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Jet Gorgon

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.

Texpat

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.

Ban Saray

Thick based s/s if you can find it

Thetyim

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

blackgang

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,

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justwingit

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

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.

Thetyim

Jet Gorgon

^ 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.

Marmite the Dog

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

dennis3506

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.

blackgang

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!!!

tcp

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."

Jet Gorgon

^ 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.

DrAndy

we bought our set of stainless steel pots ages ago and they are great

cast iron are Ok but very heavy and can scratch a glass hob surface

we now have an induction hob and need some magnetic base pans. We found a good set on the web for around US$100 incl delivery (actually in the Uk, around 50 squids)

the main thing is for the pans to have a good base that will conduct the heat quickly across the whole base of the pan

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El Gibbon

Gotta agree with Thetyim on this one. The Ms bought a calphalon skillet 14 inch ( needed a heavy pan to work on the convection style hot plate). I thought it was to high fallutin shit to be bothered with.

WRONG! damn near every single meal over the last year has been cooked in that pan, from bacon and eggs to grilled salted fish. Cleans up really easy and still looks as new as the day she bought it. Oh, she doesn't always have a non scratch utensil handy so whatever is within reach works for her. Remarkable durability from what I see.

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Thetyim

^
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.

attaboy

Cook rice in a pyrex bowl in the microwave.

Thetyim

blackgang

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=