We’ve updated this article with more testing notes for the Always and Caraway pans. We’ve also added a section on cookware that may last longer and better suit your needs than these trendy pans.
The Always Pan feels inescapable. Many of us at Wirecutter have been bombarded by a nonstop stream of ads for the pastel-colored cookware that claims to do it all. (If you haven’t had the pan take over your Instagram feed yet, you will now. Sorry!)
The staffers on our kitchen team, who have been testing cookware for seven years and have decades of collective experience in professional kitchens, have been putting the Our Place Always Pan, as well as two similarly marketed direct-order pans (the Caraway Sauté Pan and the Equal Parts Essential Pan) through their paces to see if they live up to the hype. Below, we list the most common reasons we hear for buying such a pan—and why they might not hold true.
The coating is ceramic nonstick The thoughtful design of the pan makes it perfect for both shallow and deep frying. This is a piece of nonstick cookware that’s PFOA-free, made with a ceramic coating that increases its popularity exponentially. Cooked food slides easily off the nonstick surface.
It’s great for small kitchens
Our Place describes the Always Pan as a “do-it-all wonder” designed to replace your fry pan, sauté pan, steamer, skillet, saucier, saucepan, nonstick pan, spatula, and spoon rest. Though this apparently versatile pan seems advantageous for anyone with a tiny kitchen, in actuality it can’t adequately replace your other tools. For starters, many of the listed items are synonyms of one another (generally a skillet has flared sides and a sauté pan has straight sides, but the terms sometimes get used interchangeably, and a fry pan can be either). “They’re really stretching how many things this pan can replace,” Marguerite says.
Also consider the way you cook. Unless you’re making a one-pan dinner, you likely need multiple pots and pans. If you pare down your cookware because the Always Pan claims to have eight-in-one functionality, you will be unequipped when you’re making pasta and have to, say, boil spaghetti and simmer a marinara at the same time. And you can’t finish a frittata in the oven because the Always Pan isn’t oven safe (though the Caraway and Equal Parts pans are). Instead, you should have a range of cookware that works in different situations. Our recommendations for cast-iron pans, skillets, saucepans, Dutch ovens, and braisers are a good place to start.
You might think …
All three pans—Our Place’s Always Pan, Caraway’s Sauté Pan, and Equal Parts’s Essential Pan—are available in muted, soothing colors with names like “spice,” “perracotta,” and “char,” the kind most often seen on an influencer’s vision board. But they don’t stay that way for long. Cooking is messy, and many Always Pan owners have reported online that oil splatters and pan drippings stain the pan’s colorful exterior. Wirecutter senior staff writer Lesley Stockton, who cooked in the Always Pan almost exclusively for months, agrees that it takes more scrubbing to release greasy stains from the colorful enamel than it does from her stainless steel cookware. But Lesley’s main cleaning gripe concerns the triangular gap where the handle attaches to the pan: This nook collects a lot of food splatters, yet it’s too small to easily scrub clean with a sponge or dish brush.
Wirecutter supervising editor Marilyn Ong, who has been testing the cream-colored Caraway Sauté Pan over the past few months and hand-washing it after each use, says her cookware is already spotted with stains. The Equal Parts Essential Pan that senior editor Marguerite Preston is using has fared similarly. That’s not unusual: All cookware stains when you use it. Stains don’t show on darker-colored nonstick pans or cast iron, but you can see them on a stainless steel skillet or a nice Le Creuset Dutch oven, as well. And usually you can scrub stains off with a slurry of baking soda and water or Bar Keepers Friend. Caraway and Equal Parts recommend a similar technique (with either baking soda and water or baking soda and vinegar, and never with an abrasive sponge). You could probably try it on the Always Pan, too, although Our Place offers no advice for dealing with stains. But all of that takes work, which may be more than you bargained for. Marguerite tried cleaning the stains from her Equal Parts pan with a paste of baking soda and water, letting it sit for a few minutes and then scrubbing with a soft sponge. She found that the technique was effective on darker stains but took a lot of elbow grease, and it still left behind some lightly discolored spots on the pan’s pale blue exterior.
Perhaps more of an issue is the chance that the colorful coating may chip off your pan over time. That started to happen with Marilyn’s Caraway pan after only a month of use, and we’ve also seen Always Pan owners complain about chipping in the company’s Instagram comments. (That said, after two months of continuous use, the Always Pan we’re testing has remained chip-free.) If these pans are designed to complement your kitchen decor, of course you’d want them to retain the picture-perfect qualities that convinced you to buy one in the first place.
Should You Buy The Our Place Always Pan? Experts Compare With Alternatives | Gear Heads
FAQ
What is the coating on Our Place pans?
What is the Our Place pan made out of?
Does Our Place use Teflon?
Are Our Place pans suitable for induction?