I do have several pieces which I seldom use because they are so heavy. I like the old Griswold pieces, although they are unenameled, they are lighter than modern cast iron and much smoother.

You can only get them used, of course, they are "vintage" cookware and frankly, can be even more expensive than Le Creuset or Staub, depending on the piece.

I've never loved the Le Creuset, although I've tried to. They are good pieces of cookware, but not perfect.

Annie

They’re fine, I‘ve got a few pieces I’m happy to have but am glad I never got sucked into a buying frenzy. If any of your pieces are aubergine let’s talk.

HAHA, no they're cobalt blue.

I never had a love affair with the brand, but I almost never cook soups, stews or braised meats. I do have some sort of enameled, cast iron pot, but it's a an off-brand. I can't remember the last time I used it.

My mother had two Le Creuset pots that she had received as gifts. She gave them away because she could no longer lift them.

My ex gave me multiple pieces of Le Creuset over the years. But when I closed out my house and downsized, I got rid of all of it except for the Dutch oven. Yeah, it weighs a ton but it gets used more often than any other kitchen cooking item except my cast iron skillet....which is also heavy!

If it gets to the point where I cannot lift either of those, then I guess it is time to move me into the home :-)) I can't imagine my cooking life without them.

I love mine. I cook stews and soups all the time. Yes the problem is they are so heavy. I can't lift them but luckily my hubby does for me. I find them at TJMaxx at a reduced price. Keeping my eye out for a med size pot.

Jeesh if I lived near you.... I have a mish mash of enamel cast iron cookware. My grandmother loved using it and shopping at the outlet stores. I have several different brands. My most used is a big heavy Dutch Oven. Followed by a Copco paella pan with curved sides. I don’t make paella but I love the pan. I use it to bake rustic pies, bake bread, pizza, stir fries and sauces etc...

I have small Dutch Oven with badly chipper enamel. I keep it for sentimental reasons and basically only boil water in it.

Le Creuset's weight is why I've never been a fan. My sister has a set and I've had experience using hers.

I can't help imagining dropping a pot or lid on my foot - ouch! - I also have terrazzo floors.

"carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b

Le Creuset's weight is why I've never been a fan. ----"

I feel the same, even I can carry 80-lb bag of concrete form the driveway all the way to the back of the garden.
It is my understanding that food is not very smart. It only knows temperature. It does not know where the temperature is coming from, cast iron, steel, clay, copper -------- whatever the cookware is made with.

So I mostly have stainless steel and aluminum non-stick cookware in the kitchen. I have given away all my cast iron stuff away.

dcarch

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I never went on a buying frenzy either, but I do love - and use - my large and small Dutch Ovens on a regular basis.

No frenzy here—my cookware has to be functional, no collecting—but I got my first Le Creuset enamelled cast iron about 25 years ago, have acquired many (most on sale), and still love them. I beg to disagree with Dcarch’s aphorism. That first pot was on a coil stove. It for sure improved the outcome. Better on the wimpy gas stove that followed, and super on the induction now. It cooks more evenly and overall just better, and is so easy to clean. Yeah, I sometimes oof when lifting the 9 qt bean pot full of wet food, but my reaction is that I need to do more upper body and abs work, not get rid of the pot. Out of my cold dead hands....maybe.

Bought a 5 at and 2 qt for no knead artisan bread. Worked exceptionally well but I haavent made them in a while. I make challah ona cookie sheet as well as deli rye. Haven’t made soups or stewsbut if I want to I have anodized 5. Qt.and 8 qt, i have quite satisfactry vess els. I love my pots and pans.

s

No heavy stuff here. I recently changed to induction and discovered this range that is feather light and a delight to use. Aluminium.

https://www.amazon.fr/s?k=kamberg&__mk_fr_FR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1F2V0B9BT412&sprefix=Kamberg%2Caps%2C242&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-a-p_1_7

I have a dutch oven and do use it but I would't be interested in having other pieces. I have a collection of cast iron that I use everyday, all year long, and have used for decades.

It is not as heavy as the enameled iron.

I agree that the pot is heavy when it gets filled up with something.

OK enablers, I just bought this for $48.62 which includes shipping, 7 quart tramontina at Sams Club as a guest.

I've been making chicken soup in my 6 quart Martha Stewart lately ( an old style w/ no logo) and am enamored with cast iron again. I have many different brands, high and low end. I find I don't use the 2 and 3 quarts ones at all, and sometimes make myself use them.

We have quite a few pieces of La Crueset that my DW picked up cheap at the mom and pop kitchen store that she used to work at part time. She would buy various pieces of that and other things like Fiesta Ware, Lodge, and Emile Henry that had minor flaws in the glazing or enamel and could not be put out on display. She would get the flawed stuff at half price plus her 30% employee discount. I think she ended up spending pretty much everything she made working there but I have to say that we have a nice collection of kitchen ware!

We have a glass stove top so regular cast iron is not really an option unless I want to break out the propane burner. I use the enameled cast iron skillet the most because it heats up more evenly and keeps the heat better than our other skillets. I just used it a couple days ago to sear scallops and they turned out wonderfully. We also have a nice 3 piece set of red LC canisters sitting on the counter.

I have RA but the med I am on has controlled it well so far so the weight doesn't bother me yet. My wife does have some problems with the weight of the Dutch oven though.

No, I've not regretted any of mine or plans to give away or thin the herd. Recently collected over the past ten years are from yard sales or direct from the manufacturer. Mostly the smaller ones like 2.5 quart or 4 quart. Not Crueset. I prefer Staub, but my wedding gifted leCrueset is a starter set still in use.

I so agree the larger oval and 5 maybe 6 quart round is heavy. But my wall oven side door opening with telescopic racks make it an easier in/out being chest high.

The big disappointments are the newer odd surfaces that are disposable. Ceramics, etc. Chips and scrapes even being careful.

Enjoying my variety. Yet I'm sure a few may become too heavy to use easily in 10 or so years down the road. Consignment shop is a great idea. Pass on the years of use to another, even if gifted to a family member. At least they are not landfill.

"It is my understanding that food is not very smart. It only knows temperature. It does not know where the temperature is coming from, cast iron, steel, clay, copper -------- whatever the cookware is made with.

So I mostly have stainless steel and aluminum non-stick cookware in the kitchen. I have given away all my cast iron stuff away."

^Cannot imagine ever saying that in my lifetime so I will not address it.

Have used and loved LeCreuset since living in Europe way back in the early 1970s and will never lose my love affair with it. I have a set of old saucepans with wooden handles and hooks to hang them, a set of 3 oval casserole pans, numerous skillets of all sizes, Dutch ovens, and a very, very large goose pot. I will admit I don't use it as much as I did, simply because I am using the IP and air fryer so much.

My mother gave my first le Cruset 6 qt dutch oven. she's been gone since 1984 and It was a while before that she gave it to me. it's turquoise. I loved it so much that I bought another at a discount store this time red, and a friend gave me a yellow one and then I bought the huge one maybe 10 qts? on sale....and I have a 2 qt sauce pan, 2 8 inch skillets and a 14 inch skillet, a gratin pan and a tiny 6 inch skillet.
I love the stuff!! Love the looks and the way it cooks.
I am 84 and can lift the 6 quart ones full or stuff, and can lift the big one full from, say the stove top to the sink. But there is almost never any need to lift it full of stuff, as I dish from the pot, and then it's no longer full. The only exception is a friend has....or used to have before covid....a fall gourd give away party and i would make and contribute a vat of pumpkin soup. Had to have a teen age boy tote that pot full or soup!!
I love the stuff! Does everything and does it well. I also have a couple of pieces of something called DescoWare it was a wedding gift in 1957 enameled cast iron made in France....much loved and much used.
That stuff is so slow and steady i can make lemon curd and hollandaise in them without a bain marie.
They deep fry, bake bread, braise stew meat and slow cook it, simmer a pot of soup like none other.
Yeah it's heavy....but so were my grand kids and Is till lifted them...but since the youngest is ( or rather are! they are twins) 26 i don't lift any more!

Le Crueset tea kettles? I have had 3 in the last 12? years. And why so many? The little darlings chip and I call in the life time warantee to have it replaced. Last month I was informed I have been abusing the teakettles but out of the goodness of customer services' hearts they will replace this one but never again.

I have an anodized aluminum Dutch oven, and I use it only for deep frying. I never braise anything, and for soups, I use my pressure cooker, which has two sizes of pots - one of which is larger than my Dutch oven.

I also have a crock pot, which I absolutely never use, and so it lives in the garage.

This is how far my "love" has waned. The girls tell me they want them, but just "haven't gotten around" to making kitchen space for them.

The skillets are in my back store room, bottom shelf, behind the vacuum cleaner. Not a single color, they are red, orange, cream, green, and blue:

The orange dutch oven is on a shelf in the garage, behind the cooler packs that we didn't use this summer because we didn't go anywhere:

More skillets on another garage shelf, under the lights for the chicken brooder:

And somewhere, maybe in the pole barn, I have a box of orange Le Creuset that isn't heavy cast iron, it's really old and made of something else. I bought it at the on line auction, thinking it was cast iron and was going to give it to Elery's middle son as a gift. He laughed when I offered them and told me he didn't want it even if it were cast iron, he has so much kitchen stuff, just like the rest of us, LOL.

These were all bought at the auction, and some of the skillets appear unused, and none cost me more than $20.00. My kids or grandkids will use them, maybe, and they get occasional use here but not enough to get premium kitchen space.

Even when I bake bread in a dutch oven I use my old Lodge that I got when I still went camping, because the Le Creuset is too big and makes a wide and flat loaf of bread.

Annie

Annie -- take the unused or barely used ones to a consignment shop and at least make some money off them!

I kept smaller dutch ovens I have, and I do use the braiser quite often for roasting vegetables at really high heat, but the others had to go - just taking up storage space and not getting used, if I haven't used it in years I don't need it.

I have a LC tea kettle too, a pretty shade of granny apple green. I hardly use it, so haven't noticed any issues with chipping.

I agree enameled cast iron can get heavy in the larger sizes. I have a mix of Le Creuset and Staub, in various shapes and sizes. But frankly they are not uniquely good for anything, although I have some Staub gratins that excel in retaining heat to keep things warm on the table.

mxk3, I have a Granddaughter who is 17 and likes to cook. She's got her eye on some of those for the time when she gets her own kitchen. What I really need to do is tell my girls that if they want the darned things, to take them. Truly, though, The Princess is far more likely to use them than anyone and she cooks enough to appreciate them.

Annie

"I have a Granddaughter who is 17 and likes to cook. She's got her eye on some of those for the time when she gets her own kitchen."

What a lovely way to help her set up her kitchen and get her off to a good start!

Save them for the Princess. They’re not doing any harm snoozing on the shelf for now.

I like my staub products I got on super sale this year and last. I use it for so many things, including beans, stews, popcorn, bread and brittles ... even jams cook up wonderfully in it ...

I love them more and more the less I move around from home to home. But only good if you have a dream kitchen with some type of storage designed that you can slide your cast iron cookware onto the stove, and off, not lift it. Particularly when filled. I like to bake bread in my casserole, and now that the top oven of my two oven set up is broken, it's a real problem. I usually find a way to set it OVER to cool off, or DOWN, before attempting to lift it up . . . I seriously lack counter space, so often have to use the top of my flat topped stove for counter space. Otherwise, I used to keep my cast iron pots on a back burner and would just slide them over if I needed to use it. Rarely used all burners so the spare was where they sat . . . Now I don't have the space, and use the two back burners constantly, they are the sizes I need . . . We desperately want a gas stove but haven't found the right time to install it. There is a line there already. Good cast iron is wasted on an electric stove. Well, mostly good pots of any kind. My electric stove is horrid with the pulsing . . . blech. In the summer hubs often cooks out on our gas grill, used the cast iron pans then . . .

I have 2 dutch ovens, 4? and a 7? quart and i do use them a lot. Those 2 sizes are perfect for what I cook. Thank goodness I have never been a collector of anything!