What type of cookware do you use?

[lvs2hunt]

I'd avoid PFAS chemicals in your cookware, you don't need to risk anymore forever chemicals contamination in your diet than we already have. I believe that includes all non-stick coatings. (I also was advised to not use aluminum years ago. Aluminum sucks for cooking anyway.)

Especially since, IMHO, SS and cast iron both are superior in all aspects of cooking performance.

It's a free country, use what you want, but perhaps at least investigate the PFAS issue.

 

[gjgalligan]

I use whatever pans my wife has.

 

[GeorgeJones]

I've just been using upper low/mid grade teflon frying pans, not the cheapie Walmart versions. They really need to be replaced. I've looked at HexClad, but in reading they use one of the forever chemicals they had said they didn't technically use. It still looks like good stuff.

I also looked at non stick All-Clad, but Amazon noted it was a high return item. I don't know anything about their upscale stainless frying pans.

My daughter only uses properly seasoned cast iron. That's an inexpensive way to go.

I don't eat out much so these would get a lot of use.

Recommendations?

You can't beat cast iron. Just don't let your wife wash it with soap!

 

[contender]

I wondered about the ads we keep seeing for the "Made In" pans. Miss Penny looked them up. From what we saw they are made in France.

 

[Hvymax]

 

[Cholo]

All great info! I havn't decided for sure on anything just yet. I should have been much clearer in my OP that I was trying to get away from the various "forever" chemicals in most non stick pans, hence the reference to HexClad. The worst of the chemicals were done away with 10 years ago. The problem is usually when the pan gets too hot. I'm like anyone else in that I sometimes, um, get the pan too hot.

I could live with what I've got, but my much used 10" pan has a handle that's too heavy and it takes several tried to get it balanced just right on an electric stove coil. I'm at the point of a new pan or that one gets shot, literally! LOL

I've got more research to do. Thanks!

 

[Timbo23]

Go with a mix of SS clad and cast iron. A kitchen needs a 10" iron skillet, a Dutch oven, a brasier (wide, low sided pan with a tight fitting lid) and maybe a griddle, plus a stainless steel clad sauce pan (3 qt) and a similar sized saucier pan (wide mouthed sauce pan) and few smaller sauce pans.
Determine what you cook and how many you will be cooking for. That will guide you in what you need.

 

[bookemdano]

Ninja pans, pots, knives, slow cooker, air fryer and mini oven. We've tried a bunch of
brands before we found Ninja but that's all we'll have now.
Dano

 

[jimbo1096]

My cookware in the cabinets looks like somebody went to Goodwill. It's a mismatch of everything you could imagine from three generations of people not wanting to throw away anything.

 

[314Chevy]

I use a 100 year old cast iron pan for most, Le Creuset for most everything else but I love my weber grill the most.

 

[nekvermont]

View attachment 40844

YOU COOKED YOUR CORGI ??

 

[Hvymax]

YOU COOKED YOUR CORGI ??

That's a 100+ lb pig.

 

[Kevin]

Go with a mix of SS clad and cast iron. A kitchen needs a 10" iron skillet, a Dutch oven, a brasier (wide, low sided pan with a tight fitting lid) and maybe a griddle, plus a stainless steel clad sauce pan (3 qt) and a similar sized saucier pan (wide mouthed sauce pan) and few smaller sauce pans.
Determine what you cook and how many you will be cooking for. That will guide you in what you need.

You're right, I was cooking dinner tonight thinking about this thread, what you cook and how many people you will cook for.

But also, how you cook. I do like carbon steel, but we have a gas oven. I wouldn't like to use it as much on an electric cooktop. Or cast iron on an electric cooktop for that matter.

So how you cook as well. I love the All Clad, because it can go from the stove top into the oven. Same with the enamel cast iron. Some of the teflon pans can't. Or shouldn't at least.

 

[6GUNSONLY]

I'd say 75% of our food gets cooked in cast iron - 2 different size skillets, a Dutch oven, and a little round griddle with shallow sides that was my grandmother's. It was made at the old Martin Stove Works that was here in my hometown for many years. My great-granfather was the foreman over the foundry, and I imagine this little griddle was a wedding present to my grandmother from him, though I don't know that for sure. It is probably at least 90 years old. It makes a perfect half-batch of cornbread (1 cup cornmeal, 1 egg, oil and buttermilk) with crispy edges.

We also use some SS saucepans and a big skillet that we'll use for stir fry and such. It's Wolfgang Puck brand, and is China made but seems to be pretty good quality. We've had it for many years. We also have a big heavy enameled steel soup pot we use for big batches of soup, stew and such, usually only if the kids are all coming. Too big for just the two of us.

 

[t-reg]

My best frying pans came from a center isle sale at Menards, lol.
Was getting tired of castviron, so those ceramic coated pans were attractive.
They are non-stick and easy clean (dishwasher) as advertised, no PFAS. The food cooks and tastes just as good, just a lot less headache.

 

[CAJUNCHEF]

Thanks @Kevin

@Cholo usually a wipe from a paper towel is all that is needed.

When needed I use hot water and one of these scrub brushes to clean my pans. Then onto a warm burner to dry them.
View attachment 40842

A bamboo Wok brush (available at Asian markets, is good to clean a cast iron pan. It won't remove the seasoning.

 

[Joe Chartreuse]

I use a great set of well seasoned cast iron pans, copper bottom aluminum pots, and a hammered steel wok.

 

[jkingrph]

Made In blue carbon steel cookware. Pressed steel, seasons and cooks like cast iron without a lot of the weight. My wife is 80 and complained about the weight of some of the cast iron, even a couple of lighter weight Stargazer cast iron skillets, which have a precison milled or ground interior surface. The Made I skillets and a wok are at least 1/3 lighter than comparable cast iron. She does continue to use a small 8" cast iron skillet for cornbread. It has seasoned so well the interior is a high gloss black.

About 20 years ago we got a set of All Clad cookware, and have added to it. THere was a non stick pan that went bad and a large skillet that dissapeared. As for a skillet, I did not care for bare stainless, everything else it's the best. Something about their allow is that it does not develope the yellow-gold grease/oil film on the outside. Easiest stuff to clean and keep looking good that I have ever had.

 

[Cholo]

Just a follow up. The 2 pans I have now are made by Calphalon. The 12" started to warp and now it's all but unusable. I finally went with the Made In set of 8", 10" and 12" frying pans. Not cheap, but I had to get something. They're made in Italy.

They currently have $50 off so I went for it. They will arrive next Wed. The HexClad hawked by Gordon Ramsey really gets hammered in reviews.

Amazon.com

I may be looking at a kitchen knife set next.

 

[Kevin]

Just a follow up. The 2 pans I have now are made by Calphalon. The 12" started to warp and now it's all but unusable. I finally went with the Made In set of 8", 10" and 12" frying pans. Not cheap, but I had to get something. They're made in Italy.

They currently have $50 off so I went for it. They will arrive next Wed. The HexClad hawked by Gordon Ramsey really gets hammered in reviews.

Amazon.com

I may be looking at a kitchen knife set next.

After you've used the Made In pans a while, will you let us know what you think? I'd be curious. I've wondered about that brand for a while.

Good luck with the knife set. I'm sure you will get all sorts of replies on that one.

Edited to add:
I found a pan at the thrift store, it really looked brand new. It was the "Green Pan" brand sold at Sur La Table.

We only used it for perhaps 3 months and it got extremely dirty. I couldn't clean it. This is a non stick coated pan.

Finally last week, after cooking some French toast and the eggs stuck, I just got worried about the pan and threw it away.