Features:

  • 5-Quart Deep Camp Dutch Oven for campfire or fireplace cooking
  • Seasoned cast iron ready to use
  • Cast iron lid inverts for use as griddle
  • 10-inch diameter by 5-inch deep
  • Made in U.S.A
Smofried.com - Lodge 8 Quart Dutch Oven

The Lodge 8 quart dutch oven is ideal for both boy and girl scout troops as well as Chuck Wagon cooks and overall outdoor enthusiasts. Thanks to the three legs and flanged top this dutch oven is ideal for standalone outdoor cooking. The only thing not ideal about its use outdoors is the weight. If you’re planing on hiking for several miles then this dutch oven will prove to be a hindrance due to the heavy weight of 20 plus pounds. As with just about any other piece of Lodge brand cast iron cookware the 8 quart dutch shares the same high quality raw materials making for a very durable end to end product. The added luxury of standalone cooking capabilities makes this product stand out, especially in the versatility category. Everything between cobblers, stews, beans, roasts, chill and dumplings an be easily prepared in this heavy duty cast iron dutch oven. While there may be other brands who offer dutch ovens at much more reasonable pricing be aware of the pit falls of these products. The Lodge brand has a specific history of creating high quality products and nothing less comes from this particular dutch oven.

Well worth the cost for a lifetime of great food

Where can I start -- this thing can do it ALL. I wanted a cast iron dutch oven for a long time, but always balked at the price. With the mass versatility of this the money is well justified though. Early on I used this largely for deep frying. One of my favorite recipes is deep fried buffalo sauced cheeseburgers. Make two thin burger patties and sandwich them together with cheese in between. Grill them until mostly cooked then coat in beer batter. Deep fry, coat in buffalo sauce and enjoy! While the burgers are on the grill you can fry up some onion rings for an added bonus. I've also used this for roasts, spaghetti sauces, desserts, and more. Whether camping, home on the grill, or in the oven, this is the best dutch oven you can buy, hands down.

Good for a large crew

I had a smaller dutch oven from when I was single and didn't need to cook a ton of food. Now that I am a dad with 5 mouths to feed, I needed to upgrade to something bigger. This is perfect. The deep version is great for large dinner type meals (stews, meats etc.), leaving the little one as a "bread" oven for desserts and breads. It came preseasoned which was nice since my old one didn't. Not hard to do, but I appreciate not having to do one more thing if I don't want to. Sturdy and as solid as my 25 year old one.

Back to basics...

This Dutch oven purchase was my first. As with everything I get into, I immediately wanted to read up on them. I had no idea how great these things were! First, the history of the Dutch ovens alone should tell you they are no passing fad and have more than enough usefulness to qualify them on anybody's must-have list. They have been providing excellent, simple-to-cook meals for people since the days of the wagon trains. Cooking with charcoal makes the process so easy and cheap and the versatility of the Dutch oven allows it to go from griddle to saute pan to pot to oven by just changing up what you use and how you use it. The lid, inverted, is a griddle. This model's lid rim (a design attribute attributed to Paul Revere no less!) is raised to hold coals on top to aid in browning of foods (heat rises, so it's hard to brown the top unless you have coals on the lid). Lodge is now producing cast iron cookware that is pre-seasoned, saving you the step of seasoning it before using for the first time. A quick rinse and dry right out of the box and I was cooking. I did a chicken pot pie recipe that was super easy and used refrigerated crescent rolls, rolled out flat, for the crust. A fair amount of coals underneath at first to crank up the heat and pre-cook the chicken and then saute the onions and start the potatoes. Throw in the rest of the ingredients and get to a boil, stirring occasionally, then take a few of the bottom coals and put them on the lid, lowering the bottom heat and getting that important top heat going, then just place the unrolled crescent rolls on top, cover and let it bake. So-o-o-o good!!! Last night I did tamale pie for a party we went to. With hamburger and some homemade Chilean Langaniza sausage I'd made, I added some corn, Ortegas, olives, bell pepper, enchilada sauce, garlic, freshly ground coarse black pepper and chili powder. That cooked for a while and I mixed up some corn meal with milk and eggs, poured it over the hot food, covered with shredded cheese and cooked until done. Outstanding! The pot was emptied while all the rest of the food got token pickings. There is something about cast iron-cooked food... and it's healthier for you than Teflon. I love barbecue, cooking "low and slow" to get that tenderness and smoky flavor into my 'cue, and this oven allows that same principle to be incorporated (without the smoke, of course) in just about any meal. You need to nurture the coals during any cooking session, so someone must be there to tend them if you cook at really low temps, but that's about the only drawback, and most people will never do that anyway. I bought the metal table with windbreaker sides from Lodge and can't wait to use it. I cooked my first meal on my concrete patio and, while it worked great, it will be nice to get the oven up so I don't have to stoop to the ground to tend coals and stir/check contents, etc. I cooked the second meal under the shade of my canopy as it was sunny and warm, and I threw down a concrete paver that is about 2' x 2' and it worked great too... but I really want to use that new table! Cooking a huge amount? I got the 12" oven and it'll cook enough food for at least ten people in one swoop, and you can always buy the 12 qt. oven that will supply a single pot of food for a huge group but if you need to cook with multiple ovens at the same time, simply stack them. Once you get used to the cleanup method of NO SOAP and get your process down, it is really easy to clean up after cooking too. These products are simply incredible and I wish I had known more details about them before. They last for generations; people actually pass them on to their children. Looking forward to a long relationship with this product!

Exceptional Quality

I am a long time Lodge lover. The quality of the cast iron is superior. Like another reviewer said, don't buy cheap - you'll regret it. Follow the instructions, keep the pot properly seasoned, and cooking is a dream. I like the legs as it gives more versatility. I bought my first (smaller) Lodge to practice open hearth cooking. I bought this larger one so that I could actually bake a cake in it over hot coals. The legs keep the pot level and the cake bakes better. In a conventional oven, I put a cookie sheet on the oven rack and it works equally well. I have also used my Lodge dutch ovens with legs on top of the gas burner on my gas stove.... you do have to maneuver the legs around the burner grates, or if your burners are recessed, just remove them and stand the pot over the burner. One place it's tough to use these pots (due to the weight) is on a side burner on a gas grill. I was going to use the next size smaller one to make beans on the gas grill side burner, and the weight of it caused the side burner on a top of the line Charmglo grill to bend down and separate slightly from the grill - the frame holding the burner actually bent, and it made me quite nervous. In the winter, put your stew in, set it on some hot coals from your fireplace, top the cover with hot coals, and forget about it. Every couple of hours, replenish the coals. The aroma is divine. Note, you do need the proper utensils to move and lift these pots and lids when they are full as they are very heavy. Our fireplace is in the dining room and we can serve right from the hearth to the table. You can also bake an 8 inch cake or a 9 inch bundt or similar designed baking pan in this -- lift the baking pan out with 2 pairs of tongs and someone to grab it with mitts. Best advice I can give that hasn't already been mentioned is to invest in a pair of heavy duty silicon oven mitts - really thick ones. We got ours at a kitchen outlet and they were expensive, but you have good gripping and no heat transfer through them to your hands. Bottom line, top quality, worth the money, just an awesome, versatile pot.

... where he saw this in use and fell in love! He had no idea you could make so ...

My husband went to a Scout training for leaders where he saw this in use and fell in love! He had no idea you could make so many things with it! During the training they made a cake in it, and after he purchased it, he immediately used it to make a batch of brownies. We had already switched to cast iron cooking in our house, so we were not intimidated by this. The legs are a necessity for outside use.

Huge lodge cast iron fan here!

I probably own at least 30 pieces of lodge cast iron! It's high quality and American made. The customer service in my experience has been often. I had an issue with one piece I purchased where the coating was coming off. I emailed them. And they called me back! They were so nice and helpful. It's good heavy cast iron. You can easily cook on modern cast iron as well as grandma's cast iron as long as you are patient and willing to learn how. It's easy to maintain and when properly cared for will last a lifetime. I highly recommend lodge.

Camp baking

Camping and want to bake well don't leave home with out you Dutch oven. Also don't buy a cheap crappy oven. Buy an American made product the Lodge Dutch Oven. Wonderful cast iron products. This oven made wonderful white chili, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and pot roast. This made camp cooking fun.

Perfect size and coming preseasoned is a great bonus

My son did chores around the house to earn enough money to get this dutch oven. It was the only one he wanted. Nothing too much to say in a this review - if you have ever used a dutch oven it is exactly what you would expect of any Lodge product. Perfect size and coming preseasoned is a great bonus. It saves time and when you have a 12 year old chomping at the bit to make brownies in it as soon as it arrives at the front door - it works out perfectly.

Thick cast iron

My 12-inch deep Lodge Dutch oven was delivered last night. Right out of the box I can already see that the oven has a thicker cast iron for the pot and the lid compared to my 14-inch deep Camp Chef oven and my Texsport 10 inch oven. The preseasoning is scratched at places but that’s okay because I will season it a couple of times before I put food in it anyway. The lid fits slightly better than my other two Dutch ovens and given its weight it makes a satisfying sound when covering the pot. Given its thickness I would expect this oven to excel at radiating heat once it’s heated up to temp. I will update my review once I cook a few dishes on it.

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