Choose Pots and Pans
Do you cook lots of soup on weekends to freeze for meals during the week?
A heavy stockpot may be essential. "I always choose heavy-gauge for anything
that stays on the stove a long time," says Larry Forgione, chef/owner of the
New York City restaurant An American Place, who says food burns and sticks
whenever he uses a thin stockpot. Abby Dodge, Fine Cooking's recipe tester,
agrees. "With soups and stocks, a heavy bottom comes first," she insists.
"And if your budget allows it, go for the best."
Do you make pasta several times a week? Don't toss that big, thinner-gauge
pasta pot if you already have one; it's fine for boiling and steaming -- and
lighter is better when you're carting a boiling pot from stove to sink.
But if you don't have a big pot yet, think about doubling up your pasta-boiling
with stock- and soup-making by using a heavy stockpot.
Do you like making sauces? "When I'm browning or deglazing, I need to see
what the pan juices are doing," says Jim Peterson, Fine Cooking contributing
editor and chef. For such jobs, he avoids pans with a darker interior, such
as anodized aluminum, and prefers a shiny stainless-steel lining.
Nancy Silverton, baker, pastry chef, and co-owner of La Brea Bakery and
Campanile in Los Angeles, agrees. "I love the steady heat and surface of
seasoned cast iron, but seeing color change is crucial, so I need a pan
that's bright inside, like stainless," she says. Silverton cautions that
tin- and aluminum-lined pans affect the taste of acidic foods, such as
compotes and fruit fillings. Both Peterson and Silverton love the visual
warmth of copper but agree that top-notch stainless with an aluminum core,
like All-Clad, works just as well.
Do you often serve stews, pot roasts, or braised meat dishes? Paul Bertolli
loves the way Le Creuset enameled cast iron handles such dishes. "I can start
dishes on the stove, transfer them to the oven, and all the juices will be
ready to deglaze in the same pot." He adds that one-pot cooking makes for
swift cleanup, too. And Scott Peacock, a southern chef, loves enameled cast
iron because "you can put on a lid, set the pot at the back of the stove,
and it will hold the food at a good serving temperature a long while."
Do you like cooking chops, steaks, or thick fish fillets? Cast iron may be
heavy, but chef and writer Regina Schrambling says that "for searing fish
at intense heat and finishing it in the oven, I trust it." Scott Peacock
likes it, too, especially for making golden-crusted cornbread, but cautions
that unless cast iron is well seasoned, it can make acidic foods taste metallic,
and that metal utensils themselves are apt to scrape off seasoning.
Circulon pans have a ridged nonstick surface. The food won't stick, but the
juices will, so deglazing the pan is possible.
Are you trying to cook with less fat? Nonstick may be a good choice, and happily,
nonstick technology has come a long way in the past few years. With the old-style,
lighter-weight nonstick pans, it was hard to get the pan hot enough to sauté properly.
Nonstick pans are now being made of harder, high-heat-tolerant metals, such as anodized
aluminum and stainless steel, and the coatings themselves can withstand more heat and
abrasion -- no more nonstick flakes in your food. Another potential disadvantage of
sautéing in nonstick is the difficulty in deglazing. The nonstick surface can be
so effective that you never get any good brown bits in the bottom of the pan.
With Circulon, which has a finely ridged nonstick interior, browning takes place
more like in a conventional pan, and Circulon's Commercial line is super heavy duty.
Pots and Pans Part 1 .
