A poor man's Le Creuset...

I have exactly what leela is asking about. It's made by Cuisinart. I bought it at TJ Maxx (a discount store) and it was the same price as the one by Le Creuset. In real life neither would be cheap, but Le Creuset would be more expensive.

Since the price was the same, I chose mine based features. My Cuisinart one had more of a range. I can't remember which feature was missing from Le Creuset, but mine goes in the oven, on the burners, in the dishwasher and under the broiler. I think the broiler was the difference between the two.

Here it is

Comb TKMAX and with any luck you'll find one like the 7 litre I got for a fiver cos it had a chip on the lid.

Thanks all...I plan a trip to TK Maxx tomorrow.

This isn't a good idea if you want it to go from hob to oven to table - but from hob to oven, consider a stock pot the handles and lid knob of which are OK to heat to 200C.

I bought a massive stock pot from John Lewis (£70 about 20 years ago; call it £100 today or, perhaps, less than £70). Not cheap - but I also have two Le Creuset casseroles which hold about 1/8th of the amount, and cost not far off the same.

I bought it to make massive amounts of soup, curries, etc on the hob to freeze-down. An unexpected added bonus, especially for curries, casseroles, is that it will go from hob to oven. (It's so big that it will not go in the oven with the lid on unless you invert it; which I do.)

P.S. I say 1/8th but it might even be 1/16th.

Although my chipped lid best buy takes pride of place amongst the pans, I mostly use my 'real' poor mans cooking pots made from clay which I use stove top or oven to table, I bought them while traveling in Asia about 10 yrs ago at around 20 pence a pot. I've seen some African clay ware in either Liberty's or Selfridges but at a far higher price.

about 10 yrs ago at around 20 pence a pot

You should import them, even now, and sell them on eBay, Donkey.

They do a very good job but they're not aesthetically appealing, a bit like the 70's chicken brick.

I got one like this from Ikea (in orange) a few years ago and it's quite good, though not quite Le Creuset durability I'd say:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40131725/

So, leela, was your shopping trip successful?