Bourgeat Saute Pan Brazier w/ Cast Iron Review

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(More customer reviews)There are perhaps five great copper pan makers in Europe. Mauviel is best known in America. Another top tier available here is Bourgeat. This pan is one of my favorites. At five and a half quarts, it is one of only five copper or five ceramic brasiers that I regularly employ, but it is the single most used of all ten. Just braising, I use this one forty percent of the time. It is the most useful size for family meals. It is excellent for low liquid braising as well as standard. I still fret over breaking my prized ceramics; they were so hard to find and to bring back from four continents. I love them, and they are not cheap. Not that copper is, but I have punished my copper with great forgiveness in return. If you want to use clay, get a heat diffuser for every size burner.
First, a bone to pick. Name calling can be harmful, so I want to disabuse you if you found this pan because you want to sauté. This is not a sauté pan and it is a poor substitute for one if you intend the classic sauté move. If you want one, look elsewhere. Bourgeat makes some great ones, but the short handles on both ends is the give away that this is a braising pan. Bourgeat makes sauté pans with those low slung rivets so you get great lift leverage with a loaded pan.
Saute is a fundamental technique, but we are talking braising here. In many ways it is opposite, slow and low temperatures. This pan is perfect unless you need a rounded edge round the bottom. This pan has straight sides, which is good for placement, but a tighter corner for stirring completely. I have both designs.
This pan browns excellently. The straight sides of thick copper make sure you heat well around and not just from the bottom, so important at the low and steady braising temperatures.
Also critical is the tightly fitting lid. Low temperatures need a good fit made best by using a sheet of parchment between lid and pan. The trick is to make it concave, and in a crinkled way - sort of an inverted mountain range. Not low enough to touch the food, the parchment serves as an insulation to the lid, while keeping it clean. But the chief purpose is to let the moisture drip back down onto the food.
Braising is an easy and healthy way to cook vegetables and meat in a fat free sauce, slowly, on the burner and finishing in the oven if you like. Temperature should be from 120 to 180, depending on the ingredients. Really tough meats need 180 to transform to perfect tenderness. Others need to go only to 120 to reach the flavor point while preserving vitamins. Learn this method and use this pan.


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