I have gotten a number of questions about our Hexclad pans that have been showing up in many of my posts.
TulsaJeff
reached out to me about them as well since he is currently doing a review of a set they sent him. I was going to come up with a couple of test to show how they work, however, as I was looking over my photo library, I noticed that I already have a ton of pictures and I can speak to their performance. In transparency, I don't represent them nor have I been ask by them to give a review.
We first saw them on Gordon Rasmey's next level chef show and my son did a little internet look and "encouraged" me and the wife to look at them..... reluctantly I bit the hook (we have many pan sets and have tried many "new things" over the years, we were pretty much new pan fatigued). Looking over their web page and seeing how much Gordon was "all in" we decided to get a single pan to test so if they were a gimmick or not.......We got a 10" fry pan with lid just before Thanksgiving of 2022 (about 8 months ago).
I took these pic last night........we haven't been "rough" on them but as you can see there is NO visible signs of scratches or marks. The close ups show that none of the anodization is failing at the little stainless buttons.
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After 2 months us using the above pan, we were convinced that these pans were not a gimmick so we purchased a 13 piece set before Christmas, so we have had the full set for a solid 6.5 months.
Now to point out a few of the hidden design features of the pans and lids:
First off each lid has a vent hole to prevent excess moisture from building up when using the fry pans (ie mess up your sear) as well as not making a mess when boiling pasta and such in a pot.
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Next the geometry of the of the edge is near perfect for pouring without a mess.....Here it is pour bacon grease....you can start of slow and it doesn't wrap around the edge....
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This is the 12 inch pan with cut up bacon pieces we use for bacon bits......cooks very uniformly across the whole pan
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This pic shows how the "young" bacon doesn't stick when in its initial cook...
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And this shows that the "residual" bacon pours clean from the pan.
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This next picture shows boiling 1/2 inch of water in the 12 inch pan...it should be noted that both the 10 and 12 inch pans came with a little hump in the center that moves oil and liquid to the outside (it is very slight though and helps with keeping the center section in sear mode)
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This pic is after my wife made a caramel sauce....ie it does very well at "non" stick for sugar stuff....
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This picture is an example of making "burn ends" in a pan, ie sugary rub and heat with animal fat.
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Caramelized red onions (balsamic vinegar and brown sugar).
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The next three are examples of a nearly dry searing......baby bellas, day old russets, and bellas and roots.....
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The last two show "raw" shredded russets and shrimp sautee.
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I will take a picture of the next time I do eggs in them but it should be noted that they do have a "bit" of a stick to them, IE the stainless potions of them but if you giggle the pan and break that then things slide right out. It should also be noted that these do need to be seasoned the first time, ie a little oil and 30 seconds of heat or so. Its also best to use a "dab" of oil when cooking to make the truley non stick. If I use a 1/2 tsp of butter in the small 8 inch fry my sunny side up eggs slide right out. If you do "dry" scrambled there will be a little stick but a Teflon non stick will also have some stick at that point.
In the next week or two I will also take a pic of them searing a chicken breast just to show how well they do. I personally believe they give a better sear and CI because they are more responsive to the heat.
I will be happy to answer any questions as this goes along and I will add to it as we continue to use the. I also wouldn't hesitate to recomend them if you want a high end pan or pan set in the kitchen as they currently do the majority of the cooking in our kitchen now.
Till next time happy cooking