Yay, cookware!

Sorry I was gone so long! I didn't plan on that, but hooking up internet at the in-laws' proved to be more trouble than it was worth. Don't worry, I'll be punished enough when I try to make a roundup of all the tasty food I've had in the last three weeks.

In the meantime, I thought I'd talk about cookware. Fun, eh?

A few months ago, I was trying to candy some lemon slices, in my absolute favorite size pot. Favorite because it's perfect for everything but really big or really small jobs. It's a two quart Le Creuset, part of a 70s brown set I "borrowed" from my mother and never gave back. You can guess where this is going, no?

I was cooking them over low heat, and it was time to take my dog for a walk. And it was such a gorgeous day, the nicest day in so long, that I took her for an extra-long walk, completely forgetting my lemons. I came home to an apartment full of dense smoke, and an apparently broken fire alarm.

And this. This was taken after I spent about an hour chipping carbonized chunks of lemon out of the pot, actually.

I spent the next month chipping away, and zapping it with oxalic acid, but it just wasn't the same. I heard scary internet rumors of glass chunks in my food, and got freaked out about trying to rehabilitate it. So, on our drive back from vacation in Florida, we decided to stop at one of the Le Creuset factory stores for a replacement.

The store itself was an interesting cultural experience. Hello, dainty old southern ladies. Hello, temptation. I managed to escape just over $100 poorer, for the pot, a specialized potholder, and a large bottle of enameled cast-iron cleaner. Not bad.

The blue happened to be on sale, happens to go nicely with the chocolate brown 70s set, and is kind of sexy. Win.

But I noticed some interesting differences I feel compelled to note. Maybe it'll help out if you ever find a vintage pot somewhere and wonder what it is?

They started enameling the bottoms! As you can see from the wear on my 70s pot, this is probably a good thing. I'm looking forward to easier cleanup, without worrying about whether my pot bottom is fully dry. Also, the enamel surface is much easier to thoroughly dry.

They posh-ified the lids! Older lids don't have any markings, while the new one is cast with a large "Le Creuset". I guess this impresses people watching me cook? Yeah.

On less exciting notes, you can see that they slightly changed the shape of the handles, and that they still insist on selling pots with "phenolic" knobs. My 70s pot has a nice looking knob only because I've melted the plastic off the metal base with use over the years. You can purchase stainless steel knobs from Le Creuset to replace them for high-temperature oven cooking, but seriously?! I fail to understand why plastic-covered metal is still standard.