Stainless Steel Cookware

My wife likes to cook so we started buying All Clad about 20 years ago. Now everything is All Clad and we've had zero problems. We don't put them in the dishwasher and probably twice a year use some Bar Keepers friend on them. They look like new. She does have one non stick(TFal) that she uses a lot and she ends up replacing every few years but that's pretty common for non stick.

The Wusthof knives we've bought haven't held up as good.

Do you have a 3 ply or 5 ply set? This is kind of going back to my original question. Which do people prefer ?
 
Apparently they use Made In at Alinea too so they're good enough for one of the best restaraunts in the world. The carbon steel wok for 89 is a steal.







Sorry for the repost, my reply/messaging feature is ****ed
 
Whatever you end up buying look for the wine glass and fork logo on it. Everyone just assumes because it’s stainless steel it’s safe for food contact. When you heat up stainless steel certain grades will leech heavy metals like nickel into your food in small amounts. The wine glass and fork logo means it’s been tested to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Would this be on the box, or pan?
 
After years of ruining/replacing non-stick pans (that were sapping our precious bodily fluids), we went with a set of Cuisinart MCP. The All Clad are probably the cream of the crop, but if you can’t stomach the premium, we’ve been pretty happy with these. It took me a while to adapt, but the kids can even successfully cook eggs in them.
 
We bought a moderately priced set of Food Network brand stainless steel pans a few years ago and could never cook eggs in them. Sauces and such was fine but other stuff stuck badly. Even after seasoning as recommended it took a lot of oil.

I'd be curious to see how the nicer pans perform.
 
We bought a moderately priced set of Food Network brand stainless steel pans a few years ago and could never cook eggs in them. Sauces and such was fine but other stuff stuck badly. Even after seasoning as recommended it took a lot of oil.

I'd be curious to see how the nicer pans perform.
Use a dedicated non-stick pan for all things eggs.

You really want stainless for when you want those lovely brown bits and searing.
 
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I’m really looking at made in. The handle of all clad really bothers me. Plus, I’m not sure I’m ready to spend that much on pans yet, especially since I’ve been using a cheap stainless steal frying pan I got from home goods as practice for only a couple weeks.

The goal is to build a set of differing pots and pans that I want. So it’ll be a mix and match set. But for my first one, I’m heavily leaning towards the 5 qt saucier pan from made in. That seems like it could be fairly versatile.
Smart. I'm the same with knives. The really good ones are pricey as hell. So I've gotten a few as Xmas gifts, picked up another few here and there. But yes, buying an entire new set of top notch Wusthofs is definitely cost prohibitive, at least for me.
 
Use a dedicated non-stick pan for all things eggs.

You really want stainless for when you want those lovely brown bits and searing.
That's what we ended up doing. I felt that was just a cop out on my end. People cooked runny eggs before teflón was invented I assume
 
I have some Heritage Steel 5 ply fry pans. Great for searing a steak.
Been thinking of trying one of their sauce pans some day
 
We have the cuisinart 12 piece 3ply, no issues 11 yrs in. Wirecutter used to recommend but says they have warping on high heat now. We regularly use on of the pans to go into a 450f for steaks and no problem.

Dh picked Victorinox knives at that same time and still using them, get them professionally sharpened about once a year.
 
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We have the cuisinart 12 piece 3ply, no issues 11 yrs in. Wirecutter used to recommend but says they have warping on high heat now. We regularly use on of the pans to go into a 450f for steaks and no problem.

Dh picked Victorinox knives at that same time and still using them, get them professionally sharpened about once a year.
+1 here for the Victorinox knives. Saw the Fibrox highly recommended by America’s Test Kitchen 10 yrs ago. Got it for $30 and its still my favorite kitchen utensil.
America’s test kitchen Youtube videos will have testing of stainless steel as well.
 
Since the knives have been brought up, we have a Henckels set that to me always seemed nice until the Mrs bought me a Shun Chefs knife (since I cook the most). It is amazing.
 
You can do scrambled eggs in stainless without sticking and without fat if you get the pan really hot. Have to keep them moving, but when the pan is good and hot they solidify as soon as the liquid touches the steel.

It's really important to preheat the pan to the point that water droplets bead up on the surface even before adding oil to get good non-stick performance.
 
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After years of ruining/replacing non-stick pans (that were sapping our precious bodily fluids), we went with a set of Cuisinart MCP. The All Clad are probably the cream of the crop, but if you can’t stomach the premium, we’ve been pretty happy with these. It took me a while to adapt, but the kids can even successfully cook eggs in them.

That’s exactly what we did. We have a set of Cuisinart stainless and they work great. We also have a couple David Burke ceramicy something type nonstick pans for quick use on stuff like eggs and a couple cast iron pans.
 
You can do scrambled eggs in stainless without sticking and without fat if you get the pan really hot. Have to keep them moving, but when the pan is good and hot they solidify as soon as the liquid touches the steel.

It's really important to preheat the pan to the point that water droplets bead up on the surface even before adding oil to get good non-stick performance.

I just don’t like the fact that when they get hot enough to fry eggs and such, if you use butter it burns instantly.
 
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