i got these at sur la table in charlotte, nc... before they even hit the floor. they come in a great little box for storage and include a recipe book... haven't tried a recipe in it yet, but it looks pretty good from the start. my only complaint is that you can tell the recipe book is translated from french. they opted to stress style in the layout, so they don't always give explicit instructions and assume you know how to cook. I do, and I think anyone who'd spend 20 bucks per mini cocotte would, too.
they're not a must-have kitchen item... but they sure will leave an impression on dinner guests.
I was expecting these to be a set of the Le Creuset mini-cocottes that are sold individually by Amazon (and Williams-Sonoma, Sur la table, etc.), but that's not what they are. Those are made of the usual Le Creuset enameled cast iron...this set is made of stoneware, just pottery.
It didn't say in the product description that these were stoneware, and I assumed they were cast-iron because their other mini-cocottes are cast-iron. That said, I probably should have guessed based on the price. I thought I was getting a deal with 4 cast-iron ones for $80; not such a deal when they're light-weight pottery instead.
Anyway, I may still keep them; haven't decided. They're very cute and I'm sure they'll bake well, but I think they're probably overpriced.
Buy Le Creuset Mini Cocotte Sets Now
These gorgeous little cocottes are so stunning when being served to guests.
I have made many entrees and deserts in them and they always turn out perfectly. Scallops Mornay is my favourite. The size is perfect for these dishes, but maybe could be larger for a soup. (You need to buy the 12 ounce ones)
I knew that they were not cast iron and I don't think they are hard to confuse with other products.
The cook book is beautiful and full of great recipes.
I absolutely recommend these lovely dishes.
Read Best Reviews of Le Creuset Mini Cocotte Sets Here
This is a beautiful little set of cocottes, and I love the color.
I got a box of Les Plats du Chef's individually wrapped pre-made frozen French onion soup from Costco, unwrapped them,
put one in each cocotte sans the lid, and cooked them in the stove within a larger container to avoid spill-over problems,
and the result was great. Ready-to-serve-French onion soup in beautiful little containers with almost no work at all!
Then I served the Caribbean blue cocottes on plates of contrasting blue, and the presentation was very pretty.
The accompanying book is nice, but quite small, and features colors of cocottes that are no longer available.
If anyone knows of another such book, it would be good to know about it.
Over-all, a great buy. Expensive, but Stuab's cocottes are even more so, though they are made from other materials
and feature other colors. Both are good for different reasons, but I like LeCreuset's design better.
Cheaper ones are available and nice, but are more likely to break over time. These are very sturdy.
Enjoy.
Want Le Creuset Mini Cocotte Sets Discount?
We just returned from France where we bought the French version of this cookbook. It contains about 39 recipes. The "free" US version has only 25. The FR version sells for ten euros. Much better. Why did LC decide to cheapen the "free" version for the US crowd? There is certainly no shortage of translators.
Anyone who enjoys cocotte cooking might enjoy the whole book even if it needs translation. The translations are simple and fun.
As for the Made in China complaint: Ipads and most of the other stuff we use every day are made in China. The cocotte quality is excellent once you get past the xenophobia of the earlier gripe. These are great little cocottes. They heat up faster than the metal ones and are vastly less expensive for the same job unless you need to use direct heat.
We bought one set to try them. We now have three sets of cocottes and two extra Americanized cookbooks to give away.
I purchased this because I wanted a thinner slice of swiss cheese on my sandwiches. With all the screw hardware on the piece, it seems kind of awkward and the cheese tends to curl in toward the adjustable screw. Also, I wanted a cheese plane the same width as the block of cheese as you usually find in the supermarket. So, I tend to go back to the old wire cheese cutter since it is cuts a wider width even though the result is thicker slices.
