Lodge cast-iron cookware is affordable, of high quality, and made to last for generations.
At this point, you’ve probably been bombarded with a ton of cast-iron–related content, so I’ll cut to the chase: Lodge cast iron reliably stands out from the competition for its quality and especially for its value.
Yes, Le Creuset cookware is pretty. Yes, Finex has that modernist thing going for it. But Lodge will provide you with a quality skillet or Dutch oven for a fraction of the cost of those brands. And with proper care, Lodge cookware will last just as long—in many cases for a lifetime. You can’t say that of many $50 items.
Our pick
I bought my first piece of Lodge cookware—a green enameled 6-quart Dutch oven—back in 2011, and I still use it on a weekly basis. Ten years is a long time in kitchen terms, and this piece certainly has its battle scars—chips from the occasional drop, some scratches from careless cleaning, and stains from cooked-on oil. But it’s still my go-to for making chili, stew, and biryani.
I’ve made this incredible Ghanian chicken and peanut stew in it dozens of times. The enamel finish is easy to clean and surprisingly resilient, and the cast iron holds and distributes heat exceptionally well. For a long time, it was my default bread-baking vessel, too.
Until, that is, I met the combo cooker.
If you bake bread regularly, you owe it to yourself to grab this two-in-one marvel. Made from seasoned black cast iron, it’s essentially a skillet and a Dutch oven in one. Since buying mine in July of last year, I’ve baked at least two sourdough loaves per week in it, bringing my tally up to about 80 boules. (Yes, I give a lot of it away. I’m not a monster.)
The biggest upside to the combo cooker over my enameled Dutch oven is that I can use it inverted, with the shallow “lid” (the skillet half of the combo) as the base. The low sides of the skillet make it way easier to load the dough and remove the loaf when it’s done baking, but I still get the steam-trapping capabilities of a regular Dutch oven. This ensures that I get the beautifully burnished, blistered crust that all sourdough bakers strive for.
