The Consumer’s Guide to Cookware
Pots and Pans to Suit Your Taste
If you want to make scrumptious dishes that will send your family and friends scurrying back for more, you need to own a set of quality cookware. You don’t have to be a gourmet cook to earn rave reviews! With some practical information on just what to shop for, you can prepare tasty cuisine in sensible saucepans (commonly known as pots) and fine skillets (which we all call frying pans) that will do the job for you - efficiently and with excellence.
Saucepots and frying pans come in a multitude of materials each of which boasts its own advantages. There are high-sided stock pots and personal-size saucepans, flat-plated frying pans and vertical-sided sauté pans. Variations in size, style, and color abound.
The most obvious consideration is size. Just who and how many are you cooking for? If you cook large amounts daily then you'll need cookware that is durable. If you cook for the occasional dinner party it isn't as much of a concern. Your food preferences will also affect your purchases, with the time you have to devote to food preparation factoring in. Slow-cooking dishes such as soups and stews will do best in a stockpot, while quickly sautéed vegetables and several-step combination foods in fancy sauces will call for suitable frying pans.
Your budget is always within the picture. But then again your time is valuable, and so is the ease in caring for your equipment crucial to getting your money’s worth. And one last word: don’t forget those kitchen cupboards! The storage space you have available will influence the number and versatility of items you will want to include in your kitchen.
Worth Their Metal : Cookware Characteristics
The major distinguishing characteristic of cookware is the metal from which it is made. Since a pot or pan is only as good as its material, let’s review the various metals available in cookware today.
Aluminum is a metal which is both lightweight and heat conductive. It is typically treated or combined to obtain Nonstick Aluminum and Hard-Anodized Aluminum cookware.
Nonstick Aluminum is known for its superb versatility. Most often found in Teflon and Silverstone, it allows you to cook with little or no fat and is therefore a plus for weight-conscious, low-cholesterol diets. Its specialty is flip-food – the wonderful world of pancakes, blintzes, omelettes and crepes suzettes. With a frying pan of this material you can make an array of purportedly fattening foods with your favorite non-fat cooking spray, even on your strictest diet!
Not for use with high temperatures, cookware made of nonstick aluminum is energy-efficient. (Some feature a red thermo-spot in their center as a temperature indicator.) They are easy to clean and rarely burn the food. If it does burn, soaking the pan in a water and baking soda solution will obviate the need to scrub. To clean, wash manually in warm soapy water with a nonabrasive sponge such as a nylon scrubber and cleaner. If you don’t have time to wash immediately after use, fill with plain water to soak. Never use metal scouring pads or utensils, which will scratch their surface. Paper towels placed between stacked pots will also prevent scratching the interior surface.
Hard-Anodized Aluminum combines the qualities of aluminum with an excellent interior finish. By thickening the natural layer of aluminum oxide found in the metal, a hard resistant surface is created for your cooking pleasure. Rust-resistant, non-corrosive, and naturally low-stick, it is nonreactive, which means that it does not react with the food or affect its flavor. (This is often the case particularly with acidic foods such as wine, citrus fruits, vinegar, tomato sauce, asparagus, and even egg yolks.) Cookware made of this material will easily release delicate foods such as fish and crepes.
Hard-anodized aluminum’s esthetic matte-gray surface is scratch-proof and allows for use with metal utensils. Hand wash in warm soapy water; no dishwashers, please! When layered with a nonstick surface, it is a real phenomenon in state-of-the-art kitchenware.
Cast Iron is a metal which lasts forever. Cookware made of this is durable, versatile, and heat retentive, promoting even heating throughout the cooking process. It is admittedly the heaviest and so not the easiest to shift from place to place, but at the same time it is the lightest on the wallet, and quite affordable, too.
Cast iron takes time to attain the desired temperature but once achieved, will take a long time to cool. Thus it heats consistently and reliably. It is not intended for quick whipping up of an omelette, but it is perfect for slow-cooking stews and soups, which will refuse to burn or stick in its dependable metal. It will reach very high temperatures and is perfect for searing meat, frying foods, and sautéing vegetables. Metal handles allow you to cook stove-to-oven dishes with success and ease.
Cast iron cookware requires periodic seasoning to promote the non-stick quality of its surface. To season, first wash the utensil in warm soapy water with a scrubbing sponge to remove the layer of oil or wax from the manufacturing process. Next spread oil or grease evenly over the bottom and sides of the pan, then place upside-down inside a 300 F (160 C) oven for an hour or two. Cool. Once seasoned, avoid cooking highly acidic foods such as tomatoes and wine as well as washing it with soap, all of which are liable to remove the seasoning. Simply wash with a nonabrasive sponge and water by hand. If you really want, you may clean it with hot water and salt or cornstarch. It is best not to leave cast iron wet in order to prevent rust formation.
Pre-seasoned cast iron cookware is a modern added convenience currently on the market.
Enameled Cast Iron combines the durability and heating properties of cast iron with the esthetics of an enamel finish. Those enameled on the exterior are an attractive stove-to-tabletop addition to your kitchenware, offering a range of colors such as red, orange, and cobalt blue. An enameled interior features a non-stick, non-reactive surface which will not require seasoning. Cookware with both enameled exterior and interior can be washed in your dishwasher as long as they have metal or plastic handles (not wooden). Alternatively, wash the enamel interior in warm soapy water with a plastic or nylon scrubbing sponge.
Stainless Steel is that gleaming, shiny “stuff that dreams are made of.” On its own it is a poor heat conductor, but when combined with an inner core and base of aluminum or copper, it creates an excellent, nonreactive cookware material unrivaled in its nontarnishing beauty. The stamp CLAD indicates quality stainless steel, in which the aluminum or copper is layered between 2 sheets of stainless steel on the base and sides. Multiple layers of material mean superior quality. Numbers such as 18/10 indicate the percentage of chromium and nickel in the alloy composition; the higher the numbers, the better the value.
Stainless cookware is extremely versatile. It is excellent for searing meat, browning, and achieving that perfect-color sauce so easy to gauge in its light-shade metal saucepans. It is not particularly quick in boiling large quantities of water, however, as its sides do not get as hot as some of the other metals described.
Stainless steel pots are durable and noncorrosive. They are scratch-resistant and not easily dented, making them easy to store and to clean by hand or dishwasher, even with abrasive cleaners. They retain their sheen throughout all their many quick-cooking, re-heating usages and as such are a pleasure to have.
On the market you will find Nonstick Stainless Steel, which pairs the advantages of stainless steel with the popular plus of a nonstick finish. Stainless Steel Copper Cookware combines copper’s wonderful conductivity with stainless versatility.
Copper Cookware offers the very best in heat conductivity. It is durable, strong, and beautiful. It definitely requires tender loving care to keep it from tarnishing; either copper polish or hot water mixed with bicarbonate of soda will preserve its stunning shine. No dishwashers for this category – rather, clean with soap and a sponge. Since copper is a reactive metal, the interior of copper pots and pans comes lined with a layer of stainless steel or tin. The stainless steel versions last much longer and do not require the occasional retinning that tin ones do.
Copper cookware works best at high-heat and is used especially for sautéing and other fast-cooking techniques. This metal heats up quickly, and cools down just as fast. It won’t keep the food warm for late meal stragglers, but it will allow quick refrigeration to accommodate busy schedules. It is no lightweight - both literally and figuratively - but if your budget and schedule permit its purchase, your cookware will join the ranks of the classic best.
Ceramic Titanium represents the most recent development in cookware technology. If you are prepared to invest in the very best for this once-in-a-lifetime purchase, you will enter the world of kitchenware developed by Danish ScanPan.
A unique nonstick compound is added to a hard ceramic-titanium combination to create a nonstick surface which is thick, durable, heat-resistant and nonblistering. Combined with a nonwarping, extremely thick pan base of pressure-cast aluminum, the wonder-ware produced is master of heat conductivity and retention. You can use your favorite metal utensils on its perfectly-flat surface. Whether you stir-fry, brown, sear, or anything else, you can cook in it with little or no oil and with no prior seasoning. It is dishwasher-safe and ordinarily comes with a full lifetime guarantee.
The esthetic black base often features a stainless-steel cover and handles for a modern, attractive addition to your kitchen.
Selecting Cookware for your Home
If you have ever so much as taken a crack at cooking, you probably know by now that various types of cookware answer diverse cooking needs. Back to the Basics we go:
Saucepans or, more simply, pots, have sides measuring approximately the same as their diameter. They will boil or simmer anything from pasta to meat with vegetables and are measured in volume by quarts or liters. Smaller ones of 1-2 liters (or quarts) have one long handle, while larger “sauce pots” or soup pots from 3-12 liters are made with 2 handles for easier lifting. You will want to have a number of different sizes on hand, depending on how much cooking you do and how many people you cook for.
Stockpots are large soup pots with tall sides which are at least as large as their diameter. This makes for less evaporation during the cooking process. They range in size from 6-36 liters. If made from a nonstick-quality metal, they can be used successfully for any large-quantity food, especially slow-cooking stews and bouillabaisse.
Skillets or frying pans have shallow sides and a flat heating surface. If you are lucky they will come with a cover. Measured across their diameter (most often 20-30 cm), they will fry, sauté and do just about anything that requires a large surface area. Grill pans are frying pans which come ribbed so as to allow the fat to drain off the food during the frying process.
Saute Pans are similar to frying pans but have vertical sides surrounding their large surface area. This holds food spillage in check and saves time in the clean-up.
Features
Look for these added bonuses to increase ease and satisfaction.
Metal handles will enable you to use your cookware stovetop-to-oven.
Silicon, rubber, or wooden handles stay cool to the touch throughout the cooking process.
A glass cover, while heavier than metal, will let you see through without having to lift off the cover.
A stainless steel splatter screen is a marvelous accessory to a frying pan in preventing oil splatters!
A side lip on a frying pan will let you pour off that extra oil or liquid with ease.
The Dishwasher safe feature will provide a boost in the clean up.
Look for a lifetime guarantee – your enjoyment will last a lifetime!
