You’re inferring something that I didn’t say Scott. And THAT is insulting. The comment was in context of the entire thread. Hard as it might be to believe, it’s not all about you.
But if you want to go down that route, reread your own words. You make a big deal out of the fact that it is cheap and that if it ‘craps out’ big deal. YOu and I simply have different attitudes toward things like this. I’m not the one getting pissy about that… you are.
I’m sure that the companies who imported pet food and kids’ toys also had assurances and procedures in place. And yet…
At the end of the day, cookware affects the food I put in my body. I don’t really feel like taking a risk with that to save a bit of money. For the Nth time, I’ll say that the Le Crueset I’ve had for 25 years or so is still in top shape. The cost difference between it and some budget item spread out over that time is meaningless.
You might want to re-read again, both yours and mine, cuz you missed some… My points were 1) I don’t think this is cheap disposable crap. If I did, I wouldn’t have bought it. Your continual insinuation is that it IS cheap/disposable crap and that I believed that and bought it anyway 2) If I am wrong, the investment was minimal 3)Function over form and there is room for polytheism in cookware.
And with that, I am done. I apologize to everyone else that I got sucked into this with you.
I’m with Rick on this: I think that some people are being naive if they think that Lodge (or any other vendor of relatively inexpensive imported goods) will have complete control throughout an overseas manufacturing process, or even that Lodge or any other buyer will continue to work, long term, with one, trusted, high-quality supplier. People, the whole point of outsourcing is to save money; where do you think the savings will be coming from? In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that anyone who thinks that Chinese enameled cast iron cookware is qualitatively equal to Le Creuset or Staub is delusional, and doesn’t understand what quality manufacturing is all about. I have no doubt that China will, one day, equal the West in any field they choose, but, in some fields at least, that day ain’t today.
However, I’m pleased to learn that Mr. Fleming has such faith in both corporate boiler plate and a government agency!
Lodge endorses the FDA (as a final arbiter on the safety of certain cooking utensils): “Lodge utilizes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Test Procedure 7.5.1.4a … Lodge Manufacturing Company uses third party testing to ensure that products with the Lodge name comply with standards set forth by the United States Food & Drug Administration. All our domestic as well as imported cookware complies with the FDA Standards.”)
Hard to read that as anything but a trust in government regulation, which, of course, I’m not condemning.]
Jay, I think you’re going to love your new cookware; take good care of it and it will last decades.
That’s cool, tons of quality control in China as we’ve seen from Iphones, computers, canned foods, cookware.
oh wait no there isn’t. If you believe that Lodge is going out of there way to do extra testing on every piece of material that comes in to see the possibility of problems a few years down the line, your lodge item would cost significantly more than it actually does.
But to each their own, if you trust them you trust them and that’s really all that matters in the end.
I don’t believe that, Charlie, any more than I believe in the tooth fairy.
That’s not how compliance testing works. No one - not Lodge, not Le Creuset, not Staub - tests every piece. Instead, testing is done on random samples.
But without a functional, effective quality control process in place, the samples will not meet the ASTM-C738 standards or - particularly - the much more exacting California Proposal 65 standards.
So when I say I trust Lodge, I mean I believe them when they say (1) they do third-party testing, and (2) that testing confirms compliance with ASTM-C378 and California Proposal 65 standards.
We’re talking about the possibility of lead or cadmium leaching from the enamel glaze into the food being cooked. Lead and cadmium compounds were traditionally used in enamel pigments. That is no longer the case with lead, but remains the case for some of the bright colors used on exteriors; neither lead nor cadmium pigments are used in the colors applied to interiors. From Le Creuset’s website FAQ’s:
Lead is NOT used in our recipes and for cadmium a special anti-acid enamel fritt is used which will not release the cadmium pigment during cooking. Cadmium is used for coloration purposes in achieving bright exterior colours such as Flame and Cherry. The interior enamel which makes contact with food is either sand, white, or black.
BTW, the enamel applied to Lodge cookware is manufactured in France, not China.
“If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like prunes than rhubarb does.”
Seriously, Le Creuset is the way to go. Your close enough to a couple of outlets (Woodbury or Flemington) and you never pay retail there. IIRC, I paid $180.00 for the 13.5qt monster just because of a cosmetic defect. They stand by their seconds.
Robert - the last point is the most relevant. But I wasn’t merely talking about what the enamel leeching… I was also referring to incidents such as that noted in the Amazon review I linked that the enameling was wearing away. As I asked then, wearing away into what? The food? I don’t want any enamel, even food safe enamel, in my food and a well made product shouldn’t have its coating coming off that quickly… hence I’m questioning how well it’s really made.
I personally don’t care what people do here. We’re all adults and can make whatever tradeoffs we want. My point all along has been simply that you can buy top quality stuff for what’s really not that much more money and not have to worry about it again. The price difference is especially insignificant if you look at it over a lifetime measured in decades. The “Oh, I’ll toss it if it’s crap and the enamel starts coming off in a couple of years” just isn’t the way I think. I’d much rather buy the best tools I can for whatever I’m trying to do and have it last. Lodge has proven that their made in the US non-enameled cast iron is top-notch. Le Crueset has done that with enameled cast iron. I’d love to believe Lodge’s much cheaper product is equivalent, but life’s taught me that nothing is free and when I see a substantial price difference to be wary of the guy selling you the cheap stuff saying “It’s just as good as…” the pricey option.
Fine. Reasonable concern. About Tramortina. Not about Lodge, based on my experience.
Fine. Reasonable position. And one to which, up to this point, I had not responded. Instead, I responded to this:
My response to your “point all along”? I believe - based on personal, hands-on experience rather than speculation or xenophobia - that Lodge enameled cookware is “top quality stuff.”
Um… I’m going to object to the word xenophobia. My issues have nothing to do with the ethnicity of the people making the product and everything to do with documented incidents where products from China have proven to be unsafe. It raises the risk of cookware made there a bit and I’d rather simply avoid the risk even if it’s small. Someone as picky about language as you are should be more careful about the words you use.
Fine, you trust Lodge. Now… why is it SO much less expensive than Le Crueset? The easy out is “brand snobbery” of course. Give me another reason.
But I thought Lodge did the enamel work in France? Now I’m confused. They still make their non-enameled stuff in the US, yes? They note that the enameled stuff is imported from China. I didn’t see where they noted that the enamel was done in France, but I only looked cursorily. I guess it surprises me that they’d make the pan in China, ship it to France for enameling and then to the US for sale.
Frankly, I wish they’d simply do it all here and charge a bit more.
It goes beyond just the leeching. There is a history of just bad manufacturing in China. Just purely by example, the Martha Stewart line which retails at roughly the same price as Lodge, just had their dutch ovens recalled for possible exploding enamel. I have one of them, I think they work great, but I really don’t want to risk a piece of enamel flying into my eye at a later date cause it cost 1/3rd the price of the Le Creuset.
This is just one of many examples of really poor manufacturing in China.
btw, william sonoma has 25% off all le crueset items! Free shipping!
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