Circulon cookware - nonstick and durable

I got my first Circulon cookware through a campaign at shespeaks.com and so far the cookware seems to be good quality. I needed to get rid of a couple of smaller skillets in my house. I had picked up my initial cookware at Goodwill years ago and definitely have gotten my money's worth out of them. I had back then selected what looked liked almost new pans that ended up a Goodwill because the material was dented or because the store was changing its inventory. I learned over the years that the initial nonstick offerings were definitely picky when it came to utensils used to flip burgers or make stir fry. One my skillets was badly scratched and the other one had, despite only using plastic utensils, a big spot devoid of nonstick coating.

More recently, I have only used my Pyrex Corning Visions Cookware Amber 7" Skillet since I hated to use nonstick cookware. It worked great, was pretty much nonstick and I did not have to worry about the surface peeling off. After my experiences with the original nonstick coating, I was also reluctant to purchase new skillets that were advertised as nonstick. 


So yesterday came the new generation of nonstick by Circulon. They offer a variety of cookware, skillets, pans, and pots. All are nonstick and Circulon also offers some utensils for nonstick cookware. I have received the Circulon Contempo 8inch french skillet. Amazon.com has a good selection of Circulon cookware here. I have an image of the skillet as well as a spatula by Circulon below. I was impressed with the nonstick feature because right away you can tell the difference to the old coating that could not take any metal utensils. This coating looks much more sturdy and the skillet actually has a sticker indicating that it is okay to use metal utensils. That sounds good, but I got somewhat worried when I saw that the spatula had nylon coating and was made by Circulon. Maybe the promise of metal utensils was good for temporary use only with the nonstick coating of the skillet?


This morning I decided to give it a try. I made some scrambled eggs in the skillet and used my regular metal spatula to scramble them in the skillet. I did not use extra force or went wild trying to scramble the eggs, but I certainly touched the nonstick coating plenty of times with the metal spatula. Afterwards, I wiped the skillet clean and was pleasantly surprised to not see a single scratch on the surface. This is certainly not meant to be a durability test, but after one use, I can state that the Circulon nonstick coating is a vast improvement over my old pans. One of them got disposed off right away. The larger skillet (made by "Goodwill") I still have to keep around since my new skillet is only 8'', but I may have to cave in and spend money to get a larger skillet by Circulon for those frittatas that I love to make. 

copyright Durhamonthecheap - Circulon cookware and cooking utensil