Cuisinart Round Casserole 7 Qt, Cream

What a great pot! I bought a Lodge Dutch oven several years ago and have been using it but it’s extremely heavy, stains like crazy (and you can’t get the stains out no matter what you try) and is awkward to use. Still, trying to find a high quality enameled Dutch oven and avoid the very costly Le Crueset price, I bought this one and not only did I save a ton of my hard earned money, I received a high quality Dutch oven. I have used it several times to make chili, pasta sauce, and even pasta itself and it worked wonderfully (no sticking or staining that I could not get out with Barkeeper’s Friend). IT builds a nice fond which releases all the umami goodness into your dish with ease but somehow avoids deep staining. I am very excited to say HELL YES, buy this pot!! (And this coming from someone who very rarely does reviews) By the way, America’s Test Kitchen did a pretty highly rated review of this pot and it came in as a best buy over their predictive pick of Le Crueset as the winner.

Lovely deep blue color that coordinates nicely with my other cookware. The lid fits tightly for making excellent stews and chili.

Great product. Don’t bother paying an arm and a leg for that “French” brand.

Awesome value

These are the best. No toxins. Just use olive oil. I use to reheat, cook, bake. Easy to clean. Stovetop or oven. They are heavier than most people are used to and that is what someone will probably find to complain about. Yeah, they are cast-iron. I am skinny and lift them up to a top shelf to store them, it's fine.

It’s heavy lol

I’m very please with my purchases. I bought two 3 quart Dutch ovens and one 7 quart. While the price of the 3 and the 7 are reasonable, the price of the 5 is nearly the same as that of the 7 so I didn’t buy a 5. I bought two 3s and one 7. I have a very small kitchen with very little storage space so all three stay on top of the stove. I can store one 3 inside of the 7 if I invert the 3 lid. The red color looks bright and happy in my brown and cream colored kitchen. It matches my Kitchen Aide appliances and Fiesta scarlet dishes. I make a lot of soup in the winter and I use the 7 most often and then put leftovers in a 3 to put in the refrigerator. Because of the weight I am a bit afraid to put a filled 7 in my new refrigerator. These do very well w my recipes. They warm up fairly slowly but keep the heat longer than a stainless steel pot. I have to be careful the bottoms don’t burn especially with milk sauces or puddings bc the bottom warms up long before the sides. I like being able to transfer the Dutch ovens from stove top to oven when cooking. I haven’t yet mastered cleaning them and have determined they are supposed to stay slightly stained and that’s ok. I use the 7s lid on my fry pan. I wish there were a fry pan to go with the set. I used to use a lot of cast iron but I didn’t like cleaning them and sometimes a black residue would get in my food. I like the enameled cast iron a lot better.

It weighs 12 pounds so not for anyone who can’t lift 12 lbs easily. Of course it is great for making gumbo and many other dishes. It is enameled cast iron. Love the sage color. Down side is that it can’t be registered with Cuisinart-apparently b/c it is a discontinued product. I tried filling out the form on photoregister.com/help as well as the Cuisinart customer support e-mail form. Neither would accept the model number. It is 7 digits. So, I called Cuisinart customer support and he had no clue what he was doing other than saying the model number is 9 digits. So, not at all helpful. I don’t know if this is a “knock off” or a real Cuisinart product. The model # on it is: CI650-25. It is Sage. Update: Still can’t register it but I really don’t think it matters. I have used this a cpl times and I love it. Food cooks well in it and although it is heavy, I have no problem handling it.

Nice color, does the same job as expensive French cookware, used it a lot already, easy clean up. Nice enamel on the inside.

So far I've been happy with this pot. I've made several dishes in it. I did inspect it carefully for damage when I received it, but all the enamel was intact with no cracks or chips. I've handled it very carefully since then to help it stay nice and avoid chipping. It is pretty heavy, but it's a cast iron pot - of course it's heavy. The handles are pretty easy to (carefully) handle with oven mitts. It cleans out extremely easily even when there has been a lot of browning. I always think it looks a mess and will be horrible to clean, but a soapy sponge always gets everything out with little effort. I had looked at Le Creuset when I wanted to buy a Dutch oven, but they are EXTREMELY expensive, and it's hard to imagine Le Creuset doing a better job than this pot.