So, I’ll purchase a pot and a pan soon enough. I’d like to know more about the best materials, features and brands.
What should I know? What should I go for, what should I avoid?
Also, I should note that I like a pot with a transparent top so I can see the food cooking.
Are there preferred materials for the handles?
Both hard-anodized aluminium and ceramic coating come back a lot in recommendations. Is that deserved?
How about silicone utensils?
Conventional wisdom states that it’s thickness of the pan and not the material which is important. The thicker it is, the better it will transfer and retain heat without “hot spots.”
Personally I like my pans cast iron, and my pots anodized aluminum.
Copper is very good, but it’s also expensive. Some pans compromise by making the bottom, or a layer of the bottom, out of copper with the rest a cheaper metal like steel or aluminum.
Material definitely matters. For example, cast iron heats up much more slowly than copper, but holds the heat longer. Material is as much a consideration as thickness, but you generally want thicker pans.
I like my pans cast iron, as well. But I do have one anodized frying pan with the ceramic coating just for cooking eggs. It’s so easy to make an omelette in that thing, it makes me look like Julia Child (figuratively).
Whatever you do, don’t bother with a pair of silicone tongs. I have a pair with silicone tips, and they are useless. The tips are too soft to grip anything. I guess I keep them around in hopes of discovering something they are good for, but that has eluded me so far.
How does the ceramic coating compare to anodized? Why is it so good at making eggs?
Does the ceramic chip easily? Do you have to be careful about temperature fluctuations?
Do they melt? Are they difficult to clean?
Silicone won’t melt and is extremely easy to clean.
I use Sitram Catering pots and pans.
I wouldn’t give them up for the world.
For non-stick fry pans I have yet to find anything I like better than Good Cook stainless steel pans. These are the toughest non stick pans I have ever bought. I would go through the non sick coating on other pans in about a year, these last seemingly forever.
Are there handles which can be bought and will fit these handles? I’d rather use a handle than put on the oven mit every time I want to manipulate toe pots & pans.
If you mean replacement handles, then no. The sitram handles are welded on and the Good Cook are riveted. I’m sure you could find something silicon to slip over them but the entire point of steel handles is that they can go in the oven at any temp without worry about plastic handles melting.
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Whatever you do, don’t bother with a pair of silicone tongs. I have a pair with silicone tips, and they are useless. The tips are too soft to grip anything. I guess I keep them around in hopes of discovering something they are good for, but that has eluded me so far.
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The only silicone anything (other than Silpat) I’ve had in the kitchen that’s worth a damn is silicone pastry/basting brushes, and even then, they’re just barely worth having.
For tongs, I like Oxo’s locking nylon-tipped version. They can be latched in the closed position for storage. Think they also have a red nylon “high heat” version, but I haven’t done any damage to the regular black ones yet.
What kind of price range are you looking at? Top-of-the-line pots and pans like All-Clad and Le Creuset are very nice, and made of excellent materials. All-Clad, for example, has metal handles, but they for whatever reason don’t conduct the heat into the handle much so they are easily handled. Le Creuset’s ceramic-coated cast iron pots combine the good points of cast iron with ease of cleaning due to the coating (which is extremely durable). However you can get pretty good pans for less if price is an issue.
Another route is to look at stores like Marshalls and TJ Maxx - they very frequently will have high end stuff that is factory seconds with practically imperceptible imperfections at a serious discount. I see All-Clad stuff there all the time, but the exact inventory changes quite a bit from week to week.
Well, got myself a GreenPan enamel, a lot like this but with a muted exterior color: http://img.tjskl.org.cn/nimg/90/14/3a811a4a4f51facf898166253039-0x0-0/green_ceramic_nonstick_frying_pans_28cm_with_strong_style_color_b82220_glass_strong_lid.jpg
I’m wondering how daintily I have to handle it.
I have a pan like that, it’s not a bad little pan.
It’ll get small chips in the enamel over time but it should last a good while. The thing to remember about any non-stick is that it won’t last forever. Eventually it’ll wear out depending upon how much you use it and how gentle you are with it. It’s not the end of the world.
If you want to keep it lasting as long as possible, don’t overheat it, try to use nylon utensils with it, when cleaning it let it soak if it’s got crud in it as opposed to scrubbing it.
Silicon or silicone? 
Really? I use mine all the time.
I live alone, so I frequently pan-fry just one chicken cutlet, and my tongs are what I use to flip it (Or potatoes, zucchini slices, salmon…). That’s also what I use when I smush stuff around when deglazing. Shrug guess it’s just one of those things where something that works for one person doesn’t for another.
By the same token, I’m rubbish at flipping a fried egg. I usually have to use a fork to scootch the egg far enough onto the spatula to flip. Like I said, some things work better for some people.
For 25$, pretty good.
Doesn’t the ceramic make steel utensils ok? Ceramic is harder than steel, therefore if I don’t bang utensils on it, it should be the utensils that get affected, not the ceramic coating. This is inaccurate?
Ceramic is hard but it’s brittle. If you overheat the pan enough for it to significantly expand or warp the ceramic coating will crack. Similarly, cooking with metal utensils will cause chips and cracks unless you’re very careful.
It’s going to get chipped eventually, but even if it has a few chips it’ll still be a good pan for a good while. Oh, one more thing, when you put it away, don’t nest another pan on top of it.
The bottom line is that non-stick pans have a limited lifetime. If you use it occasionally and treat it well it may last your lifetime. If you use it everyday and treat it carelessly you may only get a year or two out of it, it all depends.
Can’t agree strongly enough. The reason people hate any particular type of cookware is that they don’t follow the instructions for using it. Overheating is the most common error and will lead to ruination of non-stick coatings and even stainless pans.
