Consumer Reports' Highest-Rated Dutch Oven Knocks Le Creuset Down A Peg

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If you can only name one brand of Dutch oven, it's probably Le Creuset. The French-Belgian cookware makers are widely considered the champions of the Dutch oven market thanks to a reputation for quality as well as cute collaborations that make people want to buy them up like Stanley cups. So, when you see Consumer Reports has published a ranking of Dutch oven products, you'd naturally expect to see Le Creuset at the top, wouldn't you? Believe it or not, it only barely cracks the top 10. The top spot is shared by the GreenPan Stanley Tucci Ceramic Nonstick Dutch Oven and the Our Place Perfect Pot.

Using a variety of criteria established by Consumer Reports' team of anonymous product testers, the Dutch oven sold by actor Stanley Tucci (who considers a certain Italian food misconception a capital offense) in collaboration with GreenPan scored a 92 out of 100  with perfect marks for sauce simmering, cooking evenness, and speed of heating. Even more impressive is the Perfect Pot, which scored just as well as Tucci's pot in nearly every cooking metric (even managing to best it when it comes to bread baking) while also being considerably cheaper (the GreenPan sells for $370 while the Perfect Pot starts at $149.) The two main metrics where the GreenPan proved more capable is the fact it's dishwasher-safe and that it's oven safe up to 625 degrees Fahrenheit as opposed to Perfect Pot's 425 degrees (here's how to find out if your Dutch oven is in fact oven safe).

So, how come Le Creuset isn't in the top spot? What horrible offense did it commit to warrant being dethroned? Well, don't shatter those expensive pots of yours just yet because at 76 Le Creuset gets a perfectly solid grade from Consumer Reports. It does everything pretty well (except for sauce simmering, where it got a 2 out of 5) and it's oven safe up to 500 degrees. The problem could be that Le Creuset simply isn't worth the exorbitant price tag. Starting at $455, it's outdone by Farberware Radiant Nonstick (which sells for $38 and scored a 79) and even the Mainstays Dutch oven from Walmart (sells for $30 and scored a 77).

Depending on your needs and budget, you may want to spring for other highly-rated options, like the Caraway Dutch Oven (at 87, it scores highly in every cooking metric despite its small, 7.5-inch inside diameter) or the Staub Enameled Cast Iron Essential (at 84, it is solid all around, though slightly weaker when it comes to simmering sauces). Just try to avoid Tramontina, which received a paltry 44 from Consumer Reports, who dinged it for being underpowered and difficult to clean.