what is the best type of cookware to get as far as quality and safety are concerned?

Question

bachelor in the kitchen

Answer 1

Cast iron hands down please, buts that's me. Try everything you want to, get all kinds, you'll find what you love to cook with. I work in a huge wonderbread bakery where almost everything is stainless steel including the mixer bowls that kick out a two-thousand pound dough every twenty minutes. I install and take care of all the machinery and have to get it up and running when it breaks down. Stainless steel is the best surface if you are a clean freak. Clean freaks are cool, I'm just not one. But our pans, our thousands of pans, are all teflon coated. when one variety starts to stick in the pans too much, we ship them out to be resurfaced. Your teflon intake from the coating is negligible. Even our blades that cut the slits in the sides of the muffins as they rocket through the slicers are teflon coated. In a high production food shop I can see how long these coatings last and they last a long time bro. Just get quality stuff K? You're worth it.

Answer 2

The brand does not matter. The characteristics you need in a set of cookware are.

1. Non-stick surface.

2. Tight fitting, clear glass lids so you can see what is happening without having to lift the lid and delay cooking time.

3. No plastic handles including the lid handle. Plastic melts at high temperatures. That is not something you want in cookware.

4. If getting a kit the bare minimum you need are a small saute pan, a medium size soup pot, a medium size sauce pan and a large fry pan.

5. Look at all the individual pots and pans. Make sure the bottoms (the part the will be touching the heat source) is made of a solid thick heavy metal. It may even be thicker than the sides of the pan. This will distribute the heat evenly so you won't have cool spots in your cookware. Copper bottom is the best and most expensive.

6. I would also consider getting some sort of a caste iron pan. These usually do not come in a kit. You need this pan if you plan to sear steaks and keep them juicy.

Answer 3

You are probably young enough that this won't floor you the way it does me, but my best pots and pans are GLASS!!! Pyrex makes saucepans and all sorts of things out of a space-age fireproof glass, and the big advantage is obvious: you can see what you are cooking without having to take off the lid. As you may know, a glass lid is only partly valuable for that purpose, because it fills with water droplets and because it is only on the top. Being able to see the sides and even the bottom makes it possible to cook rice properly, for example. If you take the lid off rice while you are cooking it, you ruin it due to the loss of the steam built up. It's really steamed rice, not "cooked" like most things are.

They are not entirely unbreakable, but they are very, very sturdy. Short of dropping a rock into one, you probably will never break one. They are easy to clean and attractive, and the advantage of being able to see what you are cooking will serve you a thousand ways. You can tell when something is blended properly, for example, or lift up the pot and look on the bottom to be sure you are not burning it. You can estimate the amount of moisture remaining in various things that you cook dry, such as rice and certain grains, and see how well the pasta is rolling in the boil and not sticking to the bottom.

You'll be glad you got them.

Answer 4

I prefer and use calphalon one infused anodized. It can be a little more difficult to clean up after use, but I like the even heat and the browning effect of the cook surface. Im not a big fan of non-stick cookware. I dont really trust the chemical that makes the surface non-stick. However, I do use a calphalon non stick pan to make eggs.

Answer 5

Quality and Saftey. Thats a new one, I thought they meant the same thing. Cast Iron is good quality. But a new to the kitchen, try KitchenAid, or something with a good rep and Teflon.
Some will say Teflon will kill you! but I betcha allmost every meal you ever ate up to this point, was partially cooked with a Teflon Coated product.
Best saftey, pay attention to what you are doing.

Answer 6

Cast iron cookware is the best for your health and for cooking ease. You will usually have to season the pans but it is worth the effort. Stainless steel non-coated comes in second.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=george&dbid=40

Modern pans made of aluminum with teflon coatings are suspected to give people illnesses and may possibly carry diseases.

Answer 7

T-Fal is fine if you are furnishing a double wide.

Stick with anodized aluminum.....like Calphalon. Buy a small starter set and add pieces as you go.

I bought my first Calphalon pieces in 1990 and haven't regretted a second of it. They last forever apparently.

There are other similar brands now and I assume they are OK as well.

Answer 8

I swear by Calphalon, nicely made, sturdy, easy to maintain. Target even sells a line of Calphalon that makes a good start.

Answer 9

Non-stick coatings are taboo. Get good quality stainless steel cookware.

Answer 10

You can't go wrong with T-Fal or Revere. Good to start out with. Farberware is over priced junk, so don't fall for that gimmick.