Within the past two years, I bought a non-stick T-Fal pan at one of the kitchen stores at the outlets in Kittery Maine. It was a 12 inch pan with a white interior. It did quite well initially. It cooked well, food didn’t stick, and it was easy to clean. But as time went on the interior of the pan discolored. It turned brown and I was unable to get it clean. After it turned brown, the brown areas on the pan were no long non-stick. Fortunately, I only paid about $20 for the pan so it wasn’t a terrible loss.
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It was time to replace that 12 inch non-stick pan, the type of pan that is the workhorse pan in my collection.
I’ve noticed over the past few years that ceramic cookware is the name of the game now. You’ve probably noticed too. Caraway and Greenpan brands got my attention, though there are others as well. Both appear to be excellent brands. A friend of mine who is a fabulous cook bought a set of Caraway cookware to replace her old pots and pans, so I figured that was a good sign. One of the tagline for Caraway Ceramic Cookware is “Cookware without the Chemicals” and Non-Stick and Non-Toxic. The ceramic coating is over aluminum, an excellent conductor of heat. It is free of toxic chemicals, e.g. PTFEs, heavy metals, PFOA, and PFAs that leach during heating the way old school Teflon can (I still have a few Teflon coated pans, I’m afraid).
In early November, I finally decided to buy a Caraway 12 inch ceramic pan in the color Sage that goes so well with my open plan salmon colored kitchen and sage green great room. I am very pleased with my purchase. In fact, I wish I owned the entire set.
What’s amazing to me about my new Caraway pan is that it requires very little butter or oil to cook in. A couple of teaspoons of oil is all it takes.
Also different about Caraway ceramic pots and pans is that it is recommended that you cook on low to medium heat. Tonight, I made a “healthier” side dish that I make when I wish I could eat French Fries. I took a small russet potato, peeled it, and diced it into tiny dice about a 1/4 inch each so there is more surface area to crisp. I heated the Caraway pan to medium, added a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and let it warm up. Next, I added the tiny diced potato to the pan tossed them around a bit in the olive oil and let them sear. After they browned on the first side, I tossed them and turned them over to brown the other sides. It took about 20 minutes to brown the potatoes, but they are so darn crispy and delicious with no grease at all. Yum!
Clean up is a breeze. Actually, that’s an understatement. There is nothing to clean up after browning the diced potato. The photo below shows you exactly what it looked like after I cooked the potatoes. But of course, I did wash it with dish liquid anyway.
Another time I made a steak in the Caraway pan. I cooked it using America’s Test Kitchen’s new method for cooking steak. Instead of searing it on high heat, they cook it on medium for 2 minutes, flip it onto the other side and cook for 2 minutes, and repeat till the steak is cooked the way you like it. It cooked beautifully in the Caraway pan.
Washing out the pan afterwards was still a cinch. The pan is perfect for sautéing chicken breasts or thighs, hamburgers, and fish fillets. Did I mention that it has a wonderful heavy cover?
On occasion there is something that I want to sear on very high heat, and I use my cast iron or other pan for that task. For instance, I decided to make Thai ground chicken in my Caraway pan instead of my wok, and that was a mistake. The recipe for Thai ground chicken is meant to be cooked on screaming high heat very quickly. Though the recipe still came out quite well, it took longer in the Caraway and I missed the quick, super high heat wok method. Caraway does what it is designed for very well, but it doesn’t work for absolutely everything. I love it.
Caraway Cookware comes in 6 beautiful colors: Sage, Cream, Navy, Marigold, Grey, and Perracotta (gorgeous salmon). For the holiday season, they introduced a limited edition Brick Red. Caraway Cookware is sold on the Caraway Home website, at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Crate & Barrel. Right now, the Caraway website, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Target have holiday sales on the Caraway Cookware Set that includes:
- a 10.5″ frying pan
- a 4.5 quart (12″) sauté pan
- a 3 quart sauce pan
- a 6.5 quart Dutch oven
- 3 lids for the sauté pan, sauce pan and Dutch oven
- magnetic pan racks
- a canvas lid holder
The pots and pans have stainless steel handles. They can be used on any cooking surface: gas, induction or electric. They are oven safe up to 550 degrees.
The packaging was incredibly luxe. They included a cork trivet.
Both the pan and its cover came in their own dustbags just like a high end purse!
I bought my 4.5 quart/12″ sauté pan separately as I mentioned because that was the pan I needed most. I paid about $125 for it (there was some kind of discount at the time), so it’s not cheap. You can buy each of the pieces separately, though buying the entire set is more economical. Yet I am tempted by the 10.5″ fry pan especially since there are sales now. But I have a 10″ T-Fal that is made from a different material than the one I got rid of that is still in great shape (but I wish I remembered what it is made out of!).
So if you cook and you’re wondering what to ask for or get yourself for the holidays, take a look at the Caraway Cookware collection. They make bakeware too. 🙂
Thank you for posting this, Allison! I have wanted to get a safe and non-chemical non-stick pan, and I keep seeing this brand pop up again and again. I might have to give this a try!
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I don’t think you’d regret it!
All our non-stick cookware like your TFal has been tossed. It was a novelty at first but then lost it’s coating. The less fat (oil, butter) you use the better. And now I want those potatoes. That might be part of tonight’s dinner.
That was exactly it, Marcia, with that one T-Fal: it lost its coating, boo. Definitely make the potatoes. They take a while to brown, but they are so worth it!
Hi, Allison – This set is beautiful and I love that it’s safe for our health! (That’s so important to me that I wrote about PFAS on my blog.) When I couldn’t find my information booklets on all my cookware, I looked online to be sure I got rid of anything that might have PFAS in it. So I know you can find out about your T-Fal 10″ fry pan. This is perfect timing to share your experience about your new Caraway pan when there’s a sale on an entire set! Thanks for letting us know – Angie, http://www.yourtrueselfblog.com
Angie, thank you for suggesting that I look for the material used on my T-Fal pan. This is what I found: “PTFE (polytetrafluorethylene) is a polymer that we, at T-fal, were the first to use for the coatings of our non-stick pans. We guarantee the safety of all our PTFE based products and coatings”, so I hope it’s OK to use. It also says without PFOAs. phew
I dream of the day I can get rid of our old pans and replace it with this. Ours are vey old. Some are from when I lived on my own, so at least 15-20 years old. good lord. Now that i typed thatout, i really feel it’s overdue. LOL We’ve replaced some with cheapies, but I want something like this!
Thank you for sharing this! This cookware will make a great gift for a friend of mine. I got rid of all my old ‘non-stick’ stuff and replaced it with stainless.
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