I GOT A CROCK POT FOR CHRISTMAS.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

What's the beer you paired it with?

[Suu]

That would be Diet Coke in a beer glass. 

[Triple Zero]

so I was going to buy this new Dutch oven, right? except when I got to the store, I was thoroughly confused, since I thought I was going to buy a red-orange Dutch oven, cast iron on the inside, for €89 (it's really big, 11-12 inches diameter).

Except it seems I have confused two models:

* one red-orange Dutch oven with a red-orange lid, €89, but enamelled on the inside (cream white colour). below the enamel is cast iron, of course. 11 inches diameter.
* one grey-black Dutch oven with a glass lid, €99, bare cast iron. 12 inches diameter.

Either of them good quality and will probably last several decades. Given at this price I don't really mind the €10 difference, which one should I buy?

* I really like the red-orange colour
* With use the colour will probably get partially covered with a black layer
* You don't need to season an enamelled pan
* I think the idea of seasoning is kind of cool
* Enamel can get damaged, though you'd actually need to drop the pan
* Enamel can't withstand extremely high temperatures but I don't know how high and whether this is likely
* I get the impression that well-seasoned cast iron has better non-stick properties than enamel
* I got a rather old small Dutch oven from my aunt and the (grey) enamel on the inside is missing at some places, I don't know how this happened, it's got a peculiar pattern, a big chunk is missing, and a whole bunch of small "spots" spread around it.
* Enamel can be cleaned in the dishwasher, which, as I found out with the old small Dutch oven is even capable of removing the black layer on the outside, after a few times. But with the size of the one I'd buy, I don't think I'd put it in the dishwasher anyway because not much else would fit next to it anymore

I'm really kind of torn on this, it's a lot of money (even if nearly half of it will be sponsored as a birthday gift), and I don't want to make a choice I'd regret later. That's why I'm currently leaning towards the black-grey bare cast iron Dutch oven because I think I couldn't really go wrong with that one. If it had been orange-red on the outside, I probably wouldn't even have hesitated.

Anybody got a solid opinion or advice on this?

[Suu]

I've only used a bare cast-iron style one, so I can't say much for the enameled one. Go with what you know.

[LMNO]

I use an enameled one.  I can actually use soap to clean it in the dishwasher, which is a plus.  I mean, I like the high heat, deglaze, scrub, high heat of a cast iron, but sometimes you just want to soak the remains of a pot of chili or a roast overnight in the sink, you know?

[Whatever]

If I had to choose between my enameled cast iron and my bare cast iron I would choose the bare. 

Most of my cast iron has been handed down to me and was already 50 years old or older when I got it, so it lasts for fucking ever if taken care of. 

My one enameled casserole got chipped in just the right way and I wasn't careful enough when washing it so water got between a section of the enamel and the cast iron and I had a big mess, threw the damn thing away.

[Jenne]

I use an enameled one.  I can actually use soap to clean it in the dishwasher, which is a plus.  I mean, I like the high heat, deglaze, scrub, high heat of a cast iron, but sometimes you just want to soak the remains of a pot of chili or a roast overnight in the sink, you know?

THIS.

[Triple Zero]

Soak overnight, really? From my student's days--when my house was much dirtier--I've learned to try and never soak something for longer than 10-20 minutes or so. Cause if shit isn't soft by then, you're most probably going to need to scrub on it anyway, letting it soak longer is only going to do so much.

Just a personal rule for myself, cause if I find myself wanting to let it soak overnight, odds are I won't feel like scrubbing on it the next day either. And I find a week-old pan with grubby water and floating bits in it a lot more disgusting than a pan with dried bits (that again, still take max 10-20 min to soak before I can scrub them off).

And I just about decided to go for the bare iron one ...

[Slyph]

My wife made pulled pork by basically

- Throwing a big piece of pork in the crock pot with
- some water and
- some V8 and
- some tabasco

The next day we took the leftovers, which we kept in the removable ceramic dish and added

- some beans and
- some canned soup and
- warmed it up

for soup.

Cooking is suddenly fucking really, really easy.

Do you think there's a way of jury-rigging a kind of sous-vide cooker out of this thing?

[Triple Zero]

As far as I've understood what a Crock Pot is (reading Wikipedia), that really depends on how accurate it allows you to set the temperature in the 50 to 90 degrees Celsius range (50 for really (too) rare steak, 90 for vegetables such as aubergines).

If what Wikipedia says is right and it's only got 3 settings and "low" starts at 77 degrees Celsius, all you're going to get out of it is very tough rubber steak.

If not, rub a steak rubbed with much less salt and pepper than you normally use, then slowly submerge it in a ziploc bag, so that the air is pushed out. Close the bag, maybe figure out some way to make sure the top of the bag remains above water (tape? wooden clothes pin?) and the steak remains below (some metal kitchenware). Cook it for two hours at exactly 55 degrees Celsius (get a digital meat thermometer, they're great fun for all sorts of sciency stuff). Then fry it with very hot oil/butter for 15 seconds on both sides just to make them brown, some people use a butane torch instead.

If you lack the temperature control, forget it, and do what I did in this thread, which also worked really well:
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=25003.0

[Jenne]

On the leaving overnight to soak--water is one of THE harshest chemicals out there.  It wears stuck-on shit DOWN.  And "week-long" soaks?  REALLY?

Ew.

[Triple Zero]

I just mean I prefer to soak it shortly and scrub it out, cause if it's not unstuck after 10-20 minutes, overnight isn't going to do much anyway. The danger, for me at least, is that if I let it soak overnight, I'd forget about it (those were different times, when I lived with a flatmate and half of the dirty shit wasn't mine, I'm much cleaner now there's nobody sabotaging my efforts). But still if I leave a pan to soak overnight, I can't count on myself to clean it up first thing in the morning, plus I don't want to find such a pan when I'm making coffee. But to each their own.

[Jenne]

...yes, my experience with soaking overnight is that it works.   

[Suu]

I'm doing buffalo wings tomorrow, I'll put them in when I get home from work so they should done when I get out of class at 6:45. 

Then I'm doing pulled pork later this week. I have a fucking PORK SHOULDER in my freezah!

[LMNO]

I just mean I prefer to soak it shortly and scrub it out, cause if it's not unstuck after 10-20 minutes, overnight isn't going to do much anyway. The danger, for me at least, is that if I let it soak overnight, I'd forget about it (those were different times, when I lived with a flatmate and half of the dirty shit wasn't mine, I'm much cleaner now there's nobody sabotaging my efforts). But still if I leave a pan to soak overnight, I can't count on myself to clean it up first thing in the morning, plus I don't want to find such a pan when I'm making coffee. But to each their own.

For me it's usually a case of "cook dinner, eat dinner, be late for doing something, put pot in sink w/water, come back the next day, clean it out".

But whatever works for you.