In 1967, metallurgist John Ulam patented a game-changing discovery. The Pennsylvania native created an innovative method of heating and rolling sheets of steel and aluminum together to form a single strong sheet, with no adhesive. Ulam sold his “clad” metal technology to the aircraft industry and even to the United States Mint; look at the edges of quarters and dimes and you’ll see stripes of different-colored metals. By 1971, Ulam had turned his attention to cookware, founding All-Clad Metalcrafters in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
Ulam’s process worked like a charm. The layered sheet, with aluminum sandwiched between steel, combines the best characteristics of each metal. Aluminum conducts heat quickly, making the pan responsive to temperature changes; steel conducts slowly and retains heat, so the pan cooks remarkably evenly across its surface. Aluminum reacts to acidic foods, but stainless steel doesn’t, so you can cook anything without fear of flavor transfer or damage to the pan. Aluminum is softer and more easily dented; stainless is harder, giving the pan a more durable structure.
In the test kitchen, a 12-inch stainless-steel skillet is the very definition of a kitchen workhorse, especially when we want deep, even browning and delicious pan sauces. With its all-metal construction, this pan goes from stovetop to oven effortlessly, so it’s perfect for cooking thicker cuts of meat and fish (which we often finish in the oven), baking skillet pies, and pan-roasting whole chickens. Our longtime favorite, the All-Clad d3 Stainless Steel 12" Fry Pan with Lid, sells for $119.99, but do you have to spend more than $100.00 to get great performance and durability?
We bought eight 12-inch skillets, priced from $47.99 to $99.99, and tested them against our favorite. All share its fully clad construction. We skipped “disk-bottom” pans, in which metal layers are found only in a disk attached to the bottom of a single-layer pan. In our previous tests, disk-bottom pans heated erratically and food scorched around the thinner pan sides. To test each pan, we seared four strip steaks and made pan sauce, and we browned a cut-up whole chicken on the stovetop, finished cooking it in the oven, and then built a pan sauce from the drippings. We pan-roasted asparagus and had test cooks sauté diced onions and green beans. We cleaned pans by hand and in the dishwasher. Along the way, we noted how easy they were to cook in, lift, pour from, and clean. Finally, we assessed their wear and tear and even knocked them around to simulate years of use.
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