I am desperately in need of new pots and pans. We can spend up to about $200.00 comfortably, and for that, I’d like to get an entire set. That means nothing really top-end, where you can pay more than $100.00 for each piece!
I’ve been looking at the Wolfgang Puck cookware, and it looks like pretty good quality stuff, for the price. I can get a 21-piece set on ebay for $150.00, including shipping.
So, do you have or have you had this cookware? What do you think of it?
Have you considered looking in a catering trade catalogue? I buy almost all my kitchen ware from Nisbets, it’s far far cheaper than the high-street and because it’s what professionals use in their kitchens it’s usually more robust and better made than the stuff in the shops.
Nisbets is a British company, but there must be the local equivalent in the US. I’d seriously suggest having a look, especially as you seem to have a restricted budget.
You definitely won’t get celebrity-chef branded items, but then you won’t pay the namebranding premium either.
I’d figure out what you need first. 21 pieces sounds like too much.
I cook quite a bit more than your average bear, and probably use what amounts to about an 8 piece set 95% of the time.
I’d look at something like this first. But, I don’t really like the non-stick stuff there.
If I was starting from scratch with $200, I’d probably try to spend about $175 on a saute pan, a 2 qt sauce pan, and a stock pot. Then, with $25, I’d get a cast iron dutch oven, and a cast iron skillet.
Here’s what we use. It amounts to nearly all of our cooking with pots and pans.
We have a roasting pan with lid and rack, a cheap one. This is an area where an expensive one doesn’t pay off, IMHO.
We have a saucepan set made by Farberware. I know you can get higher end stuff than Farberware, but the pans we have seem nearly indestructable and work well with our range.
We have some hand-me-down stockpots. Again, I think you can cheap out here as well. The important thing to remember is shape - a taller stockpot works better than a wider one.
We have a very large skillet with lid, of hard anodized aluminum and made by Calphalon. I don’t think brand names are important here, but in the future I will be looking for more anodized cookware.
I have two 9 inch nonstick omelet pans, one by Calphalon and one by Pampered Chef. You’d be hard pressed to tell the difference, and the Pampered Chef pan was much cheaper.
I have a double griddle, large and small skillet, all in Lodge cast iron.
Lastly, I have a crock pot and a pressure cooker.
I don’t think we’ll buy another pot or pan anytime soon, and this collection was assembled for around $200, give or take some gifts, yard sale finds, and other miscellany.
I notice very high quality Farberware sets are very reasonably priced on Amazon. These are stainless steel pots with an encapsulated aluminum disk in the base for even heating.
They get great reviews. My mother and grandmother have used them for decades.
I’d take a close look at them if I were you.
I don’t agree with this one. Okay, you can cheap out a bit, but don’t cheap out entirely. In my college days, I bought three huge nesting stockpots for $20, and they aren’t worth the steel they’re stamped out of. The problem is how thin they are - even with a very low burner setting and a lot of water in the pot, things still burn on the bottom before there’s enough heat goin’ round to simmer the top. A thick soup, like split pea? Fugettaboutit. Burn city. I’ve resorted to placing my cast iron skillet on the burner and the middle sized stock pot inside the skillet. This gets me close to what I need, with a thicker “bottom” on the thing, but it’s incredibly dangerous as I now have this nearly red hot skillet, with handle, on the stove for hours. I can’t imagine it’s good for the skillet, and my biggest pot won’t fit in it, so there’s not much I can use it for. But I haven’t found a flame tamer I like.
I’m also looking to replace my cookware, but it’s a quality, not quantity issue. On a regular basis, I use:
1 large stockpot. 8 or 10 quart, I forget which
1 14 inch nonstick sautee pan. Yes, you read that right, 14 inches of pure love, baby! But it needs a lid, which it didn’t come with. I’m getting sick of making aluminum foil lids!
1 9 inch nonstick frypan
1 9 inch cast iron skillet, for searing meat and anything I want to deglaze fond off of. You cannot sear on nonstick, no siree!
1 2 qt saucepan. Mine happens to be nonstick, but I don’t care if the replacement is.
1 1 qt saucepan. Again, mine’s nonstick, but doesn’t have to be.
1 steamer, sized so that it can go on top of either saucepan.
1 pasta pot with a locking strainer lid. I know, I could just use a colander, but this thing really is worth it.
I also have 2 crock-pots and a George Foreman grill, but I don’t use those nearly as much as I wish I did.
When I’m camping, I bring the pasta pot and a folding 8 inch nonstick skillet. That’s it. So I know I could do it with less, but why make yourself crazy, right?
As I replace things, I’m going to get lids for everything. No more of this sharing between the stock pot and the 9 inch skillet nonsense.
I don’t have any brands to recommend, as I’ve been unhappy with everything I’ve gotten. Uh, I guess that means I can recommend you stay away from Farberware (shame, too, my mother’s is so good! But now it’s cheap shiny crap.) Revereware (ditto - my grandmother’s rocks. Mine dented if you looked at it mean) and Phillipe Richard (The insides are actually holding up pretty well, and they heat nicely, but the bottoms have these grooves in them which are just impossible to keep clean, and the exterior enamel is chipping off a bunch of pieces after only a year of use!) But I’m going to stay tuned to this thread for some ideas!
The problem with the Amazon reviews is the same problem as in your post - your mother’s and grandmother’s Farberware is not today’s Farberware. But a lot of people post reviews based on their fantastic hand-me-down sets, not the horrid stuff being sold today.
sniff I want OLD cookware, darn it! Back when they knew how to make it last!!!
Shame. And I admit, my Farberware is so old, I can’t use it to recommend the recent stuff, based on this new info.
Maybe you can buy some old Farberware on ebay or something.
Back when I was a neophyte cook, I couldn’t use anything that wasn’t non-stick. My problem, of course, was that I wasn’t prepping the pans properly. I now know that you must use some fat, and pre-heat the pan, before any food goes in it! So, the only two new sets of cookware I’ve ever had are T-Fal. But now I’m ready for some stuff that’s not non-stick (hubby and I call them “sticky pans”, because it’s so much less unwieldy than Non-non-stick).
Also, while I understand what you say about 21pcs. being too much, that includes lids and implements, not just pots and pans.
WhyNot, my lack of lids is a major complaint with my current mish mash of pots and pans. I own two 2-quart sauce pans that I use frequently, but over the years, they’ve dented/warped, and the lids don’t fit any more! And I have no lid at all for my two biggest fry pans! The small one has a lid, but all I ever use it for is grilled cheese. Who needs a lid for grilled cheese?
I guess I’ve just gotten to a place where I want to toss all my old crap, and have one comprehensive set of stuff that all matches!
My one nonstick pan is Wolfgang Puck - I got it because it was reccommended as a best buy by Cook’s Illustrated. My other stuff is a lot more expensive, but I didn’t want to spend a bunch on nonstick. I’ve been very happy with it, for what it’s worth.
Is it this set, or something like it, in the Bistro collection? It’s gotten good reviews there on epinion and also at Amazon. Lots of the “pieces” appear to be things like spoons and mixing bowls, which are nice to have, but not really to be considered as “cookware”, IMHO. I think I’d go for it, if you can get a good price. If I see it at Tuesday Morning, I might pick it up myself.
I’ll still get (or keep) my nonstick skillet for eggs, though.
WhyNot, I actually mis-spoke in my OP (and the edit time is past!). I was looking at the Bistro set on HSN.com, but decided to go to ebay to compare prices. I couldn’t find the Bistro set on ebay. I found a 33-piece set at a good price, but it really is designed more for entertaining. Then, I found [this](http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Wolfgang-Puck-19-Piece-Stainless-Steel-Cookware-Se
t_W0QQitemZ250086364445QQihZ015QQcategoryZ46277QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)
at an unbeatable price.
I mean, it has everything I realistically need, and it’s under $150.00, even with shipping? Almost a no-brainer. I just wanted to see what the Dopers had to say, because y’all are pretty durned smart, and I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a herd of Dopers saying “Wolfgang Puck?!?!? Run! Run away!!”
I got a big ol’ lid at Whole Foods a while back that has three different ridges, allowing it to fit onto three different-sized pots/pans. A godsend.