Customer Reviews

Bayou Classic 1144 44-Quart All Purpose Stainless Steel Stockpot with Steam and Boil Basket

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Made from 304 stainless steel - 0.8 mm/20 Gauge
The stockpot measures 13-½ by 17-¼ inches tall.
Steam and Boil Basket measures 12-¼ by 12-¼ tall and sits 3 inches off the bottom of the pot.
Use with the basket to steam seafood and vegetables or use the pot alone to cook soups and stews.
It is large enough to steam a gross of clams or 18 chicken lobsters or 36 ears of corn.
It can deep-fry a 24 lb turkey.
Remember to wash off the manufacturing wax before using.

Before purchasing this pot, or any other stockpot for that matter, you need to determine your primary purpose for the pot. Steaming or boiling. The basket sits two inches or so off the bottom of the pot which makes this pot excellent for steaming. If you are mostly going to boil then you should look for a pot where the basket sits closer to the bottom. That gives you more room to boil. This pot is very attractive and cleans up easily. The only drawback is that the handles are too close to the sides and top of the pot. It makes it difficult to carry for people with average to large hands.

I bought this to brew beer, and for an occasional lobster boil. It arrived promptly, the construction looks very good, and I can't see any reason why this won't do the job and then some.

After opening and doing a test fill & boil I've discovered as another reviewer had mentioned that the container does leak at the rivet points where the handle is attached. This doesn't affect my use at all, as it will handle the 5 gallons I need very well, with plenty of room before it would actually reach the point where it would leak. Still happy with the product, would buy and recommend to others as long as they do not need to fill past the handles.

We used it for a clam bake, and it was great. We cooked 250 little-necks, and then started cooking 8 lobsters while eating the clams. It really made the task easy, and cleanup was a snap ...

I purchased this pot for turkey frying, homebrewing and cooking shell fish. Due to its size, it is one of the few pots on the market in this price category suitable for all three. We used it the first time to fry a 15lb. turkey and had great results. However, once the oil heated up to 350 degrees, hot oil began to leak from the screws attaching the handle onto our propane burner! A very dangerous situation was stopped by turning off the burner immediately and removing the oil so it was to below the handles. We are keeping the pot and just being more careful next time. I have contacted the manufacturer.

For cleanup, Bartenders Friend and a damp non-abrasive cloth worked great.

I love this pot. It works just as I had hoped. It is made of nice heavy stainless steel the the basket is sturdy too. We used it over a camp fire and it functioned perfetly.
I would heartily recommend this stockpot.

I am an amateur chef who enjoys good quality "tools" in my kitchen. I bought this expecting it would be a good heavy pot with quality components that would stand up well being used on top of a side burner on a grill. The fact it is designed to sit 6 inches above the water is a real plus - no soggy, water-logged end product. Wife doesn't allow cooking of smelly seafood (in its first use, lobster!) in the house. It delivered 5 stars on all counts. Gave it as a gift to my son, and he was very pleased with both the pot and the lobster he got for his birthday. Now, I wan that pot back, probably won't get it. The stainless steel version was definitely worth the few extra bucks.

I'd done a lot of research on steamers for blue crabs before making our purchase. One area of concern was the thickness of the metal; some people had posted that the stainless steel (on various brands) was too thin and the metal wore out or sprung a leak. I'm happy to see this isn't evident on the Bayou Classic series. Their steel gauge is within a mill or two of our regular Cuisinart sets. Everything looks good and we should have this ~9-gallon pot for many years of oventop use. Note that this steel is still "slightly" magnetic, though.

The problem it appears that some steamers have is with an outside fire source with a too-high heat concentration from a propane burner stand. (If you find yourself flipping your arc-welding goggles down to fine-tune the flame, you might want to re-evaluate your cooking technique a tad. :) Some kind of diffuser you put in the way so there isn't a heat jet concentrated on one small spot on the cooker bottom is what we're talking about. You'll still get all the BTUs, just done over a larger area.

I'm glad I purchased this steamer in spite of several negative review comments. The pot is heavy gauge, nice and sturdy, well worth the money imho, steams crabs perfectly. One unexpected feature, the steamer has a lip which holds the basket above the liquid level, no need for stones in the bottom of the pot! CSN Stores was great handling a missing basket handle, responded to my email immediately and had the handle to me in less than a week. I'd rate the entire experience a 5-star!

The Bayou Classic 1136 origanly purchased for a shrimp boil but found it to be great for frying fish,chicken and waiting to try the turkey this year. It is great for stemming or boiling vegtables for large group or a family bar b q . The 36 qt size does not leave you wondering if it is big enough.Both the pot and the strainer are heavy guage and very durable. Easy to use and clean which adds to the perfect day of hosting a party or get together.