Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 8-1/2-Quart Saucier with Lid
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 8-1/2-Quart Saucier with Lid
Customer Review: I like this pot so much that I have two of them !!!
Summary: 5 Stars
A passionate home cook that has been honing her cooking skills for the last 25 years, concentrating on Italian cooking for the last 10 years, writes this review. My favorite cookbooks are "The Professional Chef" by the Culinary Institute and "Culinary Artistry". I cook to relax, I find cooking to be therapeutic. If you like to braise, or if you make a lot of soups or large batches of pasta this is a great pot to own.
Pros:
1. This pot is large enough to hold enough food for a crowd.
2. The anodized aluminum is easy to clean with a little baking soda and the "scruffy" sponge
3. The pan heats evenly
4. This pot works well in the oven for braising large tough cuts of meat like brisket or pot roast
5. The lid fits well and cuts down on moisture lose in long slow cooking situations
6. Great pot for making a large batch of popcorn for an evening of movies at home
7. Excellent pot for making an entire pound of pasta at one time with room left over to stir the pasta so that it doesn't stick
Cons:
1. This pan is huge! Do not expect to be able to fit a pan on the burner in front of, or behind this pan. It won't fit unless it is a very tiny pan.
2. The handles get hot; they are not the cool touch handles expect to need to use potholders.
3. Some doctors of environmental medicine have expressed concerns when using aluminum with acidic foods like marinara sauce, just something to be aware of
4. Make sure you have the storage room for this pot, it take up a lot of space in the cupboard as well as on the stove
Overall, this is a very useful pot that gets a workout in my home. I use it when I am going to fry a big batch of chicken for my elderly parents. I also use it when I am making large pots of bean, vegetable or onion soups. I would recommend this pot to anyone that cooks food in quantity. I have been happy with my purchase. I purchased two of these pots on an Amazon Friday Sale and got them at a fantastic price. I have seen them turn up on the Friday Sale a few more times since I got mine a year and half ago. Keep you eyes on the Friday Sale if you are thinking of this pot, and like a bargain.
Customer Review: Great for pasta, pizza sauce or sauce reductions
Summary: 5 Stars
WHOA update.
Please note my star rating was for a $20 buy. At the current price of $89, I would have second thoughts about even buying it in the first place. Hopefully Amazon can bring back the good price.
Update: I've found an additional use for it: This comfortably accepts up to two pounds of spaghetti, linguine or other pasta, and I've all but retired my spaghetti cooker. Reason: Since this is so wide, the sticks of pasta fit within its diameter and can be placed radially (think spokes of a wheel) - this keeps the pasta from sticking, especially fettucine, without the need to add oil (which coats the pasta and shields it from your sauce). You should make sure the stuff right at the bottom isn't sticking, but that effort - scraping the bottom with some nylon utensil is a lot less than washing a spaghetti cooker. Great for lots of guests. WIth the pasta spread out, it doesn't weigh down on itself, has a lot of room too. And, you can re-use the saucier after a quick rinse to hold the finished product (if you like to let the pasta sit in its sauce). Cook on!
When you have a smaller pot for reductions, especially pizza sauce, you may notice that you either have to keep the quantity low (resulting in very little sauce after the reduction happens) or keep stirring to prevent volcanic eruptions and the subsequent stains all over yourself and the kitchen. The sheer size of this pot takes care of that. I like a lot of thick sauce on my pizzas, and it has to be thick to not soggy the pizza. With this I can put out enough sauce for ten or so 12-14" pizzas and still have some left over. Even with radiant electric burners, the pot conducts heat well enough to not burn the sauce at the bottom.
My first piece arrived with a warped lid but I was amazed how quickly Amazon fixed the problem, sending me the replacement first and then letting me postage-paid-ship the defective item back at my leisure. Honestly, it would have taken me longer to go back to the store since I hate the lines for returns.
Customer Review: From an old Country Cook
Summary: 5 Stars
The rating is for one of the best pot/pans I've owned. Read a lot of the reviews and thought I would add a few Ideas. Ever thought of deep fat frying in this pan. I do and my wife loves it. You see, I do the cooking and she cleans up the mess. The sides on this pan stop at least half of the splatter on the stove! They are just high enough to cut the clean up but not high enough to keep me from frying BACON in the morning. I throw in a piece or two of link sausage for that finiky eater in my family.
Again to make my wife happy, I line it with heavy duty aluminum foil, add 3 or 4 cornish game hens, season to taste, in the oven for 30 minutes at 325 lid on and 15 more lid off to brown and what a main dish. I also use this method to cook meatloaf. I've never had a complaint.
To big for my burner? I've used both electric and gas cook tops. Never had a problem yet. Yes it has enough over hang to keep the rain off but mine always heats fairly evenly.
Messy clean up and sticking. Don't blame the pan. Follow Calphalon's recomendations, bring food to room temp for 10 minutes and don't over heat the pan! If something really burns onto the pan, remove the grease and add water. Bring the water to a boil, remove from the burner and let it stand till cool. Then wash it. Occasionally I have to cook frozen sea food. That is why I also have this pan in non stick as well as hard anodized. I have the true dutch oven version with the high domed lid/pan as well. Yes I own three different versions of this Saucier. Thanks Amazon.com.
When Amazon.com went wild last July and had this saucier for $19.95 I bought 5 of them. Hope my family and friends have a cooking imagination. They got them for Christmas.
I haven't baked a cake in this pan, yet. That is something to think about. I feel sorry for the folks that do not enjoy the use of this pan. It is a very versitle pan.
Customer Review: Almost good stock pot...really good roaster!!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great deal for 40 bucks. The Calphalon Commercial Hard Anodized line was rumored to die out in favor of the new Calphalon One (which I'm not a big fan of), but i'm happy to see that it lives on.
To start with, this is a WIDE stock pot. Actually this isn't even a stock pot but a saucier, which are shallow versions of the all purpose stock pot. So i wouldn't recommend using this bad boy for stocks, pasta sauces, or anything else that requires slow simmering (reductions occur much too quickly). And it weighs a ton...it is very heavy and almost ackward to handle at times.
Through trial and error, i've learned that the best application is in browning and braising meats and stews. I've tested it's non-reactive surface by soaking beef chuck in wine (for a provence style stew) overnight with fabulous results. Browning a roast is also very easy since it holds heat very well and the anodized cooking surface allows for even caramalization. Non-stick surfaces with NOT give you even browning.
Browning is as easy as 1-2-3. Heat up the pot, throw in some olive oil, season the meat, and throw it in. The best feature of this pot is that after browning, the whole thing (lid included) can be thrown into the oven to finish cooking.
I've roasted chicken, whole duck, beef, and a most delicious slow roasted pork shoulder with unbelievable results. If you need a roaster and don't want to shell out $200 for an all-clad roaster, take this one for a spin. Some may write that this item wasn't designed to be a roaster, but it's too big to be used as a saucier/stock pot unless you're cooking for a football team...So i must deduct 1 star.
Customer Review: Great Pot/Pan
Summary: 4 Stars
I have used this pan a few times since buying it before Christmas for $19.99!!! I "baked" my Christmas stew in it this year instead of my La Creuset dutch oven, because after having bought the La Creuset in a yard sale for 3 bucks (!!) about 15 years ago, I'd finally overheated it so many times that I was not comfortable cooking with the damaged bottom any longer. The stew cooked up fabulously in the new pot. I put it in the oven the night before just like with the cast iron pot and it cooked over night without getting everything mushy and made enough to feed an army! BUT...here's why this gets a 4 star rating. After my first use with it and my 2.5 quart pot, I got white marks on the side of the pot that will not come out. It does not seem to affect the cooking properties, but I don't know if that means that the anodized layer has worn through that quickly. It doesn't seem like it should, but no amount of scrubbing with a platic scrub pad got it off...haven't tried bon ami yet, have't contacted Amazon or Calphalon and quite frankly it's not going to stop me from clicking over and ordering the 10 piece set in a few seconds. My 12 inch every day pan is FABULOUS - and no staining after the first use (the only one thus far, but it was amazing when I made chili in it!)
I own the commercial non-stick 10 inch crepe pan and it is on sale right now for $19.99 - buy it! I'm going to buy it for my niece. ( I got it for $16.99 before Christmas, and gave away several of them - but this is the lowest it's been since then) It is my favorite pan in the whole wide world!