I Need Some Pots and Pans To Cook In – What Should I Buy?
By Dorrie
Ruplinger
Editor's Summary: When it comes to buying cookware, it
is recommended that you buy the best you can afford. This article
offers some questions for you to consider to help you make your
cookware selection. If clean-up ease is a concern for you, read
on about easy-to-clean pots and pans.
If you’ve shopped for cookware recently, you may have gotten a
headache from looking at all the choices and brands available. And
all of them seem to be telling you the same things – I’m the best;
I’m a great value; buy me.
What should you buy? Before you start considering your cookware
options consider the following five questions.
1) Do you cook for a few people or a lot of people? This will determine
how many pots and pans you need and also how big you need them to
be.
2) What kind of cooking do you most often do? I like to make homemade
soup so a large stockpot is essential for me. On the other hand,
I never steam anything on the stovetop (I use an electric steamer)
so a stovetop steamer is useless to me. Think about what you cook
or what you want to learn how to cook so you can determine what
pieces of cookware you’ll need.
3) How important is ease of cleanup to you? If you hate cleanup
you should probably buy non-stick cookware. If you want to be able
to put your cookware in the dishwasher you’ll need to look at the
sets you’re considering to see if it’s advisable. For example, hard-anodized
aluminum cookware is a very popular type of cookware but the outside
of the pots will change color and darken if you wash them in your
dishwasher. I own this type of cookware and I love it. But there
are days when I don’t love having to take the time to hand-wash
it, but I do because I don’t want it to get discolored in my dishwasher.
Most professional cooks prefer stainless steel cookware. It’s nice
to cook with but clean-up can be fairly time-consuming.
4) What type of stove do you have? Do you have a smooth-top electric
stovetop? If you do, you need flat-bottom pots and pans. I didn’t
think about this when I purchased my smooth-top stove. I quickly
discovered my pots and pans weren’t flat bottomed and that they
didn’t work well on my new stove. As a result I had to go buy new
cookware that had flat bottoms. If you have an induction cooktop
you needs pots and pans with ferrite in them, which means they need
to be magnetic.
5) What is your budget? I highly recommend buying the best quality
cookware you can afford. The best quality is not always the most
expensive cookware available, but it’s never the cheapest. If you
buy a $49.99 set of cookware, you’ll be getting a bargain but you
won’t be getting a good set of cookware.
Now that you’ve thought about your needs and know how much you
can afford to spend, it’s time to go look at cookware. You’ll likely
be using your cookware every day so you want something that you’re
comfortable working with. But the number one thing to look for in
cookware is weight and heft. Heavier weight cookware won’t warp
over time which causes you to lose the flat, even cooking surface
on the bottom of your pan; and you can control the heat better in
heavier weight cookware. I’m not saying you have to buy cookware
that you need to join the gym to be able to lift out of the cupboard
but don’t buy cheap flimsy pots and pans.
If a pan feels like you could bend it, don’t buy it. I’m not suggesting
you walk into a store, pick up every pot and pan and try to bend
it, but look at one of the saucepans. If you push a little on the
sides and that saucepan has some “give” to it, it’s not going to
hold up well on your stove.
To get a good quality cookware set you’ll probably need to spend
a minimum of $200. If you don’t have that much to spend consider
buying only the essential pieces you need to get you started such
as a 2-quart saucepan, a sauté pan and a stockpot. Add pieces as
you can afford them. Although you’ll typically get the best value
for your money if you buy a cookware set versus buying the individual
pieces don’t buy a poor quality set just so you have an entire set
of cookware. You’ll end up spending more money in the long run replacing
those pots and pans when they get warped and ruined (which won’t
take long).
If you take the time to consider your needs, do some shopping around,
and purchase the best quality set of cookware you can afford, you’re
likely to be happy with your purchase for a long time.
Dorrie Ruplinger is a featured writer for http://www.acooksdelight.com
Visit the site for more info on different types of cookware including
cast
iron cookware & celebrity cookware.
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