Le creuset: Is it worth it?

[cardamoncoffee]

I've been wanting to invest buy the largest casserole dish (6L) for ages but keep stalling at the price. Is it worth the £250? I'm envisaging me throwing stuff into it, bunging it in the oven for a few hours and then lovely meals.

Tell me the good, bad and the ugly please.

I’ve just disposed of a Le Creuset casserole dish after 25 years of use. It served me well ( I chipped a big hole in the bottom with a metal stick blender).
I’ve replaced it with a Sainsbury’s cast iron casserole dish (£30) so I don’t expect it to last as long but it’s doing well so far.

Mine is still going strong after 25 years. Also have IKEA version; but it chipped a bit after about 8 years

I love ours. It’s a dream to clean as well. Nothing sticks to it that can’t be easily removed.

I still have some that is still going strong that was given to us as wedding presents. We have just celebrated our Golden Wedding. 😊

Oh it seems all very positive. Glad you mentioned the easy cleaning @mynameisMrG, was going to ask about this as I don't want it getting baked on food after the second use.

Is it just as simple as putting a casserole in the oven? Do you need to keep adding water?

No
In all honestly my Sainsbury's cast iron casserole dish is just as good as the Le Creuset my mum gave me ( she never used it and it was a gift to her)

Yes, but try TK Maxx. Their Le Crueset is a fairly reasonable price.

Yes

Tkmaxx often have Le Creuset in but ive not seen the cast iron ones very often

I have 3 sizes and love them but they are just cast iron casserole dishes. They are very heavy when full. Mine are old now but food sticks and burns quite often so don't expect anything special from them. Mine are kiwi and gorgeous

God yes, they are the dog's. Never found anything to compare.
You can get some good seconds at the outlet shops, I just bought another large one in a discontinued colour for a 25% discount.

I love my Le Creusets and wouldn’t be without them.

Definitely worth it. We've had one for 16 years, still going strong

Yes. We have second hand saucepans that were probably 1980s, bought from a vintage shop twenty years ago. Still in use every day. Handles a bit loose and battered, and they look old, as they are white, but really great pans.

Got mine cheap at bootsale.
I adore them, the deep one is a good send, but the cheap ones work well, if you can afford it buy, if not go cheaper.

I bought Le Creuset in France where they are cheap long ago.
I have also had a Chasseur casserole dish for about 15 years and there is little discernible difference in the quality. I assume chasseur is much cheaper as it was a present from someone who is on an average income.

Go for Denby if you can as they have newer technologies which means you can use your dish for a few more things. I find Le Crueset doesn’t stand up to Indian or East Asian cooking.

The Finex cast iron ‘dutch oven’ is a good traditional uncoated cast iron dish but it does need to be oiled regularly like a wok / karai. I have had my eye on this for ages as it would probably be more hardwearing than the others.

I got rid of mine. My wrists couldn’t manage them, especially when hot and full.

For your stated purpose I'd say get a slow cooker. 15% of the price to buy, far cheaper to run than having the whole oven on, and get one with a pop-out cooking bowl so it goes in the dishwasher.

Le Crueset stuff is okay, and definitely pretty, but terrible value for money. Any cast iron kit should last much the same time (decades and more). They're no tougher than cheaper cast iron either, I've shattered an LC pot by dropping it two feet onto a pretty springy wooden floor. Their non-stickness is only middling to poor when you compare to modern coated stuff but it does last longer (in its mediocre way).

Their stove-top stuff being so heavyweight is a pain in the arm and also stores all the heat so negates all the best things about using a gas or inductive hob for instant down/up in heat. They're fine if you have any other form of hob which doesn't allow instant heat control, or if your cooking is based around boiling/simmering.

Being five times the price does not get you five times the cooking equipment.

I have a large le Creuset casserole dish that I paid £25 for, over 30 years ago
Still going strong and still perfect
Used on a regular basis stove top and in the oven
Been well worth the money although I’m not sure that I would pay £250 for it now

I find them far too heavy to lift safely when full of stew.
I bought a large, unbranded casserole dish and lid for 50p in an ironmonger’s closing down sale in 1978. It’s still in perfect condition and regular use, over 40 years later! So no, I don’t think le Creuset are worth it.

I have a large casserole dish with lid in there classic orange, used it every week since June 1990 and still going strong 💪 it was around £50 back then 😲 £250 now that’s £8 per year

We've got a deep oval Le Creuset casserole dish and I wouldn't be without it. But I also have a shallow casserole dish from Sainsbury's which looks exactly like a LC one and does much the same job - had to for 10 years or so and it's still in good nick.

The casseroles are great, i got a couple 25 years ago and still going strong. Outside is now matt not shiny from the dishwasher so not pretty any more but functionality fine. Survived more than one occurrence of leaving chickpeas to boil dry for 3+ hours. The inners get marked by metal utensils so look used quite quickly but it's not physical damage.

I also have a big skillet which is great for making quick pasta sauces.

I don't rate the non-stick through. I got a milk pan and smaller non-stick skillet at the same time as the casseroles but they aren't worth using now as the non stick has failed and they don't have the same smooth inner as the non-non-stick ones.

For the big cast iron casserole dish, absolutely.

For the oven to tablewear: get a Sainsbury's rip off version. Some Le Creuset ones will crack after first use.