Can someone help me love my All Clad?

[Hera]

So I went out and bought an All clad set about six months ago and I rarely use it. The problems I have been having are that it doesn''t seem to heat up that well(I could lose my life waiting for boiling water). They suggest that you not go above medium yet that doesn''t result in any cooking and I believe you void the All Clad warranty if you do. Despite this, I stained the outside of the pan when I went to fry some fritters in it for Christmas (breaking the medium setting rule) and haven''t been able to get the coating off despite Bar Keeper''s friend.

I try to prepare food in it and everything sticks to the bottom of the pan. I haven''t been able to make eggs or anything that could potentially stick (which is almost everything).

Does anyone have some tips on what I can do to love my All Clad?

 

[FrekeChild]

What particular style of All Clad is it?

 

[Mara]

I also bought some All Clad a while ago, the stainless ones...not nonstick. I am not a fan of their fry pans because I was having the same issues, everything stuck to them regardless of how much or spray I put on! But pots...I really like how their stuff heats, it''s pretty consistent. But for fry pans I stick with nonstick (HAHA) now.

 

[Kaleigh]

Love their pots, they are fab... But the handles are not comfy... Why not have them more rounded???

 

[Hera]

I have their stainless collection I believe. I do have better luck with the pots as well as long as I have the time to wait for them to heat up but I have had no luck with the fry pans.

 

[FrekeChild]

Date: 4/22/2010 1:08:07 AM
Author: Mara
I also bought some All Clad a while ago, the stainless ones...not nonstick. I am not a fan of their fry pans because I was having the same issues, everything stuck to them regardless of how much or spray I put on! But pots...I really like how their stuff heats, it''s pretty consistent. But for fry pans I stick with nonstick (HAHA) now.

Lol Mara!

Do they have copper bottoms? Usually that would be why you can''t raise the temperature too high, for the possibility of it melting I believe. I bought some cheap Target wanna bes and decided they were cheap enough that if I ruined them, eh whatever, and I cook on high all of the time with them. They''ve discolored, but I decided it was worth it.

 

[Hera]

Date: 4/22/2010 1:44:34 AM
Author: FrekeChild

Date: 4/22/2010 1:08:07 AM

Author: Mara

I also bought some All Clad a while ago, the stainless ones...not nonstick. I am not a fan of their fry pans because I was having the same issues, everything stuck to them regardless of how much or spray I put on! But pots...I really like how their stuff heats, it''s pretty consistent. But for fry pans I stick with nonstick (HAHA) now.

Lol Mara!


Do they have copper bottoms? Usually that would be why you can''t raise the temperature too high, for the possibility of it melting I believe. I bought some cheap Target wanna bes and decided they were cheap enough that if I ruined them, eh whatever, and I cook on high all of the time with them. They''ve discolored, but I decided it was worth it.

No copper bottoms, just the stainless material.

 

[JulieN]

Just put them on high heat.

You need a nonstick pan for eggs.

Pots and pans aren''t jewelry or paintings..... it''s ok if they look used!

 

[cara]

You need to cook a little differently on the stainless fry pans if you are used to nonstick. Nonstick is hard to brown stuff on, but stainless is wonderful. Once we figured out how to use the stainless (we have one All-Clad and one other brand), and the stainless ones are now our go-to fry pans, we use it probably 80-90% of the time. (Well, back pre-pregnancy when I actually cooked food for dinner on the stove!) We'll do eggs and pancakes on nonstick, and when deep-frying (rarely) use cast iron.

Maybe read up a little bit on how to cook on not-nonstick fry pans? If you are looking for simple recipes, I think we started off with this little cookbook: Flash in the Pan (oh, it must be out of print now, sadly I think the used price is more than we paid for it new!) Anyway there are others out there - you basically want something that utilizes the stickier surface for browning stuff, and then makes a sauce later in the meal. You definitely don't have to use tons of oil or anything.

Um, on the heat thing, I hate to tell you to intentionally void your warranty, but I'd just use whatever heat setting works for you. Especially on something like boiling water! I think the bigger issue is that if you say, put an empty fry pan on high, it will likely overheat once it reaches temperature unless you remember to turn it down then. And a nonstick pan would do the same thing, with the added bonus of leaching teflon into the air which is supposedly no good. Same thing with a saucepan, you would burn your stuff often if you *left* it on high (unless its a pot full of water kind of thing) but putting it on high to *get* to temperature should be okay. Especially if you don't have the most powerful stove.

I have the MCII line, which has stainless interior and brushed aluminum exterior. The exterior gets beat-up looking but I knew that when we bought it and am not interested in all the scrubbing necessary to keep the outside of a pan looking like a show piece. Occasionally when I mess up a little (too high heat baking on oil ala your frying incident) I will have to use some BarKeepers Friend and elbow grease to get the interior smooth again but it mostly cleans right up. Anyway, good luck!! They are great pans but took a little adjusting to at first.

 

[swimmer]

Who knew that pots/pans have warranties? not me! I can only guess how the AC warranty folks feel about my steel wool habit... Mostly, wow, you are right, that would suck to cook on Med all the time. Do you cook with gas? Our AC stuff isn''t really discolored but that could be b/c of the steel wool and with gas it heats up so quickly I find that with enough olive oil

not much sticks. Yikes, good luck falling in love. I''d say I''m ambivalent about our AC stuff, but in love with the lecruset...maybe if AC was cobalt blue I could muster up some more feelings?

 

[appletini]

I have ss all-clad and use high heat on it with no problems. When it comes to boiling water, my gas cooktop takes forever (but I know its not pans fault, but b/c our apt oven boiled water quickly). Anyway to help boil water, use high heat but also put the lid on, this helps it reach boiling a lot faster.

 

[movie zombie]

i have a few smaller pieces and find they are great for making sauces and for carmelizing onions in the oven.

i cannot fry an egg in one and returned to using my old cast iron skillet for that task.

mz

 

[Hera]

Thank you for the suggestions! I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who abuses their All Clad! I do have a gas stove so I guess I thought it would heat up faster but I guess that's not the case.
I'll have to do some more reading up because I really want to use the fry pans! When I was in Williams Sonoma, the sales person who was an avid cook, told me that my food would be flavorless if I couldn't sear it because I was used to non stick pans and I must not use a nonstick bottom in order to sear. Then, when I bought the fry pans (online of course) the sear would detach and I would be left tearing food from the pan.
I just know there must be a solution (I'll try that cookbook suggestion)! Why make fry pans if they can't fry anything?

 

[cara]

OK, I'll try and describe a little how it works (cooking in the stainless fry pan).

Say you heat up the pan with a little oil, then add your raw chicken. Chicken initially sticks and begins cooking. If the heat is too too high (or your chicken inches thick) it will burn the bottom of the chicken before cooking halfway through. But if it is 'right' (somewhere in the medium temp range) it will cook through while *browning* the bottom. If you try to turn it too early it will be a mess. But if you let it cook a little bit before trying to turn it, it will have 'released' from the bottom and be easier to turn, but leave behind little browned bits of meat. Then you can cook the other side of the meat, then take it out, then maybe add a bit of liquid and deglaze the pan (stir up the browned meat bits into a sauce while reducing the liquid.) Thats the theory.

My other stainless fry pan is a Demeyere, which is even beefier than the All-Clad, and you can even cook a number of things entirely without oil in this one. Its amazing. But you do have to get the temp right - too hot will still burn, too low will take too long and not brown if you are trying to brown stuff. And the thing is such a block of metal that I am always tempted to put it on high to get it hot, but once it gets warm it really only needs to be on medium or lower. The All-Clad is a little easier to adjust the temperature of on the fly because it is not *so* thick as the Demeyere.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

I think the water problem maybe your stove as well. We have an electric and waters heats fast in our all clads, but when we had a gas stove it took forever.

As for the frying, you need a lower heat, And to add the butter/oil/etc a little at a time through the process. My DH, mom and I are all good cooks and none of us would ever use non stick, its true you can''t get the perfect crispy brown. The other thing is that you probably don''t use enough oil, for health reasons, people add very little, but that is what makes it brown right. I make an egg based tortilla espanol and it doesn''t stick, but I use low heat and a lot of olive oil and it is fabulous because of the browning it gets.

I LOVE my all clad. I also never found the handles uncomfortable, but my DH mom and I are the only ones. I think it is our really long, thin fingers that don''t get crushed.