All-Clad, the company that makes some of the most appealing and useful cookware available today, has joined with Emeril Lagasse to come up with a wonderful new stove-top grill pan that is perfect for small city kitchens. I'm not normally a fan of celebrity-labeled cookware, but Emeril's line of cast iron pans is really excellent and well priced.
Most cast iron grill/griddle pans are made to fit over two burners on a large cooktop or stove making them too big for small city kitchens and clumsy to store. But this pan comes in a very convenient and small stove-friendly single-burner size of 14 x 10," nearly all of which is usable cooking surface making it more versatile than most 10" cast iron grill pans. This means you can easily grill two New York strip steaks at the same time without crowding.
The pan is sold at Williams-Sonoma stores and their web site as well as at Emerils.com. The price for the single-burner size is $24.99.
The pan is reversible with deep ridges on one side and a flat griddle on the other. It's robust, sturdy and heavy (on my bathroom scale the pan weighed in at 9 pounds). A smart feature of its design are slim handles that let you maneuver the pan on a stove's burner without getting a potholder into whatever may be cooking.
An indented half-inch groove runs around the outside rim on both the ridged and griddle sides to catch fat or liquids that may run off during cooking. The pan's surface has a matte enamel finish (not shiny enamel like a Le Creuset pan) so that the pan does not need to be seasoned. Just wash it and it's ready to use. After future uses, just give the pan a quick soapy rinse and dry it completely. If rust spots should appear, just rub them offer with a damp sponge and dry either with a kitchen towel or put the damp pan on a high heat to scorch off any remaining moisture.
Because the pan is less than an inch thick and robust enough to take any heat that your stove can throw off, it's easy to store it in your oven by leaving it on the oven's lowest rack. Just leave it there even as you use your oven to cook other things and when you're ready to use it stove-top, give it a rinse before placing it on the burner and firing it up. It's also easy to store on its side, taking up little space in our crowded kitchens.
The pan is also made in a larger size (20 x 10 1/2") that fits over two burners and costs $49.99.
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