Cooking effete fellows: cookware advice

[patrickula]

I want to get some new cookware that won't disease me with teflon, aluminum, etc, but I also don't think I'm up to seasoning cast iron, which seems like the straightforward non-dangerous choice otherwise.

It seems like the best options are La Creuset enameled cast iron, which don't require seasoning and look cool but are a bit fragile, or All-Clad stainless steel, which are supposed to be great but I'm afraid might leach nickel.  Both are expensive, but I don't want cancer and hopefully they'd last forever.  I've also got an IBD (recently re-diagnosed) and I don't want to use anything that might make that worse.

Anyone have any advice?

[huckleberry]

I have the All-Clad stainless.

 Nice cookware - what the hell about leeching nickel?

[patrickula]

I have the All-Clad stainless.

 Nice cookware - what the hell about leeching nickel?

I don't know if All-Clad do specifically...  I just know it's possible with some stainless cookware, as they do contain nickel.
It's probably only really a problem if you're allergic anyway, and I don't believe I am.  I think it's more likely to occur if you've scratched the pans up.  From what I've read it's not really anything to worry about in relation to everything else.  That's why I'm considering it!

You have anything else you can say about your cookware?  How's it work for frying stuff?

[cloudwalking]

my mom used to work for le creuset and as a result her kitchen is filled with le creuset pots, pans, and other cooking accessories.

she loves them and my experience using them was very good as well. i love how, since they are cast iron, that they cook everything super evenly and stay hot for a very long time. my parents have a gas stove so when you combine that with the awesome le creuset cookware it's pretty much your ideal cooking situation, something you'd expect the pro chefs to use.

the pots also all come with a LIFETIME warranty so if anything happens to them at any point in your life you don't have to worry about buying a replacement. even just that partly justifies the very high cost.

also, as far as i know, they still manufacture everything in france, or at least they did when my mother worked there. so you're not paying top dollar for some shitty chinese sweatshop manufacturing. these pots are made to last, man. my mom would constantly hear stories of them being passed down in the family after someone died. the pot will probably outlive you.

of course they're not gonna magically make your food taste any better, but if you're serious about cooking and you want to buy pots just ONCE that will last you for your entire goddamn lifetime (and possibly get passed on to your children) then look no further than le creuset.

one con: they are HEAVY. especially the big pieces. sometimes they are a problem for elderly people to deal with. shouldn't be too much of a deal for you though.

[huckleberry]

The All Clad has been the workhorse in my house for year.  They heat evenly - going from broiling to searing and back again with no ill effects.  They also clean up hella easy - mine are 5 years old and, except from a scratches to the finish, they look new.


-If you have the money and you decide to go for the All Clad get the copper core stuff.  Copper is one of the best head conductors around.


I have to agree with cloudwalking about the Le creuset stuff.  It is absolutely beautiful cookware.

[Mr. Gundam]

We have All Clad pots and pans (wedding presents), they're fantastic. We also have a large Le Creuset cast iron pot, which is awesome.

Well worth the money if you like to cook a lot.

[patrickula]

All clad is fucking amazing, but you pay for it.  And if you can afford all clad, you can afford Mauviel and de Buyer, both of which are nicer.

I have some cast iron that is tough to work with if you don't know heat.

I think Mauviel is outside my price range, yikes.  de Buyer doesn't seem to necessarily cost more so I'm looking into that, thanks.

Le Creuset is really good for in oven stuff, but i woulds till rather have a full mauviel set for the range.  

Do you have gas or electric?

Electric at the moment... it's a pretty shitty stove in our rental.  Le Creuset for in the oven stuff and a stainless set for the range seems like it might be a good plan.

Thanks for the word on Le Creuset cloudwalking!  Very helpful to read your account.

[patrickula]

Get all clad or de buyer for electric.  they heat the most evenly so hot spots are minimized.  you don't want cast iron or you'll end up with half burnt food.

Aha, thanks.

Everyone is so helpful

[Rman]

Premium:
All Clad--Amazon has great pricing on these.  The MC2 set is very good.
Le Creuset

You can also try restaurant supply stores for great deals too.  Another insider trick is going to restaurant auctions.  Restaurants go out of business all the time and auction out their equipment at ridiculous low prices.  Check your local paper.

Cast iron is dirt cheap and will last forever if properly taken care of.  I like Lodge cast iron cookware.

[Mr. Gundam]

you don't want cast iron or you'll end up with half burnt food

We have an electric range and have never had problems with the Le Creuset...?

[Rman]

All clad is fucking amazing, but you pay for it.  And if you can afford all clad, you can afford Mauviel and de Buyer, both of which are nicer.

I have some cast iron that is tough to work with if you don't know heat.

Mauvie?!  Wow, man, you're a culinary pimp.

[cloudwalking]

yeah for electric you should go with stainless steel. i stand by le creuset however for the oven stuff.

whatever you decide, you've made a good choice to invest in quality cookware. i'd also like to do this for our kitchen when we have the money. right now the best pot we have is a kuhn rikon (http://www.kuhnrikon.com/products/duro/group.php3?id=3) double-walled durotherm saucepan. it's amazing, though. but sooo expensive.

[Rman]

Really?  You're lucky then.  A lot of stoves have hot spots on the burner that suck for cast iron.

ps.  i have shit collected from restaurant supply stores on the cheap.  no brand names or anything because every chef i know who cooks professionally uses the same thing, but it sounds like patrickula has specific needs.

My uncle has the full Mauviel set, but he's a cancer researcher.

When I first moved out, I went the restaurant supply store route since I was making entry level income and had other expenses to take care of like furniture and stuff.  I collected All Clad stuff, piece by piece, though.  Same with my knives, which are Wusthof.  I'm looking to get a damascus steel blade.  Those puppies are so nice, but pricey.

[Mr. Gundam]

We've got this All Clad MC2 set:

http://www.amazon.com/All-Clad-MC2-8-Piece-Cookware-Set/dp/B001D79LHW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1229371084&sr=8-1

It's wonderful and still going strong after two years of near-daily use.

[Mr. Gundam]

Yeah, they're pretty awesome. They came from Macy's, so it also came with a large grill pan.

[Rman]

you should never have to buy another set distant. 

rman: spending the money on a good set of knoves was the best kitchen investment ever.

I agree.  My wusthof's have been very good to me.  I got another set of knives when I started culinary school.  It came with a paring, chef's, santoku, filet, boning, steel, some other knives.

[patrickula]

Looks like I'll be getting one of the All-Clad MC2 sets after Christmas then, thanks everyone!

I'll also keep Le Creuset in mind for in-oven needs...  we do much more of our cooking on the stovetop however so that upgrade might have to come later.

This stuff is all fairly expensive, but it definitely seems worth it.

[Tauntaun]

Anyone have any advice?

Find a woman. 

[patrickula]

Anyone have any advice?

Find a woman. 

Already have one
In fact she posts here occasionally.

She's not the one who'll be buying the cookware however
Though she will be using them more.

[cloudwalking]

my mom used to work for le creuset and as a result her kitchen is filled with le creuset pots, pans, and other cooking accessories.

she loves them and my experience using them was very good as well. i love how, since they are cast iron, that they cook everything super evenly and stay hot for a very long time. my parents have a gas stove so when you combine that with the awesome le creuset cookware it's pretty much your ideal cooking situation, something you'd expect the pro chefs to use.

the pots also all come with a LIFETIME warranty so if anything happens to them at any point in your life you don't have to worry about buying a replacement. even just that partly justifies the very high cost.

also, as far as i know, they still manufacture everything in france, or at least they did when my mother worked there. so you're not paying top dollar for some shitty chinese sweatshop manufacturing. these pots are made to last, man. my mom would constantly hear stories of them being passed down in the family after someone died. the pot will probably outlive you.

of course they're not gonna magically make your food taste any better, but if you're serious about cooking and you want to buy pots just ONCE that will last you for your entire goddamn lifetime (and possibly get passed on to your children) then look no further than le creuset.

one con: they are HEAVY. especially the big pieces. sometimes they are a problem for elderly people to deal with. shouldn't be too much of a deal for you though.

yeah for electric you should go with stainless steel. i stand by le creuset however for the oven stuff.

whatever you decide, you've made a good choice to invest in quality cookware. i'd also like to do this for our kitchen when we have the money. right now the best pot we have is a kuhn rikon (http://www.kuhnrikon.com/products/duro/group.php3?id=3) double-walled durotherm saucepan. it's amazing, though. but sooo expensive.

i didn't know you knew so much about cookware. does that mean you're gonna start cooking now? with "our" pots? 

hey whether or not i know how to peel a potato has nothing to do with the fact that i'm still the queen of tomato sauce

[Mr. Gundam]

Looks like I'll be getting one of the All-Clad MC2 sets after Christmas then, thanks everyone!

If you have a Macy's near you, I'd consider getting them there. They have All-Clad on sale all the time and they typically offer extra pieces to go along with the set.

[patrickula]

Looks like I'll be getting one of the All-Clad MC2 sets after Christmas then, thanks everyone!

If you have a Macy's near you, I'd consider getting them there. They have All-Clad on sale all the time and they typically offer extra pieces to go along with the set.

There's one off the metro on my way home from work, I'll have to take a look, thanks for the advice.

Genghis, are the copper core All-Clad's much superior to aluminum core?  I'm not sure what kind of deals I'll run into when I'm ready to buy but it would be good know.

[Draft]

I cook basically everything I eat in a giant cast iron pan. It was my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, then my mother's, and now it is mine.

It is, quite easily, the best, most useful, versatile, dependable, indispensable piece of cooking equipment I own.

I cannot recommend enough that you purchase a cast iron pan, season it properly, and provide it adequate maintenance (I guarantee the cast iron pan will require less maintenance than any other pan you own.) In return, it will embarrass your other cookware on a regular basis for the rest of your life, and should you choose to breed, it will do so for your children, and your children's children.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

there's a ton of discussion here already so I'll just say that I like All-Clad, yay

[BlueTsunami]

I'll just stick with my Wallmart $20 bargin bin "Teflon-peels-off and I might die if I consume it" pots and pans :'(

[Mr. Gundam]

I'll just stick with my Wallmart. $20 bargin bin "Teflon-peels-off and I might die if I consume it" pots and pans :'(

wut

[cool breeze]

I'll just stick with my Wallmart $20 bargin bin "Teflon-peels-off and I might die if I consume it" pots and pans :'(

upgrade to rachael ray brand!

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I'll just stick with my Wallmart $20 bargin bin "Teflon-peels-off and I might die if I consume it" pots and pans :'(

upgrade to rachael ray brand!

worst post on the Bore

[Brehvolution]

*looks at Farberware set*
 :'(

spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was a gift!

[close]

[Cormacaroni]

I cook basically everything I eat in a giant cast iron pan. It was my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, then my mother's, and now it is mine.

It is, quite easily, the best, most useful, versatile, dependable, indispensable piece of cooking equipment I own.

I cannot recommend enough that you purchase a cast iron pan, season it properly, and provide it adequate maintenance (I guarantee the cast iron pan will require less maintenance than any other pan you own.) In return, it will embarrass your other cookware on a regular basis for the rest of your life, and should you choose to breed, it will do so for your children, and your children's children.

Really? I find mine is a pain in the ass to clean. Just wiping it doesn't get all the food off, and scraping it takes the seasoning off.

[Mr. Gundam]

Damn, I wish I were a partner at a law firm or an investment bank (well, maybe not an investment banker at the moment) so I could afford awesome cookware like this and high quality ingredients to cook in them.

Or get married and put them on your wedding registry. 

[Cormacaroni]

Damn, I wish I were a partner at a law firm or an investment bank (well, maybe not an investment banker at the moment) so I could afford awesome cookware like this and high quality ingredients to cook in them.

Or get married and put them on your wedding registry. 

Clearly you missed THAT thread

[Draft]

I cook basically everything I eat in a giant cast iron pan. It was my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, then my mother's, and now it is mine.

It is, quite easily, the best, most useful, versatile, dependable, indispensable piece of cooking equipment I own.

I cannot recommend enough that you purchase a cast iron pan, season it properly, and provide it adequate maintenance (I guarantee the cast iron pan will require less maintenance than any other pan you own.) In return, it will embarrass your other cookware on a regular basis for the rest of your life, and should you choose to breed, it will do so for your children, and your children's children.

Really? I find mine is a pain in the ass to clean. Just wiping it doesn't get all the food off, and scraping it takes the seasoning off.

Put it on the stove. Turn the heat to medium. Wait 5 minutes. Scrape anything sticky up with a spatula. Scoop anything loose out with a paper towel. You're done.

[Mr. Gundam]

Damn, I wish I were a partner at a law firm or an investment bank (well, maybe not an investment banker at the moment) so I could afford awesome cookware like this and high quality ingredients to cook in them.

Or get married and put them on your wedding registry. 

Clearly you missed THAT thread

That's why I put the

[Cormacaroni]

I cook basically everything I eat in a giant cast iron pan. It was my great grandmother's, then my grandmother's, then my mother's, and now it is mine.

It is, quite easily, the best, most useful, versatile, dependable, indispensable piece of cooking equipment I own.

I cannot recommend enough that you purchase a cast iron pan, season it properly, and provide it adequate maintenance (I guarantee the cast iron pan will require less maintenance than any other pan you own.) In return, it will embarrass your other cookware on a regular basis for the rest of your life, and should you choose to breed, it will do so for your children, and your children's children.

Really? I find mine is a pain in the ass to clean. Just wiping it doesn't get all the food off, and scraping it takes the seasoning off.

Put it on the stove. Turn the heat to medium. Wait 5 minutes. Scrape anything sticky up with a spatula. Scoop anything loose out with a paper towel. You're done.

Well, that's what I do. But there is always this layer of black carbonated crap in there. I have this ceramic scraper that gets it off, but that goes all the way through to the iron unless i'm really careful. I basically stopped using it because my wife was always asking me what those little black things in her chili were. I've re-seasoned it several times and the guy who gave it to me says it's fine.

All in all, it seems like it would be a hell of a lot easier to just put it in the sink and wash it. But you can't do that with cast iron.

[Draft]

Let it go to the iron. You aren't going to have like a thick ass layer of "cure" or whatever.

Just clean it with the spatula/scraper, and when you're done rub some crisco around the inside with a paper towel. Do that for maybe a few dozen times, whenever you use it.

I don't even do the Crisco step anymore, since my cure is so godly. This fucking thing is Wesley Snipes black, and I just toss whatever the hell on it, cook at full burn, and it slides right off.

I am in love with the thing. It is perhaps my most treasured possession.

[Cormacaroni]

Yeah, I guess it really is a 'use it or lose it' situation with the cure. I kept using it for all sorts of things that I didn't really need to though, and kept getting this fucking vile carbon in everything. Combined with the hassle of cleaning it, and my wife's hatred for it (she can barely lift it), i just stopped using it. I have a nice pressure cooker now that I use for all the stew/soup/curry/chili-style cooking so I don't miss it much. But man, scrambled eggs were godly in that thing.

I'll try to use it more for a while, i guess. It's stupid to just leave it there 'cause it takes up a ton of shelf space.

[Draft]

It's really more like you need to get the cure strong. Which can take a while. Took me like 3-4 months of pretty regular (ie- 2 to 3 times a week) of use.

But once that cure is set, there ain't NOTHING getting rid of it, short of soaking the poor thing in soapy water for a couple days.

Like I said, at first, I scraped, heated, criscoed every time I used it. Now, I just cook in it, scrape up whatever sticks (which is never more than a thin layer of gunk kind of unevenly spread underneath wherever the food was) and wipe out the loose particles.

Cook everything in that damn thing.

It goes in the oven, it goes on the stove, it goes wherever I will it.

It is the ultimate utensil.

[Brehvolution]

Anyone have opinions on cooking stones?

My wife has one that looks like a pizza server and another that looks like a cookie sheet, but they are almost a half inch thick of what looks like unfinished ceramic. They can't be touched by soap. You are just supposed to scrape off the excess.

[Cormacaroni]

Anyone have opinions on cooking stones?

My wife has one that looks like a pizza server and another that looks like a cookie sheet, but they are almost a half inch thick of what looks like unfinished ceramic. They can't be touched by soap. You are just supposed to scrape off the excess.

I've got one...don't use it much. It didn't make any difference to my pizza when I tried it. It's not going to turn a 250 degree fan oven into a X00 degree-plus wood-fired oven, that's for sure.

[Cormacaroni]

I use my cooking stones all the time.  they are the best thing bar none for bread.

Hmm, i use a bread maker mostly so haven't experimented with the stones for regular bread. What am I doing wrong with the pizza then? I get the best results just from using a sheet of oven paper.

[Cormacaroni]

Wow, I didn't realize it took that long. Currently, I have to bake pizza for about 13 mins at 250 degrees C, the highest my oven will go. Less than that, and the crust doesn't cook through. The problem is, that's too long for the toppings in many cases, so i have to add those halfway through. Ideally, it should take ~5 mins or so for the crust to cook through I guess. Is that possible with a pizza stone do you think?

[Cormacaroni]

Having a hot stone will normalize the topping crust dillemma

But will it cook super-fast and fluffy like a wood-fired pizza oven? I'm guessing not but I'm willing to give it another shot if you suggest it'll turn out better. It takes longer than 30 mins to make the dough any how, so no reason not to do it other than a) tying up the oven for a while (which is also our microwave) and b) heating up the entire apartment.