No, I'm no caveman, but I sure like to eat well with less cleanup after cooking and eating and I want to continue my good health while doing so. After looking at the hard anodized, StoneDine, and Swiss Diamond offerings, I decided to give the KW Marble Ware a try.
The StoneDine just appears overpriced, and the Swiss Diamond appeared more reasonable in the same size, but multiple reviews of each continued turning my head toward the KW Marble Ware pan. The hard anodized aluminum pans also had my interest until I also saw remarks of a DuPont coating, but I also don't like the idea of cooking on bare aluminum due to Alzhiemer links to aluminum cookware as far back as the 1960's. Anodized aluminum also isn't impervious to a number of things in kitchen use. But, I really just have never liked the idea of using Teflon or any polymeric membrane coating in direct contact with my food that can't survive higher than normal food cooking temperatures or even the normal high cooking temperatures used for searing meats to seal in juices.
That said, I have reluctantly used Teflon pans through the years and have disposed of many as their interior surface began looking bad to me. Currently, I have an old T-fal Professional Total Non-Stick 10-1/4-Inch Sauté, Black that has been in use some years. It's a good size and has Teflon inside and outside for easy cleanup, but the inner surface is looking worn although the non-stick still seems to be performing fairly well. I also have a 12-inch Wearever in my kitchen that still looks almost brand new, but both of them have Teflon which is still something I've never liked the idea of, and something you can't turn the heat up on to sear anything with.
Ceramic marble? Well, it sounds cleaner and stronger and more slick, and way easier to clean. I also wanted the glass lid to help keep other people from putting smaller pans inside it while put away in a cabinet the sure cause of most scratches inside any good pan at my home. I don't use metal spoons, turners, etc. in my pots and pans most of which are cast iron, and copper and stainless Revere Ware. When food sticks to them, I just wipe out the grease and boil some water in them. Then I use a nylon brush with soap to finish, sometimes with a Brillo pad if needed. I then lightly re-oil them before storing them. It's easier to keep those looking good this way, but any pan you can just wipe out is always faster to clean and you sure can't use anything abrasive in the majority of non-stick pans if you want them to last a while. Somehow, the water-based ceramic nano particle coating on the Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminium Fry Pan with Lid, 28 cm (11 inches) seems a lot safer to my thinking. Once the water based coating cures during manufacture of the pan, it is also capable of surviving a temperature of 800 degrees which is about 400 degrees higher than most other coatings, and far above any normal food cooking temperatures.
The Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminium Fry Pan with Lid, 28 cm (11 inches) also has the latest tech 4-layer coating on the pan for better bonding to the aluminum and improved abrasion and chip resistance. The marble coats the entire pan, so it's easier to clean inside and out. The lid is of course tempered glass with a decent handle on both the lid and the pan.
Time will tell how good this "marble" surface is, and just how good the pan is in comparison to the two other non-stick frying pans and cast iron pans I use. The verdict will also influence how quickly the older style non-stick pans make it outside my door. Update coming after some good use for better or worse. What I really want to see is how well my expensive steaks cook in this new KW Marble Ware pan and how easy it is to clean up the mess after. Durability will also be important to me before purchasing another. Hopefully, I'll be able to say it is 10X better than the others.
Standard delivery from the Amazon merchant SmartDeals411 was 3-5 day USPS. From California to Alabama, mine arrived in perfect condition in only three days. Out of the box, I simply screwed the handle on and washed the pan for a first use.
Update 1/19/12:
I warmed the pan on low heat and tossed in some burgers. With the food in, I increased the heat to medium high. Now, if you normally cook your burgers in an iron skillet at higher heat to seal in the juices you know how messy that is when you're done cooking. Using an iron skillet, I always have to grease the pan with oil and there is also plenty of grease splatter to the stove and me during cooking. When done using the cast iron skillet, I always have to remove the grease and boil water in the pan to loosen the crud left behind. The whole cleaning process time varies depending on how fast the burgers were cooked and it's never very quick. However...
Using zero added grease with this "marble" pan, my 91% lean burgers cooked without sticking and there was never anything that wouldn't wipe off the pan using my nylon turner as I cooked. Wow! There wasn't even the usual grease splatter on the stove top for me to clean off and I didn't use the glass pan lid! After eating the burgers, the pan had cooled, and I realized I could have never sealed in the juices with a Teflon pan without burning the Teflon coating. Since I used no grease, there was also very little cooking residue in the KW "Marble" pan and it wiped out easily with a paper kitchen towel. I could see the pan looked perfectly clean, but I washed it with dish detergent anyway. I still couldn't see any residue in the soapy water, so I rinsed and dried the pan and set it aside for it's next use. I'm very satisfied with my purchase, and looking forward to cooking some nice thick rib eye steaks in this new pan without grease and the usual mess with my cast iron pans.
Instructions supplied by the seller say the handle is made of CPET plastic resin and good for heat up to 338 degrees Fahrenheit. So, this pan isn't good for oven use to my opinion. The instructions also say to wipe the pan surfaces with a few drops of cooking oil and to heat it on medium heat for two minutes to season it, and that the pan is good for heat up to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. (chuckle) I read my instructions after using the pan for my burgers, and "seasoned" it all over with cooking oil after cooking my burgers the pan still looked just like it did before I cooked my burgers. Oh, and the burgers tasted great without using any oil just a few drops of wine vinegar, a little garlic powder, pepper, and a light dash of salt for seasoning. I washed the cooking oil residue back off with dish soap after the "seasoning" no sense in leaving the oil residue to eventually tarnish the pan finish.
The light weight cast aluminum "marble" pan gave even heat and its bottom is also thick and flat inside and out just the way I like a fry pan. It also sat well on my electric eye stove burners. I also like that the 2 1/16-inch inside depth of this pan is over a quarter inch deeper than my Teflon pans with its depth more like my cast iron pans.
*Note* This pan contains no iron or magnetic material. So, like copper and stainless steel, and other plain aluminum pans, it won't work with induction type stoves. Also, if you want long use from the pan, don't use this pan with abrasives, metal utensils, or place in a dishwasher. A soft nylon brush and dish soap will quickly and easily clean it spotless with very light action. This removes any remaining grease that could harden and stain it over time.
Update 2/21/2012:
By the first week of February, I was sold on the Ceramic Marble pan and purchased the smaller Ceramic Marble Coated Cast Aluminium Non Stick Fry Pan 26cm(10 inches).
My high heat nylon turners could not take the searing heat I use with these pans, and were melting in the "marble" pans. So, I started using some hard high-heat plastic ones they too were unsatisfactory as I saw faint scratching in one pan on close inspection. Everything also stuck to the hard plastic utensils. So, I have now purchased the full line of iSi Basic silicone utensils after using the iSi Basics Silicone 13 Inch Turner, White for only one week. I could not be more pleased with the new pans and the iSi Basics silicone kitchen utensils. Nothing melts and nothing sticks to anything now and nothing scratches. Just imagine cooking and browning French Fries in less than half a teaspoon of oil. I did that tonight in less than fifteen minutes. The fries cooked fast and perfect, and were great and nothing attempted to stick to anything. There was also NO grease splatter. I'm also sure I could have fried them with NO oil, but I wanted the bacon oil's flavor.
Steaks! They don't stick using the marble pans, and sear perfectly for two minutes per side on medium high. I finish them in another few minutes and turning each minute in nothing but their own juices on medium. The time only varies according to thickness, and the desired level of doneness. Using the new pans, they always turn out perfect and juicy.
Skinned fried chicken! It cooks perfectly and tastes better just cooking in it's own grease just as if it were food cooked by the best gourmet chef!
You just won't believe the level of improvement in your cooked foods, using one of these pans, until you've actually used one or seen one in action. Cooking just got a lot easier and faster, and more enjoyable using my new Ceramic Marble pans so did clean-up afterwards!
Update 9/17/2012:
I've now used this pan for 9 months two to three times per day and almost every day. Except for some wear of the marble coating on the bottom of the pan, where the pan meets the metal burner eyes of my stove, it still looks brand new. The inside of the pan is still perfect, there is no staining or discoloration anywhere on the pan or lid after hundreds of uses, and the non-stick works just as perfect as it did the first time the pan was used. My other ceramic marble pans also look and perform just as well. I also had one sent to my sister with some silicone utensils some 8 months back, and she still thanks me for it. Once you've used these pans, you'll never want to go back to using others.
Side note By using my KW marble pans, needing less cooking grease, I dropped my weight from 215 to 195. I had tried numerous times for a number of years to lose some weight but nothing ever worked I stayed right at 215. Using nothing more than the KW pans requiring less cooking oil, my weight is now staying steady at 195, my cholesterol is down, and I feel and look better. My doctors couldn't get over how I lost weight and lowered my cholesterol with something so simple. This weight loss was a great side benefit I wasn't expecting when I purchased the pans.
Update 10/01/2012:
See my above pictures and their notes. ACE Cook and KW are the same company and all the glass lids have the ACE Cook logo, where some of the pans carry the KW logo on their bottom. There are minor cosmetic changes to some, but all use the identical materials and processes in their manufacture. Look at my pictures in the product gallery and see for yourself there is no interior surface wear. Both of my pictures are of the same pan a Marble Ware pan that has seen heavy use over the last nine months. The larger 11-inch pan has been used a lot also, but mostly for cooking vegetables where the smaller one is used more for frying foods. The bottoms in these pans have also remained flat despite I use medium high cooking heats often. There is nothing poor about the finish of these pans, and there is nothing to the false claims of "harmful" chemicals concerning Ceramic Marble Ware products. Dupont's Teflon on the the other hand ....
Product of South Korea
I love this pan so much I bought one for my boyfriends mom for mother's day.It is truly non-stick.There is literally no need for any oil or butter except to taste.The pan cleans with some warm water, soap and a spong.You will NEVER have to scrub it.I put a piece of cheese in the pan just to test it and it peeled right up.I would love to see pots and pans with this material!
Buy Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminium Fry Pan with Lid, 28 cm (11 inches) Now
When I first got this pan I absolutely loved it. It performed absolutely amazingly, eggs slid, nothing stuck, just as advertised. Sadly that did not last after a couple of months of use the surface deteriorated and now everything sticks. This in spite off the fact that metal had never touched the pan, always hand washed with soft sponge or paper towel, re-seasoned etc. This is a wonderfully promising technology that just isn't quite ready yet. You see many wonderful reviews of this technology by all manufactures but I suspect all were written during the first uses honeymoon period. If you read the lower rated reviews you find a common theme that the coating breaks down after 60 to 100 uses and the pans become a sticking nightmare. A black sheen develops and starts spreading over the surface that appears chemically bonded and impossible to remove and the pan becomes unserviceable. Again this is constant with all manufactures. The process presently is inherently flawed and a breakthrough is needed to correct it.
Read Best Reviews of Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminium Fry Pan with Lid, 28 cm (11 inches) Here
The Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminum Fry Pan is the greatest fry pan on the market.This is the second one I have got in past 2 months.The first one was a larger pan.They perform just as advertised.Was received on time.Only complaint I have is it did not come with the lid as stated.This is not a big problem as I have lids from other cook ware that fits.This is the only reason it did not receive 5 star rating.
Want Ceramic Marble Coated Non Stick Cast Aluminium Fry Pan with Lid, 28 cm (11 inches) Discount?
I use this pan primarily to sear steaks on the stove top, then finish them in the oven or the broiler. Unlike cast iron, it can handle acidic ingredients without affecting the flavor, and it can go in the dishwasher when you don't feel like hand washing your dirty pans. The D5 version seems to have better heat retention than the standard All Clad stainless, this makes it great for browning and putting a nice "crisp" golden brown crust on food.
