This dish has been part of my regular kitchen cooking items for several years now and still looks as good as the first day it was used. I can't remember the packaging that it came in to help you find it on the shelves. The Le Creuset dish is not part of its famous cast iron sets but is part of its stoneware range meaning it is a good bit lighter to hold.

The dish itself is 32 cm long and 24cm wide and it has a 3 liter capacity. The one I have is in graded blue. The graded blue refers to the fact that the blue glaze gets lighter the further up the dish it goes. The dish is oven, microwave, grill freezer and dishwasher safe. However it can't be used on a hob. The inside of the dish is not a non-stick but is instead a cream enamel that is non porous.


In use
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I tend to use this dish for a lot of different dishes; I find that for me it is a great size for both lasagna and a fish pie as well as roasting vegetables or cooking wedges. As we are a small family cooking some things in this large dish then gives me enough meals for two people plus some to freezer for later or the next day. I have also used it to prepare food in advance if we have people coming to stay and have found there to be no problems with it being stored in the freezer. As it is an open top dish I always cover the food in cling film for the freezer and this seems to keep the food nice and fresh and undamaged. I haven't actually transfer the dish straight from the freezer to the oven and would be wary of doing so in case it has cracked and I have generally taken the food out to defrost the night before and then placed it in the oven.

As the dish is nice and large I actually find if I am marinating food for example chicken breasts or some lamb steaks it is great to make the marinade up in the dish and then place this straight into the oven after it has finished marinating and this cuts down the washing up.

The design for the dish with the handles at either end is good but for me the handles whilst easier to hold could do with being a little deeper to hold onto. The reason for this is as I think this would make them easier to hold with chunky oven gloves as at present when I take it from the oven I often hold it with one hand on the handle and the other underneath as I don't think I get sufficient grip with the just the handles through the oven gloves.

I have to admit I haven't actually ever used this dish in the microwave or our new dishwasher as yet. As the dish is quite large you would need a large microwave for it to be used in, as it just to say fits in our small microwave and wouldn't turn on the turntable even if I had used it there.

Cleaning this dish is nice and easy and despite some baked on bits during cooking from potatoes or cheesy sauce I have always found that these have come off with a good scrub from a scrubbing brush after a soak in washing up liquid. I am sure if this went into the dishwasher the same would be true.

The grade blue enamel still looks nice and fresh with no chips in the dish or glaze from a couple of year's worth of use.

As this dish is stoneware it heats up fairly quickly and seems to retain its heat well so the food often stays warm when the dish is taken out of the oven.

The dish with its pretty glaze wear is also I think suitable to be presented at the dinner table without things such as roast vegetables being decanted into serving dishes which again I find helpful to cut down the washing up if we have guests.

As this dish is part of the stoneware range from Le Creuset it is a good deal lighter than its cast iron counterpart however it still is heavier than a Pyrex dish of the same size.

Overall
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This is a well made dish and is a good size for family meals such as lasagna. It lives up to its promises of oven grill and freezer safe with no difficulty it is easy to clean and gets a 4 stars for me I have deduct a star as I would like slightly larger handles on it and for the Le Creuset price but bar this I would definitely recommend this dish. The dish costs between £24-30 depending on the retailer and can be found at such shops as Amazon John Lewis and Marks and Spencer