Good luck cleaning it! Stay away from enamel. Go for good old cast iron! THAT is easy! Put the oven on self clean, and stick that in there. DONE!!

FYI, the knob-wrapped-in-aluminum-foil trick is iffy at best, and downright noxious at the high temps required for no-knead bread baking. The phenolic (plastic) portion of the knob is attached to the threaded metal sleeve with an adhesive that melts at high temps. I tried the foil trick once, and then promptly went out and bought a cheap stainless knob at Home Depot (see link below). Approaching 30 loaves of no-knead bread at this point, and it's holding up beautifully... Here is a link that might be useful:

Like Linda and some others, I use all my cast iron Enamel cookware and stopped worrying years ago about some staining. Some of the newer pieces clean up beautifully. But one of my older pieces from Le Creuset is stained on the outside and very difficult to get cleaned. I use to go to all kinds of trouble to try and keep the outside of that pot clean. Now I don't bother. It is one of my favourites and you can tell by looking at it that it has been used often over the last 25 years. One method I found for cleaning up enamel coated pots that have staining is to soak them in a sink with dishwasher detergent.(Cascade). Softens the baked-on stains and they wash off easily. Kandm, I have a set of vintage Griswold cast iron and I often use it to cook chili and tomato based sauces in it. Hasn't harmed my pots and in fact, one of my favourite Tex Mex chili recipes actually states that "Chili just doesn't taste right if you don't cook it in an iron pot". LOL! Ann

I'm new to Gardenweb and have broken ground on a huge remodeling project - taking our tiny home from 800 sq ft to 1800 sq ft and including new kitchen and master bathroom. I'm currently looking for the perfect large, white, single-bowl, undermount kitchen sink. I never paid attention to sinks, always put up with whatever I inherited, and now I see that they are one of the most important decisions in the kitchen remodel. I have to install mine in the island because of the floor plan - no choice. Stainless and silgranite do not fit the feel of my "white" cottage kitchen. I prefer an off-set drain, but I think I would not mind the center drain with a large sink. I really like the Kohler "Riverby" but had to rule that one out because it requires a 36" minimum cabinet base, per Kohler website. The prices of these are all around $600. I have narrowed it down to three options and listed the interior bowl sizes: 1) Rohl "Allia" -- 28.5x17.5x10 (off-set drain) Fireclay sink Requires 33" minimum cabinet base per Rohl customer service rep 2) Kohler "Bakersfield" -- 27x15x8.5 (center drain) Cast iron w/enamel Requires 33" minimum cabinet base per Kohler website 3) Kohler "Cape Dory" -- 29x15x8.5 (center drain) Cast iron w/enamel Requires 33" minimum cabinet base per Kohler website There were some threads about the fireclay sink that concerned me (crazing or cracking), so I contacted Rohl and was very pleased by their quick response and their assurances about the product. Seems it was a very minor percentage of their product with defects and they resolved the problems for the customers (it was also the Shaws sink and not the Allia). I was also told that if a cast-iron sink chips, it is bound to rust, but if a fireclay sink chips, there is a repair kit. Fireclay is also almost impossible to stain. Since it looks like fireclay and cast iron are both very good products, I would like to know if people with any of these 3 sinks can post pics of the sinks in their kitchens and/or speak about how satisfied (or not) they are with their selection? Specifically, are the Kohler sinks wide enough at 15" deep to not splash and deep enough to hold lots of dishes? Are the center drains in the Kohler in the way? Is the Allia sink too deep or fragile? Any help or advice would be appreciated, especially if there are any GWbers who have owned both brands/materials. Thank you!