What makes a Dutch oven good? Why are industry leaders all $300 or more? These are questions amateur home cook and entrepreneur Zach Schau asked himself when he was shopping for a Dutch oven himself and, after spending two years searching for answers in foundries and manufacturing facilities in Europe, Asia and the U.S., Schau decided the best answer was to make one himself. Enter the newly-released Milo Dutch oven, which sports two layers of enameling, a Staub-eque heavy-duty build and the clean aesthetic of a Le Creuset. Its weight gives it the means to retain heat to extraordinary levels (it kept short ribs braising in my oven hours after turning the oven off), and more importantly, it’s made to stick around. The Milo is cast with DISA molds, a mark of premium manufacturing used by Le Creuset themselves, and its double coat of precisely applied enamel sure up a piece of cookware that isn’t likely to crack under pressure.
“There are three things that make a great Dutch oven: the design of the mold, the enamel coating and the quality of craftsmanship. When all these are working in tandem, you get a piece of cookware that you end up coming back to, night after night, and that you end up handing down,” Schau, now founder and chief oven master at Milo, said.
The Dutch oven typically puts buyers in a weird spot — spend $45 on a Lodge that looks the part, but is prone to enamel crazing and wear over time, or jump several orders of price magnitude up and drop north of $300 on the proven performance of a Staub or Le Creuset. The middle ground is less-explored, primarily due to the costs associated with making the jump from so-so quality to high-end performance. That’s where Schau, now found and chief oven master at Milo, wants Milo to reside.
The Milo Dutch oven is available now.
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