Caraway Nonstick Ceramic Mini Fry Pan (1.05 qt, 8″) – Non Toxic, PTFE & PFOA Free – Oven Safe & Compatible with All Stovetops (Gas, Electric & Induction) – Cream

Beautiful, High Quality Cookware
I have long needed to replace my last everyday egg pan, and after much research, I settled on the Caraway 8″ ceramic mini fry pan. It was pricey, but upon receiving it, I was impressed by the weight and quality of the pan. I have cooked in it several times, and unlike my previous Great Jones Small Fry, it is so non-stick that it barely needs to be cleaned after use. The pan is beautifully designed, weighted well for handling on a stove, and an absolute joy to cook with. I have since also purchased the accompanying lid and am very pleased with it, as well.

6 months later, still totally non-stick
I’ve been using this pan several times a week for just over half a year and am pleased to report that it’s still as non-stick as it was the day it arrived. Please note, however, that I’m careful with it. I wash it squeaky-clean after each use, waiting until it has cooled down to do so. I also never touch the cooking surface with anything but a silicone spatula, and I don’t stack things on top of it when it’s stored. In the hand, it feels like quality, too. A good weight and a vibrant color (yellow) that livens up the kitchen.

Nonstick is nonexistent
I purchased this pan about one month ago, and have used it daily since receiving it. And I will say – this Caraway fry pan – well there’s something just not right about it. Something that just doesn’t add up. After a single use, food began adhering to the pan’s cooking surface. Not just eggs, mind you; which is probably the main thing most of us hope to use our nonstick cookware for. Everything sticks. Bacon sticks. Sausage sticks. Potatoes stick. Meats, veggies – shoot, a slice of bread sticks to this pan. Would you like to simply to warm something from the fridge, reheat leftovers? Nope. It will stick. If you can cook something in this pan, it will stick to this pan. And not just a little bit of stick. No, no, no, my friends. Look to some of the other very low reviews. See the video evidence. There’s a whole lot of stick. A tear your food up trying to get it out of the pan and on to the plate kind of stick. And then a soak in hot water and scrape stuff out kind of stick. And then a do it again to get what you couldn’t get out after all that kind of stick. Following the recommended cleaning method of a bringing a cup of water with two tbls of baking soda to boil for several minutes and then rinsing…stuff sticks. No amount of cleaning, nor method of cleaning seems to affect the performance. Neither does cooking technique. Cook on low, stuff sticks. Cook on medium, stuff sticks. Cook with oil, sticks. No oil, sticks. Truly preposterous. This said, however, this is not merely a poor non stick pan; it is a poor pan. The handle, though ergonomically sound and comfortable to grip, transfers heat far too readily. On a gas range, it quickly becomes ‘too hot to handle.’ Beyond the five minute mark, even on low heat, you will be burned by the handle. Additionally, the pan’s exterior surface cannot be kept clean, which for a daily use pan isn’t critical in my book, excepting that the finish seems designed to have stuff actually adhere to it. Again, not especially off putting for me as I believe in function over aesthetics, but I find it strange this should be so. That said, my expectations for this pan were fairly straight forward. I hoped for a decently made nonstick pan that would heat mostly evenly, that would be mostly nonstick, that would function in my working kitchen alongside some other quality cookware that consists exclusively of copper clad stainless steel and cast iron. I looked very forward to a more healthful alternative to the everyday nonstick more typically relied upon. And I hoped to get perhaps as much as a year’s use of the pan before having to replace it. I take care of my cookware. I always use soft implements, never metal, and always rely upon gentle cleaning methods – soft sponges and plastic scrappers only if necessary. Given the performance of this pan, at this point, however, I am disappointed across the board. I also must and do question any and all claims made as to this cookware’s efficacy. As well as the efficacy of any claims or reviews that would laud its performance as commendable. I am, in short, severely skeptical. I know my way around a kitchen, and as far as I’m concerned, I will not deign to so much as boil water in it at this point. It has no redeeming qualities given its performance. And given its performance, I cannot help but to doubt its other claims as to being a healthier alternative to other cookware options. Given the $100 price tag for the pan, one must conclude that such a high relative cost is primarily for covering marketing and profit. And I would challenge anyone willing to make contrary claims as to this pan’s performance to prove such claims as anything better than specious. From my experience, this appears to be a clear matter of consumer grift. Given what my experience with this product has been, there is simply no other reasonable explanation. Out of the box, it does look nice; it does feel nice. First cook: it works nice. And then the honeymoon is over. And the fight is on. Sorry to say, if you bought this thing, you already lost.

A Learning Curve for Cermaic Cooking
Caraway makes you write a review to get a warrant, so I immediately docked them a star for that nonsense.The pan is beautiful. I’m hoping that there’s a learning curve with ceramic because within minutes of receiving the package, which I liked because everything is recyclable in he packaging, I cooked a fried egg.I paid the high price for the pan because I’m trying to use PFAS-free cookware.Recently, I returned a set of 5-ply all-clad pots and pans that were beautiful, but I could not figure out how I was going to jump from cheap non-stick to stainless steel and not ruin every meal and cookware item because the learning curve was too steep.So when the caraway pan came, I fried an egg in it to test it out before the pther pot I ordered arrives. How did I do? Well, the heating was very slow, and it took the egg much longer to cook than in my cheap, toxic, scratched-up non-stick pan. Also, I don’t like that caraway tells you not to use the spray version of Olive Oil. To make sure I have a nice balance of not too much, I always use a high-quality, organic, non-aerosol olive oil spray, and maybe that was the issue today– slow to cook and runny.On the plus side, nothing stuck, easy to clean, the bump out on the handle where it’s still safe to touch while cooking is nice. The pan is slightly heavy but not horrible. The color is nice. I think it might take a while to figure out the technique of ceramic cookware.

Arrived exactly as described.

Caraway is not a good brand. There’s far better ceramic cookware. The ceramic coating starts peeling off in less than a year of use. For the price, you would definitely expect a premium item. This is not the case.