Cuisinart GreenGourmet Hard-Anodized Nonstick Skillets

I am an avid home chef and a fervent hater of nonstick cookware. I went through so many sets of nonstick in my early married years, everything from the $30 "whole kitchen in a box" set I got as wedding gift to a "top of the line" set that my mother-in-law gave me years later. I babied the stuff, but it still wound up scratched and peeling and in the trash. And, I never liked the cooking performance of any of it. So, many years ago I threw it all out and bought an 18/10 stainless setwhich I love and praise to anyone who will listen, and have never had to replace a single piece of. BUT, even I will admit that it's tough to get a decent fried egg from a stainless pan, so I kept an 8" nonstick skillet around just for that purpose. It was needing to be replaced so I decided to go with hard anodized. Hesitantly, I was going to get another brand with the teflon type finish. Then I saw this, and liked the idea of the the ceramic type finish. I can't tell you how much I love this pan. It fries beautifully. Sears salmon and steaks. Cleans with a wipe and a rinse. I have had this for a couple of months, used it MANY times, and am getting ready to buy the 12" for bigger jobs. Even my 8 year old can make beautiful(no tears)fried eggs with it. Oh, and did you know that you can thaw meats faster in it. Hard anodized is an amazing conducter of heat, so it pulls the cold out of the food. Just set it on the counter (covered) and wait about 20 minute (depends on thickness of the meat) turn it over once and voila you have thawed meat.

Please note that when you read all the positive reviews that they are from brand new pans. This review is after using the pan for just less than 2 months. I was so excited to buy this pan! After reading so much about non stick pans and how unhealthful they are I was really psyched to come across this one and purchased the 12" after frustrating results with the upkeep and care necessary to keep an iron skillet relatively stick free. This pan was great and I almost bought a whole bunch of them after about a week. Eggs, pancakes, sandwiches, sauces, etc. Nothing stuck. Then it slowly started to stick. I was careful with the cleaning, we use olive oil and butter to fry, but now, merely two months after purchasing it, it sticks like crazy. NOTHING doesn't stick to this pan. It's even hard to clean. I am sure that technology will come up with a 'new improved' non toxic non stick surface, but this, sadly isn't it. It's like buying a brand new model car when you should have waited for them to get the kinks out. They have to be getting mail from people like me all the time. This pan stinks.

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The Good...

It's a solidly built, eco-friendly cooking pan made by a reliable company.

The Bad...

I typically use it to make pancakes or fry veggies and beans in oil. Within my first couple uses and cleanings, I noticed that the sides weren't smooth like the base. At that time I thought that maybe the pan was manufactured that way, or that it might be a defect in the surface. I did my best to clean it with a sponge and soap, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I continued to use it occasionally. It really bothered me though, since it wasn't like any other non-stick pan I've used. Inspecting it closely, I noticed what appeared to be a residue of oil. It wasn't greasy but very viscous and hardened on. I'd never burned anything onto the pan, and it had performed pretty well. I guess I'd give it a B for it's non-stick surface.

The Other Good...

Anyway today, I finally went against tradition and used a scouring pad on the surface. It took me over an hour of sanding off the residue with the dry scour pad, and blotting off the dust with a moist paper towel. It was a mild acrylic pad, but had enough scratchiness to take off the residue, which came off as an orangy powder. It resembled dried oil, and for the life of me, that's all I can determine that it was. However, I finally returned it to a virtually untouched state.

I was nervous about scraping into the pan as I did with the scouring pad, having been careful to only use wooden utensils in the past. However, even after putting some serious elbow grease into it, the scouring didn't seem to scratch the non-stick surface. I probably won't try it, but it does seem that it would be resistant to scratching from metal utensils. It at least takes a good scouring and comes out looking fresh and clean.

Summary:

Overall, I think it didn't perform quite as well as low-end T-Fal pans that I used 15 years ago, but food didn't stick to the pan too terribly either. The oil apparently stuck to the sides of the cooking surface in a bad way, however. I cleaned my pan promptly and never burned anything on it, a residue of dry hardened oil built up in just a few uses. On the other hand, I was able to scrape it off with a mild scouring pad. It was much like taking rust off a surface with a fine grit sandpaper. Trust me, you don't want to expend the time and elbow grease to do this though. Since it's a more eco-friendly, safer non-stick pan, I'm willing to deal with it. I'm going to be more aware of how hot I heat the pan, as I suspect that high temperatures and oil quickly caused the build-up of oil residue.

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At first glance, these appear to be fantastic products. The angle of the sides is great to keep things contained, the handle is comfortable and always stays cool to the touch, and they look really great. We bought silicon tools to use with these skillets and made sure to never use them above MED on the stovetop. They were always left to cool before wiping down with soap, and stored safely where they wouldn't get scratched. Basically, these were supposed to be our first grown-up cooking utensils.

Unfortunately, in the two weeks that we had our 10" skillet, it developed patches of bare surface, which grew with every use. I called up Cuisinart and asked if there was anything I could do to refinish the surface or help keep it from spreading, and was told to just mail it in for a repair. I mailed it in, at my own expense, and got a letter a week later stating that it was "not a manufactured defect", and that I could buy a new one from them for more than it cost new from here. Of course I have no recourse but to let people know that these are apparently very sensitive skillets, so take that into consideration when buying.

We have an 8" and a square pan model bought at the same time which do not have this problem, so we do not believe it to be our fault. It's just disheartening to be so careful with a piece of cookware, only to have it fail on you, and then spend ten bucks shipping to basically throw it out.

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4 months ago I bought the 12 inch skillet for $70 and followed all the manufacturer's instructions such as hand washing etc. It worked very well initially and I was thrilled but now it has begun to stick very badly after only 4 months of use. I have not tried calling Cuisinart yet but I certainly did not expect problems so early. Hopefully Cuisinart will make the next gen better and longer lasting. Will update this review after talking to Cuisinart.

Oct 2009 update: I did return my old skillet to Cuisinart (spent an additional $18) and got a new replacement skillet a few months ago and was pleasantly surprised at that. The coating on the new one seems much thicker/better than the previous one I had. I wont say it is perfect, it sticks sometimes but I have peace of mind when I cook in it. In a few months, I'm sure it will lose its non-stick characteristic. In the meanwhile, I also tried the Green Pan (from Target for $30) and Cuisinart's non stick seems much better. After this experience, I feel this is new technology that needs to mature some more and we need to give it the chance to survive. But I will never go back to the traditional PTFE based non-stick skillets. I would like to revise my rating to 3 stars since my Jan 2009 review.

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