I'm not much of a cook, but I'd like to extend my horizons a bit from a microwave and a saucepan. We have a slow cooker, which does the job but everything I've done in it is adequate, rather than actually tasty.
I don't possess any kind of lidded casserole dish for oven things. I like the idea of oven things.
Mr Amazon has a zillion types of dish, with zillions of reviews, but I'm falling at the first here. What material should I be looking at? There seems to be stainless steel, cast iron, ceramic, pyrex and probably a million other variants. I assume I need a lid with it.
I'm not spending £200, but I guess up to about £50 would be ok, although 5p would be better.
Any hints, chefs?
If it's relevant, electric fan oven, and cooking things like chicken, so pretty simple at this point.
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SWMBO uses pyrex dishes, but that may be because they can go in the dishwasher. She does excellent stuff in the slow cooker, it tenderises any meat and red wine added to anything seems to improve the flavour.
Have you tried a slow cooker recipe book?
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Le Creuset or similar cast iron casserole dishes with lid - excellent.
Start off whatever you're cooking on the hob (browning onions, meat etc.) and when you've added stock, straight into the oven.
The pluses: things get evenly heated, whether on the hob or in the over. The minuses: the dishes are pretty heavy.
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You can get some Enamel oval ones with lids a lot cheaper than cast-iron!
We have 2 (different sizes - there are three to choose from) and they are very good.
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"Le Creuset or similar cast iron casserole dishes .............."
We have Le Creuset dishes as described by JL above and they do a good job - but for the past few years we have used a slow cooker most of the time.
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Slow cookers ! We have one it's great...
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Alby doing a Nigella's shepherds pie tonight, as least I was 'til the ole woman bought steak mince!
Alby using a Pyrex Essentials glass oval casserole dish, as I would when making a casserole.
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I know it's an unlikely explanation, but before spending more money on new kit, you could simply try adding more flavour.
I think that in the UK we get too nervous about this. But if you are of an age to remember TV cooks like (say) Keith Floyd, try and act like them when it comes to adding olive oil, salt, pepper, chilli, onion, carrots, tomato, celery etc etc. With a slow cooker taste about an hour before serving and add more if you need to!
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Thanks all. Doesn't look as if a particular material is that vital, so I'll pick something on budget and reviews.
Good thought about the slow cooker recipe book. Thing is, if you Google for "slow cooker tasteless" or some such, there's a bunch of stuff out there that says "yes, they are useless for anything actually tasting of much", so I was a bit put off.
Anyway, must go, the toast is boiling over.
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"Doesn't look as if a particular material is that vital"
Depends what you mean. There won't be many glass casserole dishes that you can use on the hob (see my previous comment), which is a big bonus for metal dishes. Browning onions and/or meat is absolutely necessary to get flavour.
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Erm, I browned my onions and carots in a saucepan along with a tbs of olive oil, a clove of crushed garlic plus finely-chopped rosemary (poor Rosemary) thyme - then added the mince before chucking the lot in my glass Pyrex dish (along with the spuds and 350ml of stock) and then sticking it in the oven for 40 mins.
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>> Browning onions and/or meat is absolutely necessary to get flavour.
Thanks James. Points taken about browning, and cast iron, as indeed emphasised by Zero too.
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"Thing is, if you Google for "slow cooker tasteless" or some such, there's a bunch of stuff out there that says "yes, they are useless for anything actually tasting of much", so I was a bit put off."
That statement rang a bell with me - although the slow-cooker is very convenient, there is a sort of sameness that runs through most of the meals produced. I called my wife over to read what you had said ....... and she agreed; and it isn't because we don't wash the pan out between cooking sessions! Similarly I sense a certain sameness that runs through Wetherspoon's meals; maybe it's because they boil the fish and the burgers in the same toaster.
Last edited by: Haywain on Sun 15 Dec 19 at 13:41
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The idea of the slow cooker has been ruined by the UK idea that everything goes in raw and comes out cooked 6 hours later. It does but IT IS tasteless and some food is PAP
Onions Need to be slowly sautéed golden first, mushrooms ditto with garlic, chicken breasts browned, stuff needs different times to cook, so in short you need to prepare first and the Le Cruiset type cast iron stuff is designed for that. It's french, the French don't do tasteless food
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I've found the cast iron type to be the most versatile (gets hot very quickly and retains it), but beware if you intend to buy one as not all cast iron pots are made the same.
Le Cruiset are probably one of the best and most well known over here but take a trip over to France and they have loads of other makes that are of equal quality but slightly cheaper, unfortunately the wife decided to buy a 'cheap' copy from Robert Dyas (to supplement our nice blue enamel one) which is awful and has been moved to the cupboard, the pan for it's size was way too heavy with the side-walls being too thick plus the base bowed making it wobble on the glass-hob.
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We have a le Cruiset casserole which is very good.
However, le Cruiset - £140
Tesco or Sainsbury's - ca £40.
Not tried these, but they look OK. I guess they're Chinese.
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Casserole dishes - bathtub tom
