Misen Dutch Oven Overview: Our Editor Tested the Newest Drop from Direct-to-Customer Kitchenware Brand name Misen
I love a excellent gadget as significantly as the up coming gal, but there are several points extra significant in my kitchen than my Dutch oven. So, the Misen Dutch Oven and its clever two-in-one style and design piqued my curiosity. A teeny bit a lot more gadgety than the typical Le Creuset and Staub Dutch ovens that get the most use in my kitchen area many thanks to the grill pan lid, but with all the typical requirements: weighty forged-iron building, slick enamel coating, and a roomy inside.
In addition to that grill pan lid, the cost is the most important attractor—a 6 3/4-quart Le Creuset expenses $390. At $165, the Misen Dutch oven may possibly still be the most expensive pot in your kitchen area, but you are going to under no circumstances have to exchange it. In my kitchen, the Dutch oven that will get weekly use is 11 yrs old but hardly appears it these large, enameled cast-iron pots can easily be passed on to your kids (!) with a little TLC. (And Barkeeper’s Friend.)
Why You Will need a Dutch Oven
A Dutch oven is to your kitchen what white sheets are to your bed room: a standard you definitely can not skip. Sure, it is especially great for soups and braises (or baking a loaf of sourdough), but it is also excellent for browning meat, producing pasta, or cooking a batch of beans. It is roomy ample to fit a steamer basket and manages to equally get smoking cigarettes sizzling and continue to be adhere free, thanks to the forged-iron construction and enamel coating.
What Makes the Misen Exclusive
Most Dutch ovens adhere to a extremely similar rubric: A normal dimensions is five to 7 quarts, will come with a corresponding lid, and is enameled in a cheery shade. Most are oven secure up to quite superior temperatures (this 1 is protected up to 500 levels Fahrenheit), but as they retain warmth so nicely, a minimal-to-medium placing on your stovetop or in your oven is typically all you will want. Although there are occasional deviations from the norm—the well-known Staub Dutch oven has limited solid-iron spikes together the inside of the lid that catch condensation and self-bastes your braise—there is not large home for uniqueness below.
The Misen Dutch oven checks all the above containers: This 1 retains 7 quarts, has a extensive base for loads of searing place and, in testing, I observed the roomy cope with shape to be particularly valuable for obtaining it from the stovetop to the oven.
But the issue that sets this 1 aside (and could even make me ignore my Le Creuset now and then) is the lid. At checkout, you can select a normal lid with a modest cast-iron knob, or go for a person that doubles as a grill pan. It is flat on leading, which usually means you require to use the facet handles to pull the lid off, but the knob of the other possibility isn’t big plenty of to give you a excellent grip anyway. (Probably the pot’s only style flaw.) Flipped, it is the suitable cast-iron (the inside of is not enameled) griddle for the grill-less: toss bacon on below, summer vegetables, or a number of steaks. I discovered it easy to cleanse as very well I propose choosing up the Tawashi scrubber for the lid or any of your solid-iron skillets. Its coconut fiber bristles do an great position of scrubbing absent grit without the need of buying up way too substantially of that blackened coating, like a normal sponge would.
The Verdict
If you already have a Dutch oven, quit there—the only matter you have to have to increase to your assortment is a different dimensions, like the little cocottes that cookbook creator Kate Leahy proposed to us. What sets this 1 apart is the reasonably priced rate issue and the lid, and you can normally nutritional supplement your Dutch oven with an expensive workhorse grill pan from Lodge.
But if you do need your pretty initially Dutch oven—or a larger sized size in preparing for a fall’s well worth of soups—this a person did not disappoint. In screening, I found it to be reliably even heating, and the grill pan lid was a nice perk. Plus, specified its measurement, it may possibly very nicely live out on your stovetop, so the numerous shade alternatives, such as a retro red and classic black, are pretty considerably appreciated, with a muted eco-friendly and grey coming shortly.