topic Re: Cast Iron set from this morning? in Kitchen

Cast Iron set from this morning?

CamilleP — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 01:57:29 GMT

Did anyone order it? It's a great price for four cast iron dishes with three lids, all enamelled. It's not listed as "light weight" and the weights given seem to jive with the two Le Creuset pieces I have. Given the prices for Staub and Le Creuset, however, I have to wonder how Cook's Essentials can put together a seven piece set for well under a hundred bucks! I was tempted, but my kitchen cupboards are stuffed full, so I've decided to wait until some reviews come in, and decided to ask if anyone on the kitchen forum was braver than me and is taking a shot at these pieces being a great deal on good cast iron cookware.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 02:49:09 GMT

@CamilleP wrote:
Did anyone order it? It's a great price for four cast iron dishes with three lids, all enamelled. It's not listed as "light weight" and the weights given seem to jive with the two Le Creuset pieces I have. Given the prices for Staub and Le Creuset, however, I have to wonder how Cook's Essentials can put together a seven piece set for well under a hundred bucks! I was tempted, but my kitchen cupboards are stuffed full, so I've decided to wait until some reviews come in, and decided to ask if anyone on the kitchen forum was braver than me and is taking a shot at these pieces being a great deal on good cast iron cookware.

QVC used to sell a 4 or 5 qt Technique enameled cast iron Dutch Oven at least 10 years or so ago. I got one when they went on clearance back then and it is still used multiple times per week by the person I gave it to. This set looks just as well made if not better than the old one. I ordered it in blue.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

makena — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 03:42:22 GMT

@CamilleP wrote:
Did anyone order it? It's a great price for four cast iron dishes with three lids, all enamelled. It's not listed as "light weight" and the weights given seem to jive with the two Le Creuset pieces I have. Given the prices for Staub and Le Creuset, however, I have to wonder how Cook's Essentials can put together a seven piece set for well under a hundred bucks! I was tempted, but my kitchen cupboards are stuffed full, so I've decided to wait until some reviews come in, and decided to ask if anyone on the kitchen forum was braver than me and is taking a shot at these pieces being a great deal on good cast iron cookware.

I was tempted but I didn't. I loved the blue. I was also wondering about the price differences. That price for 7 pieces was phenomenal.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

sissel — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 03:53:43 GMT

It was a good price for what you get. Meredith did a wonderful presentation. I thought David & her were honest when they said don't put it in the dishwasher because it's heavy and could damage the racks. Seems easy to hand clean. I couldn't keep my eyes off the short ribs she made. LOL

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

RollTide2008 — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 13:59:19 GMT

For my needs, I thought the pieces were too small. I'm in the market for an enameled cast iron skillet, but I think I want a 12 inch.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 15:55:58 GMT

I liked that it has the smaller pieces, but fully agree that a 12 inch skillet would have been better than the 10 inch.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

CamilleP — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 19:12:09 GMT

Thank you, everyone, for chiming in. I think I will skip the set and hope they bring open stock, and I will order a skillet and sauce pot. I also look forward to reviews, at this price I could buy the set and donate the pieces I didn't want to Goodwill and still come out ahead!

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

chickenbutt — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 19:18:21 GMT

I saw some of that yesterday morning. It reminded me, more than any other 'house-type brand' of Le Creuset. I wonder if it was made by them. I wonder where it was made.

I'm up to 'here' in LC pots so I'm totally not in the market. But I do hope that this CE product is well made. I'd love to see QVC go back to selling and manufacturing better quality products.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

RollTide2008 — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 20:22:35 GMT

The colors were beautiful. I'm reconsidering my need for a 1 quart braising pot just because that yellow would be so pretty on my stove.

I agree, some open stock pieces would be great.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

chickenbutt — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 20:29:42 GMT

I have a little 1qt LC pot and I LOVE it! I don't use it all the time, but there are tasks for which that is the one I choose every time.

1qt is really quite small. If you have a 1qt saucepan, that will give an idea of the size. But for anybody who uses smaller pots/pans regularly, they are great to have. I have 3 or 4 1qt saucepans.

Also, when I freeze a serving (well, one for the husband, two for me) of turkey chili or split pea soup, I freeze them in a round L&L and then pop them out and vacuum seal. When it's time to heat one up it fits exactly in my 1qt LC. I just put it on med-low, put the lid on the pot, and let it slowly heat up from frozen.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 17:33:13 GMT

My blue set just shipped so I will let people know if it is a good purchase after using it if there is any interest. QVC keeps putting out various lighter cast iron pieces and not bringing them back. I am curious if they are just testing the waters with this too.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

decolvr — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:50:36 GMT

I was very interested in this set, as well. I have the enameled cast iron from Evine....and I am very pleased with my pieces.

I will look forward to your review of this set.......smaller sizes.....but oh, so cute...LOL.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

CamilleP — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 19:45:52 GMT

Ilovetea, did you get your blue set yet? So far the reviews seem positive. I decided to go ahead and order the light blue set this morning, even if I decide I don't want all the pieces I can keep what I want and donate the others to Goodwill far less expensively than buying even one piece of Le Creuset. I hope the color comes close to matching the LC Caribbean pieces I have, or at least doesn't clash. I also hope the country-of-origin in listed in packaging info, if it's from China it goes right back! A friend of mine lost a young dog to melamine-induced kidney failure after she gave him a treat made in China, so I don't buy or use cookware or tableware made there, on principle as well as to avoid any toxic contaminants getting into my food. (I was heartbroken when my Pfaltzgraf pattern started being made in China, if I ever wind up needing new tableware, I'll have to start a new pattern from another company and give away what's left of my old Pfaltzgraf set.)

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:18:35 GMT

@CamilleP wrote:
Ilovetea, did you get your blue set yet? So far the reviews seem positive. I decided to go ahead and order the light blue set this morning, even if I decide I don't want all the pieces I can keep what I want and donate the others to Goodwill far less expensively than buying even one piece of Le Creuset. I hope the color comes close to matching the LC Caribbean pieces I have, or at least doesn't clash. I also hope the country-of-origin in listed in packaging info, if it's from China it goes right back! A friend of mine lost a young dog to melamine-induced kidney failure after she gave him a treat made in China, so I don't buy or use cookware or tableware made there, on principle as well as to avoid any toxic contaminants getting into my food. (I was heartbroken when my Pfaltzgraf pattern started being made in China, if I ever wind up needing new tableware, I'll have to start a new pattern from another company and give away what's left of my old Pfaltzgraf set.)

Mine is out for delivery today so I can't speak as to what documentation says myself. I read through some Q&As and one answer said it was made in China. If you can still cancel you might want to do it now.

i mainly wanted the 2 qt braiser and the skillet. The lid for the skillet is the same one for the Dutch oven and I want to try the 1 qt BBraiser so may be keeping it all. If broken, it is going back.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

CamilleP — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:13:43 GMT

Thank you, Ilovetea, I had not spotted the country of origin mentioned in the Q&A, so I placed an order yesterday, but was able to cancel this morning. I hope you like your blue set when it arrives, that's the color that sold out first.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:25:40 GMT

@CamilleP wrote:
Thank you, Ilovetea, I had not spotted the country of origin mentioned in the Q&A, so I placed an order yesterday, but was able to cancel this morning. I hope you like your blue set when it arrives, that's the color that sold out first.

The blue seemed to match my LC Marseilles pieces better than the green matched my Rosemary pieces so went with that color. As you said before, the reviews have been good so will check it out when it gets here. If I see anything in the documentation different from what was in the Q&A I will let you know.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

chickenbutt — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 18:29:32 GMT

Wasn't this a brand new item? I wonder how people can be posting well thought out reviews already. It sounds like they just took it out of the box and said 'ooh, it's purdy...must be great'. I wish people would use products for a while before putting up premature reviews.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:02:19 GMT

Only one of the reviews mentioned using any of the pieces, so you are right on that.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

chickenbutt — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:08:47 GMT

Ilovetea wrote:
Only one of the reviews mentioned using any of the pieces, so you are right on that.

Hi! I hope you don't think I'm trying to be a negative Nellie or anything.

It's just a sore spot for me when people leave reviews that are inappropriate to an item that needs to actually be used some before reviewing them.

How many times have we seen reviews made and then the people realized the product was not as great as they looked like they would be? I've even seen people here say they wish they could go back and revise a review because the item ended up being poor quality. Yet, they went in right away and left a glowing review.

Anyhoo, all I wish is that this is a good item and the people who purchased it really love it. I almost wonder if they were maybe made by the LC company since they look more like LC than any other Chinese import of this type of product. If so, that's a step in the right direction because LC is such a good company.

When a good company makes products in SE Asia, they tend to pay more attention to quality, so as to not tarnish their name.

Re: Cast Iron set from this morning?

Ilovetea — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 20:35:06 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
@Ilovetea wrote:
Only one of the reviews mentioned using any of the pieces, so you are right on that.

Hi! I hope you don't think I'm trying to be a negative Nellie or anything.

It's just a sore spot for me when people leave reviews that are inappropriate to an item that needs to actually be used some before reviewing them.

How many times have we seen reviews made and then the people realized the product was not as great as they looked like they would be? I've even seen people here say they wish they could go back and revise a review because the item ended up being poor quality. Yet, they went in right away and left a glowing review.

Anyhoo, all I wish is that this is a good item and the people who purchased it really love it. I almost wonder if they were maybe made by the LC company since they look more like LC than any other Chinese import of this type of product. If so, that's a step in the right direction because LC is such a good company.

When a good company makes products in SE Asia, they tend to pay more attention to quality, so as to not tarnish their name.

My order had not arrived so I was checking out reviews on it as well. QVC had a Technique branded cast iron Dutch Oven like 8-10yrs ago that was really well made. I bought it on clearance and used it for years until purchasing more expensive LC and Staub. If the quality is on par with that, I will be happy. I have all the big pieces I need, just looking for some small stuff so this may end up great for the money. I will know more when it gets here.

i don't know who makes it for QVC but they definitely took the gradient coloring directly from the LC look.