Buying Cookware

Dinner for 2! It's the baking that kills me. I tend to bake for the 12th Mountain Division:)

Yes, it's small. But I see room for LOTS more equipment. :D

You did notice that half of my kitchen was in my living room, didn't you Alexia? :)

:confused: Why the half measure? Do you really need a living room? :D

my Skillet is Cast Iron (lodge)
my frying pan is aluminum with teflon (Tefal)

the majority of my pots and saucepans are stainless steel with an aluminum disk on the bottom (WMF)

My deepfryer is anodized aluminum (IKEA)

My pressure cooker is stainless steel (T-fal)

In one of my earlier posts I mentioned that I wouldn't mind if someone bought me a Le Cruset pot or 2. Well, it is months later, and I still haven't seen a package arrive at my door. Don't you people get a hint when one is dropped!!!! :p :bounce: :p

I will never complain about the size of my kitchen again!

I'm not going to vote, because as a gift I got a set of Calphalon Commercial. I like it a lot, but haven't used/tried anything else except Revere Ware. :o

My Ex GF did just that for my last birthday :) An 8 3/4 Qt. Round monster! It's very cool!

HACKMAN!

From Finland...

Not your everyday cookware and definitely more geared towards the design loving enthusiast, they make a great product.
For everyday use I think ALL-Clad does the trick - it just doesn't look beautiful.

Boy did I just expose myself as a wannabe or what?

I have a pretty complete collection of the high-end Calphalon lines: Commercial Nonstick or Hard Anodized. Good stuff. I also have a few All-Clad Stainless pots and frypans, and they're also very nice.

But the nonstick coating on the Calphalon makes clean-up so easy.

Buying Cookware

We are a new company offering paella cookware and accessories to UK Customers.

http://www.eatpaella.co.uk

Cookware in my home

I bought the all-clad 7-pc set some years ago, 8 qt. stock pot with cover, 1 & 2 qt sauce pans with cover, and a frying pan with curved edges.

Then Dayton's had a sale, and we got the 20-qt stock pot with cover...usually something like $450, and we got it for $300.

At Williams-Sonoma, we have on order a 6-qt Saute pan with cover. Been wanting that for a long time.

Also have 3 cast iron skillets (little tiny one, a bigger one, and BIG one!) that I inherited from Mom who inherited them from her Mom. Mom didn't keep them up well, and the mid size one is a bit pitted, but still usable.

Also got a 20 or 22 qt stainless steel one (don't remember the brand) from Superior Products. Was about $99, but I only do stocks in it, as it has a tendency to scorch on the bottom with anything like sauces.

I wish I could get a bigger All-clad stock pot than the 20-Qt one.

Almost forgot, we got some sort of ceramic dish set with heavy glass covers, maybe 25 years ago, and we use them sometimes for baking, although I think I remember they can be used on the stovetop too.

And an old Farberware cheap set that has disintegrated for the most part over the last 35 years, which we use only for boiling canning lids in!
deltadoc

I have a full line of cast iron pans, most older than me, some cast by my Dad in college. Functional and sentimental. I also have a full line of stainless aluminum core bonded pans made by Atlas Spinning of South San Francisco. Feel good in my hand, quick even heat, durable, easy to clean.

I agree. There is nothing better than copper, although I do like Le Creuset and All Clad for some purposes. I I also like Vollrath stainless steel aluminum clad stockpots, and their stainless steel bowls, colanders, etc.

My REALLY favorites are several Magnalite Professional Stainless pans I picked up over time at an outlet store. They're the equivalent of All-Clad, except the inner core is copper, not aluminum.

They quit making them...

Most of the rest are All-Clad. I've got a Bodum cast-iron wok with non-stick interior that's pretty cool. Flat bottom, use it on a ceramic-top electric stove. It's about $90 at Williams-Sonoma, but I rummaged around on the Internet and found it for about $52.

I've got several Calphalon anodized pots- can't understand what people see in them- hard to clean, non-dishwasher safe, acids take the coating off. (They were gifts.)

Hang 'em up for decoration.

Mike

Cookware

Hi everybody

look at staub.fr . Here you find cookware similar to Le Creuset. I like it a lot

Greetings Stephan

Forgive a noob....

How's THIS cookware? http://www.macys.com/catalog/product...Type=EverGreen

It's stainless steel, so it won't be reactive, with an aluminum core in the bottom "for even heat distribuion"

Thanks in advance!

I have a 9 piece All Clad stainless set, a Le Cruset dutch oven, two cast iron skillets, and two Ceramiguard professional non-stick pans. I also have an assortment of large stainless/aluminum bottom stock pots. I strongly reccomend staying away from aluminum as much as possible, it taints your flavor, turns garlic and onions blue, and some studies show it may contribute to long term illnesses such as alsheimers. I also believe in using non-stick pans ONLY WHEN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!! I have a couple and use them only for things like omelettes and frittatas. I have also found that no matter how nice you are to them and how much you pay for them, they simply won't be around that long (as soon as the non-stick coating surface is compromised its all over!). I love knowing that someday my great, great, great, great gandchildren will be able to use my All Clad stuff and even possibly the Le Cruset as well (the good old cast iron I own is allready a big hand-me-down). If you're on a budget and you don't have anything good old Revereware is always good, stainless with a copper bottom, but it's awfully thin! Be careful, especially if you work on electric ranges at home, YUK!

I had a few Le Creuset pans , but sold them on Ebay . I use hackman saucepans , but my favourite pans are the raw heavy steel ones that I bought from the commercial Chef supplies shop in Sydney. They are French. Work great , but I have had a bit of trouble getting them well seasoned (but from reading this thread I maybe cleaning them too harshly). More often than not in our climate I just use them on the BBQ !
I have one non-stick pan (analon)for cooking odd stuff for th kids in a hurry.

I must also admit to liking my Pyrex baking dish which I bake whole chickens in, ect. It seems totally indestructable ! I also have a non stick baking dish that all peeled after about the 4th use. I hit it with sand paper and now have it well seasoned and it works ok.

Other than that I use a steel wok , which imroves with every use . Again mostly used on the BBQ.

Actually , just to be clear , should steel fry pans be seasoned and cleaned exactly the same way as cast iron ?

Very special offer on FALK COPPER COOKWARE

Dear Cooking Enthusiasts

Let me introduce myself : I'm Patrick from Belgium, where the FALK Copper Cookware is produced.

I'm offering at an exceptional price a set of 9 pieces, see details below.

Why? I was storing this and other items in a warehousing service in San Francisco but the owner changed and the new one made a mess of it.
So now he cancelled my service.

I have one set left there and would like to offer it at a very special price to empty my remaining inventory.

Have a look at it in my eBayStore :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...item=4311137885

There is an auction going on for an extra discount coupon of 150.00 USD :
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...item=4353309137

This set would cost more than 1100.00 USD if bought through the FALK.COM website.

You will read lots of very usefull info about copper cookware in the store listing.

I hope someone of you will be very happy to read about this!
..
Patrick
www.coffee4you.com

favorite pans?

i don't know where all of you find all clad in a commercial kitchen, but i find very few such pieces in the restaurants i go to (the ones where you can take a date and the two of you can eat and split some wine for less than $100). in these restaurants i find lots of "blue handles", the commercial aluminum cookware mostly from lincoln/wearever with the excalibur lining or maybe natural aluminum. for the cost of one all clad, you can get 4 or 5 of the commercial wearevers. restaurants are all about getting the results you want for the least amount of money spent, so low price with some measure of durability is important. i bought several pieces of the blue handles with the excalibur lining (i think they call it dura-coat) and they are now my everyday pans.

steel cookware

Does anyone know where to find in the US the heavy steel cookware Pinot is mentioning?They are used in France by the pros & have pretty much the properties of the wok.I cannot find enything on the internet.

Mudbug,
wonderful post with all the pics!!!
Personally I prefer to use wooden pieces whenever possible. I don´t like aluminium too much. Nowadays we are having here a tendency towards using WOK. I have not jumped on that tendency yet but I might. The products seem to be fine and the recipes one can do with them seem to be easy and healthy. I do like a lot using pans - not for frying, though, but for "cooking" and heating vegetables in water. It appears to be good when it´s ready.

Cheers

I used to have Le Cruset and I loved it, but when I put my kitchen in for licensing, the health department told me I couldn't used "enamelled cookware" in a licensed kitchen because it could chip and harbor bacteria. They said it was a nationwide law, and made me get rid of it. Anybody got any facts to counter that for me to show the inspector? I'd love to collect it all back from my relatives. I emailed Le Cruset about it, but they never got back with me.

I love my All Clad set. I hope to get some All Clad saute pans soon. I'm using the commercial quality saute pans I bought from Sam's. It seems to do the trick.

I used to cook with a 30 year old set of Faberware before I knew that there were better choices on the market. I have some individual pieces of Cuisinart which are a huge improvement! I had the opportunity to cook with an All-Clad pan that I gave to my mom as a present and I prefer that over my Cuisinart, but alas, I can't afford to upgrade at this time.

The same holds true for my knives. I didn't know what a good knife was until I bought myself a Hinckle. However, I recently got my hands on some R.H. Forschners. Half the price and twice the knife! It's amazing how much of a difference good equipment can make a job easier!!!

Oh, really?!
Haven t tried these yet. Thank you for the tipp. It s kind of funny one might have to go to a forum for learning about which knives to use or not to use but it s very helpful to find these resources of knowledge here.
Thanks a lot!




"Each moment spent searching is also a moment spent finding."
The Alchemist, http://www.warriorofthelight.com

used cookware

a word about garage-sale finds:

starting with le creuset. i bought a used casserole and two saucepans...during a moment of exuberance in a very small kitchen i splashed some icewater onto a hot saucepan and a dime-sized chip spalled off that was sharp as a razor! i think there must have been an imperceptable hairline crack already in it that was filled with old grease or something that helped the process along. still, with a crawling baby around i got rid of the stuff in case it happened again and i wasn't able to find the shard.

same goes for used pyrex bakeware (although i dont see anyone mentioning pyrex..your dirty little secret, perhaps?? although i suspect the following might be why nobody uses it). it may have been dropped at some time and caused a 'faultline' that you can't see-but tap it just right and it will split-or get it hot enough, or let one corner touch the side of the oven and it fails catastrophically. it's happened to me!

test heavy steel ware by setting it on a flat surface. if its tippy at all, or makes a 'clack' sound instead of a 'ding' sound when you tap it, pass it up. 'clack' means that the bottom of the pan is no longer perfectly flat, and nothing is worse than a hot spot in a steel pan.

kylew-dang, granny! you've got me beat. the smallest kitchen i ever had was the one i mentioned in the first paragraph...i could , by standing at the sink, reach out the window over to the left and pick flowers off the neibors honeysuckle- reach over with the right and flip a pancake at the stove; turn 90 degrees and take a beer out of the fridge. but i did have one drawer, one cabinet and one cupboard. now you envy me, huh. :smoking:

Lifeware cookware; nothing like it on earth!!!

Check out www.lifeware.us for all the technical info. I'm not here to talk about all the health benefits of Lifeware, just the way the food cooks and tastes. I recently purchased a 6 piece set directly from the website and used it for the first time today 12/30/05. I used the large pan to cook chicken breasts and they were absolutely, without question, the best chicken breasts that I've ever cooked/eaten. There was little if any shrinkage of the chicken and without being marinated, they were they juiciest chicken breasts I've ever eaten. I've tried, through local tastings, bacon, zuccinni, carrots and french fries cooked with the enhanced cookware. I wouldn't believe it would be such a drastic difference, if I hadn't seen and tasted it myself. Do yourself a favor and check out the above website. This cookware is going to make everything currently on the market obsolete. It is the best looking, most durable looking cookware I've ever seen