Great Jones The Dutchess.

The Gavler Review.

Great Jones The Dutchess Review: The Oval Dutch Oven You Buy for the Shape

The Great Jones Dutchess earns an 8.2 and sixth place on our Best Dutch Ovens list. It is a 6.75-quart oval enameled cast iron pot that testers found cooked evenly, cleaned up in seconds, and looked good doing it. The trade-off is straightforward: it is heavy at about 15 pounds, it sits well above a Lodge in price, and nothing in the reviews we read shows enamel or cooking that justifies the gap. Buy it when oval is the point. Buy the Lodge when it is not.

What it is

The Dutchess is the one Dutch oven from Great Jones, a direct-to-consumer cookware brand. Per Great Jones's own product page, it holds 6.75 quarts, measures about 15.75 inches long and 9.75 inches wide, weighs 15 pounds with the lid, is enameled cast iron, and is oven-safe to 500 degrees F. The oval footprint is the whole pitch: it holds a chicken or a roast with room to spare, where a 5.5-quart round leaves the legs hanging over.

One caveat on naming and sourcing. Some of the coverage we read never mentions the shape, and Apartment Therapy's reviewer says she is "used to a round Dutch oven," so check that the pot you are looking at is the oval. Great Jones sells in multiple colors; the reviews below cover different colorways of the same pot.

In use

The strongest evidence is Taste of Home, where reviewer Alison T.S. Robicelli ran a doughnut-frying test and called the pot "the real deal." Her verdict on the frying: "I was able to make a whole batch without burning or undercooking a single one." On cleanup she wrote, "Food residue cleanly wipes off with a soapy sponge, so it truly takes only seconds to wash The Dutchess by hand."

Apartment Therapy's Olivia Muenter, who covered the pot as a home cook, praised "how evenly it cooked everything without burning," and liked the extra room: "I was surprised how much I liked having the extra room in the piece." She also noted the light gray interior is "dark enough to hide stains, but still light enough to see butter brown." SheKnows reported that "this pot not only cooks evenly and thoroughly, but it makes for incredibly easy clean-up, too." Northern Virginia Magazine's food editor Stefanie Gans, writing from a gift-guide angle, described the interior the same way.

Strengths

• Shape. Oval is genuinely better for poultry, roasts and long cuts of meat than a round pot of similar volume.
• Even, burn-free cooking. Two independent reviewers reached the same conclusion.
• Easy cleanup. Taste of Home and SheKnows both singled this out.
• A usable light interior. You can judge browning, and stains show less.

Trade-offs and who should skip it

Weight. At 15 pounds, Apartment Therapy called it "a bit heavy" but "normal for a Dutch oven." SheKnows joked about her muscles; The Daily Beast's Mia Maguire was "surprised by how heavy" it is. Fine if you rarely lift it, a real issue if you do.

The oval on a round burner. Prudent Reviews' Andrew Palermo notes the pot does not sit centered on a stovetop burner and says the center may run hotter than the sides when searing, though he calls that minor given cast iron's slow heating. This is an observation about the shape rather than a measured test, and it applies to any oval pot.

A hot lid handle. The same reviewer found the small lid handle gets very hot on the stove, which is a nuisance to remember with a bare hand.

Price. Taste of Home called the roughly $160 price "on the pricier side of the cookware spectrum." Apartment Therapy paid $145 and called it "more than fair" for quality cookware. Our data lists $155, but the Great Jones page showed $250 when we checked in October 2026, so shop around and watch for sales. At the top of that range you are well past Lodge money.

Mixed owner reports. A small number of buyers on Thingtesting report staining, and one says she regrets not buying a Le Creuset. SheKnows mentions the pot had a reputation for sticking and staining, then says she had not experienced either. We found no chipping reports, but also no independent chip test.

Skip it if you want the cheapest reliable enamel, a pot you will move constantly, or a round shape for standard stovetops.

How it compares

Rank one, the Lodge 6-Quart Essential Enamel, costs roughly $100, has an independently tested enamel, and is round. It is the better buy unless you specifically want an oval. Rank five, the Tramontina Bestow 5.5-Quart, is about $80 for a smaller round enamel pot, so the Dutchess costs close to double for the extra volume and shape. Rank seven, the Goldilocks 6-Quart, is a lighter round pot that America's Test Kitchen rated Recommended with Reservations for hot spots and chipping; it is cheaper and lighter than the Dutchess, but the Dutchess has had a friendlier reception from the reviews we read.

The Gavler verdict

An 8.2 for a good-looking, evenly cooking oval that is easy to clean and costs more than the cooking evidence supports. The reviews are warm but come mostly from lifestyle and food outlets rather than structured lab comparisons, which is why it sits behind the Lodge and above the thinner-walled budget pots. Buy the Dutchess if a whole bird or a rack of short ribs is your regular dinner and the weight and price do not bother you. Everyone else should start with the Lodge.

Common Questions

Is the Great Jones Dutchess worth it?

Only if you want the oval shape. Reviewers at Taste of Home and Apartment Therapy found it cooked evenly and cleaned easily, but nothing they reported suggests better enamel than a $100 Lodge. Gavler scores it 8.2, sixth on our Best Dutch Ovens list, because you are paying for the 6.75-quart oval and the design.

Is the Great Jones Dutchess round or oval?

Oval. Great Jones lists it as 6.75 quarts, about 15.75 inches long and 9.75 inches wide. That suits a whole chicken or a roast, but Prudent Reviews notes an oval pot does not sit centered on a stovetop burner.

How heavy is the Great Jones Dutchess?

About 15 pounds with the lid, per Great Jones and several reviewers. Apartment Therapy called it a bit heavy but normal for a Dutch oven of this size. If you have trouble lifting a full pot, weigh that before buying.

How much does the Great Jones Dutchess cost?

Reviewers quoted $145 to $160. When we checked the Great Jones product page in October 2026 it listed $250, so confirm the current price and any sale before you buy. Gavler's data lists $155.

Is the Great Jones Dutchess as good as Le Creuset?

We found no hands-on test that ranked them head to head. SheKnows put the Dutchess at about a third of the price of Le Creuset's oval Dutch oven, and Prudent Reviews preferred the Great Jones on cost, but that is a value argument rather than a performance win.