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When I purchased a Caraway cookware set in 2019, I used the mega-size sauté pan very rarely. I found this four-and-a-half quart sauté pan indulgently, hilariously large for everyday use. I reached for the 10.5-inch fry pan or the 3-quart saucepan on weeknights, and I'd pull out the Caraway sauté pan, with its 12-inch diameter, only when we had friends over or when I wanted to cook half a batch of pancakes at once. At those times the pan's girth felt like a luxury—something perhaps better fitting in suburbia, where people have Big Fridges and Big Pans. I could add two chopped blocks of tofu and a couple pounds of vegetables to make a giant curry for Sunday supper with friends. On most weekdays, though, it stayed happily tucked away, nestled into the handy pot organizer the cookware set comes with.
And then the pandemic hit. I suddenly accepted that batch cooking was the only way to maintain my sanity. Three meals a day for three people without a dishwasher meant I spend as much time cooking (a task I love) as I did cleaning (a task I truly do not like). I'd make a double recipe of coconut curry with tofu—as if I were having friends over. Then the next day I'd eat it for lunch. Then dinner rolled around and I'd eat it then too.
During the pandemic the giant sauté pan became a kitchen staple—and, years later, it hasn't lost that status. I use the pan to sauté an insane amount of mushrooms, which I've served with soft scrambled eggs, tucked into tortillas with a bit of lime-spiked crema, and swirled into a silky pasta. See, Big Pan pushes me not only to cook enough to have leftovers (instead of starting from scratch at every meal) but also to use every inch of its roomy surface for one-pan meals.
I can't look at my small pans the same way, honestly. But it's not just about size. The Caraway sauté pan is wildly nonstick—I mean, not a single thing has stuck or even left a smudge on this pan. Another plus? That dreamy, glossy coating is non-toxic ceramic. "The idea for Caraway came from an incident I had years ago when I accidentally left an empty Teflon fry pan on a hot burner for too long—within minutes, my entire apartment was filled with fumes that left me lightheaded and nauseous," says Jordan Nathan, Caraway's CEO and founder. Nathan, who contacted poison control to find that he had been exposed to Teflon poisoning, went on to make a line of cookware that was not only non-toxic to humans, but a bit less toxic to our planet. Producing ceramic coating results in significantly less carbon emissions than Teflon production, and Caraway pans are not hard anodized, a process that creates sulfuric acid runoff.
The pan is available in a few muted shades; my favorite is the elegant grey color.
While we don't usually recommend cookware sets at Epi, preferring to buy the best version of the few types of pans you actually need, Caraway's set does a nice job of curating only the essential sizes and shapes. Each set also comes with a sturdy canvas pot lid hanger and a recycled plastic pan rack: two accessories that will turn your cookware shelf into a perfectly-organized Kondo dream, whether you like it or not. If you're setting up a new kitchen or your Teflon pans all gotta go, this is a well-edited boxed set.
While I might be able to wax poetic about the sauté pan all day, the others are equally great—just less novel to me, a first time big sauté pan user. The Dutch oven in particular benefits from the zero slip coating: When I'm caramelizing onions or toasting a pinch of spices in ghee, I don't have to worry that stepping away for a minute will lead to a hardened crisp on the bottom of my pan. The sauce pan is a no-frills workhorse: Pasta, a steamer basket of vegetables, and of course sauce all cook away merrily in this well made, durable little guy.
And the little frying pan? It's perfect for a few eggs—or one or two pancakes—if batch cooking just isn't your thing.
