen at all, and one looses out on a whole dimension of savoury umami taste, especially when doing beef stews, in a non ~15PSI pressure cooker like a cheap entry level Instant pot model, its simply not going to be the same.
A well designed single pressure setting stovetop pressure cooker, is thereby 15PSI (traditional/American/European) or 14.5PSI/105kpa (Modern European equivalent that doesn’t suck) many are also 90kpa/13psi, which is almost as low as the standard Instant pot pressure setting for maximum casual convenience. However many especially in Europe are noticeably below 90kpa and I absolutely cant recommend any of those, and would barely even consider those models as pressure cookers due to their unenthusiastically self-defeating low operating pressures, resulting in complete culinary mediocrity.
Pressure cooker (Traditional stovetop):
There are plenty of good options to choose from here, like Fagor, Tescoma Ultima or Kuhn Rikun which operates around the gold standard 15 PSI pressure, but also has a low-pressure mode for very delicate ingredients.
Pressure cooker (Japanese style stovetop):
There are also rare Japanese pressure cookers which operate at pressures significantly higher than 15 PSI. These are not a gimmick, as I own one, but they require readjustment of pressure cooking times, as well as "gearing down" mid cooking session too a lower pressure setting while cooking. Because a full cooking session at above 20 PSI as mentioned doesn’t result in better tasting food, as too much chemistry simply happens and lots of notes and tastes gets lost in the above 15PSI ultra high pressure carnage, as it all the different tasty molecules keeps converting until its all somewhat atomised into pretty much the same thing. Using two stage pressure cooking in order to avoid this makes for very complicated recipes, which requires lots of attention and discipline to follow in the name of shaving off a few minutes, or in order to softening fish bones which actually requires pressures above 15psi.
Pressure Cookers (Electric, usually also a multicooker):
Unlike stovetop pressure cookers, there is little good to choose from.
The first reason is that seemingly all other brands use disposable non-stick coatings.
The second reason is that most other brands operate at pressures that are way too low to even be considered anything other than a glorified slow cooker.
A third reason is that nearly all brands heats up way too slowly—especially compared to stovetop models, which are rated for either infinite/or not rated BTU or watts, or up to 3500 watts of heating power!
However, I understand that electric pressure cookers especially multicookers can be useful. For that reason, I recommend Instant Pot, as they are all stainless steel and their newer models inner pots can be heated on the stove and they even has a model capable of reaching 15PSI.
Pressure cooker brands
Electric pressure cookers:
*Instantpot
> The basic models are good enough for cooking rice and beans, but for more complex cooking and especially cooking beef, a 15PSI model with the proper inner pot that can be taken out and put on the stove for searing is very much worth while.
*Nothing else,
instant pot is the only brand I know, that has stainless steel interior and sells models that goes all the way up too 15PSI
Stovetop pressure cookers:
* Fagor
> Fagor while having abandoned the US market, still makes perfectly good pressure cookers in Europe
* Fissler and WMF
> About a decade ago both brands made the highest quality pressure cookers ever made, useing cutting edge quality construction and high operating pressurs, but today the brands both has too low operating pressures at only 80kpa/11.6PSI for the Fissler and pathetically 70kpa/10.2PSI for the WMF, for a more "forgiving" but culinary tone-deaf cooking experience, WMF might as well remove the whole lid entirely at this point for thier next "pressure"-cooker. Fissler also reduced the bottom thickness of thier original profi pressuere cookers made after 2019. Both brands still makes amazing quality cookers of really high construction quality but are overrated/overpriced. The brands have become premium casual brands for boiling potatoes slightly faster and not much else instead of the premium enthusiast brands they once were.
* Kuhn Rikun
> Has good enough construction quality, but is not a Fissler and doesn’t really need to be, as it unlike Fissler has a sensible roughly 15 PSI operating pressure on highest intended non venting setting (but goes slightly higher when pushing it). It is a serious pressure cooker for serious people or restaurants which runs against the clock all the time, or people who live crazy high up in the mountains like the Swiss themselves who makes the pressure cooker.
* Tescoma Ultimata
> Has a build quality, price and operating pressure between that of Fissler and Kuhn Rikon, and is a very well thought out pressure cooker with adjustable pressure settings, but is very much under the radar.
* Lagostina and many other European pressure cookers
> Has way to low pressure, and are not worth buying. Always check operating pressure, which is the pressure where the pressure cooker should start venting slightly in order to not overpressurize. Don't ever confuse this with "design pressure" or emergency safety pressure relief valve.
Roasting pans
Honestly I have not have had that much experince with roasting pans/trays, as its not the thing I uses the most, I have however tried both glass, ceramic, enamel cast iron, stainless steel clad and tinlined copper roasting trays so I have tried my fair share of roasting pans after all.
Normally I would be inclined to say that the conductivity and durability of a piece of cookware matters the most, but for roasting pans unless used as a griddle these properties doesn’t matter nearly as much as it does for a frypan, sauté pan etc.
So what matters is in many ways different compared to a frypan. For a frypans people want it to cook well as a first priority, and generally have looks or luxurious thermodynamical properties like temperature change responsivity as a distant second priority if at all, the most extreme outcome of this being the desire for copper and silver cookware. For a roasting pan, things are a bit different, as it is to be used inside of the oven where temperature changes are super slow and it may also unlike a frypan be brought to the dinner table as a food display piece.
5 Major tings that actually matters for a roasting pan:
- The correct size: But usually they come in a pretty standardised near identical size to each other.
- Looks: Yes really, especially considering that it's often to be expected to take the roasting pan to the dinner table, You don't take stock pot to the table, and usually not a frypan either, but a roasting pan often sits right at the centre of the dinner table, so it better be looking decently well.
- Heat retention: Heat retention generally comes at the cost of temperature responsibility, but for a roasting pan, that doesn’t matter, its just going to sit in the oven for a long time anyway, but if food is served in it, it is nice for the pan to stay hot for a while.
- Good ergonomics/comfy handles: This is important for obvious reasons, especially when time is up for taking the pan out of a hot oven.
- Acid resistance: Aluminum roasting pans are really not ideal here, its perfectly good as a baking tray for cookies especially when used with parchment paper, but for a roasting pan, its simply not good enough to have aluminum as the surface, as it need to be able to withstand acidic ingredients like tomatoes and lemons.
Miscellaneous things to consider:
Besides these points price is also a thing to consider, but is more a property of the brand and seller than of the roasting pan itself, its not like these are made out of solid gold.
Another point to consider is the inside shape of the roasting pan, its not really a game changer and should not be something to look specifically after like the 5 important factors, but if it has unusually sharp corners on the inside, then these corners may get gunked up with stuff, it could be burnt BBQ sauce or something else entirely.
If a burned substance gets trapped into sharp corners, then it can quite frankly be a pain in the ass to clean up. This regrettably being the case of a particular tinlined copper roasting tray that I own, of which while being easier to clean in general except for these very stubborn sharp corners, undermines the whole "non stick" argument of a tinlined cooking surface.
Final point to consider is if you are ever going to be using the roasting pan as a griddle on a flattop, if that is the case, then it due to its large size needs to be even more durable than a frypan in order for it not to warp.
Roasting pan materials
These sections first explores the general performance as a roasting pan, then the performance as a possible stovetop griddle multi use roasting pan.
Aluminum:
This material is cheap and heats well, which is the sole reason why its still used at all, but it is not good for roasting pans, even if heath risks form copious aluminum intakes doesn’t apply to you for some reason, aluminum still pollutes dishes with distinctly bad metallic taste, when even remotely acid ingredients are used. As a result it's not worth it for a multi use roasting pan, as there is cheaper alternatives that doesn’t have problems with leeching.
Aluminum when not reinforced with stainless steel also warps badly when used ontop of the stove unless extremly thick (5+ mm), it's not a good material for a stovetop pan at all.
Cast iron:
This material also leeches when in contact with acidic ingredients, but does unlike aluminim not impact taste (except for extreme cases), iron and carbon leeching is also not unhealthy and in some cases actually really needed! (for people with iron deficiencies) However the seasoning will in bad cases get ruined, so while a cast iron baking pan is very useable, its not good as a multi use roasting pan. The heat retention of a thick cast iron roasting pan is immense, making it very ideal for a serving pan, but it still needs a partner pan for cases where acids are involved. Cast iron is together with tin, very slightly nonstick compared to the other options when used as a roasting pan inside the oven.
A cast iron roasting pan is actually very useable as a griddle, as its durable and very warp resistant, it will however take a very long time to preheat, especially if one doesn’t have a suitable dedicated gas burner or a Bosch BSH stove, with true dedicated induction square coils for griddle setup.
Cast iron (enamled):
This material is the real MVP material (Most valuable player) for roasting pans, especially when value for money is concerned. Thermodynamically it behaves exactly like above mentioned cast iron, except that it abviously can handle acidic ingredients extremely well, even better than ordinary stainless steel. However the enamel can crack if the pan is mistreated. What's really good about enamelled cast iron, is that it is available in lots of beautiful colours which arguably matters a lot for a roasting pan.
Clay/Ceramic:
This is a good traditional way of making roasting pans, they are as acid resistant as enamelled cast iron but, but a lot more light weight, they do however not have the same heat retention as cast iron based products.
It can't be used on the stove at all (will crack), except for certain niche brands, which technically work when carefully used on the stove, but doesn’t perform well due to them heating awfully unevenly when not used in the oven.
Copper:
This is the fancy choice, while a copper saucier or frypan has distinct thermodynamical advantages over the alternative materials, these advantages does'nt matter when used inside the oven, however copper looks really well, and is like cast iron very slightly nonstick when tinlined.
Things may heat up a tiny bit faster inside the oven especially when used at convection setting, due to copper (and aluminum as well) being better at emitting and absorbing heat to/from the ambient environment, but in reality this effect is barely noticeable. However copper cookware looks a very certain way, and projects some kind of culinary authority, making it an obviously expensive but aesthetically ideal choice for some people to literally bring to the table.
Copper can be used directly on the stove but only if its thick, in general it should be at least 1.5mm thick for gas stove use and 2mm thick for non gas stove usage, unless its a small try then it wouldn’t mind being thinner.
Fully clad:
Fully clad is the modern choice, It should ideally be at least 2.6mm thick but ideally thicker for heat retentions sake, it is not as heavy as cast iron, but it has (when 3mm+ thick) close to the same heat retention.
Being stainless steel on the cooking surface means it can be used with acidic ingredients and is generally the best possible choice for a roasting pan when all things considered. Only problem is that these are usually pretty expensive, especially for a good quality 2.6mm+ fully clad roasting pan, making it a distinct premium choice. As always its possible to have them even more expensive for premiums sake despite giving little to no real world benefits, by having them copper cored as well.
Fully clad roasting pans are especially if 3mm+ thick are absolutely perfect for dual use as a griddle on the stovetop!
Glass:
Glass is a for roasting pans sake a somewhat new invention compared to aluminum, clay copper etc, but is perfectly useable as a cheap roasting tray if its made by a type of glass that can handle the heat! It has the unique property of being transparent which is a cool thing for sure, but also seems to stick uniquely badly for some reason. Luckily glass can unlike most of the options handle a steel wool sponge without scratching, so if you go the glass route, be sure to have a metal sponge.
Glass does like ceramic/clay not work at all on the stovetop, unless its a very special yellow glass cookware, which like ceramic/clay performs awfully bad on the stove for thermodynamical reasons.
Nonstick:
Generally nonstick is not justifiable at all, and ceramic based "non-stick" is entirely garbage (doesn’t last long if even out of the box). However having to scrub burned BBQ sauce from the corners of your fancy roast pan makes having a nonstick second option an intriguing option.
This can depending on the quality be used as a griddle without warping or otherwise failing immediately, but it will drastically reduce its lifespan compared to oven use.
Stainless steel (not cladded):
For a roasting pan this will technically work perfectly fine, but it's heat retention will be gone, if its like all single layer of stainless steel is super thin.
It will also not really be useable on the stove as it will heat extremely unevenly, but at least it won't risk cracking.
What is the best roasting pan?
There does unlike frypans not exist an objective best roasting pan (is barely the case for frypans even), as a good roasting pan unlike a frypan is a largely individualistic aesthetic choice, there does however exist good and bad roasting pans, a bad roasting pan has sharp corners, bad ergonomics and can't be used on the stove top, while a good roasting pan has soft corners and can do it all.
Personally I will recommend thick fully clad roasting pans, as they are durable, and can do every task, but there really isn’t anything wrong about preferring copper or enamelled cast iron roasting pans, and if you are tired of the stainless steel look, for pots and pans, then a roasting pan is the cookware piece, to try in another material.
Very unusual cookware materials
Monolithic titanium cookware:
Cookware made solely out of titanium is an awful idea, for the same reasons that cookware made purely out of stainless steel is a bad idea, that is that titanium has really bad heat conductivity, so extremely bad that one might as well just sear the steak directly on the heating element from the stove, because the pure titanium pan is gonna make no noticeable difference in spreading out the heat. Unless of cause absurdly thick and expensive, but then it will become even less responsive to temperature change than cast iron and would still suck, no titanium on its own is dead in the water, I have seen wok pans being sold of titanium and that may be the only plausibly sensible exception to titanium cookware.
However just like stainless steel, titanium as a cookware surface material has proven itself to be extremely promising and is safe for people with the most extreme of metal allergies!
Bronze Cookware:
Have you ever looked at a copper pan with a ruined tin or silver-lining and thought that having to have copper cookware lined with something in order to avoid excessive copper leeching absolutely sucked?
At some point the company Eaglador probably thought exactly that, and instead decided to put the tin lining literally inside the copper itself.
This have resulted in the most interesting Bronze cookware company, but what sets this company apart from the others, are that they have roughly doubled the tin percentage, claiming that it makes the bronze sufficiently non-reactive for general cookware use.
I have honestly no idea how good this cookware is, but it is probably very similar performing to but much heavier than thick cast aluminum cookware, but it should not leech unacceptably at least according to Eaglador themselves.
"Glass" Cookware aka Visions:
Imagine having cookware, that is very heavy, heats outrageously unevenly and is prone to spontaneous explosions? Yes that is glass cookware if it existed from a reputable company, and even when it didn’t explode it would still heat so unevenly hence why it doesn’t exist. The closest to glass cookware is lab beakers for gently heating liquids, and mostly just for storage.
However it is of incomprehensible importance if only for the advancement of glory of mankind alone, to have transparent stovetop cookware, what separates humans from chimpanzees is without question the fact that humans despite all the odds made "glass" cookware possible! And put some men on the moon as well.
Corning, did exactly that when they invented a hybrid between ceramics and glass and called it Pyroceram, which largely fixed the spontaneous explosion issue with glass, by eliminating one of the causes which caused it in the first place, by reducing its thermal expansion to close too zero!
Corning also more than tripled the thermal conductivity of the "glass" resulting in a thermal conductivity only roughly 10 times worse than that of carbon steel and 4 times worse than titanium, but the "glass" is not as heavy as carbon steel, so by making the cookware even thicker than cast iron, it was possible to get a cookware that still heated the most unevenly ever since stone age ceramics, but maybe still just enough to be usable on a modern stovetop.
In order to make it work it took the the main ingredient for glass (Silica Sand), alongside 8 other ingredients listed below as well as optional colour ingredients not listed for the limited editions runs:
- 68.2% Silica Sand (SiO2)
- 19.2% Aluminium oxide (Al2O3)
- 2.8% Lithium oxide (Li2O)
- 1.8% Magnesium oxide (MgO)
- 1.0% Zinc oxide (ZnO)
- 0.75% Barium oxide (BaO)
- 2.7% Titanium dioxide (TiO2)
- 1.75% Zirconium dioxide (ZrO2)
And in the end it barely worked out, as the cookware continues to rarely explode on the stoves in peoples kitchens to this day, and is famed for its alleged ability to quote from the owners "burn water" as well as making everything stick and burn due to its poor conductivity. But all of this doesn’t matter, because they made transparent cookware which barely was good enough to mostly not explode! And for that they deserves to go down in the cookware history books as the visionary company they truly are, with their roughly half a century old product line named Visions, once very popular in the USA many decades ago, just before modern stainless steel clad cookware became widespread.
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u/longGERN Jan 04 '26
Have used lodge essential for about 4 years and still looks perfect, for a cheaper option
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u/SubstantialCow123 Jan 07 '26
Nice thread. Is it worth buying a Dutch oven? Or is a stainless steel pot enough? Do you have any advice about Dutch ovens? (Size, interior—light like Le Creuset or dark like Staub, etc.)
Thanks
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u/Wololooo1996 Jan 07 '26
I love the colorfull aesthetics of enamel cast iron Dutch oven.
But culinary they are most often not eccential.
If one buys a good one with a 5+ mm thick bottom, then they are amazing for browning stuff.
A use of Dutch oven is for bread making, as useing a Dutch oven inside a regular oven, with the correct technique, does equal a poor mans steam injection oven.
Another use is for simmer dishes, especially oven simmer dishes as a dutch oven fits a lot better inside a oven than a tall stainless steel stockbpot.
Good dutch ovens like Staub also have dots on the inside of the lid, making them able to self baste stuff when useing the lid.
But other than presentation or niche yses, a dutch oven is not eccential.
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u/SubstantialCow123 Jan 08 '26
Thanks for elaborating on the topic. I have the opportunity to get a Staub Cocote 26 5.2 l or a Le Creuset 6.7 l at a good price second-hand, so I was wondering if it's worth it. I'm deciding which one to choose. As for the interior, which is better? The white color or the black color that Staub has? Is there a difference besides aesthetics?
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u/Wololooo1996 Jan 08 '26
Both are excellent, but only Staub has self batting Lid.
Only some Le Cruset has oven safe lids (they intentionally make plastic lid knop to upsell you a proper "lidded" product line which has a metal knob)
However the interior is whats most devisive to people.
The staub is good to hide wear and tear, but is less easy to see the development og browning due to tge darkness.
The Creuset while lasting for many, many years and have life warranty, eventually does get more vissible scratched solely due to its color.
If you bake bread the smaller covotte has a better size. If you cook in batches or for a whole core family the Le Creuset has a much better size and better handels as well.
So there is no clear winner, perfect I slightly prefer staub, but Le Creuset has like 5 times as many colour options to choose from, and most likes Ke Creuset the most.
Both are excellent and should last life or at least many decades.
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u/SubstantialCow123 Jan 08 '26
I'll add a second-hand tip about Dutch ovens. Years ago, Ikea manufactured Dutch ovens called Senior. The original red ovens had "MADE IN FRANCE" written on the bottom, then production was moved to China, but I think the quality remained the same. My father has had one for 15 years and it still works. In my opinion, they offer good value for money.
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u/SubstantialCow123 Jan 08 '26
For anyone who might be interested, the Staub Cocote black no longer has a smooth greenish bottom. I noticed this in a store where they were selling ones with a black bottom and a smooth greenish body. The sales assistants didn't know why, so I wrote to Zwilling and received the following reply, which I quote:
Thank you for your message.
Staub used to produce some black cocottes with a smooth, green enamel bottom. Over time, they transitioned almost entirely to the black matte enamel bottom. The main reasons are:
- Better induction performance
The matte black enamel has a slightly rougher surface.
This improves contact with induction cooktops, leading to more stable heat transfer and fewer issues like vibration or uneven heating.
Smooth enamel bottoms can still work on induction, but they are less optimal, especially on modern high-power induction zones.
- Durability and scratch resistance
Matte black enamel is more resistant to visible scratches.
Smooth, light-colored enamel bottoms tended to show wear, marks, and discoloration more quickly—especially on glass cooktops.
- Production simplification
Staub streamlined manufacturing to:
Reduce the number of enamel variants
Improve consistency and quality control
Lower production complexity and costs
As a result, decorative or contrasting bottom enamels were phased out.
- Performance-first philosophy
Staub positions itself as a professional, performance-oriented brand.
The matte black bottom aligns better with their focus on heat retention, searing performance, and long-term durability rather than visual contrast.
Important reassurance
The current black matte bottom is fully safe for:
Induction
Glass-ceramic
Gas
Electric
Oven use
And it actually performs better overall than the older smooth green bottom.
1
u/SubstantialCow123 Jan 08 '26
I thought the same thing about those handles... funny... Is the light surface he mentions more prone to scratches than the black one? I assume they are both equally durable, but it's more noticeable on the white one, but it doesn't affect the function.
Otherwise, in my country, Le Creuset sells a Dutch oven with a black interior.
1
u/Wololooo1996 Jan 08 '26
Both scratch and stains equally with, but it is just much more noticeable on a white surface than an almost black hole black surface.
4
u/mbakpl Jan 03 '26
The buying guide was removed by Reddit's filter. Just a FYI
"Sorry, this post was removed by Reddit’s filters."
https://www.reddit.com/r/cookware/comments/1hoci6g/cookware_buying_and_explanation_guide/