Stoneline Pans product reviews

In the years since I flew the nest and ventured out into the wild world to fend for myself, I have gone through a fair few pans. The good old cast iron pans hurt my wrist when I try and flip pancakes, the so-called non-stick pans lose their non-stick and leave flakes of teflon crust in your scrambled eggs, and the aluminium pans are, thankfully, no longer to be seen, thanks to evidence linking them with Alzheimers.

So I was a bit sceptical when I heard the salesman hawking his wares at the trade fair. "You can cook steAk to perfection, without making a mess, you can make eggs that won't stick no matter how much you burn them, you can even make crunchie cheese wafers for your salads without leaving them stuck to your pan..." - It was very hard not to give the classic 'Tui' response. However, one can never tell from a cover, how good the contents of the book are, so I stood around watching the show.

Sure enough, a cube of steak was placed in the pan, and started to sizzle. Juices released shot right back into the meat as it sealed. An egg was cracked into the pan and was left to go quite crusty black at the edges while the salesman spouted on. A slice of cheese was dropped in and left to pop and sizzle, quietly ignored, until it was turning brown. Then the big finish... they all came out of the pan with ease, no scraping, no scrubbing, no worries. Cooked steak, throw-away egg, crunchy cheese chip for the salad.

So, I had to try it for myself. Once I was home, I followed the instructions, gave it a wipe-down with some olive oil, left it for a few moments then wiped the excess oil away. Clean, dry, and ready to go. I cooked steaks, I cooked eggs, I cooked bacon, I even made a few cheese crusties for a salad. All perfect. Without a hitch, hands down the easiest frypan I had ever tried. The only problem arose when I fried some onions... burnt to a cionder within moments. Seems they, at least, *do* need some oil in the pan. No fault of the pan, more of the onion's tendancy to over-crisp at the slightest provocation.

My only issue is the price. Sure, they are great value, if you consider you can avoid having to replace your pans at least once by buying these... but they are a little on the steep side to get. Quality costs, and it doesn't cost peanuts, but if you want to invest in a pan that's going to give you great results for ages, take no time at all to clean up afterwards (just a quick wipe with a paper towel while hot did it for me.), and save you the hassle of digging flakes of grud-knows-what out of your breakfast in bed treat... then these are worth exploring for sure.

Overall, I just wish i had a larger one so I could try cooking fish and decent sized steaks, or even more than one egg at a time. Now *that* would be a test for sure.