Thread: Stainless Steel, Teflon or Aluminium?

I am throwing away all my teflon and aluminium pots and pans. I got a great stainless steel pot (Betty Crocker, but made in China) that cleans easier than teflon and the food somehow tastes better. It also cooks more evenly. I was looking at Longastina. Any suggestions or thoughts on this? I have long heard that aluminium contributes to Alzheimers disease and teflon flakes are carginogenic...I'm more interested in food tastes and long-lasting wear.

Single-piece cast iron. The only way to go.
My mother used a set of 5 skillets and 5 pots for as long as I could remember.
Impossible to break.

Thick based s/s if you can find it

We have a set of Calphalon pots and pans.
Have nothing but praise for the stuff and it will last a lifetime
Well worth the investment

I had wanted a set of Cousineart,[sp] for years but at over $500 a pop I put it off, My brother did buy a set in Price Club for a lirrle under $500, but after I was here awhile and bought numerous s/s pots and pans that were stainless steel foil and everything stuck and scorched and hot sopts,,shitt,
so i see on the web that some co. in Penn. or somewhere back there had a set on sale 1/2 price, with 9 sheets of pure copper encapsulated in the bottom, heavy stainless lids and was ideal for waterless cooking and only $300 so I bought em and was $145.00 freight and I would not ever use anything else again,

Brand name pots and pans interesting

stainless steels the way forward for our household
always found that the Teflon maybe non stick when you first buy the thing but after awhile it would stop sticking to the pan itself

Calphalon and Cuisineart. Interesting. Thanks Thet and BG. I'll check them out. Wonder if there are stainless steel tub rice cookers? My enamel roasting pan still seems to be OK. Ya, Tex, heavy skillets are good for frying bacon and such. Pour the grease in the lard jug, wipe out the excess and then add water and let the pan boil dry to clean. Gramma style.

http://www.calphalon.com/calphalon/c...uyCanada.jhtml

^ Thanks. I'll check it...Checked. $349 for an eight-piece set, three pieces of which are lids. 555 OK, I'll go to the Bay and take a look.

Originally Posted by justwingit

always found that the Teflon maybe non stick when you first buy the thing but after awhile it would stop sticking to the pan itself

That's what happens when you let a Thai chick do the washing up.

I bought a set of heavy Italian stainless steel saucepans over twenty years ago and they show almost no signs of wear other than superficial scratches. I'm sure they could last a hundred years, maybe more.

The ones I bought 5 years ago look like new, and when cooking with them here I really like the fact that no hot spots and after something is cooking and up to heat you can turn the heat down to its lowest setting and it still keeps on cooking and so they deliver about half as much gas as we used to buy.

Here is the identical set I bought I think and it has 9 plys of copper in the bottom..

ForeverWare 15pc 9-ply Stainless Steel Cookware Set kt915 FREE SHIPPING!!!

You might want to read what Mark Bittman has to say about equipping a kitchen:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/dining/09mini.html

(It's New York Times, so you might have to sign up. Bittman is the author of the fine cookbook, "How to Cook Everything" and "THE MINIMALIST" column which appears in the Post now and then.)

Excerpts:

"In fact, I contend that with a bit of savvy, patience and a willingness to forgo steel-handle knives, copper pots and other extravagant items, $200 can equip a basic kitchen that will be adequate for just about any task, and $300 can equip one quite well."

"You are thinking to yourself: “Humph. He’s ignoring pots and pans, the most expensive items of all.” Au contraire, my friend; I bought five, and I could live with four (though I’d rather have six): a small, medium and large cast-aluminum saucepan (total: about $30); a medium nonstick cast aluminum pan (10-inch; $13); and a large steep-sided, heavier duty steel pan (14-inch; $25). I bought a single lid ($5; I often use plates or whatever’s handy for lids because I can never find the right one anyway)."

"I like cast iron, and I have used it in some kitchens for nearly everything; but it can be more expensive than this quite decent cheap stuff, and it’s very heavy. What you don’t want is the awful wafer thin (and relatively more expensive) sets of stainless or aluminum ones sold in big-box stores."

"The point is not so much that you can equip a real kitchen without much money, but that the fear of buying the wrong kind of equipment is unfounded. It needs only to be functional, not prestigious, lavish or expensive."

"Keep that in mind, stay out of the fancy places and find a good restaurant supply house. If you make a mistake — something is the wrong size or of such lousy quality you can’t bear it — you can spend 20 bucks more another time. Meanwhile, you’ll be cooking."

^ I like the idea of a restaurant supply house, but those are usually wholesale. I'll check about. Hopefully, some summer sales are on. I'm with BG tho; would rather spend more and have the set forever.

^
Thanks, I forget to mention the cleaning bit, real easy.

Someone, who shall remain nameless, went a bit overboard on this Calphalon cookware.
We have got nearly every item in the catalogue including all their accessories and untensils.
We even have the handle insulators.
Damn fine quality and spreads the heat better than anything else I have seen.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Calphalon and Cuisineart. Interesting. Thanks Thet and BG. I'll check them out. Wonder if there are stainless steel tub rice cookers? My enamel roasting pan still seems to be OK. Ya, Tex, heavy skillets are good for frying bacon and such. Pour the grease in the lard jug, wipe out the excess and then add water and let the pan boil dry to clean. Gramma style.

Cook rice in a pyrex bowl in the microwave.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Wonder if there are stainless steel tub rice cookers?

Stainless Steel Rice Cooker - Rice Cookers & Steamers - Compare Prices, Reviews and Buy at NexTag - Price - Review

From same link as Thetyim

also one of these is the same as I bought, the 9 ply and nothing will distribute heat more evenly than pure copper.

And the small covered pot weighs almost 3 Lbs., now thats some thick S/S plus the copper in the bottom.

Cookware Sets - 17pc Stainless Steel Waterless Cookware Set KT17ULTRA - Wholesale - Bulk - Discount

Amazon.com: 17PC 9 ELEM WATERLESS COOKWARE: Kitchen & Dining=

^ Bladdy hell. That's weight lifting exercise. And then you gotta add the dam food. I only weigh 100 lbs.

S/S with metal lids have to be heavy to resist warping or bending to be truly waterless, these are, other than that they can be cast aluminum with glass lids and then you are always short of a lid or 2 because there was a slip and busted when it hit the floor, as with Guardian Service which was good cookware.
My Thai stepdaughter dropped a lid to my set on the tile floor and it never hurt it at all.
and that link I sent is a good one too.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

I only weigh 100 lbs.

Not for long with all the fancy cookware you are buying.

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

I only weigh 100 lbs

Ruddy hell Jet, sounds like you is wasting away.

^ Worries I guess. I always weighed 105-108 lbs in Thailand. (Sorry to the folks on diets who think I'm dissing -- I'm not.) I've never really had a weight problem, but hey, you still have to keep in shape or you get flab no matter what you weigh.
Guess I'm pickier about the food here and I still can't handle the taste and high sodium in stuff, unless I cook it meself.
Olive Oil...where's me Popeye then? I got spinach.