If you’re curious about ceramic cookware, I recently switched most of our cookware over. Here’s my Caraway cookware review. This post isn’t sponsored, but I was given the set to review.
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As I’ve worked to clean up many of our household products, I’ve been interested in switching to ceramic cookware.
What you cook your food in (especially at high temperatures) should be just as important as choosing the food itself.
There is some emerging research on the forever chemicals that are commonly used to make non-stick pans.
PFAS, a group of about 5,000 synthetic compounds, are present in the blood in nearly 100% of the U.S. population. Per the FDA, the main suspected source is from our food supply. Polytetrafluoroethylene, aka Teflon, is in 95% of nonstick pans. And polytetrafluoroethylene can be released into food at high heat.
Research by the Environmental Working Group has shown that forever chemicals take decades to leave the body and they never break down in the environment. I can’t imagine how many of those are hanging out in my body during the years I’ve been using them (sometimes scratched, which is the worst for leaching into food!).
Ceramic is better choice for healthy home cooks
If you create a spectrum with traditional non-stick cookware, like Teflon-coated on the far left, and pans like cast iron or stainless on the right, ceramic would fall right in the middle. It doesn’t have the forever chemicals of traditional non-stick coatings yet it doesn’t take the elbow grease – or literal grease – that those timeless pans require to maintain.
This chart is a great visual:
Caraway Cookware
Caraway Home has been on my radar for YEARS as one of the leading ceramic companies. I can’t tell you how many times I almost bought their beautiful cookware sets. What held me back was that Thomas and I had a nice mixed collection of cookware that we merged together when we got married, so I never took the plunge.
I actually did purchase small and large Caraway baking sheets when they first came out last Christmas. Our old baking sheets were scratched and gross, and I have been SO HAPPY with the ceramic sheets ever since (more below!). Plus we have been gifted several of the Our Place cookware pieces (like the Always Pan), so I never thought it necessary to buy the whole set.
Caraway recently reached out and asked if I’d like to write a Caraway cookware review. I responded with an enthusiastic yes. We sorted through our cookware and decided what to keep and what to donate to make room for the new set.
Caraway Cookware Review
You can buy Caraway cookware as a set or as individual pans, depending on what you need and use. The set is discounted as a bundle though, so you’ll save $150 over buying it all al la carte.
The pans come in some gorgeous colors!! I decided on navy since it’s a theme color in our house and being a darker color that will hopefully not show as much grime over time.
Materials
They feel like very high quality cookware and are on the heavier side.
- The pans are made from aluminum at the core and coated in non-stick ceramic with stainless steel handles.
- The cookware is oven-safe up to 550 degrees.
- You can use it on all of the common cooktops: gas, electric, and induction.
- Pots and pans are free of potentially toxic materials including PFOA, PTFE, other PFAs, lead, cadmium, or toxic metals and made without hard anodization.
What’s Included In The Cookware Set
- 10.5-inch fry pan
- 3-quart sauce pan
- 4.5-quart sauté pan
- 6.5-quart Dutch oven
- Matching lids
- A cork trivet
- ORAGANIZERS!!
The Storage System
I was PUMPED about the storage system, and luckily they fit perfectly in my lazy susan. Shout out to our Always Pan – which we’re keeping – in the middle! I LOVE the sideways storage – brilliant! The unstacking of pans to find the one you need is never a fun process.
The storage dividers are magnetic and snap together. I do find that they shift forward and backward when getting a pan in and out, so I wish they were a little more weighted. You can stack them vertically too, but I found with that direction that they were too tippy with a heavy pan inside, so we went with horizontal.
Lid Storage
I was very sad that the canvas lid holder did not work in our kitchen. We didn’t have a lower cabinet door that was wide and tall enough. However, I will be saving the lid storage to use if we re-do the kitchen! For now, our lids are placed in a drawer, and that works well enough.
My Review
Cleanup
How do they work? So far we’ve been very impressed!! I knew from the sheet pans I’d already purchased that the non-stick ceramic coating was good. I will blacken meatloaf crust onto the pan and it literally wipes off.
The pots have been the same – easy to clean and they totally look brand new.
This residue was left from steaming an artichoke and it wiped right out.
Should food get stuck, Caraway recommends a mixture of 2 tablespoons of baking soda and 1 cup of vinegar soaked for 30 minutes and then using a gentle scrubbing brush.
Unfortunately, the pans aren’t dishwasher safe, but I don’t tend to put cookware in the dishwasher anyways, so that’s not a huge deal for me.
Wear and Tear
I can’t speak yet to how many years they will continue to look new. One major difference between these and the Our Place pans is the outer coating is slick, so grime has washed off easier. The Always Pan has a very rough outer coating, and the outside of our pink pan looked brown in a matter of weeks (the ceramic inside, however, looked brand new.)The brown stains would not come off. So far the Caraway pans have come clean.
I have noticed a few chips on the bottom of the pans, likely from me banging them hard on the rough stove grates. I hope this is not a bad sign for chips in the future. I will update this post to let you know!
The Caraway Bakeware Set
We also got the half bakeware set which comes with a muffin tin, baking pan, and the small and large baking sheets. As mentioned above, these are the best baking sheets I have ever used!
They are on the heavy side, but it hasn’t been a problem to take them in and out of the oven with one hand. I love the metal handles on the side of the larger sheet, and the smaller sheet is perfect for a half-dozen cookies or a bunch of asparagus.
Bakeware Storage
The organizer is pretty awesome too! But just like the lids, the bakeware organizer didn’t fit in our lower cabinets. Luckily I already had a vertical organizer that the sheet pans fit well in.
The organizer did fit well in our upper cabinet space, so I am storing less-used bakeware up there.
How Caraway Is Sold
You can buy Caraway directly through their website and get free shipping on $90 and up orders. They also have free returns. Lastly there is a 30-day trial for a full refund. Note returns do need to be in original packaging, so keep your box while you test drive everything.
The sets do go on sale, so keep your eye out for those too!
If you just want to try one thing to accent your cookware collection, I would recommend the large sauté pan and the large baking sheet.
Shop here.
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