Here’s a novel idea:
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/cookware/cookware-all-clad/all-clad-hybrid/
Another solution in search of a problem?
Is this like d5 stainless aluminum cookware, except it has a nonstick teflon surface? If so, this is kind… silly. Not horrible, but really not the best use of resource. For me, the selling point of a triply or multiply stainless steel cookware is the durable stainless steel surface. If you want to put a nonstick surface, then you might as well put it on a straight aluminum for better heat conduction and also much cheaper too.
Oh I read it wrong. The cooking surface is half stainless steel and half nonstick. Wow. That is just weird. I guess the argument is that nonstick is not very good at high heat, so they put it on the side of the cookware (where temperature may be lower), and the bottom cooking surface remains to be stainless steel.
I suppose looking at this angle, it kind of makes sense.
However, in another angle, it makes no sense. Nonstick Telfo best feature is to keep food not sticking to the cooking surface at almost any temperature. Now, the bottom cooking surface is still stainless steel, so the food will still stick, so what is the point? It would be like putting nonstick Telfon on the lids… Sure the nonstick surface on the lid will last a long time, but … what is the point?
Hi Kaleo,
I have two All Clad d5 10" fry pans (one nonstick, one SS), and one domed lid–I use them for frying and saute. I consider my nonstick low-range (<300), and my SS high range (<500) for temperature. That’s so I can use my nonstick pan safely and maintain the nonstick quality.
This would be a step backwards for me. It wouldn’t work very well with low heat range omelets, or scrambled eggs, nor would it be safe for the high heat range chicken shown in the Youtube example. It would be especially inappropriate for d5, which spreads heat evenly up the sidewalls. Since I already have a nice globular lid, I would have no need for a compromised saute pan, either.
Ray
My thoughts exactly…
There’s rarely anything truly new in cookware, so the makers have to resort to these kinds of things. Frankly, I think Frieling’s Black Cube nonstick gimmick makes more sense than this coated-sidewall thing.
Aloha,
Kaleo
Maybe it is like McDonald menu. Once awhile, you just need to roll out something new – even if you know it won’t stay.
This is what All-Clad’s product development people all say–privately.
At least, they haven’t started the “different matching shade of colors” yet.
I agree with this.
My guess is that this was a reach to address a fringe complaint by users that were pressed to identify issues.
I do find that on my older skillets that I can get increased discoloring or baked on grease around the edges. Usually I can get rid of these with a little elbow grease and bar keepers friend. But over the years it builds up.
Maybe this was a reach to address that cleaning issue? I don’t think anyone will buy it for that but maybe someone can spin it for a sale.
Good point.
On one of the ads, it did state: “Nonstick walls ensure easy stirring and cleanup”
I have no intention of buying one, but cleanup was the first thing that I thought of, too. Several years ago I bought a Demeyere casserole, and it soon became my favorite Western-style pot because of the evenness of heating. So last year I sprung for a Demeyere frying pan. True, it did cook a good steak, but cleaning the sides was pure torture. Spatters burn on with a tenacity that is hard to imagine.
Yes, this happens.
Round and round we go. Built-up “legs” in a pan are not necessarily “unclean” or “unsanitary”. If your inner clean freak wants shiny, bare-metal clean, go ahead and scour (or chemically strip). Putting nonstick on the walls is (a) not going to give you that level of clean; (b) not going to last; and © will be scoured and etched by the very stuff you use to clean the SS bottoms. I wonder what cleaner product A-C and W-S recommend for these weird pans.
And how in Heaven this coated sidewall makes stirring easier is beyond me.
These marketeers are getting down to the bottom of the idea box.
I am very happy when my cast iron pans build up a good layer of polymers on the sides. With cast iron we call it “seasoning”. But burnt-on oil stains on stainless steel bother me. Does this mean that I’m nuts? (You may answer!) Should I just wash out the Demeyere frying pan with soap and ignore the besmirched sides?
To each her own, bcc. I’ve always found it amusing that dark seasoning on dark cast iron (or dark enamel–Staub) is not only tolerated but obsessively pursued, whereas dark polymers on shiny SS or light enamel are anathema, like demonic possession and cholera.
Only you can decide what or how much bothers you enough to strip off all buildup. Personally, I don’t bother unless it gets chunky or very sticky. There is also a slight thermal advantage to those dark burnt-oil stains on the pan bottoms on gas, electric and radiant hobs, FWIW.
Finally, SS does “season” to some degree. Scouring clean every time deprives you of that.
Aloha,
Kaleo
So I am nuts! Thanks for the input.
Nah, let’s just say you have a lot of company…
Kaleo, this fills me with immense pride. Now, if I ever have a disagreement with anyone on HO, I will be able to say with authority: Kaleo said I was nuts!
Muchas gracias!
Thanks–I think.
Try this for awhile: find a point of “clean” where the water doesn’t sheet on the SS lining. It just kind of beads in a haphazard way. See if you can tell a cooking difference between that and a full-on House Beautiful scouring or the DW.
I think that instead, I will follow your dictum that stainless steel, too, can develop seasoning. In other words, I will stop obsessing about the staining on the sides of the pan. There was never any problem whatsoever with the base, upon which one cooks.
Kaleo, when will the world be able to see what you’ve been up to with your cookware design?
