I have a set of great cookware. I have a giant stockpot. I have a slow cooker. I love all of them dearly. However, I don’t have a dutch oven or a roaster. How useful are they? Are there things one can cook in a dutch oven that I can’t make in my crock pot? Are real roasting pans a lot better than the cheapo aluminum ones at the grocery store? Is it worth trying to find space in our tiny apartment kitchen for these things? I’m going to roast my very first chicken this afternoon, but I need a pan first! Help a girl out!
Mods, if this is IMHO, please move it. It seems like the food questions end up all over the place, so I wasn’t sure.
I love my dutch oven. I’ve only just got it (already burned stuff onto it, grr!) but it really is great - I really spent the money and went for Le Creuset, though. Personally I don’t see the need for a roasting pan because the aluminum ones at the grocery store don’t need to be cleaned, but I’d be willing to have somebody try to change my mind if they see any real taste benefits…
The only real advantage to a dutch oven over a crock pot is that you can brown a pot roast before cooking it. Dutch ovens tend to be thicker material, so heat distribution/retention is good. I’ve never owned one and don’t feel there’s a great hole in my cookware.
I use a vitreous enamel roasting pan to make gravy from the meat juices after roasting. (it can be put over direct heat without any damage) and so there’s one less pan to wash. It doesn’t take up space because it just sits in the oven when not in use.
Just a side note for Zsofia: Try Bon Ami to clean your enameled cast iron like Le Creuset. I had a problem with burn/scorch marks in a shallower roasting pan, and it worked like a charm. I’ve since used it with my dutch oven and now it’s always all pretty inside.
I couldn’t live without my dutch oven – it gets used several times each week. OTOH, I don’t have a crockpot OR stockpot, so some of the things I use it for won’t apply in your case. And you likely don’t have a husband who says he will die if he doesn’t get dumplings at least once a week.
I think the biggest advantage of the dutch oven is that you can get it (and contents) up to cooking temperature fast, so it useful even when you didn’t plan your meals in time to start them before work.
Mine is plain old cast iron, btw, inherited from my grandmother who got it as a wedding gift so it’s just about at the century mark and absolutely in just as good a condition as the day it was made. Bet you can’t say that about any other material they make pots out of.
Forgot about the second part of your question – nope, I don’t have a roasting pan. Since I don’t (generally) cook for large groups, I found a 13 X 9 cake pan with a roasting rack set in the bottom works just fine 363 days a year.
When it comes time for the whole ham for Easter and the monster turkey for Thanksgiving, I go aluminum.
Oh, I forgot to say why I love my dutch oven so much - I love my crock pot, in fact it’s cooking right now, but you can’t really smack it on the stove, brown your onions in it, make a stew in it after you get home from work, take it from oven to stovetop to fridge, etc. The dutch oven is very convenient that way, in terms of cleanup. Also enameled cast iron can go in the dishwasher, according to the Le Creuset website.
We have a pair of old style, oval, black and white flecked enamel, roasting pans that go way back (Probably older than me) and we use them for everything. They are the all purpose pans in our kitchen. We make roasts, stews, meatloafs in them- whatever needs to cook at length in the oven. I wouldn’t know how to cook without them. Definitely handy, but absolutely necessary? Probably not, but I don’t think there is a better way to make a pot roast or roast a ham.
…or roast a turkey, or chicken. The pans are deep enough to collect and hold the juices and it’s straight from the oven to the stovetop to make the gravy right in the pan. You get a great gravy from a roasting pan. That’s a basic advantage.
I had the same reaction when someone told me they’d bought a Dutch Oven - took me a while to believe it was the proper name for a piece of cookware.
Back to the OP: I do a lot of roasts, so having proper roasting pans is much less wasteful for me than buying aluminum ones all the time. But there’s nothing wrong with the aluminum trays at all, if you don’t roast very often and don’t have a lot of space to store things.
But if your roast chicken works out so well you want to make it a regular meal, I’d definitely recommend getting a nice roasting tray and rack.
