Customer Reviews

Mauviel M'Heritage M250C 6504.30 11.8 Inch Round Frying Pan, Cast Iron Handle

5 star:		(4)
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3 star:		(1)
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I love this pan. It's incredibly versatile. I use it instead of a straight-sided saute pan (many cooks don't like to do this but it's my preference). The 12 inch copper pan weighs a ton and is not ballanced for tossing food ... so don't think of this as a larger version of your 10" fry pan. It's best sitting on the stove solidly, with you turning the food in it with tongs or a spatula.

There's plenty of room to make a pan sauce, and I like having sloped sides for this--easier to get into the corners with a whisk or spoon. It's also my all time favorite pancake making pan. It heats evenly from center to edge, which is a pretty good trick for a pan this large.

Being copper, it's every bit as responsive as you'd expect. The feeling of control is addictive. You'd have to be an arsonist to burn anything in this pan. But in spite of its quick heating and cooling nature, it does a nice job of browning meat--even big pieces. Not as aggressively as heavy cast iron, but I have no complaints. It's also a perfectly capable roasting pan. I've roasted everything from chickens to vegetables to pork tenderloins it, usually at 500 degrees. Cleanup can be a drag after this, but such is life when you roast with lots of fire. Only drawback is that handle is long, so it will take up much more than its fair share of the oven.

And then there's price. Copper is up ... these have gone from expensive to outrageous. I think you'd have to consider it a luxury unless you're loaded. The good news is that there's no reason to have a huge set of copper. For me I just have the ones that I saute or make sauces in--this, and a couple of sauce pans. My 10" fry pan is aluminum, and much better for tossing food than even the 10" copper pans. And it costs a quarter as much.

Anyway, if you're a fanatical cook, appreciate a versatile pan that does it all well, and are feeling burdened by too much currency in your pockets, I can't recommend this highly enough.

The copper conducts heat beautifully and the stainless interior really lasts. Things stick to the bottom which is then deglazed with wine or broth. Expensive but worth it.

I own many different fry pans in various materials. This one seems to be able to take the most abuse with the least amount of worry. At super high temperatures, my stainless steel pans may warp while my cast iron ones may burn the food (in my opinion, cast iron can sometimes be a little TOO good at retaining heat.) As with all of my 2.5mm gauge copper pans, I find that it is more difficult to burn food in them. I'm pretty sure this is because of the fast response and even heat distribution properties of copper. They are very forgiving pieces of cookware. Also, because of the thickness, I have never worried about it warping. I have made my very best fond in this pan - the stainless interior creates the perfect "stickiness" required for caramelization. Alternatively, I've also been able to make "sticky" recipes using very little fat with great success at removing said food with no problems (I once made a huge hash brown using shredded potato in this pan with very little oil - started on the stovetop and finished in the oven - and had NO problems removing it from the pan.)

I have an electric stove and not being able to switch to gas in my building, I decided to test the pans from Mauviel to see if they can give you the balance and control of gas on an electric stove. They do. Simmers are now easy and you can actually control the increase and decrease of heat to the pans with quickness and precision. I can actually say that these pans make electric stoves function better than gas. The simmers as an example do not require constant adjustments. Do not be too concerned with food sticking to the pan because of the lack of non-stick on these pans. With the use of Pam spray and oil you have a non-stick surface, I have removed omelettes from the pan by just tilting the pan. Skip the Pam spray and use oil only and you can have perfectly created small bits of caramelized flavor called fond. My wife did not wanted to use them at first but they worked so well that even her is a believer. These pans will make you cook food as it was meant to be cooked, with absolute control of the entire process. Additionally they look superb on a wall rack and will last generations.

I could hardly wait to get copper. The hype is so compelling, so I bought this from Amazon. First off, it is wicked heavy. No flipping omelets in this baby. That I cam live with. Anyways, the big test came when I had to make latkes for 12 hungry people. A latke is a pancake made from ground vegetables, eggs, and a little matzoh meal or flour. They are fried in hot oil, turned once when brown on one side & when brown on the other, drained and put in a warming oven to stay crisp. A good pan is essential for them as you want them evenly brown and crisp, but tender in the center. Not too thick, either. They should be thin, not as thin as a crepe, but not like those frozen or deli bought ones made with shredded potatoes that are over an inch thick. Yeckk.. Well. I put this copper pan on one burner, and my Calphalon tri ply stainless fry pan on the other big burner. Following directions for the copper pan, I put it on medium heat. The Calphalon was on hifh heat. Both pans heated in the same amount of time. I had a hand on the rim of each pan, and both were equally hot when I added the oil. The oil became swirly looking in the same amount of time in both pans. I put the same number of spoonsful of latke batter in each pan. The latkes browned equally evenly in both pans and were done at the same time. Bolth pans produced beautifully crisp, evenly browned latkrs. The only difference was that the heat was lower on the copper pan.

The triply stainless got a quick spritz off Dawn Power spray, and went into the dishwasher, coming out clean and shiny the next day. The copper pan had to be cleaned by hand, and the copper bottom had to be polished with expensive copper cleaner -- and it still looked streaky after at least 15 minutes of polishing. The stainless pan just had to be hunb on the pot rack, its bottom and interior both shiny and clean.

Calphalon tri-ply stainless is far less expensive than Mauveiel, does as good a job, and is far, far easier to keep nice and shiny. I've had my set for about sic years and it still looks brand new. I have no plans to buy another copper pan,