Cooking Reviews

Ever since receiving one as a gift, this piece has been the pride and joy of my cookware collection. Having a thick interior layer of copper, the pot is quite heavy, and conducts heat more evenly than the calphalon pan I used to use. The extra money for the copper core is definitely worth it. If I had the money, I'd stock my entire kitchen with this line.

I never worry about things sticking to the bottom of the pot. The trick is to heat the pan on low to medium-low heat for a few minutes before putting oil in the pot, and then letting the oil heat for a few minutes until it begins to smoke.

Stainless steel is much easier to clean than either hard-anodized aluminum or copper. Getting it clean enough to use is a breeze, although personally, I insist on scrouring it until it shines like new simply because I like this pot so much.

Oh, and if you regularly cook for more than 1-2 people, you'll need a bigger version of this pot. I rarely do, and even so, I find this pot to be a little bit on the small side.

This All-Clad Gold Standard Pie Plate deserves five shiny gold stars for performance. Due to it's patented reinforced system for nonstick cooking crusts are a beautiful, even golden brown.

The plate's appearance is contemporary and classic so that it can be served from the table if one chooses. And, of course, it is dishwasher safe. I might add that it comes from our dishwasher sparkling and bright, as if it were new.

It's my understanding that All-Clad was designed in the beginning for use by professional chefs. Well, I'm far from a topnotch chef but I certainly use All-Clad and love it!

Wow! This is the ultimate pan for a perfect large omelet! With just a bit of butter in the pan, and a low to medium heat setting, I get perfect results every time. I'm not a big fan of non-stick coatings, and this pan proves that if you have quality cookware and use it properly, there is no need for Teflon or any of the other coatings. Clean-up of this pan is a breeze. If something happens to stick, just soak the pan for a little while and scrub gently with a nylon pad. To sum up: for perfect eggs, use All-Clad and you can't go wrong. Their products are expensive, but you should never have to replace them in your lifetime.

We bought the seven piece set, then got the two quart saucepan on ebay. This cookware performs very well, but two of the three lids don't sit evenly on their pans. I'm not sure if they're slightly warped or what, but they rock slightly and don't make a good seal. This may be a minor flaw, but for what they cost it's unacceptable. We're trying to decide if it's worth the hassle of returning the lids under the warranty. If you're shopping for this cookware in a store, be sure to check the lids for flatness.

This set rocks. I had a thirty-year old set of Farberware (hand-me-downs) with warped bottoms - it used to take nearly half an hour for water to simmer even at my electric range on full-blast. So frustrating that I thought that my range was broken. When the repair guy said that all my pots and pans were warped (duh!), I ditched my old set and got this set. A world of difference! The copper core heats evenly and beautifully, water comes back to a rolling boil seconds after pasta is added, etc., etc. I couldn't be happier. I decided to get the copper-core line instead of the all-stainless because the rolled lip allows for easier pouring but in hindsight, I'm not sure it was worth the few hundred dollars difference. Whatever, I'm a happy cook!

A professional chef who is a neighbor recommended these to me when we had our kitchen remodeled and I wanted to splurge on some new cookware. "Buy these, and you'll never need anything else,' he said. Lord, he was SO right. Lids that fit, handles that magically stay cool, surfaces that are easy to clean, even and quick heating...who could ask for more?
Don't bother with any other brands.

This pan is fantastic, and has served me very well when making small quantities of sauces (1 qt. isn't a very large pan!). My only complaint about it is that the top edge is suceptible to nicks and scratches. The interior and really the pan as a whole seems nearly invincible, standing up to whatever abuse I dish out. The nicked edge obviously has no effect on its cooking ability, but does somewhat impair the aesthetics of the pan. This rating should really be a 4.5.

This pan is handy, heats evenly, and is a good value for the money. However, I have one significant issue with it. It doesn't have a pouring lip. That means if you try to pour a liquid out of it, it will likely dribble down the outside of the pan. Many other sauce pans and even some other All-Clad pans do have a pouring lip. This is a significant and unfortunate omission.

I get a lot of use out of this pan. Specifically, I often use it to melt butter and sometimes to do a quick sauté of a small quanity of ingredients, like chopped onions. I think this is good value for the money.

However, I find a couple of significant flaws. The first is common to all All-Clad pans. The V-shape handle is not as comfortable as it could be. Compare the handle to that on higher-end lines like Demeyere and Bourgeat and you'll see that All-Clad falls behind. Calphalon, ..., did a nice job with the shape of the handles on their Professional series but the handles can get hot. When they designed the Commercial series, they went with a copy of the flawed All-Clad handles which is unfortunate.

More importantly, considering that this is a sauce pan, it should have a proper pouring lip. Without such a lip, pouring liquids is problematic. All too often, liquid will run down the side of this pan requiring more care than should be necessary. Some of the larger All-Clad pieces, such as the 8-Quart Stockpot and the frying pans do have a good pouring lip. Such a lip is probably most important on a sauce pan so I find this quite a shortcoming.

I would definitely recommend the LTD and Master Chef lines over the Stainless unless you absolutely need to be able to use the dishwasher. The Master Chef and LTD lines both have 0.44mm stainless steel on the interior and 3.94mm of aluminum on the exterior while the Stainless series has an interior of 0.44mm, an aluminum core of 2.03mm, and an exterior of 0.46mm. Thicker aluminum will provide more even heating.

I ordered this pan a few months ago, and I would like to say I couldn't be happier with it. This little pan is the perfect size for one or two servings of oatmeal in the morning. It heats like a dream, with no hot spots, and even heating up the sides. To top it all off, cleaning this pan is incredibly easy, with hardly anything sticking to the smooth steel interior. The one downside to this pan is the anodized exterior can scratch, and did on mine, but I don't really care what this pan looks like as long as it cooks well. If you're looking for a small pan, and don't need a lid for it, I strongly recomend this one.