I don't have any of the fancy enameled pans, but I do have an old, well-seasoned, flat bottom dutch oven in basic black. :-)
I love it for baked beans, beef or pork roasts, chickens,
any variety of soups (I can use it on my wood stove).

Deanna

Gosh I just love mine. All of mine are the plain cast iron and very old. I either inherited them or picked them up at antique/junk shops. I have two dutch ovens, one large skillet, one round flat griddle, and one tiny round skillet (I use it for scrambling 1 or 2 eggs and for toasting whole spices before grinding them).

I use them for everything and anything. I don't use them for tomato or acid based things. Other than that, I roast chickens, vegetables, scramble eggs, bake corn bread, on and on. Anything you would use a casserole dish or frying pan for... They are also great for stove to oven cooking if you do that much.

OK, missing posts here too, the gremlins are back at work...

Annie

Sue's thread on Ravioli is also missing. And so is the one on Dungeness Crab.

Ann

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!! hahahahahaha!!!!

OK, I'll post again.

Elery and I have used the Aldi's brasier three times already. I used it first for a pot roast, it worked like a charm, then Elery used it for a chicken stew and again last night for some braised cabbage because it's the biggest pot we have. He did manage to burn on some bits of cabbage and the enamel can't be scraped or scrubbed with Brillo, so I stuck it on the stove with some water and baking soda, boiled for about 10 minutes and it came clean as can be.

I have an old Griswold chicken fryer, a deep skillet basically, that I bought at a yard sale for $2, and I have three no name cast iron skillets that I got as a wedding gift in 1974. They are so well seasoned that eggs will slide around in them like they're Teflon! I also use them for a quick sear on steaks or burgers, for making grilled cheese sandwiches and for baking corn bread or biscuits.

I also have two cast iron dutch ovens, one with legs for camping, I've made everything from cinnamon rolls to apple pie to beef stew over the campfire with that. I use my other dutch oven to deep fry onion rings or french fries, to make beef stew because I brown the beef stove top, add the other ingredients and cook in the oven until done, then remove the lid, add biscuits to the top and bake until the biscuits are brown.

I love my cast iron cookware, and it'll last long enough to get handed down to Makayla, if she wants it. I don't know about the enameled stuff lasting that long, but my plain cast iron sure will.

Annie

Most of mine is plain old, well seasoned cast iron too. One of my favorite pieces is my cast iron wok, which I use a lot; even my muffin pans are cast iron, which make the most beautiful rolls. Some of my newest and oldest pieces are very thin, which is nice because it heats up faster than the heaviest, and more responsive to changes in heat. My large 15 inch griddle lives on my stove top, and I actually use it as extra counter space when I'm cooking. It's nice not having to move the biggest pieces around much, yet they are ready for action.

I bought the enameled braiser for exactly the reason trsinc mentioned, so I could have one heavy pot for acidic foods. I also like the fact the inside color of the enameled pot is light so I can easily see what's going on in there. I wanted a 12 inch pot with high(er) sides like a saute pan, so the braiser fit my needs for being able to stir without making a mess, yet I can still see what's going on inside the pot. So far I've used it for tacos and making meat sauce for lasagna. If I don't put my pork roast in the pressure cooker, I'll probably make it in the braiser. I would definitely use it for roasts, and stews.

What also works for cleaning the enamel is a little dishwasher detergent in the bottom of the pan. Mine looks like new, and it didn't by the time I was through cooking in it.

Cast iron is slower to heat up, and also holds heat well. Because of that, the reaction time is also slow, so overheating a cast iron pan and burning the food inside is easy. (My husband is still figuring this out.)

I started cooking in cast iron years ago to help with anemia. (It was better than taking iron tablets.) When I lived on the farm, I even fed my dogs in a cast iron skillet. They lived outside, so I made them a little gravy for their food when it was cold. Because of the weight, they couldn't pick up the pans and move them around to play with, so I always knew where they were.

If you're not used to it, there is a learning curve with cast iron, but you only have to use it to know why people are still cooking with it. I love having a pot that sears beautifully then goes in the oven, is husband and dog-proof. Some of my pieces I've used for 30 years, and I wouldn't trade them for anything.

A repost: if they resuscitate the missing parts of the thread, my apologies for the redundancy.

Enameled cast iron doesn't need to be seasoned.

The advantage of cast iron, whether enameled or 'raw', is its high heat capacity. That is, it takes a while to get the mass of iron up to temp, and it takes a while for the temp to go down. That makes it perfect for cooking stuff for a long time at a fairly steady temperature. Long slow braises become easy; brown the meat on the stove, add a little liquid and cover the pot, and allow the dish to finish on top of the stove on a low burner or (even easier) put it in a slow oven and leave it alone.

If you want to pursue this technique, you may wish to look up Molly Stevens' wonderful book 'All About Braising'. Great recipes.

About raw cast iron: there are lots of formulae for seasoning, maintaining, etc. raw cast iron. The most authoritative and intelligent discussion I've run across is the one at the link. Dan is a frequent CF contributor, and he collects/restores/uses cast iron in Cajun country, where every cook worth his roux cooks in cast iron. Worth a look, and it's worth picking up a little can of grapeseed oil just for the purpose.

Here is a link that might be useful: care and feeding of cast iron thread

You can tell if your cast iron pan is seasoned correctly if you can fry an egg without oil and it doesn't stick.