I had great results last Sunday at 350 degrees. I heated a little oil in the Le Creuset on the stove top, browned the patted down (paper towels) corned beef for a couple minutes all around, poured in a bottle of beer and water to about half way up the beef, and cooked it with the lid on for 3 1/2 hours. It was perfect! Tender, juicy as can be, and not at all dry. I did this for hash so threw out the water. If I was preparing cabbage, pots, and carrots I would dilute the very strong broth with water and divide into two pans; one for potatoes and carrots and another for the cabbage, and cook each for approx 20 minutes until done. This method was an experiment vs the very long and slow techniques that I've used in the past. This is a winner and will be repeated again without a doubt. Michaelp

There are about as manyw ays of making sweet and sour cabbage as there are cooks! I prefer red cabbage and red onions...not sure why! 1 small head of cabbage, chopped or shreaded 1 medium onion chopped ro sliced fine 1/2 cup vinegar....I use cider vinegar if I have green cabbage and red wine vinegar if I am using red cabbage. 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 tsp caraway seed OR 3/4 tsp celery seed. 1/2 stick butter Sautee the onion in the butter in a large fry or dutch oven pan with a lid until soft. Add the cabbage and the sugar, cover and simmer until juices flow, stir and continue simmering, about 40 minutes until well cooked. If it seems to get too dry, add a little liquid..1/2 cup of a dark beer is good....or chicken broth or apple juice or even water. Add salt to taste, and celery seed. Linda C water

rhome410 - Wow! I didn't even know Le Creuset made a 13.25 qt pot. Here's the thing - it's going to be so heavy when filled that even I would shy away from using it. And then there's the expense. For that kind of money, you would be better off with the All-Clad Stainless 12-Quart Stock Pot ($326.88 on Amazon). It gets top marks from Cooks Illustrated in part because "The aluminum core runs up the side of the pot". Since I personally won't be spending over $300 on a stock pot any time soon, I have a couple of other recommendations: 1. I'm not aware of another stock pot like All-Clad that go all the way up the sides, but Cooks Illustrated next highest rated is the Cuisinart Chef's Classic Stainless 12-Quart Stock Pot which gets very high marks, is ever so much more manageable than the Le Creuset and only costs around $60. Because it has a wide base, it will help a little with the bottom sides not burning, but you're still going to have to watch them carefully. 2. For heavier braising and thick soups/stews, for myself, I bought the the Mario Batali Braiser Oval 9 Qt enamel on cast iron pot. Cooks Illustrated rates these Mario Batali pots nearly as highly as Le Creuset and they're about half the price. They don't make a round one that size, but the shallower part of the oval is still 11" and provides for reasonably even burner coverage on my range (although if I remember correctly you actually have a more high powered range at home than I do). Hope this helps. plllog - great advice (along with everyone else) on "fish stick/chicken strip" making. The rounded sides on your your Le Creuset soup pot work better for at least 2 reasons: 1. A pan with 90 degree sides allows heat to enter from both the bottom and the side so, in effect, the food in the corner is getting up to twice as much heat - even more for a perfectly square or rectangular baking pan taking heat on 3 sides (ever noticed how the corners of brownies are quick to burn). 2. Rounded sides allow for more complete and efficient stirring therefore also reducing burning. These two reasons are probably why most pots are actually round/rounded in the first place. You'll note that practically all good casserole dishes (made for long cooking without stirring) are round/rounded on all edges. Interestingly, this can be even more important for microwave cooking.

I essentially want to echo the opinions and descriptions in this post. We purchased an open burner, dual fuel 36" Capital Connoisseurian 6-burner (no grill, no griddle) range that was installed in January and it has simply been a dream. It is so powerful that we had to re-learn how to cook because all the timing changed on how fast things heat up, how fast water boils (much faster!), etc. In addition, as reported above, the simmer is simply amazing, with exquisite control. There is a single dedicated simmer burner, but unless we need the other five for other things, we do not use it much. It is easy to clean. We have to our surprise not used the oven very much. The reason is simple: we're a bit lazy and we also have a double wall oven and use of the upper wall oven means no bending over... In our few uses, the Connoisseurian oven has worked well. When initially installed, we had to call the Capital customer line and they were happy to walk us through the things we did not quite understand. Since then we have had no issues (knock on wood). The Connoisseurian replaced a 13 year old Dacor that I hated pretty much from the day it was installed (after much research). I'm completely delighted with this stove and I'm very glad we purchased it. One of our main reasons for doing so was to get heat high enough to do true high heat wok cooking, so we also purchased the Wok ring. It has been excellent at that as well as everything else. If and when we move, it is probably coming with me. If you love to cook, if you want a truly superb stove, if you don't care about having an "in" brand (e.g. Viking), definitely give this your consideration.