Make And Take Electric Skillet

An electric skillet is usually the most awkward thing in the cupboard: wide, flat, immovable, with a domed lid that stacks on top and doubles its height. Bella built one that lies on its side instead.

The Bella Make and Take is a 12 inch square electric skillet whose tempered glass lid inverts and clamps to the rim, so a finished dish travels to the table in the pan it cooked in. Two clamps sit at the cool touch handles and slide across to pin the lid down. That does two jobs at once. It seals a casserole for the car, and it lets the skillet stand on edge in a cupboard rather than lie flat, which is where Bella's claim of up to 50 percent more space than its earlier pans comes from. Inverted, the lid nests into the pan rather than sitting above it. The cooking surface is 3 inches deep, which is chilli and casserole depth rather than omelette depth.

Heat comes off a cast aluminium base under an EverGood ceramic non-stick coating, made without PFAS, PFOA, PTFE, lead or cadmium. Temperature is set on a probe that unplugs from the side of the pan: turn the dial, the light comes on, and it goes out when the surface reaches the number, anywhere from warm up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The cord winds into a channel in the base and the probe clips to the side, so nothing trails when the pan goes away.

The styling is quieter than the mechanism suggests: rounded corners, a soft matte finish, fine vertical fluting down the sides. Five colours, of which Oatmilk is the plainest.