Food ยท Gear Review
Best Dutch Oven. One pot for the range and the fire.
Our pick for most households is the Lodge 5-quart cast iron Dutch oven. It braises, bakes bread, and simmers beans in the kitchen, then moves to a grill grate or wood stove when the power is out, for about $60. Four alternatives follow for cooking in coals and for kitchens that want enamel.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
At a glance: Lodge 5-Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven
Strengths
- It moves from the range and oven to a grill grate or wood stove top when the power is out.
- It costs about $60, a fraction of the price of an enameled pot.
- Owners praise it for bread, soup, and even cooking, and it cleans up with hot water and a brush.
- Its seasoning improves with every pot of beans and every batch of fried food.
Limitations
- At about 13 pounds empty, it is heavy to lift out of a hot oven.
- The dark interior makes browning harder to judge than in a light enameled pot.
- Long acidic simmers are hard on bare iron, and it can rust if not dried and oiled.
The verdict
Bare iron first, enamel for the kitchen.
Our cast iron cookware handbook explains the split. A bare pot cooks on every heat source a household has, including a grill or coals during an outage. An enameled pot is easier to live with in the kitchen and happier with acidic food. We picked the best of each, and a camp oven for cooking with no stove at all.
Best for most households
Lodge 5-quart
Bare iron for the range, oven, grill, or wood stove.
About $55 to $65
Best for cooking in coals
Lodge 6-quart camp
Legs and a rimmed lid turn coals into an oven.
About $80 to $90
Best enameled
Le Creuset 5.5-quart
The test-kitchen winner, and lighter than the Lodge.
About $300 to $460
Best value enameled
Cuisinart 5-quart
The test-kitchen Best Buy for enamel.
About $100 to $130
Affiliate disclosure: New World Survival earns a small commission on qualifying Amazon purchases at no cost to you. This helps us cover operating costs and keep building new content. We only recommend gear we would put in our own kit. Commission never decides a recommendation.
Why the pick wins
Range, not refinement.
An enameled pot is nicer to cook in. A bare one cooks in more places, for less money, which is what a household pot is for when the power is out.
01
Every heat source
A bare pot has no enamel to damage, so it moves from the oven to a grill grate or a wood stove top and back.
02
A sixth of the price
About $60 against $300 and up for the enameled winner, which leaves money for the camp oven and the pantry.
03
Recommended in testing
America's Test Kitchen recommended the bare Lodge alongside the enameled field, with clear notes on what it asks of you. (ATK)
04
Better with use
Every batch of beans and every fry adds to the seasoning, and owners report it cleans with hot water and a brush.
The honest trade is ease. America's Test Kitchen's winner across sizes was enameled Le Creuset, and its light interior and lighter weight make it the more pleasant kitchen pot. (America's Test Kitchen) If your Dutch oven will never leave the kitchen, the enameled picks below are the better choice, and we say so in each one.
The picks
Decide where it cooks, then pick the pot.
Every pot below braises, bakes, and simmers. What separates them is where they can go, how heavy they are full, and what their interior asks of you.
Best for most households
Lodge 5-Quart Cast Iron Dutch Oven
A bare, pre-seasoned cast iron pot with a lid and loop handles. Lodge lists the 5-quart at about 13 pounds and sells it alongside 2- and 7-quart sizes. (Lodge) It is the size our cast iron handbook suggests for most families.
America's Test Kitchen tested the 7-quart version of the same pot and recommended it. Their notes: a dark interior that makes browning harder to see, handles smaller than ideal, and a pot that must be dried and oiled after each use. Food did not taste metallic, though they noted Lodge's manual warns against prolonged acidic cooking. (America's Test Kitchen)
What it has that no enameled pot here has is range. It cooks the same on an electric range, in the oven, on a grill grate, and on a wood stove top, and it costs about a sixth of a premium enameled pot.
Specifications
Best for cooking in coals
Lodge 6-Quart Camp Dutch Oven
The camp version stands on three legs over a bed of coals and has a flat, rimmed lid that holds more coals on top, which turns the pot into an oven with no stove at all. Lodge lists the 6-quart at about 18 pounds, and sells sizes from 2 to 10 quarts. (Lodge)
Owners consistently report it works well on charcoal and at camp, and that 6 quarts feeds a family. Our Dutch oven cooking guide covers coal counts and placement.
The legs and the flat lid make it awkward on a kitchen range, so it is a second pot, or the first for a household that plans to cook outdoors. The 8-quart suits large groups.
Specifications
Best enameled
Le Creuset Signature Round Dutch Oven, 5.5-Quart
The winner of America's Test Kitchen's Dutch oven testing in the 5- to 6-quart class. Testers liked the light interior that makes browning easy to watch, the 9-inch cooking surface, excellent heat retention, and large looped handles. At 11 pounds 3.5 ounces it was lighter than the bare Lodge. (America's Test Kitchen)
Le Creuset lists its Signature round Dutch ovens from $285 to $680 by size at suggested retail. (Le Creuset) The enamel needs no seasoning and handles tomato sauce and wine. The same test kitchen found that very high direct heat from grills and campfires can damage enamel, so this is a kitchen pot. (America's Test Kitchen)
Specifications
Best value enameled
Cuisinart Chef's Classic Enameled Cast Iron 5-Quart (CI650-25)
America's Test Kitchen's Best Buy in the 5- to 6-quart class: a light interior, an 8.75-inch cooking surface, and a pot that aced most of their tests at 12 pounds 6 ounces. It was snug for a full batch of short ribs, and its helper handles are smaller than Le Creuset's. (America's Test Kitchen)
For a kitchen that wants enamel for chili and bread but not a $400 pot, this is the one. Like every enameled pot here, it stays indoors.
Specifications
If you prefer a dark interior
Staub Round Cocotte, 5.5-Quart
Made in France with a dark enamel interior that hides stains. America's Test Kitchen recommended it, with a broad 8.75-inch cooking surface, but found the dark interior made browning a touch harder to judge, the spiked lid harder to clean, and the pot heavier than Le Creuset's at 12 pounds 8.4 ounces. (America's Test Kitchen)
Choose it if stains bother you more than a harder-to-read interior. Otherwise the Le Creuset does the same job lighter.
Specifications
What owners actually say
Great bread and soup. Heavy to lift.
These patterns come from retailer reviews and expert testing. A theme appears here only when more than one source raises it independently.
Lodge 5-quart
Across more than seventeen thousand ratings, owners praise it for sourdough, soup, and even cooking, and call it good value and easy to clean with hot water and a brush.
The weight divides them, especially lifting it out of the oven, and a share report rust, which is the cost of skipping the dry-and-oil step.
Lodge 6-quart camp
Owners say it performs well on charcoal and at camp, is big enough to feed a family after a long day outdoors, and is worth the money.
Durability reports are mostly strong, though some note scratches from metal tools.
Le Creuset and Cuisinart
Le Creuset owners praise heat distribution and stovetop-to-oven performance; Cuisinart owners like it on induction, for no-knead bread and chili, and for easy cleanup.
Both draw the same two complaints: weight in and out of the oven, and, for the Le Creuset, reports of chipping in normal use set against owners who report no wear at all.
The one thing to know
Coals stay outside, every time.
A camp Dutch oven is cooked with charcoal, and charcoal is an outdoor fuel. During a power outage, the CDC says never to use grills or other gasoline, propane, or charcoal burning devices inside your home, garage, or carport, or near doors, windows, or vents, because they produce carbon monoxide. (CDC)
That includes the garage with the door open and the porch out of the rain. Cook in open air, and carry the finished pot inside, not the coals.
How they fail, what they cost
Heavy iron is hard to break. Easy to neglect.
Dutch ovens rarely wear out. Bare pots fail by rust, enameled pots by chips, and both mostly through habits that are easy to change.
Rust on bare iron
Leaving a bare pot wet is the usual cause. Lodge's fix is to scour the rust off, dry the pot, oil it, and re-season it in a 450 to 500°F oven for an hour. (Lodge)
Chipped enamel
Metal tools, steel wool, rapid temperature changes, and dropped lids chip enamel. America's Test Kitchen recommends wood or silicone tools. (ATK) Pot protectors between lid and pot help in storage.
What it costs to own
Next to nothing for any of them. Cooking oil for the bare pots, a stiff brush, and for the camp oven a lid lifter and charcoal. The camp oven's real running cost is charcoal, which our Dutch oven cooking guide helps you count.
What we didn't pick
And who should skip these.
Lodge enameled Dutch ovens
America's Test Kitchen recommended Lodge's enameled pots and found them durable, but the 7.5-quart models were among the heaviest tested at about 18 pounds, with a smaller 8-inch cooking surface. (America's Test Kitchen)
Lodge 8-quart camp oven
The same camp design for larger groups. For a household of four, the 6-quart is easier to carry and to fill with coals.
Ceramic and lightweight pots
America's Test Kitchen did not recommend the ceramic Emile Henry, whose lid cracked. For outage cooking, iron is the point. (America's Test Kitchen)
Skip the bare Lodge if
No one will dry and oil a pot after washing, or you cook tomato sauce and wine most weeks. The Cuisinart enameled pot is the better fit.
Skip the enameled pots if
Your Dutch oven needs to go on a grill or over a fire during an outage. Enamel can be damaged by that heat, and bare iron cannot.
Skip the camp oven if
You will never cook outdoors. On a flat kitchen range the legs get in the way, and the Lodge 5-quart does everything else.
Where it fits in your readiness
A hot pot of food when the range is out.
A Dutch oven belongs in the Sustain tier. It turns pantry staples like dried beans, rice, and canned goods into hot meals over whatever heat the household still has.
Power outages
An electric range goes dark, a grill or fire pit outdoors does not. A bare Dutch oven on the grill grate, or a camp oven in coals, turns pantry food into a stew or a loaf of bread.
Winter storms and ice storms
In homes with a wood stove, a bare Dutch oven simmers on the stovetop all day on the same fire that heats the room.
Maintenance
Dry it, oil it, store it open.
- Bare pots: wash with warm, soapy water and a brush, dry completely, and wipe on a thin coat of oil, as Lodge recommends. (Lodge)
- Store a bare pot with the lid ajar or a paper towel between lid and pot, so moisture does not sit inside.
- Enameled pots: wood or silicone tools, no steel wool, and let a hot pot cool before it meets cold water.
- Camp ovens: brush out ash, dry and oil the lid as well as the pot, and keep the lid lifter with it.
- Heat any pot gradually on a burner close to its size.
Questions people ask
Before the first stew.
Should I buy an enameled or a bare cast iron Dutch oven?
If the pot will only ever cook in your kitchen, enameled is easier: no seasoning, fine with tomato sauce, and America's Test Kitchen's top-rated pots were enameled. If you want it to work on a grill, a wood stove, or over coals during an outage, buy bare iron, because very high direct heat from grills and campfires can damage enamel.
What size Dutch oven do I need?
A 5- to 7-quart pot serves most families. America's Test Kitchen tests Dutch ovens in 3- to 4-quart, 5- to 6-quart, and 6.5- to 7.5-quart classes; the middle class suits a household of four, and the larger one suits big batches and whole chickens.
Can I use a Dutch oven over a campfire or charcoal?
A bare cast iron Dutch oven can, and a camp Dutch oven with legs and a rimmed lid is built for it. Cook only outdoors: during a power outage, the CDC says never to use grills or charcoal burning devices inside your home, garage, or carport, or near doors, windows, or vents, because they produce carbon monoxide.
Is a Le Creuset worth it over a cheaper enameled Dutch oven?
For many kitchens, no. America's Test Kitchen named Le Creuset its winner, noting a light interior, excellent heat retention, and less weight than most, and named Cuisinart its Best Buy for acing most of the same tests at roughly a third of the price.