This Le Creuset beater could be the only pan you ever need and it's got 30% off right now

(Image credit: Staub)

last updated 10 February 2022

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. I recently got a Staub Chistera, and it is my new favourite bit of cookware. That's because it manages to be a lidded frying pan – or more accurately a sauté pan – and a casserole dish. It manages this improbable feat by basically taking your standard casserole/Dutch oven design but making it about half as tall. This makes it a perfect size for use on the hob, sautéeing vegetables and searing and cooking meat, but also great for oven casseroling, roasting and even baking bread.

Sure, if you are a family of six, you may want a full-size casserole – in which case make your way to directly to our guide to the best Le Creuset deals – but these cooking pots are far more versatile and have easily enough capacity for singletons, couples and smaller families. They also obviously take up less storage space, although my one is getting used so frequently, it doesn't get to spend much down time in the cupboard.

Being made to an extremely high standard of workmanship by Le Creuset's arch rival Staub, the Chistera is also easy to clean, can stand up to high temperatures and rough handling, looks great, and should last for about 100 years. it's not a non-stick pan as such, but with just a little oiling, the pan lining is great for anything less sticky than eggs and rice.

Anyway, all this is a preamble to the exciting revelation that Amazon currently has a Staub Chistera going at 31% less than its usual price. That doesn't quite make it cheap, since Staub is even more premium than Le Creuset, but it certainly makes it cheap-er.

Staub chistera containing potato — Does that look tasty or what?

If you want a Chistera in a different size or in a colour other than black, you will need to pay a little more. Amazon has a large range, at all sorts of different and ever-changing prices.

Duncan is the former lifestyle editor of T3 and has been writing about tech for almost 15 years. He has covered everything from smartphones to headphones, TV to AC and air fryers to the movies of James Bond and obscure anime. His current brief is everything to do with the home and kitchen, which is good because he is an excellent cook, if he says so himself. He also covers cycling and ebikes – like over-using italics, this is another passion of his. In his long and varied lifestyle-tech career he is one of the few people to have been a fitness editor despite being unfit and a cars editor for not one but two websites, despite being unable to drive. He also has about 400 vacuum cleaners, and is possibly the UK's leading expert on cordless vacuum cleaners, despite being decidedly messy. A cricket fan for over 30 years, he also recently become T3's cricket editor, writing about how to stream obscure T20 tournaments, and turning out some typically no-nonsense opinions on the world's top teams and players.

Before T3, Duncan was a music and film reviewer, worked for a magazine about gambling that employed a surprisingly large number of convicted criminals, and then a magazine called Bizarre that was essentially like a cross between Reddit and DeviantArt, before the invention of the internet. There was also a lengthy period where he essentially wrote all of T3 magazine every month for about 3 years.

A broadcaster, raconteur and public speaker, Duncan used to be on telly loads, but an unfortunate incident put a stop to that, so he now largely contents himself with telling people, "I used to be on the TV, you know."

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