I’ve made my dad’s ropa vieja at least a dozen times to fight the cold-weather blues, but since moving to an apartment that has an electric stove instead of gas burners, I’ve had trouble getting it right. Being that this is a recipe I can tackle in my sleep, I wondered if my long, oval-shaped Dutch oven was the problem. Did it get super hot in the center, causing parts of the stew to burn and the veggies to completely evaporate, but not get hot at the edges? Is that why the tomato sauce turned into a mound of lava rock that I had to chisel off the bottom of the pot?
Once I caught wind of the *circular* Caraway Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven ($265), I knew it was time to give my go-to recipe another try. The 6.5-quart stunner is designed to retain heat like raw cast iron cookware but also has an easier-to-clean coating that doesn’t require manual seasoning. As PureWow’s food editor, I had to test it for myself. Read on for photos of my experience and my honest review.
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