Calphalon 12-in. Commercial Hard-Anodized Omelette Pan.

Tough as nails, literally!
I do a good bit of my cooking at high temp's to develop a crust on a hamburger, or a steak, to brown off a thin-cut pork chop before the center is overcooked and that sort of thing. That's tough on a true non-stick skillet and they just can't stand up to that kind of sustained heat. They typically wear out after about 6 months of my rather intense cooking. I decided to try one of the anodized aluminum skillets to see if it was a match for my style of cooking and am pretty happy with it.

This is NOT a "Non-stick" skillet, it is stick RESISTANT. Do NOT crack an egg into an un-oiled anodized aluminum pan unless you want to explore it's scrubber-friendly hardness. The egg will stick like white on Mitt Romney!

However, if you want to develop a fonde on the bottom of your skillet while searing a steak so you can deglaze it with a splash of red wine, this is the pan for you. If you want to saute' a stir-fry dish, this is a good pan. It excels at high temperature...

My favorite pan!
I had this pan for about 25 years and used it to make a variety of meals. I have other very old commercial hard-anodized Calphalon pans, including a stockpot, two saucepans and a tiny skillet. They have all performed excellently and held up well. But the 12-in. Calphalon is the favorite of all my pans (including some from other manufacturers).

It warped, although I followed the care directions throughout the years. I don't think the warp was my fault or a manufacturing defect on Calphalon's part. I don't blame the pan. You should have seen the old cooktop I was using it on. I didn't even realize it was warped until the recent installation of a new flat-glass cooktop.

I still had the instructions but not the receipt. To Calphalon's credit, they replaced it with a brand new one. The quality seems just as good as the older one, and looking at the price on Amazon, I think I paid about the same in non-inflation-adjusted dollars for it way back then. It's an...

Caphalon
I can't recommend commercial caphalon products enough. The commercial grade is far superior to anything else they have. We have had ours since the late 1980s.

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