The dish that goes in the oven full and comes to the table hot. Material decides whether it can also go under a broiler, and most buyers find that out the expensive way.
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The short answer
Buy one 9 by 13 inch dish and one smaller square or oval, and decide the material by whether you want to broil. Tempered glass is cheap, non-reactive and lets you see the bottom brown, and Pyrex publishes a thermal-shock warning you must respect - no cold dish into a hot oven, no hot dish onto a wet counter, and no broiler. Enameled cast iron handles the broiler and goes on the stovetop first, at four times the weight and several times the price. Stoneware sits between them.
Quick picks
The whole answer, on one screen. Tap a row to jump to the full write-up. Every pick below carries a stated trade-off further down — including the one at the top.
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Product
Best for
Price
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Pyrex Basics Oblong Glass Baking Dish, 3 qt
Three quarts of tempered glass with a published thermal-shock warning, which is the one piece of guidance in this category that actually prevents a failure.
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What counts as a baking dish here
A baking dish is an open, straight-or-sloped-sided vessel that goes into the oven full and usually comes to the table. Lasagna, gratins, baked pasta, enchiladas, cobblers, bread pudding, roast chicken pieces over potatoes. It is not a roasting pan, which has a rack and a different job - best roasting pans covers that - and it is not a cake pan.
"Casserole dish" usually means the same thing with a lid, or with the expectation of one. The lid matters less than people assume: most casseroles are baked uncovered for at least part of the time, and foil does the covered part perfectly well.
Three materials, and the broiler decides between them
Tempered glass
Stoneware / ceramic
Enameled cast iron
Typical weight, 3 qt
About 3 lb
4 to 6 lb
10 lb and up
Stovetop
No
No
Yes
Broiler
No
Usually not - check the maker
Yes
Thermal shock
Real risk, published warning
Real risk
Not a practical concern
Reactive with acid
No
No
No
You can see the browning
Yes
No
No
Chips and cracks
Shatters if it fails
Chips at the rim
Enamel chips, iron survives
Price bracket
Lowest
Middle
Highest
If you never broil, glass does everything a casserole needs for the least money. If you brown the top under a broiler, glass is the wrong material and no amount of care changes that.
The visible-bottom point is underrated. A gratin or a baked pasta is finished when the underside has set and colored, and in glass you can simply look. In stoneware you are guessing, which is why ceramic dishes get overbaked.
The thermal-shock rule, which Pyrex publishes and most buyers ignore
Pyrex publishes plain guidance for its glass bakeware, and it is the single most useful thing on this page:
Do not put a cold dish into a hot oven. Let a refrigerated dish come toward room temperature first.
Do not put a hot dish on a wet or cold surface. A damp counter or a metal draining board is the classic failure.
Do not add liquid to a hot dish. Deglazing a glass roasting dish is the other classic failure.
Do not use it under a broiler, or on a stovetop, or over a flame.
None of this is a defect. It is what tempered soda-lime glass does, and the same rules apply to every glass dish regardless of brand. The full argument, including where glass genuinely beats metal, is in glass versus metal bakeware.
Worth knowing: Pyrex publishes this warning clearly on its bakeware pages and does not publish it on its measuring-cup page, even though the material is the same. We noted that gap in best measuring cups. Apply the bakeware rule to both.
The two sizes that cover almost everything
9 by 13 in, about 3 to 3.5 quarts. The American standard. Lasagna for six, a tray bake, a sheet of brownies, a whole chicken jointed over vegetables. If you buy one dish, buy this one.
8 by 8 in square, about 2 quarts. Half the volume, for two to three people, and the size most cake and brownie recipes are written for.
A 2 quart oval is a pleasant third dish and an unnecessary first one. Depth matters more than footprint for casseroles: a shallow dish gives you more browned surface, a deep one gives you more steaming. Gratins want shallow.
Dish
Approximate volume
Feeds
What it is for
8 x 8 in square
2 qt
2 to 4
Brownies, small bakes, side dishes
9 x 9 in square
2.5 qt
3 to 5
The same, slightly larger
9 x 13 in oblong
3 to 3.5 qt
6 to 8
Lasagna, tray bakes, the default
10 x 15 in oblong
4 qt and up
8 to 12
Batch cooking and holidays
Oval gratin, 12 to 14 in
1.5 to 2 qt
3 to 4
Shallow, maximum browned top
Volumes are approximate because makers measure to different fill lines. The footprint is the specification that matters when a recipe says 9 by 13.
When enameled cast iron earns the weight
One sequence justifies the price and the ten pounds: brown on the stovetop, add liquid, cover, braise in the oven, then finish uncovered under the broiler. A glass dish cannot do step one or step five. A stoneware dish cannot do either reliably.
If that is how you cook - stews, braises, anything where a fond is the point - the enameled route is not an upgrade to a casserole dish, it is a different tool. The material argument is in bare against enameled cast iron and the buying guide is best enameled Dutch ovens.
The two enameled pots we have audited
Both publish oven ceilings and enamel care guidance; neither is a substitute for a cheap glass dish if you never broil.
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Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven, 6 qt
Braises, stews, tomato sauce, bread - anything long and wet
A fitted lid traps steam completely, which is right for a braise and wrong for most casseroles - the top will not brown under it. Foil, crimped loosely, vents enough to let a surface set while still holding moisture, which is why nearly every published lasagna method says foil for the first stretch and uncovered for the last.
If a dish comes with a plastic storage lid, treat it as a refrigerator lid only. None of them are oven safe and the makers say so.
Cleaning the burnt corner
Every dish on this page ends up with a ring of baked-on cheese or sugar at the waterline. The method is the same for all three materials and it is patience rather than abrasion:
Fill with hot water and a squirt of dish soap while the dish is still warm - not hot.
Leave it for an hour, or overnight for sugar.
Push, do not scrape. A plastic scraper on glass and enamel; never steel wool on either.
For enamel, a paste of baking soda and water left for twenty minutes lifts the rest.
Our ledger has one glass dish, two enameled pots and an aluminized-steel bakeware set. It contains no stoneware baking dish - so where a stoneware dish is the right answer we say so and point at the category rather than naming a model: stoneware baking dishes. The material argument for them is in stoneware and ceramic bakeware.
Each write-up below gives the published specs, what the pan is genuinely good at, what it costs you, and who should skip it. The trade-off line is there on the top pick too — a recommendation with no downside is an advertisement.
Top pick · Best baking dishSpecs read September 3, 2026
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Pyrex Basics Oblong Glass Baking Dish, 3 qt
Three quarts of tempered glass with a published thermal-shock warning, which is the one piece of guidance in this category that actually prevents a failure.
Best for: Casseroles, gratins and baked pasta - wet dishes that go oven to table to fridge
Published specifications for the Lodge Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven, 6 qt
Material
Cast iron with porcelain enamel, inside and out
Capacity
6 qt
Induction
Yes - the iron under the enamel is ferrous
Seasoning
None required - enamel is not a seasoning surface
Acid
Safe for tomato and wine, unlike bare iron
Oven maximum
Set by the knob material - check the specific SKU; Lodge publishes a lower ceiling than for bare iron
Good
Non-reactive, so it handles the acidic cooking bare iron cannot
No seasoning to maintain
Considerably cheaper than the French enameled pots it copies
Not good
Chipped enamel is not repairable, unlike bare iron's seasoning
Oven ceiling is lower than bare cast iron because of the knob
Heavy, and the enamel makes it heavier than bare iron of the same capacity
The trade-off. The enamel is a glass layer. Chip it and the pot is not restorable the way bare iron is, and Lodge's enamel chips more readily than the premium brands'.
Skip this if. You already own a large stainless stockpot and rarely braise. This duplicates it for most weeknight cooking.
For most kitchens, a 9 by 13 inch tempered glass dish - cheap, non-reactive, and you can see the bottom brown. If you finish dishes under a broiler, buy enameled cast iron instead, because no glass dish is broiler safe.
›Can a glass baking dish go under the broiler?
No. Pyrex and every other tempered glass maker publishes guidance against broiler use, stovetop use and direct flame. The failure mode is the dish shattering, so this is not a rule worth testing.
›What size baking dish do I need?
A 9 by 13 inch oblong, roughly 3 to 3.5 quarts, covers most recipes and feeds six to eight. An 8 inch square, about 2 quarts, is the useful second dish. Depth matters more than footprint for gratins - shallower browns more.
›Is a casserole dish the same as a baking dish?
In practice yes, with the casserole usually implying a lid. The lid matters less than people expect, because most casseroles bake uncovered for at least part of the time and foil handles the covered part.
›Why did my glass dish crack in the oven?
Almost always thermal shock: a cold dish into a hot oven, a hot dish onto a wet counter, or cold liquid added to a hot dish. Pyrex publishes warnings against all three for its glass bakeware.
Sources
Every figure on this page came from one of these. Follow them and check our arithmetic — that is the point.
