What Size Dutch Oven Do I Need? (2024)

FAQs

What Size Dutch Oven Do I Need? ›

The Best Option for Most People: 5–7 Quart Dutch Ovens

The general rule of thumb is to plan for one quart per person, and then round up. One quart roughly translates into a typical serving size for most people. So for a family of four, you would want something that is a minimum of 4 quarts.

What size dutch oven is best for a single person? The 1.5 quart dutch oven is perfect for side dishes and desserts, but we recommend a 3 quart or 4.5 quart for people living alone and cooking mostly for themselves. The larger size will fit most recipes for 1-2 people and can better accommodate one-pan meals.

Anywhere between a 5- to 7-quart Dutch oven is the right all-purpose size for most cooking tasks. It has high walls that prevent spillage and enough surface area to brown meat for a braise, but it's not so big that you need help hauling it in and out of the oven. It's also the perfect size for bringing to the table.

Dutch oven bread recipes often call for a 5.5-quart pot, which makes these Dutch ovens more desirable for baking, which inspires more recipes — and the delicious cycle continues. All that to say, if you don't have a Dutch oven yet, a 5.5-quart Dutch oven will set you up for decades of baking.

If you are baking 500g flour-weight batards (950g dough weight) a 7-quart/7-liter Dutch oven is a good size. A 5-quart/5-liter round Dutch oven is really the smallest you would want to use for 500g flour-weight (950g dough weight) baking.

An enamelled cast-iron Dutch oven is a kitchen classic, and of course Ina (who has a well-documented love affair with Paris) trusts French heritage brand Le Creuset. She prefers the brand's round, 5.5 quart Dutch oven because it's great for soups, stews and braising.

Smaller Dutch ovens (around three to four quarts) are ideal for recipes that involve at least a few steps on the cooktop — like risotto or boeuf bourguignon.

5–7 qt. This is the most common Dutch oven size and usually the best option for small families. It is ideal if you are cooking for four people, making about 6–8 servings, and allowing for a few leftovers or seconds for hungry kids.

Using other pots for baking bread

You can try using a 4- to 5-quart heavy covered pot, like a cast iron Dutch oven.

Can you use a 7 quart Dutch oven for bread? ›

Also, the 5-qt. Dutch oven is as heavy as I'd want to deal with removing from a hot oven. I think the 7-qt. would also work, but you don't really need one that big for making the bread recipe.

When you buy from Le Creuset, you're paying for high-quality pots and pans that are designed to stand the test of time. Rather than aluminum or stainless steel, Le Creuset craft their pieces from cast iron, which has a much higher heat capacity.

Of course, if you dream of cooking a large chicken sitting on a bed of tender roast vegetables, a 5.5 quart Dutch oven is going to be the better size.

A 5–7 quart Dutch oven is the sweet spot for most home cooks. This size is great for cooking for four people (often with leftovers). Representatives from both Staub and Le Creuset tell us that their most popular size is 5 1/2-quarts, and that's the size most Epi editors have at home, as well.

High-quality enamel coatings are expensive, which is why enameled Dutch ovens cost more than their standard cast iron counterparts. And while traditional cast iron can get more nonstick with time and use, enameled cast iron can't.

Do I need a Dutch oven to make sourdough? Dutch ovens are a fantastic investment but they're not necessary to make sourdough bread. In fact, they're not even the best piece of sourdough equipment available. Instead, we recommend a domed bread cloche or a combo cooker.

Smaller Dutch ovens (around three to four quarts) are ideal for recipes that involve at least a few steps on the cooktop — like risotto or boeuf bourguignon. They're also a nice size for baking a loaf of Dutch oven bread. You can easily cook a whole chicken in a 3.5 quart Dutch oven too.

In our opinion, shallow Dutch ovens are also the most versatile version and allow you to cook any recipe. Deep: These deep Dutch ovens are best for large quantities of soups, stews, and braises. Since the lid is farther away from the food inside, it doesn't brown the top of baked goods as well.

I think Le Creuset's 26 or 'F' is a 5.5 quart capacity, which is slightly more than a #8 Lodge Dutch oven.