Fall Kitchen: Enameled Cast Iron, Pie Dishes and Mixing Bowls

Fall cooking is slow cooking. Soups that simmer all afternoon, braises that make the whole house smell good, pies cooling on the counter while someone pretends not to notice. The right tools make those long weekends easier and a lot more enjoyable. Enameled cast iron is the backbone here because it moves from stovetop to oven to table and holds heat beautifully, which is exactly what stews and bread need. A pumpkin shaped pot doubles as a centerpiece. For baking, a good ceramic pie dish gives you a crisp bottom crust and goes straight onto the table, and a nested set of mixing bowls keeps flour, apples and dough organized. Add a sheet pan with a rack for roasting vegetables and a few seasonal finishing touches, like a dried wreath or a living centerpiece, and the kitchen starts to feel like the heart of the season.

If you are choosing just one pot, a round Dutch oven is the most versatile, handling soups, roasts and no knead bread with equal ease. Smaller petite ovens are ideal for side dishes and serving at the table. Ceramic and stoneware pie dishes bake more evenly than glass and look prettier when serving. Mini pie dishes make individual desserts feel generous. Keep a warm throw nearby for the inevitable post dinner collapse on the sofa.

A Dutch oven gets all the attention, but the enameled cast iron I reach for most on a weeknight is wider and lower. A deep skillet with straight sides handles cornbread, a fruit cobbler or a pan of chicken thighs without splattering the whole stovetop, and the Staub and Le Creuset versions here go straight from the burner to the oven. Enameled cast iron has one big advantage over the raw kind: there is no seasoning ritual, and tomatoes and wine do not bother it, so a braise is fair game.

A braiser is the one I would add second. Think of it as a Dutch oven that went on a diet, with a wide base for browning short ribs or chicken in a single layer and a low lid that keeps the juices moving. The Staub with the glass lid lets you check on dinner without letting the heat out, which sounds small until you are three hours into a Sunday braise. The cream and green ones look just as good on the table as they do on the stove.

The skinny grill pan is a smaller bet that pays off in October, when you want sear marks on squash and steak and it is too cold to light the real grill. Practical tip: choose the size by how many people you cook for on a normal night, not on Thanksgiving, because a pan that is too big heats unevenly on a small burner.

What I would skip: a stack of five colors. Pick one skillet and one braiser in a shade you actually like, then let your pie dishes and mixing bowls echo it.

A good pie dish is only half the equation. The crust is the part people remember, and it comes down to a few small tools that are easy to overlook. Start with a rolling pin. I like a tapered olivewood pin for pastry because you can feel the dough through it, and a marble barrel pin for the opposite reason: it stays cool, which helps keep the butter in a crust from softening before it reaches the oven. A classic maple pin is the sensible middle path.

Next come the less glamorous things that make a ceramic pie dish bake properly. Pie weights keep a blind baked crust flat instead of puffing up in the middle, and one jar lasts for years. A silicone pastry mat means the dough does not stick to the counter, so you can roll without reaching for extra flour. A fluted cutter turns leftover dough into lattice strips with a ruffled edge, and the rolling crust cutters stamp out leaves for the top in about a minute.

If it is a busy week, the pie crust mix is a perfectly respectable shortcut. Add cold butter and water and you have a flaky base ready for apples. One practical test: chill the dough for thirty minutes before rolling and you will not need any rescue techniques later.

What I would skip: novelty cookie cutter sets that end up in a drawer. Buy the pin, the mat and the weights first, then let the mixing bowls and the pie dish do the pretty work.

We think a quality enameled Dutch oven is the most worthwhile kitchen purchase you can make this fall, and it will likely outlive most of your other cookware. Our next pick would be a stoneware pie dish with a fluted edge, since it handles sweet and savory pies and looks lovely on the table. Mixing bowls are an underrated upgrade if yours are mismatched or flimsy. Choose colors you already love in your kitchen rather than seasonal novelty shades. Classic cream, deep red and soft gray will never feel dated. If you want to keep browsing, I also put together The Kitchen Subway Tile Backsplash, Reconsidered and What Is Worth Buying for a Luxury Kitchen.