Stainless Steel vs. Non-Stick Cookware
Written on October 7, 2007 – 3:39 pm | by gaulardcom |
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My sister, Lauren, asked me recently how our new stainless steel pots and pans are working out for us. I told her that they were doing well. She is considering making the switch, I think.
As I mentioned, we tossed our old Anolon non-stick cookware and upgraded to a T-Fal Elegance 10 Piece Stainless Steel Cookware Set. The Anolon stuff was supposed to be really good. You know, it had all those warranties and guarantees…all that sales stuff. In actuality, the non-stick coating fell off, or scratched off in about a year. In my opinion, all those pans suck. There are so many rules to them. Don’t use metal, don’t use high heat, don’t put them in the dishwasher, don’t look at them funny…you get the idea.
I have never been all that good at handling limitations. My mother still has her set of T-Fal non-stick pans. She has had them for over ten years. I don’t know how she does it. I guess she is much better at behaving than I am.
Ok, so here is my early review of the new stainless steel cookware. In the beginning, everything stuck. I was making mess after mess. Then, I began cooking at a lower heat. I started noticing that fewer items of food were sticking to the pans. Hmmm…this made me think, and you know how much I like to think. Now, I cook at about 3 out of 10 (heat setting) and don’t have a sticking problem anymore. I have also noticed that olive oil isn’t the greatest lubricating agent out there. Margarine is much better. I actually cooked two huge pancakes this morning without issue.
So Lauren, my advice is to get the stainless steel pots and pans. I think they will last a lot longer and, for us, we won’t have to struggle anymore with cooking on pans with no non-stick coating left. For more opinions on this topic, you can visit this website.
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Tags: Cooking, cookware, drink, Family, food, pans, pots, stainless, t-fal
4 Responses to “Stainless Steel vs. Non-Stick Cookware”
By Lauren on Oct 10, 2007 | Reply
Well, I am still not quite sure - as I don’t have time to cook on low heat or stand and stir to make sure things don’t get stuck. I need to be able to burn things and then have them slide off easily. Hmmph - maybe someday… I do like the idea of it.
By Bedeo on Oct 12, 2007 | Reply
Temperature control is definetly much more important on stainless than it is on non-stick. However, you might want to keep trying to use the olive oil. Having to use margarine all the time is going to alter the flavor of some of your dishes. Also, there’s the smoke-point factor. Some recipes call for getting the oil to almost smoking. This is harder to do with margarine or crisco (etc..) which have a higher smoke-point, which means you’ll need to heat things up a lot more.
If you’re looking for something that’ll handle high temperatures, take a beating, allows you to use metal, but not stick, you might want to look into pre-seasoned cast-iron.
By gaulardcom on Oct 12, 2007 | Reply
Good advice…thank you.
I will look into the cast-iron cookware, like you mentioned. Also, I did go back to using the olive oil. By cooking with low heat, the olive oil works just fine.
By Thais Menges on Oct 20, 2007 | Reply
I have been cooking with stainless cookware ever since I heard about the fumes given off by non-stick cookware. I have picked up a few fying pans made from cast iron and I like the way they fry, etc. but they are so heavy. Even the stainless is quite heavy. That is one reason I like the non-stick. I have arthritis and it is difficult to lift and pour out of the heavy cookware. I know they have lighter stainless but I think you are trading off quality for the lighter weight pans. All I know is that I have been trying to find a lighter weight with a good quality that won’t cost an arm and a leg.