Shopping Guide: Which is the Best Dutch Oven to Take Your Cooking the Next Level

Because it will last you the better part of a lifetime, a high-quality Dutch oven is one of the most important kitchen buys you will make. And anybody searching for one typically hits the same fork in the road: Staub versus Le Creuset. They aren’t the only good Dutch ovens on the market, but these two French brands hold a special place in the minds of many home cooks thanks to their reputations for longevity and quality. They hold equal pride of place in the window displays of high-end kitchen stores like Sur la Table and Williams Sonoma, but is one actually “better” than another?

Having tested pretty much every Dutch oven available for purchase in the US myself, I can say that there are certain qualities that make these Dutch ovens different from one another, but to describe one as “better” is too binary.

Whether you’re currently shopping for a Dutch oven or are merely curious about the actual, factual qualities that distinguish these beloved pieces of cast-iron cookware, this guide should answer all the questions you might have about Staub versus Le Creuset versus every other Dutch oven out there.

What makes a good Dutch oven good?

Before delving into the differences between Staub and Le Creuset, I want to be clear about what they (and most Dutch ovens) have in common because there are a lot of similarities. They are heavy-lidded, enameled cast-iron pots designed for slow-cooking preparations, especially those that split cooking time between the stovetop and the oven. The cast iron in a Dutch oven has excellent heat retention, and the enamel coating serves as a protective layer from rust and acidic foods without the need for a typical cast-iron seasoning layer. While they are prized for braises and stews, enameled cast-iron pots are pretty versatile; they’re well-suited to baking bread and deep frying as well.

The best Dutch ovens are easy to maneuver, relatively lightweight, and have tight-fitting lids that minimize the amount of moisture that can escape from the pot during cooking. After testing close to 20 different Dutch ovens, one of the more surprising things I found was that almost all of them could braise pork, sear chicken thighs, simmer soups, and bake no-knead sourdough with comparable execution. Sure, some had cold spots on their cooking surface, but that kind of inconsistent cooking surface is common to all cast iron and typically becomes undetectable if you take the time to thoroughly preheat the pot for 10 to 15 minutes. (If you’re really concerned about even heating, reach for your stainless steel instead.)

The differences between the Dutch ovens were not in the quality of the food they produced but in their makeup—things like size, weight, handle shape, enamel interior—and durability.

What makes Staub and Le Creuset Different?

Both Staub and Le Creuset come from France. Le Creuset is the older brand, founded in 1925. Staub cookware was founded in Alsace, France, in 1974 and is now owned by German cutlery brand Zwilling J. A. Henckels. They each come in a variety of colours, with new ones coming out almost every year.

Le Creuset Dutch ovens have nice wide handles, easily grippable with oven mitts, and are lighter than most other enameled cast-iron Dutch ovens available today. The 5.5-quart Dutch oven we tested from Le Creuset weighed in at a little over 11 pounds. They have a light-coloured interior, which allows you to visually monitor your food as it cooks. This is most useful when using high heat or developing a fond to make sure things aren’t burning.

Staub Dutch ovens (or cocottes, as the brand prefers to call them) are slightly heavier than Le Creusets—the 5.5-quart Staub had about a pound on the Le Creuset—but are still lighter than lots of other similarly sized Dutch ovens.

The Staub cocottes feature a matte black enamel interior in contrast to Le Creuset’s glossy off-white. Both interiors are nonstick-ish (they’ll never be quite as nonstick as a well-seasoned, uncoated cast-iron skillet), but the Staub’s black interior hides stains and signs of wear in a way that the interior of a Le Creuset can’t. The drawback of the Staub’s black enamel is that it can be harder to tell when things are sticking to the bottom of your pan or burning. For people comfortable in the kitchen this isn’t a huge deal, but for beginners who haven’t honed their cooking instincts, a dark interior may be less user-friendly.

Both pots, though, have very high-quality enamel coatings that resist chipping and limited lifetime warranties. I’ve seen their durability up close in my own head-to-head tests over the years and in continual use of both Le Creuset and Staub in the Bon Appétit test kitchen. Many of the more affordable Dutch ovens—particularly models from Lodge Essentials and Amazon Basics— tend to chip after a couple of years.

Beyond the colour of their interiors, the other big difference between Staub and Le Creuset is between their lids. A Le Creuset lid has a simple sloping curve that allows condensation to circulate down the inside edges of the pot. Le Creuset lids also feature a phenolic resin knob (plastic, basically) as opposed to a metal knob, which is only ovensafe up to 390°, at which point it will start to melt, and stays relatively cooler to the touch. The company also sells metal knobs that can withstand temperatures up to 500° that you can easily screw on to replace the plastic.

The Staub lid has a metal knob and looks sort of like a hubcap. It has a central impression surrounded by an upraised outer ridge. According to Staub, the unique design has a functional purpose. The shape of the lid, along with several “self-basting” bumps on the underside is supposed to create top-down circulation of moisture that will keep liquid from escaping between the seam of the lid and the pot itself. This design feature has been replicated by many new Dutch ovens, however, when I tested it, the actual impact of this design is nearly imperceptible in the final results.

So which should I get? Staub or Le Creuset?

After years of use I can say with some confidence that, in terms of performance, these two brands are more similar than they are different. So the choice between Staub and Le Creuset really comes down to personal preference around look and feel. While in our product tests we prefer Le Creuset due to its slightly lighter weight and beginner-friendly light interior, we still recommend Staub as a high-quality Dutch oven. They’re expensive pieces of cookware, but they’ll never need replacing if you take good care of them (hand-washing only, please), and they’ll never disappoint.

This guide originally appeared on Bon Appetit US.