Cooking Brands Reviews

True, I am not a gourmet cook; however, I doubt that many buyers really are. These disks fall in the category of too much work for the outcome. Although I LOVE my Cuisinart and use it for nearly everything, these "gadgets" as I call them are simply too much hassle--installing, using, cleaning!--for everyday use. For garnishes, you can probably find smaller, cheaper tools to use and store. For cooking, my attitude is "who cares" what size and shape your food is? In summary, you really must have a need to spend money to put these on your kitchen "wish list".

I don't yet own this specialty set, but am delighted to find it here on line after searching in stores. One of my family recipes are Polish-style potatoe pancakes made with grated raw potatoes, flour, egg and seasonings. What a chore to grate the potatoes by hand! If the fine grated does this job, my family will enjoy this treat that they love more often, and my knuckles won't need to be included in the dish!

Given the recent reports on the potential health risk from non-stick cookware, my family decided to go stainless. I liked the performance of clad cookware but reckoned that it might not be a wise choice financially to go all out with All-Clad before I have my own cooking show. The candidates came down to 3 product lines, Anolon Advanced Clad, J.A. Henckels International Classic Clad and Cuisinart Multiclad Pro. The best price I could find for them were all under $200 for 7 pieces, with Anolon having 10 pieces. Being all constructed in full clad, they seem to differ mostly in the handle design before I can do a performance comparison.

Henckels has a huge and unconventional handle. My first impression was it might not fit in my kitchen well. However, it was not until recently that I tried one at a local store. The pan balances well and has one of the most comfortable handles that I ever put my hands on. However, my family needs a larger stock pot and the included 6-quart one doesn't really serve our need.

Anolon has a silicon rubber handle. It's said to withstand the high heat in the oven. However, due to aesthetic preference and concerns about putting synthetic materials in high heat along with food, we decided to go with the Cuisinart set. In the meantime, we separately bought an Anolon Advanced Clad 12" stir fry pan.

The Cuisinart set is a very well made traditional tri-ply cookware with all metal handles. The built differences between Cuisinart and All-Clad is so insignificant to me that it makes the several-hundred-dollar saving and having a set of quality stainless steel cookware set truly a joy. The finish of the Cuisinart pans was superior to the Anolon stir fry pan. However, Anolon's silicon rubber handle obviously is more functional and practical than metal handles since it never becomes slippery or hot in your day-to-day use. I guess this would come down to a personal preference.

The pans both brown well and distribute heat quickly and evenly. The cleaning is also a breeze as long as you heat the pans briefly before cooking. Overall, I'm very satisfied with this purchase.

I've been using this stuff almost daily since I got married two and a half years ago. We couldn't bear to ask our friends and family to buy us overpriced cookware, but we wanted high performance, so we registered for this instead. No regrets. Though you'll need more pans than this eventually, I have zero complaints for this as a starter set.

I purchased this cookware set for my boyfriend as a gift and he was very happy with it. I purchased it sight unseen, based on reviews I read and the the name Cuisinart. I cook alot myself and will say if someone gave a set to me, I would be very pleased. It is heavyweight, but not too heavy and has the appearance of the more expensive cookware, but is not expensive.

I have an iSi soda syphon and I love it. You can make a lot of tasty low cal drinks with it. Try this - put a teaspoon of vanilla extract (12 calories) in a glass with two teaspoons of Splenda and then add ice and your carbonated water and you have a real treat (even better with a jigger of brandy but that's an extra 97 calories). I know you can buy seltzer water in the store but then you have all of those plastic or glass bottles to dispose of. With an iSi you get a liter of seltzer for each little metal CO2 cartridge. And you use your own filtered water so you know it's good. It works better with cold filtered water than it does with cold distilled water. Also - keep it in the 'fridge even when it's empty to prevent any stale odors from accumulating (very hard to get rid of once they happen).

I have had this set for about a month and have had a chance to use them enough to have an opinion. They are well balanced and perform well, especially the sauce pans and stock pot. The 8 quart stock pot is large enough for a family of 4-6. Cuisinart advertises you can use metal utensils, but when you read their recommended use card, it says metal utensil will scratch the surface. That is a misleading marketing gimmick in my opinion.

My main complaint with the Cuisinart cookware is they heat up very quickly due to the thin 3 mm thickness. The fry pans are the weakest items of the set. After side-by-side comparisons against Emeril's All-Clad Hard Anodized, I much prefer the Emeril brand. The Emeril pans are 5 mm thick and seem to cook more evenly and are not near as temper-mental as the Cuisinarts.

For not much more money, I would look at the higher quality Emeril Hard Anodized set; and sorry Amazon, the best deals for Emerilware are using one of those 20% off coupons at Bed Bath and Beyond or Linens N Things.

As always, you will never find a perfect cookware. This Cuisinart 7 piece is no exception. It is great but not perfect. Its light weight is very impresive and handle isn't that hot after long period of cooking time. Easy to clean. The non-stick surface is better than other brand. It takes very short time to heat up stuff too. However, couple weaknesses, the lit does not have a small hole to release pressure which we have to watch out for overheat spill. Plus the lit is not the same design as the pot itself, it heats up really quick. So be careful. It is not a good idea to buy plastic handle with the lit, it will deform and loose after a while. Over all, it is better than what I expected even though I have owned this set of cookware for 4 weeks.