What is the general concensus of opinion on the relatively new cookpot and frypan offerings having "ceramic" coatings, in place of the previously very successful (and controversial) Teflon based coatings? Have you tried them? Results? Good, or bad? We bought a frypan a week ago while walking the mall, too windy for the Riverwalk, which has the vertical sides and sharp curvature to the bottom which I sought, our old one very sloped, allowing my stir-frying veggies to often slide up and over. To boot, it's maroon in color, matching our SUV! Never one to be color-coordinating oriented, I like it anyway. Have prepared 4 or 5 meals in it now, the ceramic surface looks just as bright and shiny as new. IMO, it could easily pass for new. But, I won't sell it! My old aluminum cookpot allows food to stick and burn onto it's bottom. But, it's my "pasta pot", so I coat it with oil initially which helps prevent sticking, but does not eliminate it. The new ceramic will brown veggies with absolutely no burning or sticking, a process I cannot explain. Thoroughly happy with it. Pan cost $15.00. I have not made pasta in it yet. Attempting to curtail my "pasta craze". Have eaten pasta for evening dinner almost daily for a couple of years. Wife fears for my pancreas overwork. The tastiness and "mouth-feel" (hate this P.C. crap!) of the fried-up veggies and chicken, fish, turkey meat, suits me well enough to leave the pasta out! Ahh, but those pasta based sour cream Stroganoff dishes.......Oh my, how I love THAT taste! My Mother made a Tuna Stroganoff that excelled over any I ever had other than hers. I've tried in vain to duplicate it. Wonderful, it was. Back to OP: what about the ceramic pots? Engineering-wise, I doubted the early claims. Metal pots coated with non-metal materials pose unequal heat expansion problems, which separate the two, making the product useless. How they are doing it, I dunno. Yesterday evening, I browned-up a batch of onion, cauliflower, and Zucchini and dumped in a bit of chicken broth from my wife's chicken preparation. Huge sizzle and noise; I feared the worst. The pan looks brand-new. Can it really be ceramic? Frank
I went for ceramic pans a couple of years back, never liked the Teflon ones The first ceramic I got was not good so I paid more for the 2nd, which sounded better anyway This has lasted very well. Its a roasting dish, large. Cooks the roasts very well and still looks as good as the day I bought it I now have a couple of fry pans too
You cook your veggies in the Riverwalk? Don't they get grits in them? I bought a ceramic knife recently. It's a good knife.
I'm trying to remember if I have cut any cheese with it. Hmmmm? Don't think so. But it cuts everything else I have tried it on.
Yes cheese can be tricky to cut, tried several knives, don't work so I use me old knife that works a treat, just would have liked a spare
@Frank: It's probably another example of regional terminology, but I'm not sure what you mean by cookpot. As for frying pans, though, every coating somebody came up with was later shown to be dangerous- Teflon, Silverstone, etc.- so I wouldn't put any stock in the safety of this newer approach. In addition, though, when I hear the word 'ceramic,' what immediately comes to mind is lead and lead glaze, which I'd definitely not want to use. While it's unhealthy enough in general, it's more so when it's hot. I don't even use ceramic coffee mugs. Not sure if this is the same product you're referring to, though.
Janice - doesn't it depend on the amount of heat (high temperatures) I don't cook in that way, I'm in no rush But I find the ceramic more durable than Teflon @Janice Martin
@Janice Martin I have always regarded "ceramic" as being mostly Aluminum Oxide, the very hard material of which Ruby consists. OTOH, Corning's Pyroceram, which came on the market in 1959, could I suppose be called a ceramic. I don't think back then my Mother accepted such new stuff, but when I married some years later, our kitchen wound up filled with it. Corning Ware casserole dish and other cookware pieces, with the 'Cornflower' pattern decoration. I would imagine nearly everyone has seen this stuff. Some of the rarer varieties are today much sought-after by collectors. The Wiki article says the cookware can be taken from refrigerator and immediately placed upon stovetop or in oven or microwave. I always heard no stovetop use; some items state that on their bottom side. The "Corelle" dinnerware my wife has state "no stovetop or broiler". The original name for the good ones, Pyroceram material, was "Fire King", I think. I could be wrong. It seemed as though the truly remarkable qualities of Pyroceram were exploited by a numbver of companies which insinuated their glassware was Pyroceram, when in reality it was not, and could not withstand sudden temperature change. After just asking my wife, she related an incident I had forgotten where she had placed a large 18-inch bake pan of clear glass on the stovetop to finish the drippin's into gravy. It cracked in two, spilling the grease onto, and into, the stovetop! Frank
I have done similar, @Frank Sanoica. What a mess! The worst thing I ever did was I was frying something in lots of oil as a young wife and there was a huge plastic bowl near the stove...I forgot it was plastic and started to pour the hot oil into it...hot oil went everywhere as the plastic melted. I got better as time went on, lol I have a medium size piece of Corning ware like you have in your picture, mine also has a glass lid. My grandmother in Chicago gave me some leftovers in it when we lived in Merrillville Indiana and were visiting her. She died not much later and I never returned it. Took it to Hungary with me and back here to Fresno. It's just in my kitchen cabinet and I seldom use it because I don't cook....maybe I should tell my kids that it was their great grandmothers.
@Chrissy Cross I drove through Merrillville, IN many times, twice weekly for two years commuting from Chicago area to Churubusco, IN, where the Victor Dana plant was located. I came down to US 30 from up off the Tollroad, or I-80 or 94, can't remember which. It sometimes really IS a small world! Frank
We lived there in the 90's @Frank Sanoica. It was there that my daughter got married and it was after that in 1997 that we sold out house and moved to Hungary for 6 years. It was a business venture. As I recall it was about a 1.5 hr drive from there to the far north side of Chicago where my grandma lived.
By ceramic, I'm referring to the material that's popular for items like heavyweight coffee mugs. Sure, I'm familiar with Corning Ware- my mother had a few of those, the same pattern that's in your photo.
Beware of dropping a Corning Ware plate or other piece to a very hard, unyielding floor, such as ours were in the Phoenix home, ceramic tiled throughout, they shatter into rather long shards of extrememely pointed and sharp bits. Unlike dropping a glass tumbler to it's destruction. The Corning stuff takes a good deal harsher blow to break than glass, or Pyrex, though. I've accidentally dropped a few which simply bounced on the floor! Frank