Le Creuset Non-Stick Ceramic Cookware Review Le Creuset Nonstick PanIn recent weeks we have reviewed a range of cookware sets, but so far we haven’t looked at any of the cookware pieces from one of the biggest and most well known cookware manufacturers. That all changes today when we have a look at the Le Creuset 3-Ply Stainless Steel Nonstick Pan. This pan uses a unique combination of stainless steel and nonstick coating to make a interesting pan. How does it perform? Read on to find out more Product Features: Le Creuset is a French manufacturer of cookware, and has been making various cookware sets for almost a hundred years now. They are known worldwide as a quality manufacturer of cookware, and the pan we are going to look at is their 3-ply 11″ pan. This particualr pan is also available in the sizes of 8″, 9.5″ and 12.5″. The also do a hard anodized nonstick pan for slightly cheaper, but we decided to test out this new model instead. The construction of the pan is 3 ply, meaning that the core of the pan is aluminum, which is surrounded by a layer of stainless steel on the exterior and the interior. The aluminum core helps the heat to remain evenly distributed, and the stainless steel helps to ensure the temperature is kept constant. The pan itself looks really good, and the combination of the black coating and the polished stainless steel exterior really helps it to stand out from the crowd. The top of the interior has a lip to make pouring a bit easier without making a mess. The handle is ergonomically designed, and fits very comfortably in your hand. The length of the handle feels just right, so any sort of cooking involving a bit of flipping should be a breeze. The handle is made out of stainless steel, but doesn’t get hot during usage. Aisde from the main handle, there is a smaller one on the other side. Both handles have hooks, so you can hang up your pan without any problems. Like most premium cookware sets, the Le Creuset nonstick pan has both handles riveted onto the pan for maximum stability and safety. The Le Creuset logo is lasered between the rivets on the main handle, and then lasered on to the top of the other handle. The logo itself is a very nice touch, and overall this is a really nice looking pan. It will fit in nicely with a modern kitchen, and the stainless steel helps to lend it a more classic look for an older kitchen. This nonstick pan can be used on all kinds of stoves including electric, ceramic and gas. It will also work on a induction stove, as the base is magnetized. The pan is oven safe to a point, and can be used up to 400F. This pan is dishwasher safe, but we wouldn’t recommend using it everyday in the dishwasher as this will decrease the lifespan of the coating. There isn’t really too much info on the nonstick coating itself, but it does claim to be very durable so we will have to see how it performs to verify that. The coating itself is PFOA free, so there are no safety concerns at all. Reading up on the Le Creuset “ultimate” nonstick coating, it says it is scratch resistant even with metal utensils, but we recommend you stick to plastic or nylon utensils to help the coating last as long as possible. So how did the pan perform? Our standard test when it comes to using a nonstick pan is to fry an egg and, and then try out some scrambled eggs to assess the nonstick ability. As the included booklet suggested, we first “conditioned” the pan by spreading a little bit of oil around the entire interior of the pan. Once that was done we popped in our egg, and waited to see how it turned out. The pan heated up very quickly, and the egg turned out quite well. After we had flipped it over, it slid right out with no problems at all. The scrambled egg turned out more or less the same, and there was no real sign of sticking at all. We decided to test out a few strips of bacon after that, and should mention that we used no additional oil. The bacon came out beautiful and crisp, and the nonstick coating seemed to perform very well. The lack of oil really helped to keep the juicy flavors intact, and the heat distribution was top notch with no signs of hot spots in the pan. For a change we decided to do some fried tomatoes as the last piece of our breakfast, and once again we had great results with those. These first few test were certainly very positive and they have been replicated time and time again over the 20 days we have put the pan to test. Cleaning the pan was very simple, and like most nonstick cookware a wipe with a kitchen towel was the most that was needed to get it nice and clean. We did use some soapy water and a sponge at one point after bit of mushroom was overcooked on one occasion, but the water and sponge managed to remove the burnt bits very easily. We were very impressed with the Le Creuset Nonstick pan. The design looks fabulous, and the pan produces some great results. The heat is very even, and this is likely down to the 3 ply design of the pan. The nonstick coating seems to perform very well, and it is dishwasher friendly too unlike most of the cheaper nonstick pans you can get. It is a premium quality piece of cookware so you will be paying a bit more for it than your average nonstick pan, but the benefits definitely seem to outweigh the little extra cost. There is a 10 year warranty on this pan, so Le Creuset clearly have faith in their nonstick coating. Pros: ◾Looks fantastic ◾Oven friendly ◾Unique 3 ply design ◾Works on all stoves including induction ◾Dishwasher safe ◾Great cooking results ◾10 year warranty Cons: ◾Little more expensive than a average nonstick pan Summary: This is a excellent pan from Le Creuset. It is a beautiful modern design, and the cooking results you get from it are really great. The retail price is around $175, but at the time of writing it was on sale on Amazon, and you can check the latest pricing over here. Our Rating: 4.5-stars
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 23:50:23 +0000
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