"We compared the top cast iron cookware brands
to come up with the
best of the best..."
"It
all
started when over lunch a mutual friend asked us if it was actually
worth paying ‘all that money’ for Le Creuset enamel cast iron
cookware..."
He knew of
our interest in cookware and how thoroughly we research and write
about it for this website and that ultimately we would give him an
unbiased view.
Now it just so happens that we both really love Le Creuset and we know it is exceptional quality so of course we said
yes to his question.
When our
friend left early for another appointment, we continued to discuss
the subject of cast iron… yes, I know it’s sad that we discuss
cookware over lunch but it’s what we do…. so, as we were discussing
the good and bad of Le Creuset and cast iron cookware in general,
it suddenly occurred to us that we hadn’t really sat down to
thoroughly research many of the other different brands of cast iron
cookware.
Is Le Creuset really all it's
cracked up to be?
We really love Le Creuset
cast iron cookware but is it only because it is one of the most expensive and
we have been suckered in by all the hype OR does it really live up
to its reputation? And are there other brands like Lodge for
instance that do just as good a job for a fraction of the price?
At that
point, we knew what we had to do so we rushed back to our office to
get started on the research to check out what some of the other brands of
cast iron cookware had to offer.
What did we find?
Well we
were kind of surprised actually...but it wasn't by the fact that
these brands were so different but the fact that they were so
similar. In terms of features, we were expecting Le Creuset being
the high end brand to really outshine the rest of them but that
didn’t necessarily prove to be the case.
Having
said that however...what we did find was that although cast iron
cookware is very similar in features the one basic difference that
sets them apart from each other is the quality in the finish. This
is backed up by those who have purchased other brands.
Le Creuset’s
care and attention to their products really shows through and won
them the best overall brand at least for the enamel cast iron
cookware category.
Lodge on
the other hand, with their many years of expertise with bare cast
iron definitely won in that category.
So how did we come to our
conclusion?
For
starters, we didn’t choose every single brand of cast iron on the
market otherwise our research would have taken us forever. What we
did instead was concentrate on the top bestselling brands.
Products
are included on bestseller lists for good reason – usually it is
because they have all the attributes of a quality product OR they
are exceptionally cheap OR a combination of both. Either way, we
knew that these were the ones we needed to look at.
We also
broke our research up into bare cast iron and enameled cast iron
cookware to ensure that we came up with a complete report.
We then compared each of the brands
for individual features. This really highlighted the major
differences between the brands.
However, our main determining factor
in the final results came down to consumer reviews and feedback
from people who actually use the products. You really can’t beat
this method for giving you an accurate overall view of a product.
So here are the results…
The
Best Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven
The Best
Enamel Cast Iron Skillet
The Best
Enamel Cast Iron Cookware Set
The Best Bare
Cast Iron Dutch Oven
| |
 |
Lodge
- Best
Overall & Best Value for Money |
The Best Bare
Cast Iron Skillet
| |
|
Lodge
- Best
Overall & Best Value for Money |
- Best Overall
- Best
Overall