Le Creuset Enameled Cast-Iron 4-1/4-Quart Soup Pot with Cover, Red

Well Worth the cost
Ok, so this pot is really two tools in one: A Great piece of cookware and a piece of exercise equipment. Lordy, it weighs a TON.
Ok so how does it cook? Very Well: Very even heat, no hot spots to burn your chowder, it will hold a simmer and come to a quick boil. It has a tight fitting lid that really seals in the heat. It is oven safe and the slopped sides make it easy to stir ingredients in to the broth without loosing them in a corner.

Easy to clean, well, really, VERY easy to clean. And I LOVE the red color. I find NOTHING other than cost and weight to criticize but let us face it: one gets what one pays for and this is a lifetime pot, your lifetime, your kid's lifetime, you r grandkids lifetime. Moreover, considering it is a pot and a Nautilus in one.......

Better Than Your Mom's Old Soup Pot
First let me say that I would not have bought this kind of high-end cookware had Amazon not made me an offer I couldn't refuse. I actually bought this on a whim thinking that if it wasn't anything special, then it goes into the church rummage sale.
The maiden voyage dish was a pot roast with vegetables. Okay, so it wasn't soup, but what a great roast. I browned the meat as usual, drained the fat, added the veggies and liquid. The whole thing went into the oven, cover and all. I served the meal from the stylish pot with rave reviews on all the components. Since then I have made soups and stews. It really holds up to slow stove-top cooking also.
Clean up? The enamel coating makes everything slide off with hot soapy water and a little nylon scubby. What more could you ask for? Okay, someone to come and actually do the cooking and clean up. But if you don't have the luxury of a personal chef, get this pot. I actually think of it as a potential heirloom to be passed...

Just the right size!!
This is a wonderful all-purpose pot. I use it for a multitude of purposes:

1. Making sauces for pastas and then adding the pasta to the sauce and tossing. The curved sides make it perfect for the quick and easy blending of shrimp scampi with lemon spaghetti for example.

2. Stir-fry. The sloping sides and great heat retention make stir-fry a natural.

3. Casseroles - Easy clean up and a comfortable size make this a wonderful casserole pot.

4. Reheating - the large surface area makes this the pot to go to when reheating almost any main course - lamb shanks come to mind immediately.

I find that I use this pot for almost everything except soup. For soup I turn to my handy 5-