Lodge L10DO3 Dutch Oven with Spiral Handle Bail and Iron Cover, 7-Quart

It's very good

Poor quality control on Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Cookware but it is fixable. Recently got back into cast iron cooking and love the new design with the helper handles on the Lodge skillets. Problem is that Lodge could do a better job quality control. Purchased all new pieces of the following:7qt Dutch Oven with Bail Handle12" Skillet3 qt Combo Cooker12" Skillet had no defects and just needed to be properly seasoned3qt Combo Cooker had sharp protrusions in the middle of the cooking surface of the top skillet7qt Dutch Oven had numerous rough high places on the cooking surface (Clearly a defect in the mold)When I contacted LodgeMFG Customer Service about the 1st problem piece, I requested a repair or replacement for the defective lid/chef skillet. What I found was that LodgeMFG Customer Service is useless. They told me to sand it down and reseason. Because this item had never been used, I expected that LodgeMFG would want to correct the problem but they didn't care...Warning LodgeMFG will not honor warranty. What I ended up doing is taking a small chisel to cleanly remove the defective pieces and reseasoned...why sand this already rough surface. Cutting off the offending area was much quickerWith this in mind, I was prepared for the next item and what to expect. I received the Dutch Oven and noted numerous defects so I took out my trusty sharp chisel and went to work. All internal cooking surfaces were cleaned up and seasoned using a much better method than what is provided by LodgeMFG.With cast iron, Lodge is one of the only US manufacturers left so your choices are limited unless you want to spend big bucks.As for the seasoning method, I'll update once I've had a chance to validate the quick way to season that provides that absolutely non-stick surface.

One of my latest additions to my cast iron collection. I have the 2 qt & 5 qt dutch ovens as well. Those have their various uses but weren't big enough to cook a whole chicken or safely deep fry larger quantities of food. Deep frying is the primary reason I bought the 7 qt. I like to make my own fries and potato chips and scared myself a few times with the 5 qt because of the oil bubbling up when adding food. With this 7 qt I use the same amount of oil I did before but the extra capacity results in a much safer frying session. The second reason I got this was for making chicken soup. I like to start with the whole chicken and make stock first. The 5 qt wasn't quite big enough to hold the chicken, water and all the aromatic veggies. This 7 qt has solved all those issues.

Exactly what I wanted in my kitchen; a versatile cooking vessel that I can fry an egg in, or even deep-fry a whole chicken in, low-slow cooking for beans, stews, and roast, and the oven wall is deep enough for when I sear a steak in it that it prevents splattering all over the stove top. Hell, you can even bake in it. This dutch oven does it all. If I could only have one pan for cooking/survival, this would be it!The pre-seasoning works adequately to prevent initial sticking of anything cooked in it and gets better as the dutch oven gets more use. Once the oven is fully seasoned it became the best non-stick pan I own. Even better than some of those hi-tech non-stick bonded teflon/ceramic pans.The one disadvantage though is it's weight, but that I can live with as a trade-off for making some of the most delicious dishes you'll ever cook and the joy and satisfaction it brings to your family meals.

This is a beautiful Dutch oven that comes with a self basting lid (a nice touch). To add to your collection, purchase the 12" Lodge iron skillet, but pass on the costly skillet lid. The lid for this Dutch oven is the "Perfect" fit for the 12" skillet.I could not be more satisfied with the speed of delivery and quality of the merchandise.As a side note: Avoid the use of Pam Spray (at all cost), regardless of Lodge recommendations. Pam build-up is unrelenting with it's accumulation of glue-like residue, requiring great effort to remove it, should you decide to soap and scour your ironware for re-seasoning. I have been using cast iron cookware for many years, and highly recommend that you only season and prep your cookware with a light coat of vegetable oil, canola oil or a combination of the two. Many recommend the use of Crisco...I do not. It smokes and stinks in the oven, and does no better job of seasoning your cookware. Bake your (soaped, cleaned and dried) oiled cookware at 350 degrees for one our, then wipe clean with a cloth towel while still hot enough to handle. When ready to cook, wet a paper towel with oil, spread it about the cooking surface and you're ready for non-stick cooking.Cast Iron is fun to use, just take care of it..

The pot is great. It is probably heavy and hard to handle for some ppl but the satisfaction of owning and cooking in Lodge iron cast Dutch oven is priceless. It's a pot you buy once, it's always trendy, it never gets old and cooking in iron cast is probably the healthiest of all.