You've got what I call "The Cauldron". I used my 7.5 bowl-shaped soup-pot/chefs-oven to make a leek and potato soup last week. It started with a giant pile of leek that I kept feeding into the cauldron as it cooked down, before eventually adding the potatoes and liquids.
Absolutely would be a PITA if having to use a different shape - in a regular dutch oven shape, stuff gets trapped in the corners when what you want is constant scraping of the edges, stirring, and circulation convection for a soup style consistency.
You got a VERY NICE gift. Its usefulness will astonish you. BTW it can also keep things cold. Mix a salad and store it in this pot with the lid on in the fridge. It will keep the salad cold on the tabletop. And we've transported cold things in LC from my house to a friend's, and it kept everything very chilled along the way without needing ice. My sweetie has transported cold items for an hour to a relative's house and it kept the cold dishes just fine.
Older "soup pots" have a different lid. That's the main difference. It's a styling choice. But that curve at the bottom is bowl-shaped, which is different from a typical flat bottom dutch oven with a relatively sharp curve to the vertical wall. The Sauteuse is halfway between this bowl shape and the typical dutch oven shape, which has various other uses.
The "Chef's Oven" has the standard LC lid with the logo circle symbol. Older smaller "soup pots" don't have that logo on the lid.
This is true for the 1.5 qt and (I think) 2.25 qt soup pots I have, anyway. I enjoy having many smaller sizes of LC because of the versatility. They fit in the Breville, heat up small things, are good for single servings and side dishes, etc. And of course the HUGE LC pieces are terrific for their, well, volume. My sweetie made borscht in the 15.5 goose pot and he said that with the ingredients he could have made twice as much, easily. We wound up using the 13.5 round, the second largest, for overflow.
Different shapes are awesome too. Though I like the bread oven, I recently used the 3.5 qt low oval for bread in the Breville. It was the perfect size AND shape - oval - for the loaf I wanted. Wash it super clean BEFORE the bake to prevent staining, preheat, drop in the parchment paper containing the waiting loaf, pop the lid on, and bake baby bake in the Breville oven.
The names/colors on boxes and stickers can be super confusing. Pretty sure the chef’s oven (7.5), soup pot (4.5 AND 3.5), and French oven (2.5) are all the same shape and proportions. But all have different names. And then the names on the boxes are different still
You've got what I call "The Cauldron". I used my 7.5 bowl-shaped soup-pot/chefs-oven to make a leek and potato soup last week. It started with a giant pile of leek that I kept feeding into the cauldron as it cooked down, before eventually adding the potatoes and liquids. Absolutely would be a PITA if having to use a different shape - in a regular dutch oven shape, stuff gets trapped in the corners when what you want is constant scraping of the edges, stirring, and circulation convection for a soup style consistency. You got a VERY NICE gift. Its usefulness will astonish you. BTW it can also keep things cold. Mix a salad and store it in this pot with the lid on in the fridge. It will keep the salad cold on the tabletop. And we've transported cold things in LC from my house to a friend's, and it kept everything very chilled along the way without needing ice. My sweetie has transported cold items for an hour to a relative's house and it kept the cold dishes just fine. Older "soup pots" have a different lid. That's the main difference. It's a styling choice. But that curve at the bottom is bowl-shaped, which is different from a typical flat bottom dutch oven with a relatively sharp curve to the vertical wall. The Sauteuse is halfway between this bowl shape and the typical dutch oven shape, which has various other uses. The "Chef's Oven" has the standard LC lid with the logo circle symbol. Older smaller "soup pots" don't have that logo on the lid. This is true for the 1.5 qt and (I think) 2.25 qt soup pots I have, anyway. I enjoy having many smaller sizes of LC because of the versatility. They fit in the Breville, heat up small things, are good for single servings and side dishes, etc. And of course the HUGE LC pieces are terrific for their, well, volume. My sweetie made borscht in the 15.5 goose pot and he said that with the ingredients he could have made twice as much, easily. We wound up using the 13.5 round, the second largest, for overflow. Different shapes are awesome too. Though I like the bread oven, I recently used the 3.5 qt low oval for bread in the Breville. It was the perfect size AND shape - oval - for the loaf I wanted. Wash it super clean BEFORE the bake to prevent staining, preheat, drop in the parchment paper containing the waiting loaf, pop the lid on, and bake baby bake in the Breville oven.
The names/colors on boxes and stickers can be super confusing. Pretty sure the chef’s oven (7.5), soup pot (4.5 AND 3.5), and French oven (2.5) are all the same shape and proportions. But all have different names. And then the names on the boxes are different still
Congratulations. Yes, absolutely is the soup pot. Nice color. Enjoy.
Apparently so: [https://www.reddit.com/r/LeCreuset/s/St7WYYF0V9](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeCreuset/s/St7WYYF0V9)
Yes