While this pan runs a little hot, it produced "golden and gorgeous" fond. Starred in the french-fry test, with rapid recovery of cooking temperature after fries were added. The best choice for cooks who prefer a lighter pot.

The "gold standard" of Dutch ovens put "gorgeous, golden crust" on meat and created great fond. Rice cooked up perfectly, though cleanup required long soaking. A kitchen workhorse that’s heavy but not excessively so.

Crafted from enameled cast iron, the oven produced glossy, deeply flavored Belgian beef stew; fluffy white rice; and crispy French fries in the test kitchen. Its larger capacity (6.5 quarts) and even lower price made it our preferred choice over the Lodge (6 quarts.)

Crafted from enameled cast iron, and like the Tramontina produced glossy, deeply flavored Belgian beef stew; fluffy white rice; and crispy French fries in the test kitchen. But the Tramontina oven's larger capacity (6.5 quarts to the Lodge's 6 quarts) and even lower price made it our preferred choice.

This roomy pan was slow to heat up but demonstrated quick recovery after fries were added to the oil. The "self- basting" spikes inside the lid work—we never had to shake condensation off this lid after opening it. Browning of beef could have been more even. Testers bemoaned lifting and handling this "super-heavy" pan. Needs bigger handles.

Although it was hard at first to see the fond developing in this black pot, the meat had "excellent, deep browning." Fries browned well, and the heat recovery was relatively quick. Large looping handles make it easy to manipulate this heavyweight pot. Boiling water picked up a yellow tint and a rusty smell, indicating that our pot had lost its seasoning.

"So roomy I could almost brown the meat in two batches rather than three." Low sides made it easy to see inside, and it was lightweight and easy to manipulate. In the fries test, the temperature of oil dropped the farthest when potatoes were added, then fluctuated more than the other pans as the temperature very slowly climbed back up.

Pan is big, light, and easy to handle, and it did a nice job browning meat. However, the stew liquid did not reduce at all in the oven and tasted soupy and unfinished; the meat was not fully tender. Oil temperature dropped the least when fries were added and recovered the fastest.

Deep, narrow pan was slow to heat up but developed a nice fond for stew once it did. Meat had to be browned in four batches rather than three. The stew’s broth reduced well in the oven, becoming rich and thick, but the meat wasn’t fork-tender. Boiled water appeared yellow, and fries had a distinctly rusty taste, indicating that pot had lost its seasoning.

We had to brown the meat for the stew in fi ve batches rather than three. The pan runs slightly hot, and rice was overcooked with "blown-out" grains. For fries, this pot was second slowest to heat oil, and the temperature of the oil dropped farther than we’d like when fries were added.