The dutch oven is a marvelous cooking tool. It can brown meat prior to braising. It can hold a roast. It can simmer stew on the stove-top. The lid is heavy enough to prevent boiling liquids from being driven off. Putting it in the oven with the heat turned way down it can act as a slow cooker. Dutch ovens are marvelous things, and I've certainly been putting mine to good use this year.
In the English speaking world we call them "Dutch" ovens because the Dutch used to be better at making them than the English and thus the Dutch versions were more popluar. The one I have pictured above is made in France, go figure.
I use stock (beef usually) regularly when I cook. Yesterday I had my Dutch oven mostly full of a stock that started as bones and then cooked a few different chunks of meat. Each time the meat was done it was pulled and I reserved the stock for another time. I decided to start afresh though, so I left the pot uncovered on the woodstove for four hours and reduced the whole thing. Then I put in carrots, green beans, and cut up chunks of rib meat. I sure do like a thicker than thick "stew" on a cold winter evening.
-Edmund