All-Clad Copper Core Dutch Oven

This beautiful 5-quart Dutch oven demonstrates why All-Clad's worldwide reputation is unsurpassed--the company makes cookware that is practical as well as beautiful. This pan is perfect for braising veal shanks, baking beans, or slow cooking choucroute under its domed lid. Because the aluminum core extends up the sides, foods cook uniformly, even though the oven is 4-1/4 inches deep (10-3/4 inches in diameter). And because the interior is nonreactive, tomatoes and other acidic foods won't taste metallic. Its polished 18/10 stainless-steel lid and stay-cool loop handles are riveted for strength and won't be harmed by an oven's heat. Hand washing this oven will preserve its jewel-like beauty during the lifetime warranty against defects--and beyond. --Fred Brack

My first really usable Dutch oven was a 50-year-old one, 18 pounds of solid aluminum! Eventually it pitted as to become unsafe. I've tried many of the current crop, and was very disappointed at the uneven heat distribution, with the propensity of food to caramelize and eventually burn at the transition point between the flat bottom and the sides (the metal thickness at this point is critical). In my testing, this pot is far and away the best designed, finished, and certainly the best cooking Dutch oven now being produced.

I purchased this item, and am thoroughly satisfied. The price for this superior "slow cooker" is steep, but if you really know how, and when to use this pot, you will marvel at the results, and it really beats the price tag of the restaurant "slow oven!"

Worth the price, and is in my opinion the best by far of all the offerings, spring for one, then really enjoy classical cuisine as it was once prepared!

Eric Scott PhD