Baking bread, stewing meat, making stews and soups.

I've usually relied on my beloved cast enamel Dutch oven for these tasks, but when Lancaster Cast Iron sent me their new 5 quart Dutch oven, I gave it a try. It quickly became my favorite Dutch oven, plus it's now $75 off on Black Friday.

The Lancaster Cast Iron Dutch Oven has a diameter of 10.5 inches and a wall height of 4 1/8 inches. It weighs 13 pounds.

By comparison, the 5.5 quart Le Creuset Signature Dutch oven is slightly narrower at 10.25 inches in diameter, but slightly taller at 4.5 inches. It also weighs in at a light 11.25 pounds.

The Lancaster Dutch oven is all cast iron, except for the polished brass knob on the lid, which is a nice pop of color in a sea of pewter gray. Lancaster's logo, the Conestoga wagon, is engraved on the knob and on the back.

The Dutch oven has been seasoned and, like all Lancaster cast iron products, the interior is smooth and polished. We also liked the large handles, which are easy to hold and remove from the oven.

Lancaster's 5-quart Dutch oven normally costs $299. This is $120 less than the regular price of a similarly sized enamel Le Creuset Dutch oven. However, Lodge sells a 6 quart cast enamel Dutch oven on Amazon for $79.

To test the Lancaster Dutch oven, I first baked a loaf of no-knead bread for the New York Times. After about an hour and a half, a beautiful crusty, savory loaf of bread was baked.

Then I roasted the chicken with carrots, potatoes, and other root vegetables on the bottom. I had hoped that the vegetables would roast a bit at the bottom of the pan, but instead they became a bit soupy from the juices from the chicken. Still, the chicken turned out moist.

The beef shank was then stewed with onions, carrots, and mushrooms. After a few hours, the meat was tender and juicy enough to cut with a fork, and went well with the mashed potatoes that accompanied it. [The Dutch oven browned the meat and at the same time prevented the grease from splattering onto the counter.

One of the advantages of a non-enameled Dutch oven is that you don't have to worry about it chipping.

However, with an enamel Dutch oven, you have a little more flexibility in what you can cook, especially when it comes to acidic ingredients that would strip the cast iron seasoning, such as tomato-based sauces. According to Lancaster, the Dutch oven is pre-seasoned, but the first few times it is cooked with oil or fatty foods like sausage or bacon, the seasoning needs to soak in.

I learned this the hard way. The second time I used the Lancaster, I cooked a whole chicken with root vegetables, and even though the potatoes were coated with olive oil, a little of the seasoning came off the bottom of the pan. Oh well, any excuse to fry up some bacon.