Our Place Always Cookware

The Our Place Always Pan is shaped like a sauté pan, with medium-high, straight sides, but has a ceramic nonstick surface (more on that below). Here’s what we liked about cooking in it: Its 3-inch-tall walls helped contain food when we were sautéing and stir-frying, such as when we made Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry, and we thought the pan’s pour spout was smart, since it allowed us to easily pour water and tomato sauce from it. The pan was also fairly light—about 3 pounds without the lid—which made it easy to lift and maneuver around the stovetop. It was also painless to clean, thanks to its nonstick surface.

The Perfect Pot has a capacity of 5.5 quarts—the same as our favorite medium Dutch oven—but weighs 4.59 pounds with the lid, so it’s easy to transport; its ceramic nonstick interior is easy to clean. It has enough space to boil a pound of pasta. We liked its light interior, which was helpful for monitoring browning. 

However, both pieces of cookware have some flaws. The Always Pan’s cooking surface is smaller than we prefer—8.5 inches in diameter. This is fine for cooking recipes with smaller yields, but if you’re cooking a full recipe, you may need to sauté or fry in several batches for proper browning. The straight, high walls made it trickier to maneuver a nonstick spatula under fried eggs, but at the same time they weren’t high enough to mimic that of the saucepan and the saucier the manufacturer says it replaces, so it was difficult to simmer water or sauce without making a mess. The pan wasn’t ovensafe, limiting its use; our favorite nonstick and ceramic skillets are ovensafe up to 430 and 600 degrees, respectively.

We took issue with the Perfect Pot’s construction. Made of aluminum, it conducts heat more easily but unevenly, developing hot spots; when we made rice, it was undercooked. Its cooking surface measured just 8 inches across, which is smaller than those of the medium Dutch ovens we’ve tested, so we had to sear meat in more batches when making beef Burgundy. Because its ceramic nonstick surface can’t be heated to high temperatures, we also struggled to brown the meat properly and failed to develop fond. As in other lightweight Dutch ovens, the bread made in the Perfect Pot came out pale and didn’t have great crust development.

Both the Always Pan and the Perfect Pot have ceramic nonstick surfaces. Ceramic skillets get their nonstick properties from a material derived from beach sand, so they pose no risk of releasing toxic fumes, even at high temperatures. As we’ve found in previous tests, a ceramic coating does have some drawbacks: It’s more brittle and likely to develop microscopic surface cracks with use. The more microscopic surface cracks, the likelier food is to stick to it. Unfortunately, the Always Pan lost its nonstick qualities after we cooked just 44 eggs in it, and the Perfect Pot started to show signs of sticking after we cooked 39 eggs—failing to measure up to our favorite nonstick and ceramic skillets, which stayed perfectly slippery even after cooking 50 eggs. 

Apart from their nonstick issues, both pieces of cookware were reasonably durable. The pan’s interior got a little scratched and its exterior chipped slightly, but the pan itself didn’t warp or dent in our abuse tests. The pot fared even better, remaining intact even after we whacked its rim 50 times with a metal spoon and slammed the lid down 25 times. 

We liked that the pan came with a spoon rest and a helper handle, though we wished the latter were a bit bigger. We didn’t love the pan’s rectangular handles; its squared-off edges dug into our palms. Happily, the handles on the Perfect Pot improved on its predecessor’s. Its large, loopy handles were easy to grab onto, even when using a dish towel or oven mitt.

The pan’s accessories were a mixed bag. We liked that the pan came with a lightweight lid, as not all pans or skillets include one. And the lid’s handle stayed cool enough to grasp without a pot holder. The lid had a gap where it aligned with the pan’s handle so that you could lock the lid in place, preventing steam from escaping, a helpful feature when steaming dumplings, broccoli, and eggs.

Its combination steamer basket/colander was large enough to successfully steam an entire bag of frozen dumplings and more than a pound of broccoli florets. But its two handles were floppy and hard to grab. And the basket was shallow and had short walls, limiting how well it worked as a colander; we could drain only one or two servings of pasta at a time. It also lacked a base or sizable feet, preventing water from draining efficiently.

The wooden spatula was good at scraping and scooping, but it had a rectangular-shaped handle and square corners that were sharp and uncomfortable to hold.

The Perfect Pot comes with a roasting rack that doubles as a steamer. Because the legs are about 1 inch tall, we were able to fit only 1 cup of water under the rack at a time. This was fine for dumplings but could be problematic for steaming vegetables or protein, as we might need more water for longer cooking times. We liked that the rack itself is nonstick, as none of the dumplings stuck to the rack. 

The pot has a built-in strainer under one side of the lid. However, when we boiled pasta, we found the strainer hard to use, as the lid fell off when tilted at a certain angle. 

The pot comes with a beechwood spoon with divots on the underside of the handle, allowing you to rest the spoon on the pot handles. This spoon rest might be helpful if your kitchen is too small for a standalone version, but because the handles are very close to the heat source, we worried about the wooden spoon catching on fire. The wooden spoon itself is well-made and comfortable to hold. 

So should you buy this pan? Most likely not. If you’re a serious cook, you’ll probably find buying separate pieces of cookware more worthwhile. If you have minimal kitchen and storage space and want the same functionalities the Our Place Always Pan offers, we think a 12-inch nonstick skillet or ceramic skillet, a lid, a Dutch oven, a collapsible steamer basket, a wooden spoon, and a colander would be better investments and cost you about $205 (if you opt for our budget-friendly picks), compared with the Our Place Always Pan, which costs $145. And if you have room for only one or two pans, a good 12-inch nonstick skillet or ceramic skillet and a Dutch oven would be more useful. However, we can see the appeal for those who have small kitchens (the recent-college-grad version of me would’ve loved this pan) and value aesthetically pleasing cookware. However, we can see the appeal for those who truly have tiny kitchens, cook exclusively for one or two people, and value aesthetically pleasing cookware.

While we liked the Perfect Pot a little better than the Always Pan, we think most cooks would be better off investing in either a lightweight Dutch oven or a medium-size Dutch oven because they’re better at essential tasks such as braising and searing. Our budget pick for a lightweight Dutch oven is only a little heavier than the Perfect Pot, but because it’s made from tri-ply stainless steel, it sears better and cooks food more consistently. It’s also about half the price of the Perfect Pot. If space, not weight, is a concern, we’d recommend our Best Buy medium Dutch oven. It’s 5 quarts, but it’s cheaper and has a larger cooking surface (¾ inch bigger) than the Perfect Pot, which means that you’ll fit more ingredients without crowding. You can also bake great bread in it, which you can’t do in the Perfect Pot. If performance isn’t your highest priority and you just want a good-looking, easy-to-clean nonstick pot for boiling pasta, you’ll like cooking in the Perfect Pot.