Here’s how to choose the best stainless steel cookware

It’s no secret that, at Southern Kitchen, we love cooking with cast iron. But I’m gonna be honest with you — it’s not always the first pan I reach for when I’m cooking at home. I’m just as often pulling out a stainless steel saucepan as I am my cast iron skillet. After all, tomato sauce doesn’t taste great after simmering all day in a reactive pot and, frankly, some days, I just don’t feel like dealing with cleaning my cast iron skillet. (Even if it isn’t really that difficult.)

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But I am not just cooking in thin, filmy stainless steel. I donated all of those pots of mine when I finished college. No, I’ve made the investment in high-quality stainless steel cookware and I’m here to tell you that it is totally worth it, in (almost) all cases. 

Fully-clad cookware for the win

My favorite style of stainless steel cookware is known as “fully-clad.” This means two things: First, the cookware is not entirely made of stainless steel (we’ll get to why in a minute); instead it is made from at least three layers, the middle of which is most often aluminum. Second, these layers, which are “clad” together, reach all the way from the bottom of the pot or skillet up to the rim. These pieces of cookware will generally have an even thickness all the way around. There may be a rounded lip, or there may not, but the important part is those layers and their reach.

(Side note: Enameled cast iron, such as the cookware from Staub and Le Creuset, is also fully-clad, but the layers are made up of, well, enamel and cast iron.)

You’ll often see stainless steel pots and pans made with a single, often very fat, disk adhered to the bottom. They’ll have thinner sides as well. If well-made, these pieces of cookware can be totally fine for anything you’d cook in a large amount of liquid, such as pastas or soups. My stockpot is made in this way, and it works great. If you’re big into canning, don’t waste your money on a fully-clad pot for your Mason jars — those cheap, giant aluminum pots are perfect for this task.

However, for when you’re cooking anything that is going to need some even heat from your pot or pan’s sides, such as a thick braise or a custard, you’ll want to pull out fully-clad cookware. Anything I’m planning to cook over low heat will also turn out best cooked in such a vessel; the increased insulation from the multiple layers of metal will help your precious dinner maintain an even temperature.

But wait, back up, why are we “cladding” in the first place?

Good question. Much of the lower-priced cookware on the market today is made from thick, anodized aluminum. (Non-anodized aluminum easily reacts with both acidic and basic foods, as well as the hydrogen sulfide in eggs, discoloring your food and giving the cookware that fuzzy grey or black coating. Most aluminum cookware you’ll find today is anodized just for this reason.) These are great when you’re shopping for nonstick, which typically wears out after a while, no matter the rest of the pans’ construction. But they aren’t ideal if you’re looking for pans that’ll last for decades, or if you’d like your cookware to be able to go into the dishwasher.

For this, we need to turn to stainless steel, which is completely nonreactive, resists corrosion and is dishwasher-safe for the most part. However, stainless steel is a poor conductor of heat and is prone to hot spots. The solution to both the aluminum and the stainless steel problem is to mash them both together, making a sturdy, even-heating, nearly indestructible pan. Since aluminum is reactive, it is placed in between stainless layers to protect it. You’ll find pans made with anywhere from three layers (stainless, aluminum, stainless) to five or even seven layers.

The highest-end fully-clad pans are made with a copper core instead of an aluminum one; copper is a better conductor of heat, so these pans typically have a better performance than their (slightly) more affordable cousins. But there’s nothing wrong with the classic aluminum-stainless combo — it’s what all of us at Southern Kitchen use.

Hey, these pans are expensive

Yep. High-quality fully-clad stainless cookware is expensive, but I am of the belief that it is worth the cost for a pan that’ll last for generations. However, you absolutely do not need to outfit your kitchen with a full set of this style of cookware. Many retailers (not us!) try to sell full sets of cookware, but those often include pieces that aren’t really necessary. If you’re budgeting, you’ll save money by being picky about which pots and pans you want to purchase fully-clad. If you’re not — great! Feel free to ignore the next paragraph and buy as much fully-clad cookware as your heart desires.

As I mentioned before, you don’t need a fully-clad stockpot, or really even a skillet (even though I prefer it). Think about what you’re going to cook in your pot or pan and let those recipes be your guide. A really great fully-clad saucier, saucepan and Dutch oven are must-haves if you cook all the time, and you can add these pieces in over time. I like a fully-clad roasting pan, personally, because I feel like it makes it easier to whip up a pan sauce after I pull a turkey out of the oven, but it’s not entirely necessary. I also like to stock a variety of cooking materials in my kitchen at all time, whether that be stainless, cast iron, carbon steel, or even hand-me-down copper (I’m spoiled). 

Whatever you choose, make sure the handles are comfortable and the pan adds a practical use to your kitchen. Remember, if you don’t love it, you won’t cook with it.

Greetings Fellow Stackers,

Quick questions; First do any of you see any value in hoarding clad coins? If the dreaded day comes, metal is more valuable than paper Soooo???

Next, a lot of YouTubers suggest hoarding nickels because melt value v.s. metal content, etc etc, plus they may change the composition of them blah blah blah.

Just wanted to get a sense of what you fine folks think about saving about clad coins and nickels.

Thx
The Dron

For more information, please visit clad metals.

whats wrong with buying coins other that silver? nothing at all. i used to be a huge nickel maniac years ago…shield, liberty, buffs, and FS jeffs. i dont buy them much these days cause i already made the sets years ago,and when i look at what BU shields are going for today my eyes pop out, as with liberty nicks. buffs can even run a collector to shell out some heavy greenbacks if higher grades these days. ouchie to the newbie collectors for sure. if your gonna by the good stuff, dont cheese out on low quality. its horrible, and your only wasting your hard earned money. dont settle for anything under a strong XF, but you can skimp out on the key days. its not going to have much effect on the set overall. many collectors buys lower quality keys. its not a big deal.

And that is very true if you’re awake at night worrying about a MadMax holocaust situation …
Paper is just that, Paper …
Coins are actually made of something and cannot be devalued to worthlessness. (most particularly Nickels and pre Copper Cents)
Not to mention they’re the only true money still issued …
Issued via the U.S. Mint (The Gov, like money was always supposed to be) rather than the Privately run Federal Reserve.
So anyone expecting us to get nuked back into caveman times yea, something is worth more than nothing.

It is about being hedged.
A replace for the FRN, aka a ‘new’ USD, would not switch out Treasury Coins…too expensive and not worth the effort. Stack US Treasury coins.
An implosion of debt leading to a deflationary debt spiral, Treasury coins and physical FRN (temporarily)
Hyperinflation after the debt spiral downward, AU and AG.

No debt, cash stack and PMs keep you completely hedged.

Of course other preparation are needed for a full and balanced plan.

And on top of this, Treasury coins don’t cost anything to “buy”, per se. It is a one for one FRN to coin swap.

I stack nickels and copper pennies. Why not? Fun and cheap. I used to do rolls of pennies but almost everyone now gets mint fresh rolls. I just go through my change looking for them. Once in a while I get a few rolls. Going through them is a good activity with my grand-children. I tell them that one day all Papa’s hoard will be theirs. Junk silver will go to the kids. It’s the dowry for caring for their mother. Copper and nickel to the grandchildren.

Got so much weight of copper, junk silver and nickel I have to store it in the basement in ammo cans on pallets. Nutty old man. What can I say?

Clad coins? Nope, don’t want anything to do with them. Zinc is too cheap.

This is a good thread. I never considered hanging onto pre-82 pennies and nickels as I never thought it was worth it for so little potential, but really whats the harm? I trade my $1 FRN for 20 nickels. Nothing happens, and I just spend it. It’s a no-lose proposition. It will never be worth less than the $0.05 I paid for it. I guess storage is an issue with lots of quantity, but for a few rolls or jars, doesn’t hurt I suppose.

I’ve been saving all Nickels and pre 83 Cents for a long long time …
(They’re the last resemblance of ACTUAL Money still in circulation)
It’s amazing how few you actually get in change when you’re paying attention.
(The Nickels I mean, copper cents are still pretty common)
I sometimes ask for all Nickels as change …
They look at you kind of strange but you just say hey, I like Nickels.
Kinda like this guy.

The Nickel-Hoarding Billionaire The Nickel-Hoarding Billionaire
Why Kyle Bass Acquired $1 Million Worth Of Nickels Why Kyle Bass Acquired $1 Million Worth of Nickels - Business Insider

I do the same. Not because I think I’ll ever get rich saving pennies and nickels but it’s the principle of the matter. They’re all we have left that is actually worth as much or more than their face value if melted down. The way money should be. In short, I save the money and pass the fiat along. Clad coins are fiat too IMO because they are only worth the face value by fiat not by reality. Physically they are worth more than paper but only a fraction of what the face value says. The larger the face value of the coin the more you are loosing. A Sacagawea Dollar coin is about 4.5 cents melt whereas 4 clad quarters are worth about 14.5 cents melt.

A copper penny is worth about 1.7 cents melt and a modern nickel is about 4 cents melt so copper pennies and nickels are where its at as far as face value to melt value. Of course you can’t melt them down as long as they are still legal tender but one day…

the new bi-metal clad coins are horrible, almost as if they looked for the very best way to generate free ion transfer in humidity. Keep a stack of new pennies on a shelf in front of your fridge vent, for a few months… you get the bi-metal electrolysis and the copper turns into copper oxide and floats off the core.

Throw a few pennies into your local fountain, and within a few weeks, they oxidize in the water to almost nothing more than a fat dark grungy lump of stain, with a corroded white zinc wafer on top.

The fountain cleaners now hate them… they corrode so quickly that they permanently ruin the fountain pools, and they have become unrecognizable metallic rusticles, so you can’t even get them exchanged at the bank…

I have dug up many zinc pennies while metal detecting and many of them have holes in them. Might as well make them out of plastic next time they’ll last longer. I have also dug up silver dimes and quarters and they look and shinny as they day they were dropped.

There is already an established industry based on selling/buying Cu Cents, as is … just as PM coins are bought and sold as is. Refining the metal, even if legal, would be an utter waste of money (and history). The Lincoln Cent is one of the most recognizable coins in the world, save your assaying costs too.

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