you know it's bad when the conversation starts with "you know i love you, but...


so my family comes to visit (my sister used to teach school, and would just buzz down to Chucktown on her 3 days and breaks) and Mom rides with them sometimes

something happened, and my sister needed a hammer. so her & mom looked at my tool box, and noticed ALL the tools. with the little labels, and one said HAMMER TIME. my sister just giggled over that and talked about it all day.


so they decided to cook a BIG meal. and my mom noticed that my wife's cookware is "substandard, not big enough not deep enough, and just plain cheap when it was bought, and WORE OUT now"

and that's when she broke it off to me, and briefed me in the clear:
"a woman can't cook if she ain't got the right tools"
"you got a fortune in tools out there to do your work, NOW you need to spend some money and buy your wife the CORRECT tools to cook with"


at this point, i had my head hung down like a dog and just whimpered a sullen "yes ma'am"


so now, dear friends, please enlighten as to what pots and pans you consider good. prices VARY SO MUCH

or else, recommend a nice drive thru window....

 

I have my grandmothers cast iron collection hanging over the stove and use it for my serious cooking. A couple teflon pans and stainless pots for quicky recipes. Because the iron takes a bit longer to clean properly.

On a sidenote, I've read a few times that pregnant women and people who are iron deficient will get a lot of benefit from cooking with cast iron.

 

As a Cajun having an extensive "Black Iron Pot" collection is a birthright. At my disposal is various pieces of hardware ranging from 1qt all the way up to a 40 gallons. Cast iron is maintenance intensive but well worth the time and effort.

We also own a well rounded collection of magnelite pots. They see regular use too.

Either of those IMO would suit you fine.

 

all of the above.
a good 10" cast iron skillet is good for frying or baking or something that needs good consistent heat.
stainless for acidic foods and certain things that will react to aluminum.
Aluminum for pots and such where your your boiling water.

I also keep a little 6" cast iron skillet that is dedicated to cornbread only.

stay away from metal utensils on your non-stick cookware.

 

Anodized aluminum is really nice. It's so hard that utensils can't scratch it and it sticks way less than stainless steel. Get some nice large stainless steel utensils to go with it.

Iron will last a lifetime, but you have to learn how to use it right or it will stick and rust and they are very heavy. They are not good for boiling water. I'd avoid buying new iron cookware for normal home use.

Get the biggest frying pan you can find at a chefs supply. 14 inch is a nice size and it must have a lid.

Get a wok or semi wok shape pan for most everything else.

Get a deep pot about 8 or 10 inches in diameter, with lid, for boiling pasta and steaming veggies.

Get a teflon frying pan, medium size, with a very thick bottom and a lid. Don't forget the plastic spatula and spoon to be used with this pan!

Be sure to get stainless steel handles on lids and pans because they don't conduct the heat so much and can be used bare handed.

High end department stores have very nice stuff, but expensive. That's OK, fine cookware will enhance your life and last a lifetime. Well, the teflon pan won't last forever, but you can get a new one of those every ten years or so.

My father used to say I "was the only one he knew that would pay fifty dollars for a car and a hundred dollars for a frying pan".

 

Its all good depending on your needs and cooking style.

I'm kinda of a gourmet cook (I can't believe I just admitted that) so I have been using the Commercial Cookware Aluminum stuff called Calphalon for quite a few years now.
Its an acquired taste but once you are used to it it rocks. They also have a lifetime no ? asked guarantee. Just send it in and you get the latest version of the same pan/skillet/pot etc. Usually with the latest upgraded handle.

 

I like cast iron and the anodized aluminium with the copper bottoms, depending on whats being cooked and how I want to cook it.

Cast iron is really all about heirloom cooking, passing down recipes from grandmother to mother to daughter. You can't beat it for home style cooking where taste means alot more than appearance. It's also great for camping because that's what it originally was made for ...... cooking in the outdoors chuck wagon style. Most of the time we get the Lodge cast iron cookware from either the local Army-Navy Surplus or from Cabela's, depending on who sells it cheaper or if there's a sale.

The aluminium with copper bottoms are some really nice looking pans. The aluminium is hard, you don't have to worry about scratching it like you do with Teflon, and the copper bottoms even out the heat much better than any other cooking metal. You also get the good looking food appeal that's become the in thing because there are no "hot spots" in these pans. We used to have one of those stores in town that sold the mismatched or returned items from stores, and I picked up two sets of Martha Stewart pots and pans that were being sold at Wal-Mart. There were more than enough pieces to make a complete set plus have a couple extra frying pans, and we got them both for less than the price Wal-Mart wanted for one set new.



Kris

 

All the cookware mentioned below are great, but I am curious what some of you think about the stories coming out in various health publications about the dangers of aluminum causing Alzheimer's and the leaching out of dangerous chemicals from Teflon and anodizing.

 

I don't care what it's made of, the best cookware is the kind someone else uses, serves me from and cleans up themselves!

 

Cast Iron all the way, maintenance intensive yes, but well worth it. Other than that, stainless. No aluminum, teflon, or anodized. Not worth the health risks associated with it. Teflon gives off some airborne nasties when heated past a certain point, and I really don't need to eat flakes of aluminum at every meal.

Glass cookware is excellent too, and very very safe.

The only disadvantage to the cast iron comes when you make someone mad.... it hurts WAY more than aluminum.

 

Go to the store and pick up a sample of each pan. Whack yourself across the head with each one. The one that hurts the least is your best choice...

If I were in your shoes, I would take the wife and tell her to pick out the ones that she would like best. Wear a nice big soft hat. Lots of benefits that way, all her friends will think your the greatest, she will think your the greatest and you wont look like a darn fool for buying the wrong set of $500 'tools'. Might throw in a nice new set of utensils just for good measure.

Just some friendly advice from someone with a knotty head and a drawer full of useless pans. Of course they would make good presents for the less desirable in-laws I guess...

 

O wordy one, care to expound on how you came to this vast fount of knowledge and wisdom?

 

her tool box needs to be like yours!! the right tool for the right job .My wife has stainless /cast iron and aluminum, she has pampered chef to non stick and cast depends on what shes doing
Rule #1 don't buy cheep tools ...for her ether a good set will cost over $1000 then she need good knives too

 

I was just talking about this with my wife. We have a commercial set of Lagostina that I have owned for close to 15 yrs. We get a set of teflon pans whenever we see scratches in the old pans. But now I am thinking of eliminating the teflon and using cast iron for the fry pans. The Lagostina set is looking a bit tired and I am missing one small pot and another different lid from a mishap a few yrs ago that got the pots and lids mixed up when it came time to toss the one pot that was too far gone to be cleaned.

I also have some stoneware for baking pasta and muffins etc.

 

The aluminum pans are nice if you have electric cooktop. They heat up faster, but you have to be careful not to cool them to fast as they will warp.