Browning Contest - Lodge vs. Emile Henry

So I love my Lodge french oven and Emile Henry clay pots so much, that I have decided to eventually replace all our pots with either LC/Lodge, or Emile Henry. Since I shop outlets and discount stores, I wanted to decide ahead of time so I can be ready to snatch a good deal when I see one. Therefore, a decision had to be made - Emile Henry or Le Creuset/Lodge?

Well, only one way to answer that question if you are a woman of science like myself: an experiment. Thus I undertook the Browning Contest.

I began with two side dishes to help me enjoy the final results. Cut up aspargus tossed with butter and salt in my petite Le Creuset baking dish, and Brazilian pão-de-queijo (cheese breadies). Those turned out pretty delicious and required no attention during the contest.
Then it was time to ready the competitors. The heat was set for 4/9, then increased to 6/9, and there was some oil on each pot. My stove is a plain electric one.

After the pots were heated, I browned some onions and mixed specialty mushrooms. Both did this equally well.


I then reserved the onions and mushrooms, added butter to each pot, dried two cuts of Ribeye with a paper towel, and in they went.


After 4-5 minutes on each side, they looked like this:


As you can see, the Lodge cut looks much nicer. I confess as I saw this development I became more and more excited, as although I love my Emile Henry I think it is harder to find those at a good price, they could break if dropped, but mostly, they don't have them in the "flame" and "kiwi" colors that I decided to eventually do my cookware in, in addition to my cobalt Lodge (or similar colors, for that matter).

Then it was time to deglaze with some Cabernet. Both looked fine. I added a touch (literally, a teaspoon) of bottled Marsala sauce to each pot.


I then re-added the onions, mushrooms, and beef. At this point, the Emile Henry sauce looked very, very smooth (though it's hard to see), but the Lodge's started to break and separate.

Aaaand... The finished Ribeye! I cut each in half since I could never eat two full cuts. However, as I cut them I forgot to turn the heat off on the Emile Henry, so by the time I served that pan sauce it had broke a bit too (though it was completely my fault for turning the heat off on the Lodge and forgetting it on under the Emile Henry).


With the Aspargus and pão-de-queijo.


THE RESULTS: As much as I wanted the Lodge to win and believed it would, it did not, because:
1) The EH meat was noticeably more tender, and the less browning did not affect the taste. The Lodge meat was "good" and the EH "very good". This is an amazing result because I have NEVER cooked an edible piece of steak.
2) The pan sauce separated on the Lodge much sooner than on the EH.

However, the Lodge was very fun to cook in as well. In the end, I thought the EH would win for easiest clean up, but both pans cleaned up incredibly easily with a soak, and tied on that department.
So it looks like I'll have to find a way to make the EH color scheme work in my kitchen... Maybe I'll add a LC in flame and an EH in green. I'll keep you posted.