Le Creuset

How lovely, MayBeMaw. Good idea of your sister in law.
Can't stand LeC personally, far too heavy, but my daughter had a lot of it as wedding presents and thinks it is marvellous. I try to avoid washing up at her house! My sister and I often reminisce that there was no LeC around in our day, we had to make do with Pyrex!

I inherited a large Le C. casserole from my Mil, but it was so heavy I rarely used it (I had similar sized, lighter casseroles anyway) and it ended up in a charity shop.

I’d never buy one - IMO they’re ludicrously expensive, besides weighing a ton.

What a lovely, thoughtful kind of present for your daughters, MayBeMaw! Everyone should definitely have an auntie like that!

We have a Le Creuset casserole which we got for a wedding present 45+ years ago, and it is still going strong, although now mainly when we have visitors as it is quite big. The milk pans with a pouring spout are excellent too, we find. My DF passed on a pan with a lid which works as a frying pan to us when he found them too heavy, and I suppose one day we may feel that we have to pass them on to the next generation.

(No idea about using them on an induction hob though, sorry.)

Years ago my sister in law who was rather well paid used to buy our 3 daughters a piece of Le Creuset each every year for Christmas when in their teens . Lucky girls!
They each had their own colour -flame for the eldest , a soft green (I think since discontinued) for the middle one and almond for the youngest. They each now have a big casserole, a small casserole, a saucepan with a lid which doubles as a frying pan and a big round shallow lidded casserole.
I wish I’d had an auntie like that!

ps sorrty Riverwalk!

Thanks for all the replies, and @ Riverbankfor good wishes for the New Year.
The reason I'm looking at Creuset is, when we first got the induction hob I had to bin some perfectly good pots and pans which I'd had for years. I made the mistake of replacing them with cheap ones from Tesco and these burn on very easily. So we're ordering one Creuset to start with and husband is going to do the lifting.
I do a lot of slow casserole cooking - some in a crockpot but I prefer hob to oven casserole.

john46

Try not to buy french goods

I'm assuming you don't?
Why is this please?

Try not to buy french goods

I have a small skillet and a Dutch oven and they are fantastic, last years and years if looked after well. My cooking skills are disinterested at best, and I managed to fudge some decent meals using them!

I can think of only one advantage due to the weight and that is if you need to stir something in a smallish pan it doesn't move or wobble about like as a lighter one would - but they really are so damn heavy I wouldn't use one now.

I cook on induction and loved my le creuset cookware. I now find it far too heavy so have swapped it for lighter ones. Found some reasonably priced ones at Sainsbury’s!

Did consider them, but far too heavy, especially as I’m getting older.

Or even the surface of your HOB!?

Love them, so classic, but have given mine to a close friend as after my lymph nodes in arm have been removed, I am trying to only use lighter cooking utensils.

Can't be bothered with them - far too heavy! Lots of saucepan choices that do a great job ! Personal choice I recognize that , but definitely not for me .

I have an induction and I'd be very cautious as cast iron may well scratch the surface of your job. I use "Neverstick" no PTFE etc and brilliant as they can be popped into dishwasher too. I hav set of 3 saucepans and a big cookpot/wok thingy with lid .I love them!

I prefer ProCook pans. Le Creuset are of course the gold standard, but unfortunately I cannot lift them at all.

I have used them for over 50 years, and they all came across to my induction hob. I find they work brilliantly at slow stove-top cooking with the low heat from an induction hob.

2 points - they do take ages to heat up, so be aware.
I also agree that weight can be an issue, but it does vary. I find them well balanced, so not too difficult to move. I had a cast iron omelette pan than I have loved for over 50 years (not LC) that I can no longer manage, but replaced it with a lighter LC one which works very well.

I have just this week given my DD the pan set & large casserole dish which I have used for 40+ yrs she still has family at home and is stronger than I am so able to lift them from her cooker I have kept the smaller 2 person casserole just for me I can cope with the weight of that .

I had Le C for over 30 years, but little by little preferred lighter ones.

By coincidence I was in Peter Jones kitchen department yesterday to buy a slotted spoon, which I did for £3! I need a hob to oven lidded casserole dish so had a quick look at Le Creuset - honestly I could hardly lift the lid off the large one it was so heavy.

Friends who use them swear they are the best thing ever but they were bought many years ago when younger and stronger!

Oh, and Shanah tova!

Just remember not to use metal spoons for stirring etc. Especially when tapping them on the edge to remove food as it chips the edge.

I have Le Creuset pans but prefer my pans from ProCook with my induction hob. They are much lighter and easy to clean.

I cracked my massive omelette pan by dropping it a few years ago oops. My tiles survived and I replaced it.

PS I dropped one years ago and smashed a floor tile…..the casserole was fine though.