Material Differences
Lighter, thinner Dutch ovens tend to scorch food because the heat zips right through them. With that in mind, we focused on heavier ceramic and cast iron. The one ceramic model we tested weighed 9.75 pounds; the cast-iron pots ranged from 13.7 to 18.15 pounds. We had hoped that the ceramic might provide a lighter alternative to cast iron, but it proved too fragile for such a workhorse pot. We were nervous handling it, and the lid cracked when we firmly set it on the base from a mere 2 inches up. This left us with the cast iron models, and our next question: coated or uncoated?
All but one of the cast-iron pots were coated with enamel, a type of glass; we tested one uncoated Dutch oven from Lodge, the maker of our winning traditional cast-iron skillet. Like the skillet, it arrived fully seasoned but required extra care, as it has to be dried and oiled immediately after washing. This isn’t particularly hard, but it was more work.
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