I posted something similar to this before The Great Crash of 2002 ™ and, dammabit, I can’t find it.
So…
I am in the market for basically a new every day frying type pan.
( I do alot of grilled cheese/ eggs and omlettes here.)
I have gone through about one a year, and I think I want to actually invest into something a little better than the run of the mill teflon/nonstick stuff.
My question to you, the vastly superior chef than I, a culinary nightmare, is : What do you recommend for someone who is domestically challenged who wants to learn to be a better cook.
Cast iron, but buy an old one at a yard sale for like $5. This will save you the work of “seasoning” it yourself. A seasoned cast iron pan looks blackened, not grey or silvery, and may appear to have an oily sheen on the cooking surface. A seasoned cast iron pan aquires a partially non-stick surface (some very sticky foods will still stick to it but many will not) and should never* be cleaned with soap (just hot water) and especially never scrubbed with steel wool (metal cooking implements are fine). As an added benefit, cooking in cast iron is a source of dietary iron.
*Okay, maybe in a cleaning emergency but not as a rule.
Invest in a teflon coated skillet from Calphalon or another top line brand. You’ll have the benefits of non-stick and the even heat conductiveness of the good quality pan.
I second annieclaus. Cast iron isn’t great for eggs (especially scrambled) – they stick something fierce.
I recommend Calphalon, Anolon, All-Clad, etc. – any of your top-of-the-line cookware. They all have nonstick lines (I believe). Go to your local department store or Bed Bath & Beyond equivalent and get someone to help explain the difference to you. Some can go in the dishwasher, some can’t – but it still isn’t recommended, so be ready to hand-wash your new pan. Pick them up, see how the handle feels, see how heavy it is. Once you get to the nice stuff, which brand you buy is not as important, IMO – get what you like. And don’t forget to get one with a lid! Rice-a-roni needs to be covered while it simmers down.
I bought two of these pans six months ago, and they’re outstanding. Very thick and durable, removable rubber grips so they can go into the oven.
Non-stick with a very good finish. Mine still look like new even with heavy use.
I bought an 8" and a 10" for 60 dollars, which is better than I’ve seen on other high-end cookware. I’ve used Calpholon Pro stuff a lot, and I like these better. I’d buy them again without hesitation.
If you’re trying to stay away from added oil, then go with a Calphalon non-stick. If you’re not averse to a bit of butter or peanut oil in the pan, try out the Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized. My experience is that once I’ve seasoned them a bit there is little problem with sticking, and I can cook on as high heat as needed and use any tools I want without worrying about a non-stick coating getting ruined. The 8-inch omelette pan is $US45 list, but you should be able to get it cheaper on the street.
OK, while I’m as big a fan of cast iron as anyone, if you’re going to have only one skillet you use for nearly everything, I’m not sure cast iron is the best choice. It’s not good for highly acidic foods (anything with tomatoes, for example, or lots of vinegar). For that, you want something with a non-reactive surface (stainless steel, or a non-stick coating, or enameled cast iron.
I also don’t think you’ll get a non-stick Calphalon skillet for less than $50 (at least not a 10 or 12 incher, which you’d want as a general-purpose skillet – and if doesn’t have the non-stick coating, you’ve got the same reactivity problem with hard-anodized aluminum as with cast iron).
Shirley – given that you mention omelets and eggs as being among the most common items you cook, and a upper limit on the budget of $50, the first thing that comes to mind for me would be one of the aluminum Mirro Chef’s Touch non-sitck saute pans with the curved sides you see in the cookware section of the grocery store. A twelve-inch pan will set you back about twenty bucks. The ones I’m talking about have wooden handles and fairly thick aluminum sides --don’t buy anything that’s thinner than a couple or three nickels stacked together. You won’t impress the neighbors, and eventually the non-stick coating will stop sticking to the pan, but you’ll get lots of service out of it. The curved sides make it much easier to lift the edges of the omelet and to slide it out of the pan onto the plate.
I finally found a set of really cheap cookware that met my standards back in the fall. It’s called Eterna, by Ecko, and the only place I’ve ever seen it was in the Revere Corning outlet store. I was tired of scorching the thin, sloping sides of our old Revere stuff on our gas range. I also wanted something with metal handles so that they could go straight from the rangetop into the oven. The Eterna line has very thick stainless-clad aluminum bottom disks, and reasonably thick, straight vertical sides, and metal handles and lids. I’ve been very pleased with how it’s performed for the most part, and for the price (less than $80 for a seven-piece set) it’s unbeatable. The heat conductivity is nearly as good as the couple of odd pieces of Calphalon I’ve been given as gifts. The drawbacks are that the exterior finish isn’t that attractive and seems to be difficult to get really clean, and the rivets on the interior of the pans seem to trap oil and grease that occasionally seeps out when the pans are heated the next time they’re used. Also, the sides of the 10" skillet are a little short, so that it’s easy to slop things out when turning/flipping/stirring. Nevertheless, I can put up with a few little quirks like that for a price difference of a $200-$400 between that and All-Clad. The 10" skillet is around $20-$25 open stock.
I’ve got a 14" (or so) Wear-ever teflon coated frying pan. I’ve had it for about 4 years and its as good as new still. They say (Wearever) that you can use metal utinsels (sp?) on them but I never had. The nicest thing is clean-up. Just have to use a dishcloth. No scrubbing or anything. I can usually even put it in the dishwasher to get cleaned if there is enough room.
As for the other stuff, I have just plain, good quality stainless pots. The bottoms have a good sandwich layer for heat distribution but thats about it. I’ve had my set for about 7 years now and still as good as new.
Go to a restraunt supply warehouse (they have them in most major cities and they are usually open to the public).
You can get really durable no-nonsense stuff for really cheap. It is also a great place to find knives (I got the best knife known to man for a mere $12.00). I love my $20.00 restraunt frying pan…The only draw back is that the stuff is usually pretty ugly (big blue rubber handles and that sort of thing) but then you get to feel all cool when you go out to eat and see the chefs using the same kind of cookware that you do.
I bought a 12" Calphalon pan last year for about $55 - I’ll never go back to the K-Mart $10 frying pans. Yes, you have to be a bit more careful with it - but cooking and clean-up are a piece o’cake now.
if you can save up, many places online offer specials when you buy a set. They will toss in an extra pan or something.
I have the commercial nonstick for everyday. BE SURE TO USE PLASTIC UTENCILS!
Target has a line of Calphalon at a more inexpensive price. You may consider checking them out.
I also got a three pan cast iron set at Target for 15 dollars.
I think that with cooking, you need a variety of types of pans.
I have owned some calphalon of various grades and vintages, as well as some dansk and an embarrassing amount of el cheapo walmart type crap (well, Zellers, but anyway…) Don’t get me wrong, the Calphalon is good stuff but…
I researched this quite heavily over Christmas whilst playing santa. Mrs Vark and myself tend to research the snot out of most consumer purchases…in any case, I honestly believe these guys are the best value for the dollar. It’s solid quality stuff, restaurant grade, gold plated guarantee.
And, it’s a Canuck company to boot, so your dollar goes farther… I would choose this stuff over all others I have tried, any day.
FWIW, I have also bought a couple of HUGE, HEAVy *Vollrath * nonstick pans from a restaurant supply place which have been excellent, but we use them so much that even then the nonstick is clearly starting to fade. I am increasingly convinced that non-stick does not necessarily do a cook any favours.
[tangent] and reading Micheal Ruhlman has only reinforced this view [/tangent]
Anyway that’s my 2 cents worth, not adjusted for exchange.
Professional grade cookware is great stuff, but for the basic home cook who isn’t catering on the side, there isn’t a need to spend the amount of money on it. I’ve been using Revere Ware for 10 years now and never had a problem with it, and I’m very hard on pans as I do a lot of high heat cooking. I recommend it a lot because it is very good quality and in my opinion, very tough to beat when you compare the quality to the fairly low cost.
Professional pans are just that. Pans that are being used constantly for 12 hours a day and can take a lot of abuse. If you are like most people, cooking a few meals a day, you just don’t need the super grade stuff. Also, I’m not saying that you are a poor cook, but most people who are not professional chefs simply don’t have the techniques, talents, knowledge, etc to take advantage of the slight difference that an 80 dollar, space age skillet can give you even if you had the industrial cooking stoves of a pro.
Bottom line, IMO, go for the low-middle ground unless you just have money to burn. Cheap pans suck, good pans are very good, and excellent pans are just as good as “good” ones for everyday use.
Yup, these places are great. You can get pretty much anything you can imagine. Cotton candy machines, steak platters and metal steak doneness sticks. The things that say rare, medium and well done. I’m sure there is a proper name for them. And everything is cheap and well made. Just make sure the pan isn’t so heavy you have a problem lifting it. And be prepared to hand wash, it’s not that bad.
What I buy depends on what I need it for. That’s why I don’t buy sets. They do the small pans wrong and it’s a waste of money. I buy item per item. That way you get the very best thing for its function. The first thing I look for overall is versatility, meaning can stove ware be put into the oven. But as far as cooking on the stove, enameled cast iron like Le Creuset is my favorite due to the eveness of heat. They make the best frying pans bar none, with real (long) handles. People just don’t like spending $80 or more on a single pan. Also a Le Creuset pan is a deadly weapon.
Other stuff I have is heavy guage aluminum, and some regular Farberware pans. I don’t have any copper right now but I don’t really need it, anyway the good stuff is too expensive. If you do buy any high end pans or pots DON’T buy non-stick. It’s a shame for a good pan to need recoating or end up as a paper weight in 5 years.
I’ve been trying to put a kitchen together from scratch over the past couple weeks (long story), but I’ve found some great deals lately. Amazon.com is having a sale through April the twenty-some-odd on All-Clad, Calphalon, and Le Fleuret cookware. As much as I would love to have a set of this stuff, it’s only through the discount that I’ve been able to get a couple pieces here and there.
I’ve gotten a 1 qt All-Clad saucepan, an AC 7 inch skillet, a Calphalon 2 1/2 qt saucepan w/lid, a 3 1/2 qt saucepan w/lid, and a Calphalon 9 inch Chef’s skillet s/lid for a total of less than $150 (including shipping). These were the best deals (more than 60% off), but there are many pieces with discounts between 20 and 40 percent. The only piece I would have killed for but couldn’t justify the expense was the beautiful LeFleuret larger cookware piece that was offered for 60 or 70 percent off in green, but the flaming orange piece that I love was only 30% off.
I ordinarily wouldn’t have bought the expensive brands except for the deal. These nicer pieces will probably look strange next to the basics that I own – a cheapo aluminum 2 qt pot (great for rice), a couple random Magnilites (nothing else seems to do vegetables the way I like), a couple Walmart Teflon skillets (lower fat stuff), and a big aluminum stockpot (gumbo, soups, etc.). Too bad – it if cooks well, it works for me.
It’s very interesting reading all these replies. I guess what it proves is that different people like different kinds of cookware for different things. I’ve actually got a mix of Calphalon, All-Clad, some cheapie Teflon coated skillets, Cuisinart, and some of my Mom’s old Hall-ite pans that have to be 50 years old if they’re a day. My newest addition is a LeCreuset 5-quart Dutch oven in royal blue. It’s wonderful for short ribs and stews that cook for a long time in the oven. . . and it cleans like a breeze without any Teflon lining. So, chacun a son gout!
