Cookware Discussion

Here's a place to talk about why you love your favorite types of pans, or what kind you use for different things.

A few years ago, the wife and I decided to stop using Teflon pans. Too easy to scratch and release the bad chemicals...and also she likes to use high heat which didn't work well for them.

First we went with some granite surface pans we found on Amazon. Great non-stick performance without the chemicals, but only for a while before they became less effective, and also didn't respond well to high heat (which probably reduced their useful lifespan in our house).

Then I got really into using my cast iron skillet that had been around for a while but not used much. Still love it, but wanted some other alternatives.

Next up I ordered a Heritage Steel stainless skillet. Great company, quality products. While I was waiting for that to arrive I happened to pop into a Goodwill and find an almost new, fully clad stainless saucepan for $8, so that got added to the collection.

Finally, I added the one thing I was missing, a good carbon steel skillet from Merten & Storck.

For me, the carbon steel pan is my go-to for eggs, and being on a mostly carnivore diet that means it gets used daily. I'll also do bacon in it sometimes.

The stainless steel is for any acidic foods, my wife makes tomato sauce for pasta for the kids, and long exposure to acid isn't ideal for the other pans.

Last but not least, my cast iron is a true favorite for searing and butter basting steaks, and it's my preferred pan for most other meats too. Retains heat the best so it gives the nicest sear. I also like it for shallow frying. And when I was eating more carbs, I loved using it for hash browns. Something about hash browns cooked in a cast iron skillet just feels like a hug from a southern grandma who loves feeding people delicious food.

 

Similar here. Tried a Caraway pan but didn't like it (likely didn't realize how to cook without Teflon yet). Picked up a Lodge cast iron set and fell in love after I went through the learning curve. Paired with a gas stove and food really comes to life. That actually got me to bust out the center cast iron skillet accessory for the stove, which is great for searing and fish. Most recently we were gifted a Green Pan set. The hype around them is real. Those have become our go-tos. Have yet to try stainless.

 

I grew up with cast iron skillets. I'm sensitive to (more of an aversion) the smell of iron (smells like blood) so I don't want to touch/ lift it without a potholder glove of some sort. But they do cook really well, have a bazillion uses, are super inexpensive, and, as long as you do the very basic care, will last forever. Everyone should have at least one.

But for Dutch ovens, although I grew up using "old fashioned" cast iron, and the whole Boy Scout cooking with coals in a campfire is a very cool technique, I graduated to Le Creuset (enamel coating makes cast iron so much better!, but cannot be used at high heat for searing), and never looked back. We cook casseroles, stews, and bake bread. And, as long as we don't get lazy about cleaning the outside before the next use, they look beautiful. Pick a colour and decorate your kitchen around it. Anyone that knows me will not be surprised to know, ours are orange.

And now we are slowing building up our collection of All-Clad. We have two of their skillets and I don't anticipate needing more. We no longer sear anything using the cast iron because these stainless steel skillets are fabulous for this.

We have an assortment of pots and pans remaining from earlier days-- my favourite is a large sauce pan with a very heavy bottom that's good for everything (its signature product throughout my 20's was fudge)-- and we tend to reach for the one that works best for each use, but the ones I mentioned above are what we use most now.

 

You can catch All Clad on sale, direct from All Clad.

I use a combination of cast iron and non stick. For cast iron I buy the off the shelf Lodge stuff, for non stick I buy OXO. Americas Test Kitchen gave them a top performer for non stick.

 

Steel only...
These are made in France. Took a couple of days of seasoning to get to this point.
Light coat of oil....in a blazing hot oven,another light coat of oil....etc,etc.etc.
They used to be silver in color.
They're as non stick as Teflon coated pans.
You have to do it right or the the polymerised oil will flake off.
The key is super light coats.....and lots of them!!!
The first pic is is early in the process....
Let me know if the pics showed up on your end.

 

The All Clad stuff is nice,have quiet a bit of that myself.

 

Oh...it also helps to sand blast the pans before starting the Polarization process so it sticks better.

 

We've been through just about everything up to this point. We've done stainless steel (Caphalon and Farberware) and we've done the Williams Sonoma non-stick pans. None of them were worth the price, though we are still using the Caphalon pots and lids.

Our current setup is a mix of Lodge and Le Crueset enameled cast iron dutch ovens, a Lodge and a grandmother's no-name traditional cast iron for pans, and then we recently replaced the other worthless pans with the Le Crueset non-stick (only good for up to medium heat) which are absolutely amazing and worth every penny of their price. Our usage for things are about to get shaken up a bit since we just inherited some vintage Pyrex bakeware from my mother as well as a few vintage enamel cast iron pots, but there is a time and a place for all of it. Most of our proteins are smoked or grilled, so we don't really have issue there.

Kids are restricted to the stainless and the one remaining WS sorta non-stick we kept just for them. They're finally more predictable with their cooking so we'll probably let them off the leashes in the new few months.

All of the stuff we have now makes me wish our cabinets had glass doors. If y'all have a great solution for putting some of your favorites on display when not being used, I'm all ears. We have a typical L-shape with full uppers/lowers and an island with.

 

Yep, pictures are all visible. Made in France...did you go with De Buyer? They were one of my contenders.

 

Here's the current seasoning on mine. This is after owning it for a month and cooking with it every day. I scramble eggs in it almost every day, sometimes fry them instead. They come off effortlessly and all I have to do is wipe the pan with a paper towel. I started by doing multiple rounds of oven seasoning, and once in a while I'll do a quick stove-top seasoning cycle to add to that wonderful polymerized layer that keeps it from sticking.


I also brought this cast iron skillet back from being a rusty mess. It works great, but I'm tempted to grind it down to bare metal and start from scratch on re-seasoning one of these days to get the smooth surface that antique cast iron used to have.

 

Those have a ceramic surface, right? We have used some ceramic ones in the past, but not the Green Pan ones. They worked really well for a while but eventually the nonstick performance faded. Hopefully yours are a different story, I think maybe Green Pan makes theirs much more durable and long-lasting.

 

Yep.

 

The only thing that sucks about going this route is you have to be careful with acidic foods.
They'll eat away at your coating.
As long as you dont do it all the time it's fine.
And of course cook something that helps replenish the coating like bacon.

 

What brand/ maker?

 

Yeah, I try to pull the stainless steel pans out when I'm cooking anything acidic. Once in a while I'll cook with a little lemon or worcestershire sauce in carbon steel but if it's more than just a quick cook, or there's a more significant amount of acid, definitely not.

 

De Buyer.

 

I use a combination of cast iron and non stick.

 

We kinda avoid teflon as much as possible.
There was a big deal about it being toxic years back.
Dont know if thats still the case or not but you wouldnt thinnk so.

 

Ya cant beat good cast iron pots and pans!!
Especially for deep frying!!
it really helps to keep the oil hot.
Made a Tripod to hold one of my large cast iron pots for camping works like a champ.
And ya cant beat em when it comes to sweet cornbread!!
It comes out more like cake and it's about 4 inches thick.
You can also make the cornbread while camping but it has to be a pot with the lid that has about an inch high edge around it so you can stack charcoal on it.
The pot also has about 2 inch long legs so you have room for the charcoal.
There's a Cast Iron Cookbook out there that has some killer camp recipes!!!
I have a large steel fire pit I made out of a large propane tank.
Just welded some legs on it and it works great for cooking with cast iron!!

 

If you get it too hot then yes, keep it under 500 degrees and use some fat, butter, olive oil or whatever your preferred choice is and you should be ok.

 

One of the reasons we use cast a lot is they can go in the oven.

 

you will call me a blasphemer…..We have all kinds of pots, pans and skillets……expensive and cheap. I swear the one o like the most is the Gotham steel copper pan that we have. Very versatile, heats well and evenly and very easy to clean.

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/c/...MIzqXdlrvCjQMVGlBHAR0SJDtcEAQYASABEgKTEPD_BwE

 

I kept a few of my cheap Blue Diamond pans from my bachelor days....they cook better than my wife's fancy set. I won't use anything else.

I do have a cast iron pan, but I don't use that on a regular basis.

 

What do y’all recommend for electric ranges? We’ve got an electric stove top (no gas or propane available) and to say it sucks is an understatement. Even with a cast iron and a dual element it doesn’t heat evenly and there are very noticeable hot and cold zones. Tried various non sticks and same issue. It’s not an induction stove.

 

We have a gas grill in between the four burners.
It SUCKS keeping it clean.
We dont even use it for that very reason.

 

The gas grill or electric? I despise this electric top but the $6000 to drop a tank, run the lines, and buy a new top is just cost prohibitive and not worth the ROI.

 

My brother has the same issue since moving to a house with an electric range. He had to get rid of his cast iron because there's just not enough heat. I don't think there's an inexpensive solution...replacement might be the only way to get decent heat.

My in-laws do all their stove cooking outdoors on a big Camp Chef 2-burner propane stove. If I only had electric in the house, I might consider using an outdoor kitchen with something like that.