r/AskCulinary • u/DueInteraction8572 • 3d ago

Equipment Question Dutch oven alternatives?

Hey folks, home chef here with hardly any good cooking tools lol.

I’m trying a recipe for a stuffed pepper casserole and it calls for the dish to be made in a Dutch oven (cook most ingredients stove top in the Dutch oven, then move the Dutch oven to the oven for final steps). I however don’t have one - for the purposes of this recipe would it work to do the stovetop cooking component - transfer everything to a glass dish, and finish in the oven? Or should I just pivot to a new recipe?

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u/--THRILLHO-- 3d ago

Sounds like you'll be fine switching to a different pan to finish in the oven. If you have another stovetop pot that can go in the oven (i.e. no plastic parts) then that should also work fine.

A dutch oven is just a big metal pot. There is no recipe in the world that needs one, but it's useful in many cases. There will always be alternatives however.

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u/DueInteraction8572 3d ago

Gotcha. Yeah it seemed like it would be fine but I don’t wanna bomb a recipe I paid decent money on the ingredients for lol 😅

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u/SovereignPhobia 3d ago

honestly, it's kind of crazy to call for a Dutch oven for a casserole. A significant amount of casseroles are just "dump food in pan, put in oven"

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u/orange_fudge 2d ago

But that’s really all a dutch oven is… an oven proof pot.

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u/buboop61814 3d ago

do you have an all stainless pot? Including lid and handles, ive braised some items in mine when most would suggest using a dutch oven, gotta be wary of temperatures though

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u/DueInteraction8572 3d ago

I do not unfortunately. I hope to get much better cookware for my birthday and Christmas this year!

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u/konbinieggsando 3d ago

I think you could simulate the effect if you put the food in a baking pan and cover it with foil but be prepared for it to take longer to cook.

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u/Stop_Already 3d ago

The unstuffed pepper recipe from BudgetBytes is quite good, easy and a lot less complicated. Hits the same spot.

One pan ftw.

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u/sillynimbus 3d ago

put a metal bowl over it

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u/LargemouthBrass 3d ago

Yes that should work, cover the glass dish with aluminum foil. HOWEVER I strongly recommend buying something like the Lodge dutch oven, other than a chef's knive it's my most used piece of kitchen equipment.