6-Qt Saute Pan

[Berlinsbreads]

My father gave me an extra pan of his that he doesn't use and it's an All-Clad 6-Qt Saute pan. This sucker is about 13" in diameter. I have wanted a larger saute pan (I have a 3-Qt that's about 10 1/2") to saute chicken breasts, finish pasta in the sauce, etc, but this thing seems really wide. It is bigger than my flat top burner by about and inch all around. So, I'm wondering if I should keep this thing? Does anyone out there have a saute pan of this size and does it work well?

[Smithy]

I have that pan, and it works well enough when I need a pan that size, which isn't often. It has 2 drawbacks, both of which you've identified:

1. It overhangs my largest electric coil just the same way as it does your flat-top burner. I can tell that the the heating isn't as even as I'd like despite the clad bottom. By the way: by "flat-top" do you mean "glass top"? If so, having the pan overhang onto the glass nonburner surface may be an issue for your stovetop.

2. It's HUGE. That makes it more difficult to wield (and to clean) than my other pans. Unless there's a lot of food to cook at once I don't use it, so it is one of the less-used pieces in my kitchen.

That being said, there are times when I need to saute or sear a lot of meat at the same time, and this is the only pan I have big enough to do the job without crowding or having to rotate pieces in and out. It has plenty of surface area to make a lot of sauce from the pan juices. It does the job well enough.

Why get rid of it, since it's a freebie for you? I paid beaucoup bucks for mine! Unless you have a glass stovetop, that is.

[*Deborah*]

That sounds like my KitchenAid pan! I love that pan! You can keep 8 duck legs in it

Most of the time I use it to do a pasta sauce and then finish the pasta.

[Lori in PA]

I have one. I really wanted it and I'm pretty careful about thinking things through before I spend that much money -- though I did get a great deal on mine. That said, I like it less than I expected I would -- same reasons already stated. I like sauteed veal and chicken cutlets, but when serving six what should be fast food turns slow because of having to do things in batches. I use the 14" to get down to one or possibly two batches of browning meat. When deglazing the pan for a sauce, I have to really pay attention -- the liquid can reduce to nothing in a flash with such a large surface.

[fifi]

Somehow I ended up with a really big fry pan (not a saute) that is about 13 inches in diameter. It is Calphalon and it distributes the heat well enough that the "overhang" isn't a problem. I didn't buy it on purpose and probably wouldn't have. (I think it was a freeby.) Now I use it all the time for browning pieces of meat so I can do it all at once. It is a pain to clean in this stupid double sink, though.

[Marlene]

I'll take it if you don't want it. I can see several uses for it, mostly what's been listed here. Browning lots of pieces at once, sauces etc.

There's been a few times when I would have killed for a pan this big.

[Octaveman]

I had this same pan and I hated it. Way too big to be of any use toward 1" to 1.5" from the side even if "all clad". I ended up selling it on ebay after trying to use it two times. I tried making a sauce in that pan and the only thing bubbling was directly above the burner. It was as if the "cladding" was useless and ineffective. The sauce on the outer area was dead calm. I'd rather do a few batches of things in a smaller pan than cook the food unevenly in a large pan. Granted, I had the typical electric burner but unless you have wide coverage on your burner this pan is not worth the money or the time spent using it....IMHO. But hey, it's free so try it out to see if you like it and go from there.

Cheers

Edited October 28, 2005 by Octaveman (log)

[oraklet]

i don't know if it's quite as useful as the same size rondeau is to me, as the handle may prevent it from going into the oven. anyway, i find my similarly sized rondeau extremely useful. but then, i've got a gas stove top.

semi-deep frying potatoes on stove top, spatchcocked chicken in oven, meatballs, slowly oven braised leeks and other greens, large quantities of tomato sauce or curries, general sauteeing etc etc.

we're a family of six, with frequent guests. this size pan suits our needs beautifully, but it may be a little too big for those who mostly cook for 2!

[BarbaraY]

Be very careful with anything that overhangs your burner on a flat top range. I destroyed the one that was here when I moved in.

I placed a large pot ot tamales on it and cooked them for a little over 1 hour. Pulled them to one side to cool. A little later we heard a crackling sound and found that the top of the stove was crumbling all around that cooking area.

I now have a gas range.

[k43]

It depends on which line of All-Clad it is. The Stainless and Cop-R-Chef have 2 mm. cores, while the MasterChef and LTD have 4 mm. With a 4 mm. core, an inch overhang shouldn't matter much nearly as much.

[Berlinsbreads]

Great input... Basically, I had the same concerns/problems as most of you mentioned. I think if I had one of those big burners it wouldn't be an issue but I have just he standard glass top stove.

I do feel sometimes with my usual 3-quart All-Clad saute pan that I wish I had just a little more room but not if the outsides of the pan aren't conducting heat, though. I didn't realize that the Master Chef series had a thicker core. Interesting!!

[fifi]

Ah ha! Perhaps the thickness of the core is a key issue with overhang. I do know that the thermal conductivity of whatever the pan is made of is a deal breaker. My big Calphalon pan is the old original type. That was made of spun cast high purity aluminum. He higher purity aluminum has about 30% better thermal conductivity than most aluminum alloys (confirmed by metallurgist and heat transfer friends). Even with considerable overhang on lousy electric burners, sauces bubble evenly across the surface of the pan and it browns evenly from edge to edge.

[budrichard]

No matter what All Clad tells you, Copper Core is not real copper cookware. I have a Falk Culinair 6 qt saute. It comes with a helper handle because it is HEAVY, 2.5mm copper lined with SS. Does your saute pan have a helper handle? The Falk is not too large in diameter but I use Viking burners.

Food fries better in pans where the seperation is at maximum which is what a large saute pan allows. Crowding the pan inhibits frying. I would certainly keep your pan until you get accutomed to it. -Dick

[Mottmott]

I have a 5 1/2 qt Cuisinart saute pan that's about 12x 3 1/2" deep. It's one of my most useful pans even though I live alone. In addition to all the things one typically makes in a saute pan, because of the depth, I can use it to make stews, soups, and even cook pasta in it. I was lucky enough to get one while they were still making them with the copper disc bottom which may now be phased out.

I looked at the large AC saute pan and rejected it because I thought it cumbersome in the relation between the handle and pan and didn't like the shallow sides. Besides I have an old restaurant gauge 14" aluminum saute pan that I haul out when I need something that wide.

Remind me why we all stopped using aluminum to cook on? I notice a lot of restaurants still use aluminum. Hasn't the "causes altzheimers" been debunked?