How to Choose the Right Dutch Oven for Your Menu

Imagine a great simmering pot of stew, full of proteins, vegetables, and spices, that everyone can fill their bowls from and sit down around the table while the scents fill the kitchen. Or picture a loaf of bread rising, with steam seeping through decorative cracks in the crust. A quality Dutch oven fits in both those scenarios and hundreds more. Dutch ovens, sometimes known as cocottes, are favorites in kitchens across the country for their reliability, durability, and versatility. These heavy pots cook food in a unique way and produce results that are hard to replicate in any other dish.

What Is a Dutch Oven?

A Dutch oven, or cocotte, is a wide, relatively shallow cooking pot with a tight lid, but the description pales compared to what a Dutch oven can actually do. Cocotte is simply a French term for what most Americans know as a Dutch oven. This fabulous cooking vessel can be used to braise, bake, stew, fry, saute, and even boil.

Dutch ovens come in various shapes, sizes, colors, weights, prices, and finishes. From small, 3-quart pieces to 9-quart feast makers, there's an option for nearly any preference or application. They're perfect for one-pot meals, which makes them a residential go-to as well as a commercial staple.

Understanding the Dutch Oven

What makes a Dutch oven work differently from any other pot? In many ways, it does function the same as a stew pot — it's round, made of metal, and great at cooking liquid products. But the Dutch oven boasts a few features that drastically alter the final product.

How are Dutch ovens different?

• Dutch ovens are heavy, and the heavy lid keeps moisture sealed inside the pot.
• Dutch ovens are usually made of cast iron, which maintains heat and ensures an even, thorough bake.
• Dutch ovens baste food with its own juices, catching the rising steam and dripping it back down onto the food.

A Dutch oven suffuses food with flavor without drying it out. With a long, slow cook time, stews, soups, and braised dishes become mouth-wateringly tender without requiring a lot of attention from the chef. This is great for busy home chefs as well as commercial enterprises that want to cook large quantities of delicious foods without needing someone to constantly stir a pot.

Choosing a Dutch Oven

If all the benefits of this piece of cookware have swayed you and you're ready to try one out, you're faced with a question: Which Dutch oven should you choose? While they all share the beneficial features listed below, there are a few decisions you'll have to make before settling on the perfect Dutch oven for your kitchen.

Choosing a size

Camp Dutch ovens

Dutch ovens are frequently used on camping trips, as they redistribute the heat of a campfire evenly throughout the food and don't require a lot of attention to use. Camp Dutch ovens have legs and a wire handle that make them simpler to use with an open flame, but these features will get in the way if you intend to cook on a stovetop. They still provide an eye-catching rustic aesthetic, for those looking for decorative cookware.

How to Use a Dutch Oven

While there are intricately complicated recipes involving multiple cooking styles in a single Dutch oven pot, our favorite is the simple way: add all your ingredients to the Dutch oven, turn the stove on, and wait. These versatile cast iron pieces can do everything from stewing gumbo to baking bread, creating a moist, consistent environment for whatever you're cooking inside them.

You'll have to take care when it's time to clean your Dutch oven. Cast iron must be hand washed and dried or it'll lose the seasoning that makes it nonstick. However, enameled cast iron, which has become very popular, is easier to maintain while still providing the lasting heat of cast iron. Enameled Dutch ovens are slightly more expensive, but the time saved in cleaning can often make up for the extra cost.