Le Creuset - middle class nirvana or unnecessarily heavy con?

[PersonaNonGarter]

The Le Creuset from my wedding list (10yrs) is coming to it’s life end and tbh it hasn’t been a great ride. Each one is stained, with chipped handles, horrible to clean etc.

Do I repurchase at £££ or is there something better out there?

I've only got one Le Creuset thing (they're so expensive!) and I love it. It's an oven dish and gets fairly regular use. I don't have a dishwasher so it gets handwashed. I think I've had it 10 years and it's pristine. I would love more if money was no object. I find it surprising that yours are knackered but maybe it's the dishwasher.

I love mine which I found in a skip!

Mine is 11 years old and looks new. What have you being doing to yours?!

I think they are worth it, in that they last forever, so cheaper to buy good stuff once, than bad things multiple times

I love mine. A couple of them have chipped but I think it was careless handling rather than age. I suggest the satin black as stains and chips barely show. I never put them in the dishwasher, but occasionally use a bio washing powder solution to clean the insides.
I've had other brands of cast iron but the cheaper ones are not always great, some of them rust round the top or on the bottom.
Le Creuset have outlet shops in places like Clarks Village in Somerset They have their own website with offers and discontinued colours are also often cheaper on all websites. Quite a lot of mine came secondhand from EBay from sellers who were close enough for me to collect, so that I could check that they were perfect.

DMs 70s era volcanic orange pot must be coming up to 50 in the next few years and is still going strong. The bottom is slightly buggered from an unfortunate jam making attempt but it still cooks fine and cleans fine. Don't think we've ever not been able to wash anything off it bar that. I have 2 decently sized casseroles and a big soup pot so no plans to buy a LeC yet- but if I can't hold out to inherit- or one of my pota goes, I'll get one on Ebay, I think.

The knock off DM bought me and a similar, slightly lighter oval one I inherited off my granny (which is probably almost as old as the Le C) are probably about as good/ slightly less good to cook in but are much harder to clean out on the rare occasion something sticks or catches in them. I keep that Astonish hob cleaner in for it! They've also chipped whereas the LeC hasn't. DM does have arthritis in her hands so might swap the LeC for grannys lighter, same size pot, but I think she'd really miss cooking in it. There's just something about the Le C pan insides, they're just easy to cook with.

I love Le Cruset and they last forever but not necessarily in good nick.

You can buy cheaper brands so I would swap it for a cheaper set and see how it plays out.

You can always go back to your old faithful.

I can't believe yours are at the end of their life after only 10 years!

I have 3 Le Creuset casseroles, all over 30 years old and one inherited from my MIL must be 50 years old. All still going strong. I have put them in the dishwasher without any problems. I occasionally boil a spoonful of bio washing powder in them if they have black dried-on burnt stains, and that gets rid of it.

Been married 29 years & mine are perfect

Mine are all over 20 years old, I have six. Only one has chips, but it's still usable. I only have the big pots, no sauce pans.
I soak mine in diluted Milton to remove any stains.
I wouldn't be without them, but I'm not sure about whether I'll ever replace them due to the eye watering cost.

@BarbaraofSeville I agree. Scoville are the best pots I've had. I got rid of all my le creased pots - they were all marked beyond redemption, everything stuck to them and handles broken. Overpriced in my opinion. Replaced them with scoville pots and the large shallow casserole dish and it's made my life so much easier! Genuinely nothing sticks, the are very easy to clean and don't threaten to snap my wrist in half when lifting them

In America there's a company you can send your worn pots to and they will re-spray them or fix any chips if you don't want to part with your ancient cookware.

I have an imprint of the last thing I burned on one of my saucepans - carrots I think it was. Managed to clean it though and still fine to use. I would buy them all over again as had them 30+ years if it wasn't for my wrists getting weaker. They have been great!

I can't work out if you believe the brand or the pot makes you middle class but thanks for giving me such a laugh!

It's not all that. Onions burns and the pans burn.

@orangeblosssom

It's not all that. Onions burns and the pans burn.

Operator error rather than tool malfunction.