If you’re looking to invest in new stainless steel, All-Clad is as classic as it gets. Matt Rodbard, food writer, editor, and co-author of the recently released Food IQ, uses his skillet all the time . “You get such an even temperature, and it cleans up gotham steel cookware sets really nicely with Bar Keepers Friend. Plus, I think that having a piece of iconic culinary gear in your house feels great. Anolon’s heavy-duty, hard-anodized aluminum construction, which is twice as hard as stainless steel, practically screams quality.
Depending on your style, choose a material that coordinates with existing appliances. Ceramic pieces match well with all-white kitchens and adds contrast to black countertops or cabinets. Not only is copper cookware an excellent material for heat conduction on the stove top, it’s also a beautiful accent color to complement cabinets, counters and other kitchen appliances. For kitchens with natural wood cabinets and accent pieces, stainless steel cookware is a perfect pair. If there’s no space for pots and pans in kitchen cabinets, hang them from wall or ceiling pot racks for a functional and stylish storage option. Finally, round out the kitchen setup with a convenient utensil set.
CR members can jump to our cookware ratings for details on how each set performed, and even more options. Zwilling’s Forté line is here to challenge the notion that nonstick cookware is flimsy. The aluminum pans have five layers of Teflon-fee nonstick coating. The five layers make them super durable and resistant to peeling, scratching or corrosion. In our tests, they won top scores for cleaning and maintaining cool handles during cooking.
The handles are riveted onto the base which is a guarantee that they’ll never fall off. D3 can be used in the oven up to 600 degrees F, so you can finish off a piece of salmon in the oven or crisp up a skillet mac ‘n cheese under the broiler. In this collection, you get all the essential pieces including an 8-quart stockpot for boiling spaghetti water or big batch soups. However, the sauté pan is only 8-inches in diameter so may want to supplement with a bigger covered skillet or saute pan for one-dish dinners. You can safely wash these pots and pans in the dishwasher and they are easy to clean by hand unless you sear over high heat and get spatters cooked onto the surface. Sizes are etched on the bottoms so you always know whether you’re grabbing the pan specified in your recipe.
The lids are clear with handles that are designed to stay cool. In our tests, omelettes rolled out of the pan and steak browned nicely. The saucepan also performed well in our scorch test – barely any sauce stuck to the bottom of it. In the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab, we fried 165 eggs, seared 50 steaks and more to rate more than 35 new cookware lines. We tested how evenly skillets distributed heat on gas and electric ranges, how well they browned meat and how well saucepans maintained a steady simmer and resisted scorching sauce. We evaluated how well nonstick surfaces released eggs and pancakes and after, how easy they were to clean.
If you’re new to the kitchen, a huge cookware set is overwhelming . Not everyone is a natural-born Martha Stewart in the kitchen, but if you want to step up your cooking game, the best are your gateway to culinary success. Easy kitchen upgrades and matching dinnerware sets are a great place to start, but the real pros know the secret sauce is in your pan—literally. Sure, presentation is key for making home-cooked food feel the slightest bit “pinkies out,” but let’s be honest, what you cook your food in is as important as the ingredients you buy. If you go that route, here are the basic pieces you need, plus why you should consider a Dutch oven.