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If you’ve come across your favourite food content creators on social media, chances are that you might have seen them use a large, brightly coloured pot for stewing, baking or deep-frying. This multi-purpose pot is heavy duty in its uses and have a wider cooking surface with short, thick sides. Reputed for being the best kind of kitchen utensil for heat retention while cooking, there are Dutch ovens of varying sizes and styles that are available for purchase these days. Having a combination of your cooking needs, scale and the budget you’re willing to spare, is crucial in making a decision for your kitchen. Here are a few tips to keep in mind while buying yourself a piece of this kitchen essential.
Small Size
If you’re a single person who cooks for themselves and mostly live off of leftovers or food that mostly just needs to be reheated, getting yourself a Dutch oven with a volume of 1.5-3 litre capacity is recommended. Small Dutch ovens are also great for cooking rice or steaming quinoa as they grains cook evenly due to the equal distribution of heat. A small cooking utensil such as this is preferable for those with space constraints in the kitchen or find themselves with a lack of storage space.
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Medium Size
Are you proficient enough to experiment with techniques like braising and stewing? Is baking bread an activity you find yourself performing often as a hobby? Then a medium-sized Dutch oven is your go-to vessel. With a capacity of 5-5.5 litres, Dutch ovens this size can be used for a broader range of purposes like slow-cooking a Bolognese sauce or even containing your loaf of sourdough bread as it bakes, along with having the capacity to hold enough food to feed a crowd of four people. Due to a thicker bottom surface as well as a wider cooking base, anything that cooks in a medium Dutch oven develops a crust or cooks evenly without sticking to the surface or burning.
Large Size
As you might know by now, deep-frying food is nothing short of an art form; and if making large batches of fried chicken or fritters is an activity you particularly seem to enjoy doing often, getting yourself a large Dutch oven is the best idea. Even if you identify as somebody who hosts groups of people over for meals, braising, stewing and even baking bread in big batches is made possible with a larger vessel. Large Dutch ovens also tend to hold a reasonable capacity of food and make it look plentiful. Save yourself the extra washing up by using this to serve soups, ctews or curries at the table.
