Side by Side Comparison of: Texsport vs Useful.

I was tired of burning my hands and dumping ashes in my food at camp with my old Dutch oven, so after taking a cooking class from the Iron Chefs Dutch Oven group in our area I bought this 10 " DO. Three legs allow baking coals to get air, flat lid allows for piling coals on to bake. Made the best lasagna ever in this and after seasoning, it doesn't stick. Follow enclosed directions. Go to the Dutch Oven Society. org for some great recipes. This size is perfect for 2-4 people.

cooks evenly

Great dutch oven! Works wonderful. I love the leg stands! Lip on lid keeps coals and dirt from falling into your food. Heats quickly and cleans easily. The lid does get very hot a long with the rest of it. You wont regret buying the add on lid lifter for less theb $10 by lodge or at least some high heat resistant gloves. I cant wait to try oit more recipes!!

Good heavy cast iron very well pleased arrived on time through FEDEX in great shape

Follow the seasoning instructions to the letter, and you will do well! I could have stood getting a bigger one. You don't realize 4 quarts is kind of small for a crowd.

I absolutely love this dutch oven. I seasoned it and took it camping right after I purchsed it. Its sturdy, holds heat well, and was a great deal for the price. There is higher quality cast iron out there, but for camping this dutch oven is perfect.

Making our own bread has become a fun thing to do and of course the results are very satisfying. Many of the recipes recommend baking the bread in a Dutch oven. We purchased the Useful 5.5 quart Cast Iron Enamel Covered Round Dutch Oven with Lid. The Dutch oven is a pretty shade of red with white enamel inside. The enameled solid cast iron offers even heat distribution as well as head retention. There are self basting condensation ridges uniformly placed on the lid which collects and directs vapors onto your food, producing moist and savory dishes. The lid has a stainless steel know that fits securely and keeps the heat in. The Useful Cast Iron Enamel Covered Round Dutch Oven is oven safe to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. The Dutch oven is not dishwasher safe, but easily hand washed after it has cooled down. Even though the Useful Cast Iron Enamel Covered Round Dutch Oven is manufactured in China, it has all U.S. FDA certifications. It offers PFOA- and PTFE-free cooking surface that will not react with food for an additive and chemical free experience. My biggest drawback is the weight of the Dutch oven is that it is extremely heavy and hard for me to carry particularly with food in it. I originally looked at more expensive Dutch Ovens but found the Useful 5.5 quart Cast Iron Enamel Covered Round Dutch Oven with Lid to do as much for a lot less money. Our bread comes out beautifully and the taste is perfect. I am sure we will be using the Useful 5.5 quart Cast Iron Enamel Covered Round Dutch Oven with Lid for other recipes as well.

This is a great pot at a really great price. I have some other enameled cookware that I may like a bit better, but it cost four to five times as much. I see no reason the spend the extra money any more. You won't be disappointed in this product.

I received this dutch oven and began to use it for making bread as per a video off of you tube. So far it is doing just what I want it to. It seems too early in the process to review a product, but so far I am very happy with it. There were no issues when it arrived like some reviewers stated. I hope to get many years of happy cooking out of it.Update 5/5/16: I love this pot so much I may order another one. My husband asked me the other day how I ever got along before I got this pot.It is handy for my bread making or anything for which you need a heavy dutch oven.Jan. 28, 2017 Update: I love this pot so much that I just ordered the second one. That ought to tell you something.

Here is the least expensive, heavy enameled cast iron pot available. I bought it to bake artisanal breads at home, and it makes a tall, round loaf of up to 10 cups of flour with a perfect, shattering crust. Of course, it's also great for soups, stews, cassoulets, you name it, and would likely brown meat beautifully, too, if you eat that sort of thing. Now, you could buy a 5.5 qt. Staub pot right here on Amazon, almost the same item but for the name, a different knob, and some bumps on the Staub lid's interior for continual moisture, at a heavily discounted price of $249, but their Grenadine color looks kinda brown on my monitor. Or, you can have the Staub in your choice of 8 colors from Chef's Catalog, for a mere $284.99 (quoted as saving $122!). (At that price, however, you can whimsically French the pot as a 'cocotte.') For baking bread, however, the self-basting Staub lid probably defeats a shattering crust. I expected a drab, brick color here and was delightfully surprised to see a deep cherry red with a blue undertone--this pot is frankly gorgeous. Really get my drift on this point; the depth of color is so breathtaking, it almost hurts to hide it in a cabinet. It also comes exquisitely packed, a marvel of packaging engineering, in fact. One caveat: both the pot and its lid are far heavier than other pots, even those made of cast iron--if you have weak arms, it might be too much for you. All enameled cast iron will chip if dropped, so this could be a real issue. That said, I'm disabled with a fairly weak right arm and I manage just fine, albeit slowly. This pot and I, well, we could be a lifetime affair.

I've been thinking about buying cast iron pots for a long time. I was initially considering to buy the most expensive brand but felt guilty of investing a lot of money in cooking pots. Then I was browsing on Amazon and came accross this brand and pot. I am very glad that I did. I purchased this one and the 7-quarts one and I am very happy with this purchase. They are beautiful, the quality is outstanding, and they look very elegant. So happy that I did not spend tons of money and still got a great piece. I can't wait to use it. I will have a party at my house this month and these pots will be the "on the spotlight" of my party!

Attractive, useful, and of good design. I got this to replace a Lodge version we accidentally left outside. We use ours to make bread so the metal handle was a plus. This is no le Creuset but the quality is terrific and we are very pleased.

Great worked perfect. So glad we had the handle.

Little bit of rust after first season. We had to season twice, but does the job.

If it came pre-seasoned, I would give it an extra star. The quality is OK, but the features are the reason I made the purchase. It has a nicely inverted cover that holds coals for all-round baking, and a bail with a center hook detent for hanging and that stays horizontal when laid down on the bosses. It's the perfect size for general campfire cooking or baking.

It went great with the tripod that I bought for my husband.

season inside in oven may smell but if you get pot to hot on fire handle melts

Very heavy, as it should be. Used it camping and made several great meals. The handle is a bit awkward to manipulate, even with the special tool (purchased separately).

Nice Dutch Oven in beautiful true red (not orange-red). Very heavy weight which is to be expected from cast iron. I took away one star since mine arrived with a small chip in the enamel. In reading other's reviews this seems to be a relatively common problem, but this is the best price out there and it wasn't noticeable enough to bother returning. Works great for large loaf of artisan bread. Great alternative to the more expensive brands.

This is a pretty pot and quite useful. I wish it wasn't so heavy, but then cast iron is heavy. I use it often when I'm feeling strong.

I gave this dutch over to my daughter for her birthday. She loves it!! It was not her first choice of color, but was her second. She loved the self-basting condensation ridges on the lid -- what a great idea!!! The pot roast was delicious and evenly cooked. Liked the stainless steel knob on top the lid too. Some knobs have a short life because of the extreme oven heat -- that's another great idea!!! Overall, it's a wonderfuldutch oven, great size, and she plans to use it a lot. Maybe she'll cook lots of meals for her Mom & Dad! She and I would recommend it to anyone.

Good processing time, nice color. would have given five stars but there is a small chip on my pot.

It's not Lodge nd it's not Camp Chef that's for sure.I bought mine from Amazon Warehouse Deals thinking I'd save $20 off of a Lodge with just a little clean up. I didn't think it was worth it. But if all you've got is time on your hands may be you will.PRO:InexpensiveApparently not known to California to be hazardous to your health. Oh wait what's that waxy coating?CONS:Casting moulds are poor and rough and that's exactly the texture you will receive - feels like 60 or 80 grit sandpaperSurface is way too rough to just have a few fish fry's and have a great bargain on your hand. You WILL need to pay some attention to it.Sharp edgesNot pre-seasoned (per specs). The Chinese wax must be burned off and it must be seasoned before use.Lid doesn't seal tightly. There's a position mine that seems to be OK - but it's not a "put the lid on and its pretty tight".I bought this knowing some of this - and also not expecting this to be so bad.What I did was buy a 4 1/2" flexy nylon abrasive disc for my angle grinder and go to town on it. I wore that pad out getting the inside, the sharp edges and most of the top. I still didn't get the outside not feeling like 80 grit sandpaper.So now we're at $25 for the oven and $10 for the angle grinder pad - equals $35 and a couple hours grinding and sanding. For $10 saved off just buying the Lodge.I can say it's imposssible for a angle grinder to get into a 10" pot and do a perfect job. It's far better than it was - and has a shot at being fairly non-stick with a good seasoning. So the grinding with the nylon abrasive pad was required - but it's far from pretty or as cast or proper machine.I then stripped it in the oven cleaning cycle (or you could burn most of it off as suggested in a hot oven or very hot grill).It's on it's 3rd coat of Flax Seed Oil - which I highly recommend for any cast iron. 5-6 cycles of a coat of Flax Seed Oil, and then from cool oven to 500F for then an hour to cooling to room temp in the oven. 5-6 times and you'll have a great seasoning that's almost as good as Teflon.So "It's Okay" but know that it's no Lodge and that you'll need to spend a variable amount of money (abrasive pad) and elbow grease (sand paper and/or grinding) to turn it into what you could start with just buying Lodge or perhaps Camp Chef.

Cheap product. Lid does not fit well. Feels thin an light for a dutch oven.

Appears to be well constructed, however - with the hanging wire doesn't allow unit to be level, as it hangs down on one side.At this point have not tried cooking with it. Not sure I like the coating on pot as seems this is hard to remove and curing mightbe a problem. The construction seems solid and believe this should do a nice job cooking. Yes, the balance seems to bethe only point that I am not to happy with......

Quality if OK. It took me some time to season the pot and lid. Three times to get all spots oiled and seasoned on the BBQ. Absorbed A LOT of vegetable oil to season. Even after seasoning. My first attempt of using on the camp fire ended in recipe burning and baking into the cast iron. A real bear to clean up. I think I just need more practice cooking in a dutch oven. If I did over again, I might have purchased a pre-seasoned one.

I'm sorry to say that I had to return it. It was so heavy I wouldn't be able to get it in or out of the oven.It was well made not doubt about it, plus the ceramic coated oven & cover. If you can lift 15-20 lbs, it's good for you. I can't.

This is very very rough dutch oven. It took a couple of times to season it. Lodge or Old Mountain is much better. But of course, the best are the old ones if you are willing to pay the price. I love cooking outside but this oven may take some getting used to.

Good price but the inside casting was very rough, it took over 10 seasoning with flax seed oil and I was never really able to get a nice smooth season surface. I am hoping it will be smooth enough to avoid food getting trapped and burning to the bottom when we use it for camping.

I love the shape of this — rather than the rounded bottom. But the enamel is mottled both inside and out. It is so heavy, I hate to pay the shipping to return it.

The 5.5 quart Useful Dutch oven is attractive, but the pictures for the 5.5 and 7 quart Dutch Ovens are reversed on Amazon. So be aware you will not receive what is pictured on Amazon product pages. This is not a comment on the functionality of the product. I just received it today, and have not used it yet. It is just to make my fellow Amazon customers of the picture error.

I got my dutch oven today. Loved it at first, its exactly what i wanted and its cute... BUT, there is a terrifying little warning label that makes me think i probably shouldnt use it.. Is it even safe to use?

I have 6 pieces of cast iron, This is the ONLY one I am unhappy with. I used it for the first time this Spring although I purchased it in the Fall. I know how to care for and season cast iron which I did. I was very disappointed when I cooked in this. The food tasted like metal. I threw this pot away.

The kettle had a large crack in the sidewall. Could have been handled rough or just poor cast/material.

The coating was already chipped when I received the product. Returned and will not mess with this brand again.

Can't get the dutch oven to stop smoking. When I went to season the oven at 350 degrees, like I do with all my other cast iron items, it began to smoke so bad that my whole house was filled. I thought maybe there was some kind of coating, so I cleaned it and put it on my outside grill and it still smokes from the whole item. Smells like a burning plastic or chemical. Would not recommend

I am extremely disappointed in this product...have only used twice and the inside coating is peeling off (in our food🙁)....And I can't return it........hmmmm🤔

Very poor quality. The enamel was chipped in multiple places. I had to return it.

Buyer beware. I bought this pot in September, 2015 and the enamel has already chipped off the bottom. Picture attached. What a waste of $50.