forum: Food, Wine and Gardening
#1 Tue 13 Feb 07 7:17pm
johnlwilliams
- Member Occupation Student / A little bit of everything
- From California, US
- Member since Fri 02 Feb 07
Pots and Pans
I have noticed that many chef's (and people in general) typically use 3 different kinds of cookware. Either 1.Stainless Steel -or- 2.Copper -or- 3.Non-Stick
I have reasearched it a little bit but for the most part if you buy nice ones, the best of each of those 3 types usually costs about the same. I was wondering if one is better than the rest or if there are are advantages to one over the others or if it is just preference? Or maybe they each have uses for different things...
Any ideas?
Thanks!
J
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#2 Wed 14 Feb 07 9:24am
WaiferThinMint
- Member Occupation Student, Chef on the side
- From Philadelphia, PA, USA
- Member since Tue 22 Jun 04
Re: Pots and Pans
I've always been preferential to cladded stainless. Non stick surfaces wear out over time and with hard use; if I spend $(US) 200 on a pan, I want it to last for more than a year or two, which is all I tend to get out of non stick before the surface is too worn to perform well for things like crepes and eggs.
Although copper reacts to change in temp faster than stainless - even when cladded - I have never found it to be economically competitive, its usually about 150% the cost of the same pan in cladded stainless. In addition to that there is the cosmetic issue.:
1: Copper is a beast to keep looking nice. I'd much rather spend the time cooking and eating than I would cleaning the pans
2: You need to have the tin/stainless liner redone every so often. It does last much longer (particularly if you go with the stainless liner) than non stick...but a $400 saute pan should bleeding well last forever, assuming you don't directly attempt to break it.
Thus, cheep non-stick for eggs and crepes (from a restaurant supply store generally), and cladded stainless everywhere else. Except the wok. That is very thin black carbon steel...cause thats the material they sell in china town restaurant supply shops, so I assume it would work well...3000 years of history and all
Hope that sheds a modicum of light...
WTM
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