I am loathe to say this, but I need a new fancy soup pot.
I cook A LOT, it's a big part of my life. Thanks to wedding gifts and awards at DH's work that can be cashed in for cookware, we have a decent collection of copper and cast iron that we've never had to buy for ourselves.
...but now I need a soup pot.
I batch cook, but my new apartment sized stove doesn't have elements big enough to handle my giant copper pots, so I've started cooking double batches of things in two pots.
I have one soup sized Staub enameled cast iron pot and a decent brand name stainless steel pot about the same size.
Three times this week I've split a recipe between these two pots, identical ingredients, identical amounts, identical cooking process, and THREE DAMN TIMES the recipe comes out of the fancy pot tasting significantly better.
Like...it's not even close.
The flavour, the texture, it's totally different.
I always knew I preferred cooking with my fancy pots, I always noticed that I had to spend less effort fidgeting with adjusting the heat, but until this past week, I would have assumed that any change in flavour would have been a placebo effect of just enjoying the cooking process more.
But nope.
I have two large batches of soup on the stove right now and one tastes cohesive and layered and gorgeous while the other tastes...fine, I guess, but the the texture sucks.
Dammit!!!
Now I need another friggin' enameled cast iron soup pot?
Anyone have a recommendation that won't cost $300 but won't fuck up my food??