I Tested Tramontina’s Affordable, Stackable Dutch Oven

I would argue my kitchen is actually kind of large for the New York City area, but “for the New York City area” is the key phrase: I’m still stacking my cookware to fit it all in there.

I appreciate any nested cookware set that gives you highly usable pieces in one footprint. Staub, manufacturer of one of our top Dutch oven picks, makes a popular stackable enameled Dutch oven set that is often on sale for about $600.

I’m the deputy editor at the Good Housekeeping Institute, and I test Dutch ovens for the Kitchen & Cooking Lab, so I was intrigued to see that Tramontina has released a set similar to Staub’s—but it retails for about $130. (In fact, I saw it for $90.97 when I was reporting this article.) How would it compare to the big players in enameled cast iron cookware?

To find out, I tested each piece: I made beef stew in the Dutch oven, braised chicken in the braiser, and grilled chicken thighs on the grill pan.

Tramontina 4-Piece Stackable Enamel Cast Iron Cookware Set

Tramontina 4-Piece Stackable Enamel Cast Iron Cookware Set

$130tramontina.com

Includes	5.5-qt Dutch oven, 3.25-qt braiser, 10-in grill pan, universal lid
Weight	27.5 lbs
Oven safe	Up to 450˚F
Compatibility	All cooktops, including induction

• Design: The cookware stacks nicely, and the lid fits all three pieces. The set includes bumpers that cuff over the rims of the pans so they don’t chip over time.
• Materials: The exterior is enameled cast iron. The interior is lined with black porcelain; it does have a slightly rough texture, but it was generally easy to clean. I tested the cranberry color, which is very pretty. The set is also available in black, navy, and latte.
• Weight: Obviously, four pieces of cast iron cookware are going to be heavy, and the set, when stacked, weighs 27.5 pounds. But each piece is manageable when moving it to the stove or in and out of the oven.
• Handles: The handles on each piece are comparable to other top-performing Dutch ovens, and they’re comfortable to hold. The knob on the lid is large enough for a secure hold. It gets hot, but that’s true for most Dutch ovens.

I made beef stew in the Dutch oven. I browned the meat on the stovetop and finished the cooking in the oven. The meat browned nicely and didn’t stick. But the black interior makes it harder to see how the fond (the browned bits) are forming. If you’re cooking a dish that depends heavily on deglazing—using liquid to loosen the fond so you can scrape up all that flavor—you’ll need to watch the pot more closely than you would with a Dutch oven with a light interior.

The stew broth was flavorful, but it was not as rich as some other Dutch ovens I’ve tested. At the same time, the beef cooked unevenly: Some was very moist and tender, but other pieces were dry.

The pot cleaned up well, but there was a lot of residue around the sides and on the lid. This suggests heavy splattering during cooking, likely from high heat in the Dutch oven, which also explains the overcooked pieces of meat. I would opt for a lower temperature to prevent boiling the stew, with a slightly longer cook time to build a richer broth.

Verdict: Solid performance at browning; you’ll need to balance temperature and time in your oven to get tender meat and a rich, reduced broth.

I prepared lemon chicken on a bed of onions. Like the Dutch oven, the braiser browned nicely, too. The chicken thighs were golden on the skin side, but they got a little darker on the second side, though not overly so. The lid is tight fitting, so the juices stayed in the pan. The onions and the meat were tender and juicy.

That said, I think the braising liquid could have been more reduced. This means, once again, finding the sweet spot for time, or simply learning when to uncover your dish for the last moments of cooking.

Verdict: Like the Dutch oven, the braiser browned food well, but you’ll once again need to experiment with cook time and removing the lid to enable reduction for a rich, flavorful broth.

The grill pan delivered nice grill marks. But it was the most challenging of the three pieces of cookware. At 10 inches, it was functional but a little crowded for four chicken thighs. After achieving those nice grill marks, the second side of the chicken got very charred. There were also hot spots near the perimeter of the pan.

The handles stained after the first use. The interior cleaned up with scrubbing between the grates, but the exterior retained stubborn black marks that even a specialized cleaner couldn’t remove.

Verdict: You’ll achieve grill marks, and you can get charred flavor. But you’ll need to monitor your heat. It’ll also be easier to maneuver on the cooking surface if you stick to one or two pieces of meat.

This set has a learning curve. My key takeaway is to reduce the heat when using it. I would use the lid strategically and adjust timing as needed. (Unless I was boiling, in which case the speed would be a boon.) Now that our Lab testing is done, we’ll see how it fares with regular home use.

You’ll have to monitor your cooking closely when browning because of the dark interior, but the cookware does brown well. You should also plan to clean the pieces thoroughly and to live with some staining.

Overall, once you learn how it responds to your range and oven, it should be a reliable, versatile set of cookware worth the large savings compared with comparable models.