![81FHlLGsP8L._SL1500_[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/3C0fvxc.jpg "81FHlLGsP8L._SL1500_[1].jpg")
What sort of pans do you have? Nonstick? Cast iron? Aluminum?
I'm trying to figure out what I should get when I move into an apartment from the dorms I'm leaning towards a cheap nonstick but I get the feeling this is a peasant move.
I use stainless steel. Use appropriate temperatures and oil, and your food won't stick. When you want it to stick so you can deglaze to make a sauce, you can adjust accordingly.
>>7583044
Any good videos about how to use a stainless correctly? Every time I've used one, the food gets cemented to the bottom.
>>7583079
just about everything will bond to stainless steel immediately. however when it browns and all the water cooks out of the food, the pan releases the food from the bottom by itself. all you have to do it resist turning it for a couple minutes. and some oil, obviously.
>>7583079
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlZDL4Ga4k
This is a good starter
>>7583092
What about eggs and fish?
>>7583120
fish is a little difficult since it's so delicate and will probably take some ruining to perfect. I just cook eggs in my nonstick. fuck that.
I've had an Analon 10" skillet since college almost a decade ago (looks like what's in your image) and it's still going strong.
Unless you're making a wedding registry I'd recommend researching and buying the pieces you need instead of spending money for an entire set. Acquiring multiple pieces you like over the years is the way to go if you're on a budget.
>>7583147
I've heard that cheaper nonstick pans and ceramic pans can lose their non-stick ability over time and so I'm wondering if I should just go with stainless from the start.
>>7583162
Go with cast iron unless you have noodly arms.
>>7583162
you should go with a good anodized aluminum pan, it's much more durable than either PTFE-coated or ceramic
>>7583162
My Analon is my only real "nonstick" piece of cookware (aside from a super cheap 6" teflon pan I use almost exclusively to make 1-2 eggs).
It's much tougher than old school non-stick that gets easily scratched and needs to be thrown out.
Other than that I have a couple cast iron pieces, a carbon steel pan, and pretty much everything else is stainless steel. The cast iron/carbon steel are a little more work to take care of, and I'd recommend going for mostly stainless steel instead of getting a full nonstick set of pots and pans.
>>7583191
Cool, I'll look into it
>>7583226
Only get aluminum if the outside is coated in a different metal. Pure aluminum pans are mostly cheap garbage, while pure stainless steel is a cheap workhorse.
Ignore everybody in here.
Go to your nearest thrift store and buy the best looking nonstick pans you can find.
I scored a set of T-Fal for less than $20
>>7583245
>carbon, stainless, raw alu
No, they're just super finicky about heat. Too cold and everything sticks like mad, too hot and everthing gets permanently soldered to the pan. A decently maintained cast skillet is much more forgiving.
Raw alu is daft. While the anodized surface is hard, it's microns thick and the underlaying alu will deform and smear, meaning it's only superficialy scratch resisant. They also go crooked like there's no tomorrow.
There is virtually nothing I cannot cook with the pots and pans pictured.
>>7583245
Aluminum toxicity in general
>>7583245
I'm not a metallurgist, but in my experience aluminum is flimsy and doesn't conduct heat as well.
They both require some form of fat for food not to stick, but for most of the set in the OP pick there's no reason to go nonstick, and while it's useful for a few things, it's incredibly limiting and pointless for most other things.
If you have a nonstick stock/sauce pot someone is going to inevitably use a metal utensil and scrape it. You also can't make a proper fond and deglaze using nonstick.
>>7583257
>no steam basket
>no pressure cooker
>no enameled cast iron stew pot
6/10, but only because cast iron skillet even if shit tier plastic handle.
>>7583120
You can quick season it each and every fucking time ... or just get a good Teflon pan (lasts longer than "ceramic" if you don't overheat them).
>>7583270
>doesn't conduct heat as well.
Alu conducts heat extremely well (thatäs why it's used in heat sinks) but it has low thermal mass. Meaning it heats up quickly, but it also cools down very quickly when you actually put anything in the pan.
>>7583278
Not that anon, but the plastic handle is a fifty cent thing that slips on and off so you don't have to use a pot holder or dish towel.
It's a decent looking basic setup. I could really make use of a pan like the bottom right one.
>>7583290
Nice pans have nice handles.
>>7583287
Hey, I said I wasn't a metallurgist.
I think what I meant to say was that aluminum doesn't retain heat very well.
Only aluminum I've used in probably a decade was a big, cheap pot for when I started home brewing, and the thing would take close to an hour to bring 3 gallons of water to a boil on a normal home gas stove.
I just got the Cuisinart MCP-12N MultiClad Pro Stainless Steel 12-Piece Cookware Set. Can't tell you how good it is because it's not out of the box yet, but prior to it I had the Rachael Ray 14-Piece Hard Enamel Nonstick Cookware Set. After about 3 years, the nonstick coating has come off of them, which I hear is normal for teflon-coated cookware. They also don't look nearly as pretty as they did when I got them. Get non-stick if you're cool with throwing shit out and getting new regularly, but if you want something lifelong get something along the lines of stainless steel or all-clad.
>>7583302
Have fun unscrewing the handle when you want to transfer something from the stove to the oven.
>>7583308
>I had the Rachael Ray 14-Piece Hard Enamel Nonstick Cookware Set
I would literally slap my mother if she bought me that crap as a moving out gift.
>>7583287
It's not a huge difference, yes aluminum has a third of the density of cast iron but it has twice the specific heat. It's volumetric heat capacity isn't that much worse in the end.
>>7583314
I got it when I first started cooking. It's actually a well-rated set, the pans are pretty balanced and it's all around a good set for the price, not flimsy or shitty. If you can get past the branding, it's a pretty good buy. I paid $70 for the set.
>>7583320
Hey, when you're first starting out and on a budget, $70 for a full set that doesn't fall apart after a year is a perfectly fine deal.
>>7583309
>not transfering seared steak to an oven pan when baking
>ruining seasoned pan
>facepalm.svg
Owning said pan I've only ever removed the handle when burning it clean and reseasoning it. So, twice in twelve years.
There's a stainless handle version too tough, and i guarantee you can hold these without a towel or clowny rubber sock even when the skillet is smoking hot. The holes near the base serve to both reduce the transfer of heat, but also get a cooling convection stream going through the handle.
My smaller pan is this of variety, but I've worked with up to 46cm professionaly.
>>7583326
That's what I figured. I got a lot of use out of them, all things considered. I cook 2 meals a day, every day,
S T O N E D I N E
>>7583284
recommendations for a decent teflon pan? The only one I bought wore out after 6 months and it's not nonstick at all now
So far in this thread people say to get anodized aluminum and not to get anodized aluminum, to get stainless and not to get stainless, to get cast iron and not to get cast iron, get teflon but not to get teflon
>>7583397
Welcome to /ck/.
We will never have a sticky.
>>7583332
Aren't you a special little snowflake.
>>7583226
Bare aluminum isn't suitable for use in cookware, so aluminum pans come in about three categories:
1) Teflon-coated, which is increasingly falling out of favor.
2) Anodized, which is going to be one of the most durable and versatile non-stick options out there.
3) Laminated between plies of stainless steel, in order to improve the heat conduction of stainless cookware.
My recommendation would probably be to get anodized aluminum skillets and stainless/aluminum laminated pots and pans.
>>7583256
>While the anodized surface is hard, it's microns thick and the underlaying alu will deform and smear, meaning it's only superficialy scratch resisant.
Maybe buy something that isn't cheap junk next time.
>>7583270
>I'm not a metallurgist
>but in my experience aluminum doesn't conduct heat as well.
Yeah, it's pretty obvious you're not a metallurgist.
>>7583278
>I have a steaming insert for the stew pot.
>I have a crock pot that does everything a pressure cooker does, only better. I didn't include it because it is electric.
>Spending $100 at Williams Sonoma does not make food taste any better than what comes out of the stew pot I already have.
I bet you shop at IKEA, too.
>>7583419
>it's pretty obvious you're not a metallurgist
I initially suggested going with Analon for a moderately priced non-stick pan, which is anodized aluminum. Then I corrected myself and said that, in my experience, it doesn't retain heat very well (maybe it's just because I've only used cheap thin stuff).
Go into a real kitchen and you'll have a hard time finding anyone who understands enough English to watch Alton Brown, let alone understand the reasons behind the tried and true methods/tools that work day after day.
>>7583032
I cook with three pots and two pans.
12" carbon steel pan I use for almost everything, an 8" nonstick that's exclusively for omelettes (I eat one every day for breakfast if I have the herbs in the fridge), a 2-quart saucepan, a 1gal. dutch oven, and a 2-gallon pot I use for stews.
What kind of pans you get is dictated by what kind of food you eat- so, OP, what do you eat typically?
>>7583419
This might be a dumb question, but what is the difference between a skillet and a pan? I thought skillet was a term reserved for cast iron pans.
>>7583449
It's actually more iron than cast iron, but instead of being made in a mold, it's punched out of a sheet of metal and shaped.
It's much thinner than cast iron, but almost as heavy, and needs to be seasoned and taken care of almost the same way.
It's what high temp woks are made from, and are regularly used in most restaurant kitchens. They look like stainless steel but turn black after they're worn in, and are typically more non-stick than cast iron.
>>7583449
Carbon-steel pans are just that; they're pans made of carbon steel. They're a sort of hybrid of a stainless pan and a cast-iron one- they need to be seasoned like cast-iron but don't take as long to heat.
However, once seasoned they're slicker than carbon, at the expense of being slightly more delicate (carbon steel pans are slicker, which in turn results in seasoning not holding quite as tightly- not a problem really)
They're found in restaurant supply stores and online- there are two types, the French-style pans you're more likely to see, then there's woks, which are typically carbon steel.
SPEAKING OF. If you buy a nonstick wok I will personally find you and beat you over the head with it. Nonstick coatings burn off at the temperatures woks run at- plus carbon woks are like $15.
Anyway, carbon pans range in price from cheap $15 units to nicer $75-area pans. The upper-priced ones are thick, heavy steel and are very good at evenly distributing heat. As you go cheaper, you get into pans that might be too thin and will warp.
>>7583032
No single piece of cookware will fit the bill for every application. However:
>nonstick frying pan for eggs, pancakes, delicate things
>deep-wall cast iron or carbon steel pan
>stainless steel saucepan
>stainless steel pot (you might be tempted, but aluminum is shit)
A little bit of everything will adequately cover 95% of applications.
>>7583499
IMO anodized aluminum is nice for things like if you're making a super-delicate omelette but you can get a carbon pan slick enough to do that just fine. Plus if you scratch your anodized, you're screwed. With carbon just get the pan extremely hot, put some flaxseed oil on a towel, rub it on, wipe the excess off, and heat until it stops smoking. Let it cool and do it one more time- that's enough to fix any scratches.
Below is a pan that I love the hell out of. I have the 10.2", but the 7.9" is more than enough for one person in terms of pan-area.
http://www.amazon.com/DeBuyer-Mineral-Element-Frypan-7-9-Inch/dp/B00462QP0C/ref=sr_1_177?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1460963731&sr=1-177 It's 7.9" at the flat part, it's closer to a 12" saute pan in useful area.
>>7583530
thanks, so iron pan = carbon steel?
>>7583499
I would honestly suggest something like a 10" anodized steel skillet (like an Analon) if you're just starting out.
It's not as versatile as cast iron or carbon steel, but it's super easy to use and clean, and will take care of most of your needs. Get stainless steel for your starter pots. An Analon will cost a little more than a Lodge and a little less than a DeBuyer.
>>7583530
I have the 7.9" DeBuyer and love it, but kind of wish I went a size larger. It does kind of feel like you either need to beat the shit out of it or treat it like a princess, though. I just moved and took it out of storage and the fucking seasoning started flaking off out of nowhere.
>>7583544
I have the 10.2 hanging right now, and I just use it. No problems with it. Something it seems like is the more you use it, the harder the seasoning holds on. It's weird.
>>7583541
If it's a 2-piece pan (handle welded or riveted) then yes. they're often advertised as "blue iron" or "black iron" pans, if not proudly stamped "CARBON STEEL RESTAURANT-GRADE" or something.
>>7583428
>>I have a crock pot that does everything a pressure cooker does, only better. I didn't include it because it is electric.
Confirmed for never having used a pressure cooker. Try making stock in 2 hours or less with your crock pot. Trying making the actual bones of the animal fork tender (not that you'd eat the bones, but that's how fucking awesome pressure cookers are).
>>7583419
>>While the anodized surface is hard, it's microns thick and the underlaying alu will deform and smear, meaning it's only superficialy scratch resisant.
>Maybe buy something that isn't cheap junk next time.
You understand what anodising is and why it can't practically be thicker than a few hundred µm, right? Wikipedia is your friend, edgelord.
>>7584062
He may be referring to the cheapness of the aluminum that deforms rather than the thickness of the anodizing
Here's all the things you need:
- 12" cast iron skillet
- stainless steel frying pan
- teflon frying pan
- multiple saucepans
- stock pot
- enamelled cast iron dutch oven
- carbon steel wok
That's enough to cook about 99.9% of recipes.
