Cuisinart 735-24 Chef's Classic Stainless 3-Quart Chef's Pan with Cover

This is a great pot. It's the perfect size for really anything. You can cook pasta, make porridge, saute, make soup for 2-3 people. It's a great size for the in between. It's not heavy which is great, the lid is great. I did burn something in there once and I still see some residue on there, even though I scrubbed quite hard, but overall it's a great pot! I'm inclined to buy another one. This is a great pot. It's the perfect size for really anything. You can cook pasta, make porridge, saute, make soup for 2-3 people. It's a great size for the in between. It's not heavy which is great, the lid is great. I did burn something in there once and I still see some residue on there, even though I scrubbed quite hard, but overall it's a great pot! I'm inclined to buy another one.

I love the pan as I love all of my Cuisinart set. This pan is not quite as thick as my set, but it is still a good pan. A few heavy-thickness pans are better many thin ones. You can do so much more with them. The only problem is that I can't use the lid when I'm boiling water. Two times now it has gotten stuck fast due to the vacuum created while cooking. Somewhere I read that might happen, so I was prepared. I tried many tips to get it loose that I found on the Internet and even called Cuisinart. The hard part is the more you move the lid, the tighter the suction gets. Finally my son was able to pry it off without damaging the top. After going through this twice, I only use it as an open sauce pan now and choose another if I want a lid. Yes, it got a couple black spots, but they don't affect the performance and I don't need showroom perfect pans. The bigger issue for me is that they clean the easiest of ANY pan I've ever owned by simply following the directions (just add water after cooking and let it set a bit.) The food comes right off, and I've never had to use anything but a soft scrubby on them. Don't use HIGH heat, just medium-high at the most per the directions. They heat very quickly. I've burnt them BADLY (not on high heat, just by letting them go too long) and they still clean like a dream. It's as simple as adding baking soda and water, then boiling about 10 min. or so til the water has gone down. Then use your soft scrubby on the empty pan. The burnt-on thick black food flakes off and cleans up like a champ. And if you forget to add water and the food dries on, just add the water, put the lid on, and leave it for a few hours. When you come back, they clean up easy peasy. I'd buy this pan again if I needed to. Update 1/15/26: Cuisinart are still my favorite pans, alongside a cast iron one I bought. The Cuisinart pans STILL clean as easy as ever. I've burned them more than a few times unfortunately, but my instructions above always save the day. I've never needed anything more than a blue Scotchbrite soft no-scratch pad on them, and they still shine beautifully. Love these pans!!

Really great shape and size. Would be very useful, but the side walls are not triply and they burn constantly. Splatters instantly carbonize and are very hard to clean. I would happily pay more for the pan with triply walls, but it does not exist.

I'm a HUGE fan of homemade mac & cheese, as well as meat gravies of all types. This pan is amazing for my fav foods- the wide gentle slope fits my favorite whisks well so I can avoid the dreaded crusty burnt corners that often formed when making a half gallon of cheese sauce in a straight sided sauce pan. It's also fantastic for reducing stocks- I use it to cook down chicken, ham, and other meat stock before freezing (saves freeze space, and can I can easily reconstitute it later). As someone who has worked in pro kitchens for (longer than I like to admit) I readily admit there are higher quality saucier-type pans out there, but I bought this for $20-$25 bucks and it's one of the best values/excellent return on investment pieces in my home kitchen. While I don't use the lid very often, but it's well fitting and of a much better quality than I expected for cookware in this price range. Overall, it's a great piece for cooks don't want to spend $80 on a (fancy brand) saucier but want to try cookware of this type, highly recommended. I can't address the issues with dishwashers other reviewers have brought up as I NEVER put any of my pots/pans through the dishwasher because I was taught that is bad for them- so skip the dishwasher and you'll likely be fine.

I ran into a recipe called pasta al limone that I have fallen in love with. Now, the particular video I was following was using a saucier pan, so I ordered this one after making the dish several times. Previously I had been using a 3qt Cuisinart saute pan. After two uses I saw these black spots in the bottom of this saucier pan. This pan has only seen super low heat, starchy water from boiling pasta, lemon juice, turn heat off and add pasta, mix in butter. These are discoloration marks that even a stainless steel scrubby can't touch. Now, supposedly these won't hurt you. And I believe that. But my SS saute pan never got these spots in it. I have to wonder why this saucier pan did... I'll keep using it. The pan is fantastic otherwise. But I wonder if a slightly better quality of SS could have been used? And I'm curious if the whole bottom will eventually turn black? Or if this is normal for this pan?

Cooking with this pan is not like using a light aluminum pan with vented lid, so take your time to adjust. The domed lid allows moisture to return to the food, down the sides, which helps reduce scorching and keeps nutrients and flavor in the food. This is not for high temperature cooking, as is the case with all stainless steel cookware. You can use much lower temps and the lid keeps the heat that would be lost out of a vent IN the pan. Remember to use a dishtowel or hotmitt to grab the handle, which is riveted and sturdy. This pan can do many things: you can do fast stir-fryups in it as well as single-pan dishes, remembering that the center bottom of the pan is hotter than the sides, which the flame should NEVER touch. Use the electric burner, if you don't have gas, that fits inside the diameter of the base disc and you'll avoid LOTS of problems, as with all base-disc cookware. Clean this pan VERY thoroughly: there is a machine oil coating on it you can't see or feel that will come off with dish soap, and then warm the pan, then get it fairly hot and THEN add some high-temp oil (canola is fine) and roll the oil inside the pan over the heat. Turn off the heat, continue to roll the oil to cover the entire inside, and then let it sit for a moment, get a paper towel, crumple it and wipe the hot oil out. Be careful to keep your fingers off the metal and oil. Leave a light film of oil behind, let the pan cool for a few minutes, rewipe with a fresh paper towel thoroughly and you're ready to cook: you've just pre-seasoned your pan and it won't give you the "first cook scorch" that others complain of. I've NEVER had that happen, and have been cooking for decades with many materials. As with any other material, you have to learn to treat and use it right and it will treat you right! My first dish was a flash-pan-fry: normally not a good first choice, but I wanted to see if it could do the job of a wok, and for the most part, it can. The graduation in temp up the sides is different than a traditional wok, which is also normally thin steel or iron, btw. The speed of this pan is excellent, and if you keep the food moving, you won't need much oil. The veggies came out very bright, hot and crisp, and I did not need to add liquid until the very end to make the sauce and turn the food in it. Very easy cleanup, too, even though this was a sweet/hot glaze type sauce. The sugars did not burn or scorch and the pan looked the same after the very easy cleanup (soak for a few minutes in hot water, use a nylon scrunch to clean and done). If you soak bare-metal pans that are seasoned properly in plain hot water, use a nylon scrubby/scrunch to clean, you'll never need soap, and oils will build up just enough to create a nonstick finish that is as good as teflon. In fact, after a dozen or so times, the metal will still be bright, not dirty, and you'll be able to do sliding fried eggs... on a pretty low temp. The key is to keep the food moving. That is SO important! To avoid spotting, try not to handle the exterior if your hands are oily, and always hand dry bright stainless pans in and out, unless you don't care about the spotting. Use a normal sponge on the exterior, a nylon scrunch if you spill over and must, and it will stay glossy. This pan has so far made soup, pasta sauces, boiled pasta, steamed (with a generic small insert), and pulled off a pretty decent risotto the first time I tried in it. It also made very good egg-foo-yung style small, thick omelettes. I don't eat meat, so I haven't tried that, but based on performance with with eggs, it should sear small cuts or cubed meats very nicely, allowing you to push done pieces to the cooler sides while the rest gets done. I have yet to dare to try doing a pan fry of tofu in it, though it did a shallow fry of tofu fine. Tofu is nature's stickum food: it sticks even to teflon coatings if you don't keep it moving and oiled. I'll let the pan season more and try. I'm not into sweets, but I suspect that this would handle making pan-style confections pretty well. I like it, and I can see this and the small chef's pan with a small fry becoming my most used pans for personal meals. It's not a substitute for a large saute or fry, and it's not quite a big dutch oven, because it's only 3 qt and frankly, shaped wrong for some of the dishes that work in a dutch oven, but for some stews or small pan roasts, I bet it will do a great job at a lower, less destructive temp, keeping food moister and brighter looking with more intact nutrition. For under $30, shipped, if you are a Prime member, it's a great pan, and for a decent sized family, might be worth having a couple of them! Oh, diameter is a very manageable 10", so it's not a stovetop hog!

Bought this to replace a Calphalon non-stick pan (same size and shape) that was starting to lose it’s coating and needed to be retired. This pan is surprisingly lightweight, and conducts heat very efficiently. I primarily use it for one-pot Mac-n-Cheese and other stove top side dishes like Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, etc., and for that purpose it performs quite well, and cleans up nicely. Save tasks like searing a steak for the trusty Cast Iron skillet, this pan is too light to hold enough heat for that.

Bought this back in 2018 because making homemade mac and cheese in a stock pot was getting annoying. This has since become 'my' pan. I've used it for everything from chicken-fried steak to mac and cheese, and my brother once filled it almost to the brim with pudding. I've burnt it, boiled it dry, and generally given it all the abuse one does their most-used pan. And it still looks almost new. Overall... this is one of the best things I've ever bought on this site.