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stainless steal sounds pretty cheap.....you should get that!

Seriously, though, SS is the best stuff for cooking, no chemicals or metals to leach into your food.

I'd love to buy my wife a good set of knives, I just have to convince her it's worth the cost!  I don't think she's ever had the opportunity to use a high quality blade, and doesn't know what she's missing.  Perhaps I'll have to get just one to convince her...

Tallgeese wrote:

Get this.

:Adds it to her wish list:

For fry pans and skillets cast iron is the best material, though heavy stainless is OK too. The heavier the better, as the temperature stays more constant. Definitely avoid anything aluminum, especially if it has a non-stick surface. Avoid anything with a non stick surface. Un-coated cast iron or heavy stainless only. A somewhat rough (sand cast) surface is best to keep things from sticking - the pits hold liquid/steam upon which the food should float. Stuff only sticks to fry pans and skillets if you let it get too dry so the steam cushion collapses.

For sauce pans, pots, preserving kettles or whatnot aluminum is OK. Strong handles, securely attached are critical - look for heavy rivets, avoid spot welded handles. If a rivetted handle does come off or get loose it is easy to fix. Not many of us have spot welding equipment.

Good knives are essential but you don't have to go crazy buying a different knife for each thing you cut. As long as a knife is sharp and feels good in your hand you can do what you need. I have a bargain store paring knife and bread knife and a good carbon steel cleaver. Those cover 95% of the cutting I do.

test wrote:

The heavier the better, as the temperature stays more constant.

Depends on the application. If you need to heat and/or cool quickly, you're better off with thin plate material.

.tsooJ

Lots of good advice here, but to echo the really important stuff:

1) You don`t need a full compliment of high quality knives. Get a nice set of essentials -- Chef`s Knife/Santoku Knife, perhaps a meat cleaver, and paring knife -- and you`ll be set. Of course, don`t forget the sharpening steel and stone for proper maintenance.

2) While you`re at it, make sure you have a nice cuting board. Well maintained knives with a sturdy cutting board are essential for safety.

3) You probably won`t need a full set of high-end cookware. Skillet, stock pot, sauce pot, one cheap non-stick frying pan, and perhaps another larger pan (depending on how many you cook for) are pretty much all you need for majority of home cooking.

As it has been mentioned, look for riveted handles. Also, it goes without saying, but nothing with a rubber handle else it`s useless for finishing dishes in the oven. Regarding thick vs. thin plating, I`d say it varies. You do have some Cast Iron already which is terrific for keeping temperature, so you may want thin plates on your stainless steel for rapid temperature changes.

4) Consider a nice wok if you do a lot of Asian cuisine.

5) A Mortar and pestle is very handy for prepping a variety of sauces or marinades.

Last edited by unshavenyak (2008-09-09 8:13 pm)

Well, I used to cook for a living.
If money is no object I'd get All-Clad.  For knives I'd get forged Trident or Henckels.  You can get by with a paring knife and a 8 inch chef's knife.   I always wanted to buy a ceramic knife but never have.  They are expensive, sharp as anything,  will break if you drop them, and stay sharp forever but have to be sent to the factory to be sharpened when they do get dull.
What I ended up getting for my home is Cuisinart Stainless Steel.   It's sort of a poor man's All-Clad and should work fine for the home.   I have Trident knives from the working days.  Forschner knives are not the absolute best but a lot of cooks use them because they are not as expensive as Trident or Henckels and they are sturdy and competent.

Has anyone cooked on Induction cooktops before? Anyone have experience with trivection GE ovens?

I was on their website last night and was pretty impressed with Alton Brown's presentation/video explaining the technology behind both of those. The oven though, seemed way more complicated that it had to be though. Too many commands to input. I guess you can just set it to how you normally cook though, you don't have to try to speed cook everything.

GE Induction Cooktops

GE Trivection Oven

http://www.revereware.com/ for pots and pans ... I couldn't be happier

Well, I may get laughed at for this but, I got my wife the Rachael Ray hard anodized aluminum cookware set for Christmas last year.

We've had Teflon nonstick, enamel, regular aluminum, stainless steel, and nothing ever worked as nice as these pans do. The nonstick anodized coating is awesome, nothing sticks to those babies. They have silicon covers on the handles that you can put in the oven up to 400 degrees I believe (although we haven't done that). I love them, they are a breeze to clean up. They are solidly constructed, with 2 huge rivets in each handle, and are surprisingly heavy. We love them.

I have had a set of quite expensive stainless cookware and got rid of them because everything stuck like glue unless you had a cup of oil in them.
The worst material  I have ever tried to cook on.

I think with everything there's different quality items at various price ranges. Beyond that, if he was using oil it was a pan not a pot. Pots are a lot more forgiving when it comes to sticking as it typically water based cooking, particularly stock pots.