WHY WE LOVE ENAMELED CAST IRON
Originally published by Tramontina USA
When it comes to firing up the burners and getting out the cookware, you have standards. You don’t want your food to stick, but you want to get a deep caramelized crust on your braised beef. You want versatility - a vessel that works for French onion soup, blackberry cobbler, and crusty sourdough bread. You also want heat that sustains and cooks evenly from all surfaces. You likely want something that will last you a lifetime and looks great on the table.
If this is what you’re looking for, enameled cast iron will change your cooking world.
Cast iron distributes heat like no other material. The entire pot or pan is forged from one piece of iron, allowing heat to move easily through the metal and retain a high temperature. Unlike other types of cookware, the heat distributes slowly, making it perfect for slow-roasting a pork shoulder and tenderizing meats and poultry of practically any form. Whipping up carnitas on a Friday night? This is the place. Oh, and don’t forget your veggies. Cast iron loves to braise leafy greens, roast winter squashes, and stew tomatoes too. The tight-fitting lids lock in all the flavor you’re working so dutifully to create, and the ridges collect and redistribute all the vapors back onto your stews, soups, and braises. In other words, your maintaining every ounce of flavor, nutrition, and personal sanity.
Baking is just as simple in your enameled cast iron cookware. Each piece is oven safe up to 450°F(232°C), meaning you can easily bake your favorite seasonal fruit cobbler, chocolate soufflé, or boozy bread budding. We’re personally enamored with the way the tight-fitting lid of the dutch oven creates an oven within your oven, particularly for rustic bread. The lid locks in vapors, producing steam around your perfectly crafted loaf, and giving you that crusty exterior while sealing a soft crumb inside the bread. It’s a process recommended to home-bakers by the experts. Know of any other cookware that can do this? We sure don’t.
Each piece of enameled cast iron invites you onto a new culinary adventure. On Monday you’re charring a few veggies with your grill pan, Wednesday you’re trying out a cheesy risotto in your braising dish, and Saturday you’ve invited friends over for a one pot stew you’ve been simmering all day in your dutch oven. Whatever the day, enameled cast iron cookware is ready to help—to improve your favorite dishes and help you make new ones.