Aldi Carries An Impressive Dupe For This Cast Iron Brand — What Shoppers Should Know

There are plenty of unique benefits to cooking with cast iron, from incorporating a little extra iron into your diet to having a surface that retains and infuses flavor. These durable kitchen tools last a lifetime with proper care, so choosing the right skillet can be a big decision. The Lodge brand is many home cooks' go-to for its affordability and quality, under a name that has been around since 1896. It's hard to compete with a reputation like that, but one brand at Aldi might just be a low-cost dupe.

The Crofton cast iron skillet at Aldi reappeared on shelves earlier this year as a part of "Aldi Finds," the section of the store offering a rotation of limited-time products. Some of the best Aldi kitchen products have debuted in this aisle, and the Crofton cookware is no exception. The 10-inch cast iron skillet is sold at an affordable $12.99 price tag, beating the $20 to $30 range for Lodge skillets of a similar diameter.

A few dollars worth of difference doesn't seem like a big deal, but how about an over $40 difference? The Crofton 2-in-1 Cast Iron Deep Skillet is sold for only $20, while the Lodge 2-in-1 Cast Iron Combo Cooker retails between $60 and $70 on average. They're nearly identical products in material and size, so we can only hope that Aldi will bring the Crofton pans back as a seasonal or permanent item in the future.

If any Lodge loyalists are feeling sour about a newer and cheaper product on the block, there are a few plausible reasons Lodge costs more. Lodge is an American-made brand manufactured in the Appalachian town of Pittsburg, Tennessee. Crofton is an Amazon Associate under Aldi, with products manufactured overseas, where the U.S. dollar may carry more weight than the local currency. At a glance, origin doesn't appear to have a notable impact on the material quality of the cast iron products, but rather demonstrate a matter of consumer preferences or manufacturing and operational costs.

Only time will tell which pans last the longest, so if you're a savvy shopper able to snag one of the Crofton pans while they're on shelves, you'll want to ensure that they last a long time. Familiarize yourself with these debunked cast iron cookware myths, and learn to properly maintain skillets, new or old, by seasoning them with care. Aldi is a German grocery chain that focuses on selling quality products at an affordable price, and offering a competitive cast iron pan aligns with its brand.