I recently bought a "Lodge" brand porcelain coated 6 qt dutch oven from Wal-Mart for $45.00. The same item at Cabela's is $79.99. I was pretty surprised when I was looking online for the best buy. I can see a few dollars difference in price, but $35 more on the same item? Plus Wally World offered free shipping. Total cost was $47.70 after paying my home state sales tax. Just a heads up for those that might be looking for one.

Don't have any Lodge, but do have one La Cruset, and two or three knock offs, One being a Martha Stewert. They are the shiznet for stews, chiles, and pot roast. Braised oxtail or an Osso bucco are great.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, the Lodge enameled are made in China, if that matters to you, but what isn't these days. Regular Lodge cast iron is made in USA and I've got several pieces. Would like a large La Cruset, but don't want to shell out $200+

If I needed a new porcelain version, I'd shop around for Le Creuset. At one time someone posted a supply house that offered them at a discount. Personally, I'll stay away from the Chinese ones.

I have three large Le Creuset French ovens in different sizes. They are expensive but worth it especially considering the fact your great grandkids will be using them long after you are gone. I had a knockoff Chinese one from World Market but was worried about what might be lurking in the enamel so got rid of it. Williams Sonoma sometimes has good buys on them, I got one of mine from them for about half price.

Le Creuset is good stuff. Heavy duty is an understatement. Hell, heavy is an understatement. Not for the small boned or limp of wrist!

LC is not cheap, but just like good tools from Snap On or MAC, you get what you pay for, and they will last for ever.

I've been lucky, mine was a Christmas or birthday present!

No doubt LC is better quality, but I doubt they are 5-6 times the DO the Lodge is (at AK prices).

Yes,you guys are correct in that the Lodge Brand is Chinese made. And that is a concern for me,as well. In fact, in my search criteria, I entered "Non-Chinese made Porcelain Coated Iron Cookware". I think the French LC was the only one to come up. Then I did a search for comparisons and this one Gal Chef said she asked Lodge to send her a sample for a comparison cook-off. She was very high on LC in the start, but in the end, she said you can spend more on an LC, but Lodge performed just as well.
With all that said,I guess my main point of the post was the price difference between Wal-Mart / Cabelas's. I thought that was to the extreme. I haven't used it yet, but the Lodge product looks to be of good quality. And in the literature that comes with the product, Lodge claims that the glass coating applied in China, "is done to Lodges' exacting standards. Not sure what that means? Maybe they pay more to the kids picking broken glass, for the furnaces, out of the dumps on the "good side of town"?
LOL. Anyway, just thought I'd try that method of cooking, and if I like it, I will probably gravitate towards a better cooking vessel. Thanks.
Tom

I will start this by saying that I have no enameled cast iron cookware. BUT I believe that everone needs to start somewhere. Buy one knowing that it may not be the best, and then use it, and learn to use it well, and then start to upgrade the things you really like to use.

It seems like knives and cookware are like some other pieces of equipment, when you ask for advice on them, only the best and most expensive will work. There is not anything wrong with feeling like that, but sometimes it is better to get experiance, and to learn on a lesser expensive piece of equipment.

My only example is that I searched all over this site and whatever I could find about a kitchen knife set. Everywhere I looked it said not to buy a set, as they are usually lesser quality, and you end up with knives you dont really need, and several other reasons I cannot remmeber right now. They were right, I do have several knives I do not need, but I found that I like a santoku (sp?) knife a lot, and that I would prefer a shorther chefs knife.

After I bought that set of knives, guess what, I cooked at home a lot more. I try new ideas so I have a reason to use the knives, and now more kitchen tools are finding their way into my kitchen.

To me kitchen things are like tools, would I like the nice snap on set, hell yes, but buy the cheaper ones to find out what you would like to "fix" for a meal.

I dont mean to sound like I am preaching at anyone, just been away from home and eating take out for to many days at this point.

Much wisdom in what you say Bubba. If you can "do it sucessfully" with inferior or makeshift tools then more expensive, specialized tools will only allow you to make it easier or more efficiently. Not necessarily better. Bottom line is you learn to " make it" whith what you got at the time. Then decide what specialization is worth to you.

The other French brand to consider along with Le Creuset is Staub, great stuff as well.

http://www.staubusa.com/

I know it may not make sense but the French stuff is worth every dime and once you use it you will never regret the money spent. If you compare the Chinese knock offs side by side with the French stuff the differences in quality are obvious.

As Bubbajay said too, you can still cook a great meal with the cheaper stuff. Sure can, but, just as my tool box is filled with Snap-On, it too has Craftsmen stuff. Use it enough and you will see a return on your investment in quality equipment.

If nothing else, the cheap stuff will let you experiment with size and styles that you can use over and over. Just take the cheap stuff and use it for camping, donate it to young people going to school, our local clubs, etc. Enameled cast iron is great stuff no matter where it comes from. The good stuff just stays great for longer periods of time.

Well like a lot of things if you buy the good stuff from the start, it is generally cheaper in the long run. I like lodge cast iron skillets and such. I will not buy chinese cook ware other than a wok, you can screw those up to much.

If you can get it in the States, I can highly recommend Chasseur caston iron cook where as being on par with LC. Its another French product rather than made in China...

The British company Aga (of cookers fame) is now also producing (in the UK) some very nice enamled cast iron cookware as well.

It is styled a bit different from LC and Chasseur, and on the pieces i've seen, the lid can be used as a skillet type dish as in the pic below..

I'd like to get a better look at that one...but you could never use that lid as a skillet, wouldn't look too pretty after putting it over a burner.