I’m going to buy a Dutch oven for my aunt. Tonight. I’ve kinda settled on a 5-6 quart enameled cast iron. I’ve been researching this all day and haven’t gotten much farther than I cant afford Le Creuset. Anyone have experience with Cooks or Tramontina? Am I better off with calphalon nonstick?
Wow! I just don’t have any idea. She is a pretty serious cook. I can’t believe she doesn’t have one already.
Yikes! Clueless
What is your budget?
Around $100. JC Penney has both brands on sale in this price range. Originally $150
Costco has some cost effective ones
I don’t see anything on the Costco website
I do see a nordicware brazier. Thanks!
Not sure, but Tramontina usually gets great reviews for their other products, some of which are sold at Costco.
I see good reviews for Tramontina but only that it’s a good value. I’m hesitant to buy a brand sold at Walmart. Walmart name means low quality to me. I certainly don’t know that that’s the case, that’s just my prejudice. I don’t have a store near me so I haven’t been to one in a decade or more.
I realize my price range puts me in a bargain basement situation but there are 50-70% off sales right now so I may be able to snag a $200 product for under $100. That’s what I’d like to do.
Weird. Definitely have them in store or in the store I go to.
Lodge is pretty awesome cast iron. T believe that Lodge is probably the most well known straight cast iron cookware around. That said, I don’t have an enameled Lodge but I do have their straight cast iron.
You might check if there is a La Creuset outlet shop near you. We bought our La Creusets in outlet stores. My wife bought them so I think they are probably over your budget.
Walmart sells plenty of great brands that are sold at most other stores. The Keurig coffeemaker and Crock-Pot brands, for example, are the same as they are anywhere.
China Guy, I did see a brazier on the website. Thanks for that. Lodge is out of my price range too. Labrador Deceiver, I appreciate your take on Walmart. I just disn’t know. No time for the outlet. I really have to get this in the next hour.
Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate it!
I can’t speak for other brands, but I have a Lodge 4qt that I LOVE. I use it daily (literally. It’s the only pot I have so it fills in as a saucepan and a skillet and a frypan and a soup pot and a steamer and a casserole dish and . . . you get the idea). My only complaint is that the inside bottom has discolored a bit over the years and there are a few small nicks in the base. Of course this from age and constant use, not the fault of the pan.
So from personal experience I will recommend Lodge, I paid, IIRC, $70 at Fred Meyer (A west coast Kroger-owned department store) 4 or 5 years ago. I love it and will never go again without one.
Try to avoid the ones with some TV star’s face plastered on the box. I know there were problems with the Martha Stewart brand with the enamel cracking. Or maybe it was Emeril.
I’m going to add to my post that as a rule I stay away from nonstick. Cooks declare holy war on each other over this, but I’ve never found anything non-stick that’s worth a damn.
I said I wouldn’t speak of other brands but I will say as far as brands go, that when my wife and I were shopping for new cookware years ago and looking at All-Clad, Tramontina was near the top of the list of recommended brands. I don’t know if this translates to quality enamelware, but it’s something to consider.
Ok. I was thinking don’t do nonstick and also no rachel Ray, martha Stewart or emeril. So thanks for making me feel better about getting something right! 
Keeping in mind that I use mine for everything, for me non-stick would suck on a dutch oven. I frequently use the pan for making sauces or gravies, and after pulling out the roast or the pork chops or whatever I’ll make up a roux and de-glaze the pan with wine or milk or cream, depending on the sauce. A non-stick would make sauce production a royal pain in the ass (or simply make a shitty sauce). Save the non-stick for cheap skillets that you use to cook up eggs on the weekends.
I’m going with Lodge after all. I like the lifetime guarantee. Thank you so much everybody. I will keep the nonstick for eggs on the weekend. Mmmm. Eggs
Non-stick is ONLY for omelet pans. Stay far away for it in any other shape.
I have a Lodge enameled cast iron dutch oven, 6.5 qt I think, and it is a workhorse in my kitchen. I replaced the lid handle with a Le Creuset lid handle, not to be vain, but because the Le Creuset handle can withstand higher temperatures than the Lodge handle. ETA: My only quibble is the narrow bottom. For many recipes that call for browning meat in batches, I find I have to do one extra batch compared to the recipe (if it says brown stew beef in 2 batches, it takes me 3).
Re: nonstick -
I buy mine from a restaurant supply store. They are dirt cheap, and I’ll pick up 3 at a time for the same price as an inexpensive retail name brand one, and each one will last as long as the retail one. Non-stick has lots of uses, but never when I’m making a pan sauce (or broiling). Added bonus of restaurant supply models is the metal handle with removable silicon grip. This allows me to safely move the pan to the oven, a cooking method I use quite often (brown on stovetop, finish in oven).