All-Clad Copper Core Dutch Oven

Dutch Oven is to limiting a name for this product. Sure you can use it to slow cook food. You can also use it to make casseroles, soups, boil pasta and more. This pot is smaller than a stock pot yet larger than a sauce pan. This is why my family chose it to start adding pots to our All-Clad collection. With a family of four and entertaining the 5.5 quarts this pot offers is perfect.

All-Clads pots, unlike their frying pans, do not seem to have a learning curve. You still learn to use lower heat, but as most the items we put in pots are covered in a sauce or water there does not seem to be the opportunity to sear as many things to this pot like there is when learning to use a frying pan.

One of the other reviewers intelligently stated that if stranded on a desert island this and their 10" All-Clad frying pan would be what they wanted. I would only alter that statement by replacing the 10" pan with my 12" pan (larger meals).

Haven't fired up this bad boy yet so this review only concerns esthetics and workmanship. This thing beautiful, inside and out. Flawless brushed finish on the inside; flawless gloss finish on the outside. The handles on the sides and on the lid are solidly riveted in place with little or no clearance where food may collect. The shape is both pleasing and ergonomically perfect for what I need. The whole thing gives you a sense of rock solidness. The lid sits perfectly in the rim of the pot and is held in place by a lip. The copper bands on the bottom of the pot and the edge of the rim add a nice "trim" effect.

A little overpriced? Maybe. But you have to take into account that this thing is made in America, not China where labor is...what?...3 cents an hour? And forgive my chauvanism but I like the fact that such workmanship is still done in this country.

Yes, buy this dutch oven. I own over a dozen All-Clad pieces and this is far and away my favorite. It's impossible to burn food in this oven. It cooks so evenly and makes heavenly stews, pot roasts, etc. I start my stews and roasts on the cooktop and finish in the oven at 325 degrees for 1-2 hours. Everything comes out perfectly. This All-Clad piece cleans up very easily. If there is any food particles that my plastic scrubber doesn't remove, an hour's soak with 1/2 inch of vinegar in the bottom of the oven makes it like new. If I had just one piece of cookware to take to a desert island, it would be the All-Clad Copper Core Dutch Oven. If I had two pieces to take, I'd add my All-Clad Copper-core 10 inch fry pan.

I recently retired and became very interested in cooking. My experience with "cheaply" manufactured pans resulted in uneven heat distribution & burnt foods for this novice cook. I made the investment in All Clad pots and pans & haven't back! The quality of product materials and craftsmanship is outstanding. The All Clad products are both functional on the range & beautiful hanging from my pot rack. You will not regret the extra expensive for a product that is worth every penny!

Some years ago I was a professional chef, and I approach cooking in an analytical way, (cooking is science, plating is art). I learned the real value of slow cooking of some foods, especially in classical cuisine and much of ethnic cooking. The trick is a specialized slow-cook oven (expensive restaurant equipment) or a well-made Dutch oven. Assuming you are not reading this from the kitchen of a three star, the obvious choice is the Dutch oven.

My first really usable Dutch oven was a 50-year-old one, 18 pounds of solid aluminum! Eventually it pitted as to become unsafe. I've tried many of the current crop, and was very disappointed at the uneven heat distribution, with the propensity of food to caramelize and eventually burn at the transition point between the flat bottom and the sides (the metal thickness at this point is critical). In my testing, this pot is far and away the best designed, finished, and certainly the best cooking Dutch oven now being produced.

I purchased this item, and am thoroughly satisfied. The price for this superior "slow cooker" is steep, but if you really know how, and when to use this pot, you will marvel at the results, and it really beats the price tag of the restaurant "slow oven!"

Worth the price, and is in my opinion the best by far of all the offerings, spring for one, then really enjoy classical cuisine as it was once prepared!

Eric Scott PhD