Customer Reviews

All-Clad LTD 9-Piece Cookware Set with Nonstick Fry Pan

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The All-Clad 9 piece set is probably the best cookware available today. We love it plus it has a very attractive "look and feel" to it. It almost could be described as functional industrial art.

Are there drawbacks? Well yes and no ...specifically the price is strong but worth it. Second, the pieces are almost indestructable ...they will last a life time but remember this is for the serious cook. The only drawback to this set is the six quart stockpot ...good but, we enjoy making homemade soups and it is not big enough unfortunately ...in sum, if you are a serious cook or just thinking about it, this is the cookware for you but remember you don't buy it, you invest in it!

PS If you are interested, price it out in housewares stores or department stores, the Amazon price ... makes Amazon the lowest cost source.

I always thought the All-Clad LTD cookware were beautiful but I also thought they were rather expensive and wasn't convinced that they were worth spending so much. But I received this 9-pc set as a gift and am now a firm believer of using quality cookware. I can't imagine cooking with anything else. It is definitely more cost effective to get the set, and it contains pieces most people would use. Or it can be a good starter set. These pots and pans are an investment and they will last you a lifetime; you will bequeath them to your progeny! They aren't so expensive when you consider this.

The piece I use most is the 3qt sauté pan, it's the most versatile of the bunch. I use it for frying, and I love the edges of the pan which help prevent liquids from spilling out.

The 9-pc set I got came with the 10" sticky frypan instead of the non-stick featured in this set. I must admit that I rarely use the 10" frypan, always opting for the 3qt sauté pan instead. But this would be the perfect pan for making omlettes.

The 6qt stockpot is perfect for cooking pasta (my primary use), and for cooking larger dishes like Cassoulet and Chicken Cacciatore. It sounds too large for these dishes, but it's perfect for me because I cook large amounts and the sides of a stockpot help prevent the liquids from spilling over.

The 2qt and 3qt sauce pans are versatile for heating soup, cooking sauces, veggies, and smaller portions of whatever. I alse use the 2qt sauce pan as a butter warmer (because I just can't justify getting the All-Clad butter warmer).

These pieces look wonderful on the stove. They're a bit heavy, but you will get used to this. They are ovensafe; I never thought this was an important feature until I used the 3qt sauce pan to bake brownies and the 6qt stockpot to put the finishing touches on my Cassoulet. They are easy to clean. And they definitely make cooking more pleasurable.

I just received this cookware about a week ago and have used it a couple of times. I bought it based on research and reviews. I must say that while it is aesthetically pleasing and durable, it is not as low maintenance as I expected. I followed directions on using low to medium heat, not putting salt without boiling the water first, etc. and I still found that when I made rice, there was residue left that was hard to remove. In other words, the pot no longer had the same shine after washing. Also I find that this cookware needs to be cleaned immediately after using, and I feel it requires complete drying so as not to give the water a chance to settle. Now, I am waiting for Bar Keeper's Friend to see if this will actually correct the residue problem. All in all, it is certainly fine cookware, and I'm quite happy with it regardless of the drawbacks I mentioned. If anyone has any suggestions, I certainly welcome them...

This is perhaps the best cookware I ever owned. While not a professional chef, I really enjoy cooking. The meals I make are only as good as the ingredients I put into them. The cooking utensils are a vital part of that meal. These "pots and pans" are not cheap but they are outstanding cooking utensils. I bought mine before Emeril made them famous. I had the opportunity to try several different brands that were also "expensive". The All-Clad aren't "expensive", they are outstanding. Good value for the price, they will last you forever, or as long as you care to own them. Send them to me when you're done, I'll use them for you! The cooking area is remarkably even; hot spots are not to be found. Handles are easy to use, cleanup is easy. I hang them on my pot rack out of the way. The interiors are almost as slick as teflon. Really good stuff. I would recommend these to my mother, if only I could teach her to cook!

I got this set as a wedding/christmas/birthday present
from my mother. I did a LOT of research before picking
this set out. I read reviews of other sets, compared
prices, materials.. you name it, I checked it out. I
even did some reading in various cookbooks to try to
learn as much as I could about good cookware. Here
are some of the basics I learned.. good cookware should
be made to last a life time, it should heat EVENLY, it
should carry a strong warranty, it should be beautiful,

and it should be expensive (because you get what you pay
for!). So why did I decide to go with All Clad's LTD 9
piece set?

All Clad has a few lines of cookware. ALL of them have
aluminum cores (and in case you didn't learn this already, aluminum is an EXCELLENT heat conductor). So why the LTD? LTD cookware is made with a stainless steel interior (which is great because it's the most durable metal of all), a pure aluminum core, and a beautiful dark gray hard anodized aluminum exterior. Why hard anodized aluminum for the exterior? Well, although aluminum is a superb heat conductor (second only to copper), it's not very durable. But good old science found a way to make aluminum stronger WITHOUT taking away its heat conducting properties. It's an electro-chemical process that "anodizes" the aluminum. Hard anodized aluminum is actually stronger than stainless steel!! So when you get cookware that has a stainless steel (18/10) interior, a PURE aluminum core, and a super durable and super beautiful hard anodized aluminum exterior, you get the best of all worlds.

This set itself is almost perfect as far as the pieces go. My only complaint is that the stock pot is too small. BUT..the sautee pan, the nonstick frying pan (which by the way has the GREATEST nonstick surface I've ever used!), and the two sauce pans are WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL pieces. Since I bought this set, I've added to it. I bought the steamer insert (which fits into the larger sauce pan), a 7" frying pan, and a 1 and a half quart sauce pan.. all LTD, and all PERFECT. I have absolutely no complaints about the pieces themselves. Water boils faster in these pieces than in ANY other piece I've ever used. And more importantly, it heats EVENLY. You won't look into the pot as it starts to simmer and see that the bubbles are only coming up from one side of the pan. The bubbles come up evenly from the entire bottom of the pan. Oh, and did I mention that the aluminum core goes ALL THE WAY up the sides of the pan? The heat from the burner gets transfered ALL THE WAY up to the top of your pan, making it heat up incredibly fast!

All in all, all clad is a perfect 10. The other sets (MC2, copper chef, etc..) look pretty good too, but they have their drawbacks. The LTD set is perfect, and beautiful. I highly recommend it.

My wife an I duked it out between Calphalon Commercial Nonstick (now called "Contemporary") which she preferred for its lighter weight and All-Clad which I prefer for its tougher build. We have a bunch of each. The All-Clad stuff is better hands down. It heats quicker and more evenly. It seems to cook requiring lower stove temperatures. The anodized exterior is smoother and of higher quality. The clad stainless interior is exquisite and easy to clean.

This particular set is perfect - the most required pieces. They constitute a complete kitchen set, lacking only, perhaps, a couple of larger pans (12" fry and 5 Qt. Saute are really nice to have). The choice of stainless interior versus nonstick is personal - but I recommend the stainless interior. First of all, the stainless interior is virtually indestructible and will last a lifetime. All-Clad's nonstick interior is the best in the business, but it does wear out. I've had several LTD nonstick pieces for 9 years now. The ones that get a lot of wear are starting to wear out. Nothing is more pathetic than a battleship built All-Clad pan with a frayed nonstick interior. It's like putting fur in a truck bed. Nonstick might be easier to clean up - but the difference is trivial. Maybe you have the intention of cooking with less oil, but the difference between nonstick and LTD's excellent mirror-like stainless interior is also trivial. I find the arguments for nonstick hard to defend. That being said - the fry pan is where you'd most want non-stick and that's where you find it here. Just right.

As for the review that says anodized aluminum exteriors are hard to maintain, she should read the product literature. You clean anodized aluminum with a plastic scrubby (like the 3M green ones) with bleach cleanser (like Ajax or Comet). Just make a paste with the cleanser and power away stains in moments. Anodized aluminum - like all aluminum cannot be dish washed. The phosphates and brightening agents in dishwasher soap with create a chalky powdery rot in the anodized surface. If you are determined to dishwash your cookware you must forget about aluminum and stick to stainless steel. All-Clad makes a great like of stainless cookware - but nothing is prettier than LTD's awesome black.

The bodies are made of 1/8" thick aluminum with a full stainless steel lining on the inside. The thick aluminum bodies make them heat evenly and the stainless interior make them non-reactive with food. My only gripes are that the rim of the pots have exposed non-anodized aluminum which become discolored with use. And the anodized aluminum exteriors become discolored if washed in a dishwasher. These are just cosmetic issues that don't affect the function, but I had higher expectations given the relatively high price of this set. I also considered the All-clad cookware that has stainless steel cladding on both the interior and exterior. In retrospect, perhaps those would have been a better choice assuming the thermal properties don't suffer too much from the exterior stainless steel coating.

I've had these pans for a number of years now. I usually cook several times a day almost everyday & although these pans cook beautifully and the interior looks beautiful, the anodized exterior looks terrible now. I wouldn't mind so much but I have them hanging on decorative pot rack. For that reason I want to replace them with the less expensive version in stainless steel but the financial loss is killing me. I don't have room in my small kitchen to put them away. We've had a stainless steel All-Clad sauce pan for a few years which still looks great and isn't embarrassing hanging from our rack. If you don't mind so much what your pots look like then these would probably be a great choice. If anyone knows any great secrets to keeping these looking great, please post them. I've contacted All-Clad several times and do exactly as they say without achieving any desired results.

My all-clad LTD set has withstood five years of hard-core cooking. With proper care, it looks almost as good as new. The set is well-designed to distribute heat well for uniform cooking, as well as having an attractive finish.

Pricey but worth it for the serious home cook.

All Clad rocks, and emeril along with the cooking network proves it!

I think this is the most practical household cookware of All Clad's product line. Safe with kids as they continually pound the day lights out of it and highly scratch resistant too. Extreme durability.

The only thing I don't like about this is that it doesn't come with a huge stockpot. The one granny always uses.