And if you wanna buy the winner, it's the Mauviel M'Heritage M200CI round fry pan, 11.9 inch and it retails for $435.
Adam Ried
Equipment expert at America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Country, reviewing kitchen equipment on-camera in the show's Equipment Corner segments.
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Stainless Steel Cookware
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In the end, it was one of these pans from a smaller producer that took the top spot. This is the Smithey Ironware number 12.
$435, not cheap, but very responsive, a joy to cook with. The food turned out beautifully.
Cites heat control
If you wanna go for the bling and you're willing to do the work and spend the money, this is the pan to go for.
Cites appearance, maintenance (against), price (against)
so we recommend steering clear of tin and going for a stainless steel lining, which is also non-reactive. It's gonna be a lot tougher.
Two judgements rest on this sentence:
- supports recommendation about stainless-lined copper skillet Tested it cites acid resistance, durability
- objects recommendation about tin-lined copper skillet Tested it cites durability (against)
You just don't cook with an unlined copper skillet.
Cites acid resistance (against)
Number three, it's super conductive of heat, it responds really quickly to heat changes.
Cites heat conduction, heat control, heating speed
It's second only to silver in terms of heat transfer speeds. It's one and a half times faster than aluminum, which is known to be really fast. It's 25 times faster than stainless steel.
This is the Made In Stainless Clad Saute Pan. It had all the right dimensions, it rocked the cooking test, and it's $149, which was less than half of the most expensive pan in the lineup.
Two judgements rest on this sentence:
- best in class about Made In Stainless Clad Saute Pan Tested it cites even heating, price, shape and form
- value about Made In Stainless Clad Saute Pan Tested it cites price
it was smooth and stick resistant and well seasoned, and it's $43
Cites price
Actually, by the end of the testing, even though it was a little rougher at the beginning, it was smooth and stick resistant and well seasoned, and it's $43.
Cites surface finish, non-stick surface, seasoning durability
If you want to spend a little bit less, we have a best buy, which is old faithful Lodge cast iron. That's the Lodge 12 inch cast iron skillet.
Cites price
It was super stick resistant, easy to season, easy to clean, testers loved this pan.
Cites ease of cleaning, non-stick surface, seasoning durability
But you know, in our test, testers found that actually it didn't sear or brown food quite as evenly. It ran a little bit hot because it was a little bit lighter, and simple formula, less mass, less heat retention, less even browning.
Cites even heating (against), heat retention (against), weight
And our best copper core option is the All-Clad Copper Core Five-Ply Bonded Fry Pan and that one is 12 inches and $265.
It was a terrific performer.
In our testing, we actually found that it wasn't necessarily a drawback. Because copper transfers heat vertically very quickly, and you can get hotspots in copper. The stainless steel sends the heat out horizontally and evened out the heat.
Cites even heating
Copper is legendary for a couple reasons. Number one, it's gorgeous.
Cites appearance
The helper handle really helps stabilize the pan when it's ripping hot and it's coming out of the oven full of food. So you want that.
In terms of the primary handle, they preferred them longer and straighter, like this one or that one.
And testers really preferred the lighter end, the ones closer to 3 pounds.
Testers love these smooth finishes because they were super easy to clean.
Cites ease of cleaning, non-stick surface, seasoning durability
These were easy to clean, easy to season, they had great stick resistance, so that was a real benefit.
It's a little lighter than the super heavy copper pans. It's easier to handle.
Cites ergonomics, maintenance, weight
It's certainly easier to maintain. You don't have to polish copper
Exactly. This will last.
Cites durability
Copper is dense, so these pans tend to be fairly heavy. They were close to twice the weight on average of our favorite All-Clad D3 traditional skillet.
Cites weight (against)
But tin is kind of fragile. This is one that we tested alongside the lineup, and look what happened.
Cites coating durability (against)
Number two, copper is seriously reactive to acids like vinegar or wine, something like that. So it's always lined.
Cites acid resistance (against), even heating (against)
Because copper transfers heat vertically very quickly, and you can get hotspots in copper.
Alongside all of these pans, we also tried all the cooking tests in our favorite traditional skillet, the All-Clad D3, just to see how they compared.
And they're all clad construction, and we know that means that there are different layers of metal bonded together. And the center is gonna be aluminum, which heats up really quickly. It's very responsive.
Cites heat conduction, heat control
And those two characteristics make it great for shallow frying, for braising, and we like to cook down fresh greens in these things also.
Cites shape and form
We like saute pans because they combine a couple of really useful characteristics.
Cites shape and form
It was not, however, inexpensive. It was $200.
Cites price (against)
Look at that surface, it's beautiful.
Cites appearance
The days of cast iron being reliably cheap are gone. The price range was stunning to me, $20 at the low, to $295 for a cast iron pan.
Cites price (against)
It's just not gonna look quite as flashy.
Cites appearance (against)
You don't have to polish copper, but you're gonna lose the bling factor.
Cites appearance (against)
These things can get really expensive.
Cites price (against)
Made it a little less comfortable to get in there with utensils. This one, however, it had 2-inch sidewalls and some of the spinach jumped ship when it was being stirred around in this one. So the sweet spot for the sidewalls was right in between the two, something like this at about 2 1/2 inches.
Cites shape and form (against)
It's sandwiched between stainless steel, which is a little less efficient in the way it heats, but it's more durable. It's easier to maintain.
Two judgements rest on this sentence:
- supports durability about Stainless Steel Cookware Tested it cites durability, maintenance
- objects performance about Stainless Steel Cookware Tested it cites heat conduction (against)
One is it's got a pretty broad cooking surface, like that skillet does. Second, it's got medium, high straight sides.
Cites even heating, shape and form, size and capacity
All of these pins did well in our cooking tests, and those included making Swedish meatballs, baking Mexican rice, and sauteing a pound of fresh spinach.
One of the characteristics that made a difference to testers was the cooking surface.
In terms of dimensions, in every piece of cookware we like as much cooking surface as we can get. It was about 10 inches for these guys.
Cites size and capacity
$435, not cheap, but very responsive, a joy to cook with.
Cites price (against)
Stainless steel slows down the responsiveness of copper that's seen, by some companies, to be sort of a drawback.
Cites heat control (against)
It's heavy.
Cites weight (against)
That was among the heaviest of the pans from smaller manufacturers.
Cites weight (against)
Stainless steel ones took a little longer to heat up, so, you know, that's a slight benefit there.
Cites handle, heat resistance
Testers did not have a huge preference as long as the handle was comfortable and well balanced.
Cites handle