Friday, November 13, 2009

Cuisinart Chef's Classic Nonstick Hard-Anodized 12-Inch Everyday Pan with Medium Dome Cover



Product Description

Cuisinart is pleased to offer an exciting variety of specialty pieces. Easy pouring saucepans make draining liquids simple and our gourmet pans make everyday cooking tasks a pleasure

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #3413 in Kitchen & Housewares
* Brand: Cuisinart
* Model: 625-30D
* Released on: 2006-03-01
* Dimensions: 11.75" h x 14.50" w x 2.75" l,

Features

* 12-inch everyday pan with lid and 2 loop-style handles
* Hard-anodized aluminum construction with an aluminum core
* Quantanium nonstick finish internally reinforced with titanium
* Riveted stainless-steel handle; break-resistant domed glass lid
ditorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Enhance your existing Chef's Classic set with this versatile, 12-inch everyday pan, or give it as a gift to someone whose kitchen space is limited. You can cook practically anything in this superb specialty piece. Simmer soup, fry chicken, stir-fry vegetables, cook pancakes, and even bake casseroles. The two loop-style, riveted stainless-steel handles make the shape more compact for fitting in an oven, and the domed glass lid conveniently lets you monitor what's cooking. Chef's Classic cookware handsomely serves at the table, too.

Cuisinart constructs this pan of hard-anodized aluminum, which is even stronger than stainless steel, with an encapsulated pure aluminum core for quick, even heating. The interior features Cuisinart's Quantanium nonstick finish, a high-quality, long-lasting finish internally reinforced with titanium. Little oil or butter is needed when cooking on this ultra-smooth surface, and low to medium heat is recommended, along with non-metal utensils. The piece is oven-safe to 500 degrees F and should be washed only by hand. Cuisinart covers this pan with a lifetime limited warranty against defects. --Ann Bieri

Customer Reviews

Great Price for a Great Pan! You really can use this everyday for everything!5
Let me start off by saying that my main cookware set is the Anolon Titanium set that cost $399 when we got it in 2003. I love these pans because they are heavy-duty, nonstick because of the titanium, and dishwasher safe because of the titanium. Well, I wanted to add an "everyday" sort of pan to my collection because the Anolon set is VERY heavy and takes up lots of space, so I wanted something a little ligher weight for easier handling, but still large enough to cook for larger dinner parties AND easy to clean. So we looked at 12" pans and skillets and we decided on this one, the Cuisinart Chef's Classic Non-Stick Hard Anodized 12-Inch Everyday Pan with Cover.

For what you get in this set...the 12" pan and the covered lid...you cannot beat the price for the quality. For one, it uses a "quantanium" coating for its nonstick base...this is basically a nonstick coating reinforced with titanium, so it can withstand higher temps (oven safe to 500 degrees) and is scratch resistent. I don't use metal utensils anyway, so I can't attest to this...but it has been great so far!

The nonstick is great...makes clean up easy, which is very important to me as free time is very scarce in this household! I haven't thrown the pan into the dishwasher, but the lid gets tossed in and it's been fine. The pan itself cleans so easily that just a soapy nonabrasive sponge is all it takes to get the pan to brand new condition.

The pan also heats up very evenly. I cooked sauteed chicken in the pan and every single piece was evenly cooked. The pieces on the edges of the pan was just as cooked as the ones in the middle of pan. Makes for great cooking when you don't have to fuss about repositioning the food every few minutes for even heat distribution!

I also love the short handles because I always bump into the longer skillet handles when I'm cooking up a storm and I don't bump into this pan. I can also use this on the back burners too because of the short handles. You just can't "toss" your food like you can with a skillet. Use a towel or oven mitt when you touch the handles or the lid because they do get hot...but that's fine with me anyway because I don't like getting hot grease splattered on my hands anyway!

Overall, I am very impressed with this pan, and at a fraction of the price of similar items and nowhere near the cost of my Anolon Titanium set, it's a bargain!

Many 'pros' but a couple 'cons'...4
I would say the pan is a little lighter than the Calaphon 'Commercial' everyday pan (with no non-stick surface). However, remarkably, the 'Chef's Classic' claims to be oven safe up to 500 degrees while the Calphalon maxes out at 450 degrees. (Amazon's in-house brand, the Pinzon, only promises a paltry 350 degrees.)

The glass lid could only charitably be described as 'medium dome' and is not as high as its stainless steel counterpart.

To reviewers concerned about cleaning...no anodized aluminum pan should ever be placed in the dishwasher. If the exterior of the pan becomes spattered with cooked on food, I would say the use of a paste of baking soda or 'Barkeeper's Friend' might help. It does help that the pan will fit flat in a standard sink for easy cleanup with mild dish detergent and warm water. One key is to dry the pan immediately after washing.

With its titanium-reinforced, non-stick surface, metal utensils may be used; however, since the surface is truely non-stick, why take the chance of gouges?

The cast steel, Cuisinart embossed handles are smaller than those on other 'Chef's Classic' pans, but should not present a problem as long as the cook does not overfill the pan.

All-in-all, this remains an amazing 'buy' at less than $25.

Having the right pan for the job5
Talk about potato woes. Mine were sticking to the pan, ripping, smooshing against my spatula. I tried home fries on the stovetop, roasted potatoes in the oven. Nothing worked and I was getting so frustrated.

I got this pan yesterday and had to use it right away, for supper. I cut red new potatoes in half and tossed them with olive oil, herbs, salt and pepper. I poured the potatoes into the pan and put them into the oven at 380 F. After 30 minutes I went to turn them and when I pulled the pan out, the potatoes SLID around the pan. So beautiful to see. After another 30 minutes, they were done- brown, crisp along the edges, perfectly cooked.

I guess it's all about having the right pan for what you're doing. This pan turned my terrible potatoes into perfection.

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