Big,and beautiful with a glass top that lets you see exactly how things are cooking. We are big fans and users of electric frying pans, these things are great, and this one is certainly bigger and perhaps better than the many others we have used to death, BUT there is this one flaw and it is hard to get over.
The vent hole in the glass top is too small. Water vapor stuffs up in this little hole and the lid starts to sputter all around the edge and all over the counter top. Cooking too fast? Well no. The temp control shuts on and off as most of them do, and so when it's in the on mode the pan gets a rush of heat and the top then sputters all over the place.
We have had the pan for about eight months, so perhaps cuisinart has corrected this problem.
My grandma gave us a 12-inch square electric skillet in the 70s, but we hardly ever used it and eventually gave it to Goodwill. It offered no advantage over stovetop cooking.
My wife got the Green skillet for me last month. The 14 inch size makes it very versatile. You can brown a lot of mushrooms without having to batch-cook them. I'm sure it will fry a lot of chicken too.
The heat distribution is good. At 450 F, you can't sear steaks--leave that to 550F+ cast iron or Staub's enameled iron grill pans-but golden-browning is wonderfully easy to achieve.
For open-pan cooking, I would give it 4-5 stars.
I must however, subtract two full stars for the patently inadequate lid design. How many of us use lidded pans without using their lids to cook? It would be nice to use the Green skillet to steam, simmer or boil things, but the condensate on the lid underside flows directly to the pan rim, gathers, then bubbles, spits and drips all over the countertop and onto the temp-control module. I have to put a towel over the latter, not knowing if an electrical short could otherwise occur, and even then I have to wipe up the countertop afterwards. Or I have to "crack" the lid (which lessens dripping and directs it to one area). Not a fatal issue, but indicative of less-than-fully-thoughtful attention to functional detail by Cuisinart.
Two design modifications to the lid would greatly improve things. 1) a much larger vent hole with a sliding shutter to adjust the size of the orifice, and 2) a glass or metal circular rim on the underside running maybe a half inch from the lid's edge, to force lid-condensate to drip into the pan instead of flowing to the lid/pan-edges interface and sputtering out.
All in all, we're using this pan a lot, as it works really well for open-pan cooking, and then using the lid to keep food warm.
Buy Cuisinart CSK-250 GreenGourmet 14-Inch Nonstick Electric Skillet Now
Although it initially worked well, this pan was a knock-off, not a Cuisinart item, as stated. The coating began lifting off after a few uses. The recipient contacted Cuisinart, which advised her of the propensity for sales on Amazon often being knock-offs. The parts come from the same source, but there are differences, such as the coating. (Cuisinart was very kind and, since she had the original receipt, allowed her to return the first pan at her cost and then shipped her a genuine cuisinart CSK-250, which definitely had a different coating.)
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Nice large, deap, non stick, electric skillet with a heavy glass lid that has a vent hole in it. The only issue is that it has a small metal handle on the lid that gets very hot and you have to use a pot holder or oven glove to lift it when you want to stir the food. I would give this product five stars if they replaced the metal handle with a larger heat resistant handle.
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I have used it twice to make French Cruellers. They are fried in 2" of oil. The first time I set the thermostat for 325F and when the light went out I assumed it was up to Temp. Put my donut in and it just sat there. I tried the 350 setting but that didn't bring the temp up much so I turned it to 450 and was able to get the cruellers done.
Today I decided to try it again. I put the 2 inches of room temp oil in the fry pan. Turned the thermostat to 350F. I checked it with a very trusty Thermo-Pen after 30 minutes and it was barely up to 250F. I finally turned the thermostat up to 450F and ONE hour later it registered 350 on my Thermo-Pen.
I feel there is something wrong with this skillet. I have many many Cuisinart products including all of their stainless steel cookware and I've been very happy with it. I would have written to the seller but haven't a clue who that is or how to find an email link for them.
terry pogue
potomac, maryland
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I broke my last pizza stone after over ten years of use and decided to give this product a try because the price was so reasonable. I am so glad I ignored the negative comments! This stone is quite good. The finish is nice and smooth and heats well and evenly, the rack is sturdy and easy to use in lifting out the stone, the peel is wood and very sturdy and not too big to handle easily and while the "cutter/pie server" is cheap plastic, I didn't buy the product for that anyway. If you make flat bread and/or pizzas, you already should own a good stainless pizza cutter! I was very pleased with the quality of this product, especially since the price was so reasonable. I would recommend this to anyone who wants a good, serviceable set.
