Replacing Our Cookware – Buying Experience

Since I started developing my online store for cookware and bakeware, I decided it might be time to start replacing some of our cookware. It might be a good idea to use some of the products we promote.

Since I have stainless steel, non-stick, cast iron and even a classic copper soup pot in my kitchen now, there should be plenty of room for some comparison among the array of products that are available to restock the kitchen.

Aluminum is a popular choice for a lot of cookware. Unfortunately it has gotten a bad rap because it is used for many less expensive products which do not always perform well. Aluminum does have good characteristic including good heat distribution and lighter weight but many products can have “’hot spots” or can warp with high temperature applications.

Carbon steel cookware is another less expensive alternative. However, the black or dull silver finish eliminates it from most home kitchen selections. You will find both aluminum and carbon steel products in restaurant kitchens due to their lower cost, durability, versatility and performance.

But for most home kitchens and for many professional chefs, stainless steel is the foundation and starting point for most cookware selections. Choices then center on the cladding material used – aluminum or copper and the number of cladding layers – 3, 5 or 7. Finish and style make up the remainder of variations to be considered.

Some of the most popular brands in the US are comprised of aluminum sandwiched between layers of stainless steel while other noted brands use copper. Choices of having the clad only as a plate on the bottom of the pan or having the heat conduction material wrapped up the sides to the edge of the pan are less obvious to many consumers but have a big impact o the performance of sauce pots and saute pans. Having the heat distributed up the sides of the pan is important for sauté pan used for reducing sauces and sautéing. The bottom plate design is good for the larger sauce and soup pots however.

Copper cookware is used for some special uses such as delicate sauces, candies and other applications where heat control is really important but we chose not to consider this for everyday use. But our soup pot and a Mauviel spayed copper sauté pan can be quite handy more frequently than expected.
So we decided to limit our comparison to stainless steel cookware alternatives.

The first step in the comparison adventure was to see what the stores had to say. As expected this was mostly a waste of time. Many of the sales associates in the stores were of little help. First, most are not trained in the uses of the cookware and have little knowledge of the different properties. Second, they were more interested in selling the items where they got the best commissions

So the next step was to do some research at home to try and narrow down the options. There are a multitude of sites and resources to help on this quest. In fact, there are too many. Getting the good sources of information without getting overwhelmed can be a problem. Here are some choices:

Consumers Reports
Epinions
Fantes
Cookware.Org

Some of the things to consider in the evaluation include: what do you want to do, how easy is it to clean and care for, does it look good, and life of the product. One of my observations was that a number of evaluators tended to consider only a limited number of brands or manufacturers which skews the results. There are a number of products from France and Italy that are not that well known in the US but are of very high quality and are frequently less expensive than the popular US brands.

This evaluation took a lot more effort that I thought it would when I started. So I have a better appreciation of what people have to go through before they select my products. It also became evident that there is no one right answer. Each cook has different preferences and should select the products thhy like.
Our choice is to add one or two stainless steel items from Paderno and Fissler (including one of their pressure cookers); a non-stick skillet from Swiss Diamond (how do beat coatings of diamonds); and a clay baker (a new experience for us). Then we will start looking at the new versatile kitchen appliances such as a deep fryer, rice cooker, or Panini grill.

I hope your search and selection is as much fun as ours was.