Today we are going to look at a single ceramic frying pan – the Martha Stewart 8″ Frying Pan. This particular frying pan is available as part of a 10 piece cookware set, but we had difficulty getting hold of that so we had to resort to testing out the frying pan alone. Is it worthy of the Martha Stewart brand name? Read on below to find out more.
Product Features:
Everyone knows who Martha Stewart is, so we won’t go into much detail about her. She has decided to put her name on this particular brand of cookware, so there must be something good about it. She has other types of cookware with her name on it such as stainless steel sets and aluminum sets, but this is her first endorsement of a ceramic set.
Looking at the product itself, it is a rather bland design. The color of the pan is a smoky blue, and doesn’t particularly stand out at all. The handle is a standard stainless steel handle, but it is riveted on so that is a good feature. The handle does get hot when the cookware is in use, so the use of a silicone coating would have been appreciated on this set. Having to use a oven glove to remove the set is a poor oversight when it comes to the design of the unit, so this is a bit of a letdown.
Aside from that the pan feels quite solid in your hand. It is quite light, but not light enough to feel very cheap. The pan is made out of heavy gauge aluminum, and is quite solid. The base is quite thick, and forged for extra strength. In terms of safety, this pan is completely PFOA and PFTE free. This pan uses a particular coating called Thermolon, which is a eco friendly ceramic coating. This is a relatively new type of coating, so we don’t know how well it is going to perform in the long term. One of the claims that this cookware set boasts is that it is heat proof up to 850F. We all know that ceramic cookware should not be used on high temperatures as it will damage the nonstick coating, so this is quite a bold claim. It also claims not to blister or peel either, so this all sounds very good.
This pan can be used on all types of stoves including gas, electric, ceramic and induction. This Martha Stewart cookware claims to be oven safe all the way up to 650F which is quite impressive! The nonstick cookware you will find that is oven safe is generally only safe up until temperatures of 500F, so this cookware seems to offer an advantage in this department.
Like most cookware infomercials you see on tv, they seem to imply that you don’t need to use oil when cooking, but you should never use your pan without seasoning it with a bit of oil first. In fact the manual recommends this, so we don’t know why they promote it otherwise on tv. Getting back to the pan, we have tried it with a variety of dishes over the 4 weeks we have had it. So far it has performed very nicely, and has cooked everything we have thrown at it without too much fuss. Scrambled eggs were quick and easy to do, and slid out with no problems. Chicken breasts were cooked evenly and didn’t take long to cook at all. The heat seems to be distributed very evenly which makes for a good cooking experience. Pancakes came out perfectly, and could be blown out which is always a impressive sign. It definitely cooks food very well, so we can’t fault it on that. Cleaning the pan was also rather quick and painless. We used a kitchen towel after most meals to wipe it clean which removed most of the residue the first time. If some was leftover then a gentle brush with a sponge and some cold water would normally dislodge the remainder. We even ended up burning some cheese at one point, but this peeled right out so this new type of coating seems to handle this task quite nicely.
With a retail price of under $100, this isn’t a bad investment at all. It may look a little bland, but it performs quite well so we can perhaps overlook the boring design. We’re not sure how well this new type of coating will perform in the long term, but in our 4 weeks of testing it still looks and functions like new. You should adhere to all the normal rules of using nonstick cookware to keep it in good shape, such as avoiding using metal utensils, and keeping it out of the dishwasher.
It comes with a limited lifetime warranty.
Pros:
- Decent price
- Performs very well
- Handle is riveted on
- Oven safe up to 650F
- Limited lifetime warranty
Cons:
- Design is a bit bland
- Handle gets hot when in use
Summary:
To sum things up, this is a nice little nonstick pan. It is reasonably priced, and seems to handle anything you need to cook. A word of warning – there are some unhappy user reviews on Amazon, so it might be worth reading those before you make a purchase. We never ran into any of the issues of the pan losing its nonstick ability, but we only used it for a few weeks in total which isn’t that long. If you are looking for some cookware that has a better reputation, you can can take a look at our reviews section for more ceramic cookware reviews.
| Our Rating: |
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| 3 |