Porcelain & Enamel Cookware

Chantal 1.5Qt. Saucepan

As I've mentioned before, enamel becomes glass. (This will come up again when we discuss dinnerware.) Glass is non-porous, meaning nothing gets in or out. So any of you thinking that all these funky colors they put on enamel cookware are going to leech into your food, fear not! Glass is also pretty tough, meaning you can be a little harder on these like you would with stainless. This also means you can use metal utensils! You will get surface scratching, but nothing that will damage the cookware.*

Chantal 10" Frypan w/ Helper Handle

Chantal has a patented enamel-on-steel product that really can’t be matched! They’ve been doing this for years—I actually met a girl who said her German grandmother had owned these pans for decades and passed them on to her. (They’re made in Germany!) Their newer line actually has a copper core and was created specifically for induction cook tops, but works well on all types of stoves. The drawback is it’s quite a bit heavier than their older lines, but they put “helper handles” on most pieces to assist. That would be a second short handle on the opposite side of the regular handle so you can grab with both hands.

Le Creuset 6.75Qt. Oval Oven

Porcelain enamel would be what you normally see on enameled cast iron, like Le Creuset, Staub, Lodge, and other brands of enameled dutch ovens.

Some enamels are cheaply made in places like China and I’ve heard negative things in the past about potential issues, but I can’t find anything about it now, so it must not be a problem. This would include the cheaper brands like Rachel Ray, Martha Stewart, and now even Lodge, which is made in the USA, but the enamel comes from China. This lowers the price so they can compete with the more expensive French brands Le Creuset & Staub.

Another great thing about Le Creuset and Staub is that they destroy the molds for everything they create so each piece is unique and well-crafted. If a mold goes in and out of the heat repeatedly, it's quality will break down over time and the end product will not be as good, either. So you're getting your money's worth!

Don’t confuse porcelain enamel cooking surface with the pans that are porcelain enamel with a nonstick cooking surface. Those pans are just nonstick with an enamel exterior. I have a Paula Deen grill pan that is porcelain enamel, and it’s just like any other nonstick—I’ve had it for a couple of years and use it frequently, so it’s starting to die. The exterior has held up really well, though, I must say. I’ve read mixed reviews on other brands holding up as well on the exterior, as well.

 

Paula Deen 11" Grill Pan

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*To clarify to the less graceful ones (like myself), if you drop the pan really hard, you can chip the exterior, which does not affect the cooking of the food, so no worries.  (Actually, if it's REALLY hard, you can damage the whole dang thing, which isn't covered in the lifetime warranty, kids!)

Nonstick Cookware

There are a lot of varieties of nonstick coatings out there, and the great thing is that a lot of them don't contain PFOAs. Teflon has even bounced back from their name being dug through the dirt* and producing nonstick for some of the top brand names again. Unfortunately, in my experience, no matter how much you spend on nonstick cookware, it will always end up “sticking” and eventually chipping or peeling off. At least it’s not toxic anymore, though, right? ;)

A way to keep your nonstick lasting longer is to give it a baking soda or Barkeeper’s Friend “bath” every now and again. Nonstick cookware is porous, so even though you think you’ve cleaned it, there is stuff down in those pores. Baking soda sucks everything out of the pores.

CIA 10" Nonstick...a little worn out already.

Stainless steel with nonstick interior pans will usually still have rivets (see above photo), but on a lot of cheaper nonstick lines you can find rivet-less cookware, which is nice. You can also find some pretty cheap sets, making it a little easier on the wallet to have to replace every 4-5 years. You can’t use metal utensils on nonstick cookware, either.

Paula Deen 11" Nonstick Grill Pan; need to replace soon!

Another thing you want to avoid with nonstick cookware is aerosol cooking sprays because the propellant in it causes the nonstick to break down. You'll also get a sticky residue on the pan. Oil misters can work, but it's easier to use a brush or swirl oil in a pan if you need to use it.

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*In researching this article, I discovered that by Google searching "Teflon", everything below DuPont's website being first related to articles about how PFOA and Teflon are two different things!

Stainless Steel Cookware

The key with buying stainless cookware is that you want to make sure it is clad. Let me back up a little.

All-Clad 2 Qt. Saucier

All stainless cookware isn’t actually just stainless steel. That would take forever to heat up. So there is generally at least one layer of a different metal between the layers of stainless that is a better conductor of heat, typically aluminum. Aluminum detractors, never fear—the aluminum cannot get out unless you sawed these things in half, no matter what style of pan it is. (Unless it’s an all-aluminum pan [not cast aluminum, not anodized, straight up aluminum!] with no stainless, which you’d maybe find in a camping store. Even then only really acidic foods like tomatoes should scare you.)

What you will see in less expensive cookware, or very large pots (anything over 16 quarts, to be exact), is a disc that has been attached to the bottom of the pan. Some people think that the thicker this disc, the better the pan will distribute heat, but that isn’t exactly true. To get a more even distribution of heat, you want something called clad cookware.

What clad means is that the metals are actually laid together like a sandwich, then bent into the shape of a pan, meaning the conductive interior is all over the inside of your pan. See the awesome drawing I made:

Clad cookware DNA

Some brands will have multiple interior layers with various metals inside. The best conductor is copper, which is pretty expensive. [Note to folks with glass stovetops—the majority of glass stovetops take a really long time to heat up, so getting copper cookware won’t help alleviate this issue much, unfortunately.]

The most well known clad cookware is All-Clad, a lot of which is still made in the USA. They have several lines and are the original clad cookware manufacturer. It’s hard to clad anything larger than a 16 qt. but I think the even heat distribution issue is far more important for frying pans and saucepans, anyway. If buying something made in the USA is your priority, please note that not all All-Clad items are made at home anymore, including all lids and accessories. (Note that accessories come in black boxes, making it easier to tell it’s made in China.)

Cuisinart’s Multi-Clad line is consistently top-rated as a great alternative to All-Clad, and I have heard this repeatedly from its users. All-Clad is five-layers of steel (they have other lines now, but nothing is less than five) around an aluminum core, and Cuisinart’s Multi-Clad is three layers. Both clean very nicely. Moving in the opposite direction price-wise, Viking cookware is seven layers of steel around an aluminum core.

CIA 2 Qt. Saucier

If you’re looking for something with a copper core, All-Clad’s copper core line has a stainless exterior. This is a tad on the expensive side, but beautiful cookware. CIA cookware is relatively new to the game, lowering their price point in order to compete, and it has seven-layers of steel around a copper core for about half the price of All-Clad. CIA stands for Culinary Institute of America, which is the only school that can designate someone a Master Chef. Everything in their product line came from ideas vetted by master chefs to make sense in the kitchen.

One thing I have discovered I dislike about stainless cookware is the rivets. Most cookware have rivets, so when I do make a mess in the stainless pieces I own, the rivets drive me nuts. On the pro-side, you can use metal utensils, which I think are just great. I’d never been able to use them my whole life until now.

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Buying Cookware

This is an extremely broad shopping category and is completely based on personal preferences. It’s very difficult to switch away from something that you have been cooking with for most of your life, particularly if it’s what everyone in your family before you also used. I find it best to start this conversation talking about my own personal experience and have discovered that a lot of folks can relate.

My family are a people of the nonstick nature. It’s the only type of cookware I ever experienced anywhere I ever went in my life when visiting anyone, as well as at home. Stainless cookware is for the chefs on TV that know how to make things not stick when you cook. ;)

I now know this isn’t quite exactly true; you just have to have the right stuff and know how to use it and take care of it. One of my favorite reasons for a person returning a piece of cookware was that it “burned their food”. You wouldn’t believe how often we heard that! Most issues with cookware, especially good cookware, are unfortunately the end-user’s fault, not the pans. Sorry! I burn stuff all the time in my fancy cookware. I don’t follow the rules that I tell people! But I know not to blame the pan, and have lots of tricks for getting things clean.

For myself, I still had to ease into trying stainless. I opted to move from nonstick, which I was sick of chipping and having to replace every few years, into a line called Chantal. Their enamel-on-steel patent essentially makes the surface into glass, so it’s non-porous, but acts like a nonstick. Most of my cookware is now Chantal, but I have some really nice clad stainless pieces that I also love.

To make it easier to read, I am breaking up cookware into the various types of cooking surface into single blog posts, containing information about specific brands I am the most familiar with utilizing.

LINKS TO INDIVIDUAL TYPES OF COOKWARE:

Stainless Steel

Nonstick

Porcelain & Enamel

Cast Iron

Clay & Terra Cotta

Cleaning your pots & pans with a "baking soda bath"

BUYING TIPS, USE & CARE

Depending on what type of pan you are using, the use and care can vary, so please click on the individual links at the bottom of this blog post to get more detailed information about your type of cookware. However, there are a few things that apply across the board that I thought everyone should know if they don't already.


LIDS

1. Frypans never come with a lid, because if you put a lid on something you are no longer frying it, but sauteing it.
2. Saute pans have deeper, flat sides, whereas a frypan will have angled sides
3. Most cookware manufacturers realize people love having lids for everything, and therefore will make the lids that fit the saucepans also fit the frypans.
4. If all else fails, reputable manufacturers will make a lid that you can buy separately, but often you will need to find a vendor who can custom order it for you or purchase it direct from the manufacturer.
5. You can find a plethora of universal lids to purchase, too.

STOVE HEAT SETTING

All cookware manufacturers agree that stove manufacturers make the heat settings too hot on residential stovetops. Therefore, any use and care guide you read for any brand of cookware will tell you to not use the pan on the "high" setting. You should be able to sear perfectly on medium-high; patience is a virtue!

OTHER TIPS

1. Do not put salt in a pot of water until it comes to a rolling boil. If the water isn't boiling yet, the salt will immediately fall to the bottom and cause pitting in the bottom of your pan.
2. Do not heat a pan without oil or butter. Generally this is said to decrease the amount of people who turn a stove on and walk away, so you can most likely get away with not following this rule if you are only doing it for a minute or less.
3. Do not use a scouring pad like Brillo on ANY type of cookware, ever! Even on stainless steel it will put deep gouges in the steel that become food traps and make the pan unsafe to utilize.

Soda Stream

Soda Stream is the #1 soda manufacturer in the world. Seriously! They are made in Israel, so Europeans have been hip to these for decades, leaving Coke and Pepsi at #2 and #3. It’s a pretty simple concept; a machine that makes regular tap water fizzy using a carbon dioxide canister. You fill the bottle with water, connect it to the machine, push a button, and twenty seconds later you have carbonated water with no mess. Depending on your preferences, you can choose to make it more or less fizzy.

Sparkling water has amazing health benefits, so a lot of people buy the Soda Stream just for cheaper fizzy water. That stuff can get expensive! If you want to, you can opt to purchase soda or flavor mixers for the fizzy water. The price tag can seem high, but one bottle goes a long way. They estimate with their soda mixes that it’s about 33 cans of soda per bottle, so not a bad deal! Depending on the flavors, a lot of them don’t contain high fructose corn syrup or aspartame, which can make this a healthy alternative to regular soda drinking. They also sell essences to lightly flavor the water. You can also make your own mixes or buy from a third-party.

 

The main difference between the machines is if they use glass or plastic bottles. If they take glass, they have a different connecting mechanism and they cost a little bit more. Beyond that, the only real difference between the various machines is aesthetics, so a higher price tag generally means it has more metal on it than plastic. However, some of the machines also vary in that they can hold a larger CO2 canister. The regular size is 60L and the larger size is 130L. The 130L machine should be able to take either size, but always double check the instruction manual!

Stores that sell the canisters will sell a brand new canister at full price, but will also usually have an exchange program where you recycle the old canister and get the new one at a reduced cost. You get the reduced cost for exchange no matter which size you are returning, and even if the store doesn’t sell the larger size, they will be able to recycle it for you. The store I worked at didn’t sell the larger machines, but demand for the larger canisters became so high that they started to carry them anyway, so always ask!

Not all retailers that sell Soda Stream machines carry spare CO2 canisters, or even accessories, so check before purchasing. Stores that specialize in kitchen and home goods are generally going to be a better bet to find this service, and you can also find them online at various sites. Soda Stream has a “Where to Buy” link on their page, as well.

The plastic bottles that Soda Stream makes are BPA free and dishwasher safe (so are the glass!). They even make smaller bottles that have a special base so that they fit into a cup holder more easily. It’s also very easy to purchase replacement caps on their website. One benefit I noticed in using their bottles is that the soda seems to stay fizzy longer than a regular bottle of soda purchased from the store. Technically the Soda Stream is environmentally friendly because not only are you saving yourself some money by not buying all those bottles of water or soda, but that means they didn’t have to manufacture that many more bottles, too. You’re not supposed to reuse regular plastic bottles because of BPAs, so this is a great way to be greener.

An example of one family's saved waste

Some folks will try to cut the price tag a little bit by going for a seltzer maker (soda siphon). The cheapest Soda Stream right now is going to be about $100, and you can get a nice soda siphon for around $70. Isi and Liss are the two most popular brands. These don’t quite fizz the water the way a Soda Stream does, so generally the only people purchasing these are using them in their home bars. They were always returned, so I started asking everyone what they were using it for first! Believe me, we probably sold a couple each year company-wide, then the Soda Stream got popular and all of a sudden we started “selling” more—and returning more! They are a great product if that’s what you want; just don’t buy in lieu of the Soda Stream.

The only issue I’ve ever had with a Soda Stream is that the user isn’t following the instructions properly. You really do need to follow the fill lines, because if it’s too full or vice versa, the machine isn’t going to fizz it properly. If it’s not full enough you’ll never hear the buzzing noise that signals it’s getting fizzy, but it’s actually probably too fizzy now because you’ve been waiting to hear the noise! Soda Stream recommends 3-5 buzzes; if it’s taking a really long time to get to the buzz (and you’re filling the bottle properly) it means your CO2 is getting low or completely out. Don’t let the kids play with the button when it’s not in use—they’re wasting precious CO2! (Husbands are also notorious for doing this—I loved catching grown men playing with the button when they thought nobody was watching!)

Gifting caution – The Soda Stream machines all come with CO2, which cannot be carried on an airplane, so if you are giving or receiving this as a gift when traveling, be prepared to be stopped. Think fast; don’t leave the whole unit behind, simply remove the CO2 canister and you should be able to take the machine with you. It’s probably not a bad idea to see if there is a store that sells the canisters near the person you’re gifting, as well. PS If you did somehow sneak it past security, the CO2 won’t work anyway once you land!

How to Hone a Knife

Greetings, readers!

As promised, I have assembled a "How To" instructional guide on how to hone a knife in what I think is a very non-scary way.  I was taught this method by a pretty respectable Wustof knife representative (and I am very wary of salespeople!).

So enjoy! Click the link below. Let me know if you think I missed anything pertinent!

Check out How to Hone a Knife.

Sharpening Your Knives

I do not recommend sharpening your own knives, at least not if you paid a lot of money for them. Most places charge $1/inch. I do, however, recommend taking it to an actual knife sharpener or store that uses a stone/wheel. Even if you have really cheap knives, if you keep them sharpened they will treat you well!

 

Stores like Sur la Table charge you for them to use a Chef’s Choice electric sharpener. If that’s you plan, then I would recommend buying a Chef’s Choice electric sharpener for your home. That is the best brand. :)

***If you are using an electric sharpener, do NOT push down on the knife when running it through. Just pass it through.***

• You should probably read the directions...just sayin’!
• Some of them come with an extra step that you don’t use every single time
• Some have a slot for only Asian knives

You can buy some inexpensive sharpeners at most kitchen stores, and most brands will make one with their brand name on it and these will get you by. The biggest mistake folks make with these is that they never hone them and sharpen them too often, so don't fall into that category! Hone so you don't have to sharpen!

The most popular and effective inexpensive sharpener is the Wustof hand-held guy. They used to have one for Asian and one for regular, and now they sell a universal one for around $30.

Shun now carries a pretty cool whetstone set that takes the guesswork out of finding the perfect angle. Pretty nifty, and comes with their honing steel!

Shun Steel - for honing, not sharpening, although a lot of times a steel is called a "sharpening steel" in a retail setting.

This knife is in dire need of a sharpening!

You will need to get your knives sharpened one to two times per year, if you hone regularly (Re: Knife Care). I take mine to someone who uses the Kramer Method (series of seven belts) versus a wheel, and this keeps the knives sharp for about one year. If your person is using a wheel/stone (this is normal/standard), you will probably need it done twice a year. This obviously varies by how much you actually use and hone individual knives.

• Honing brushes off miniscule dings and divots you put in the blade with regular use. Brushing these off keeps the knife in shape; if you leave them, you'll end up starting to have to use more force to get the knife to cut because the blade isn't straight.

• If you don’t hone your knives, you will need to get them sharpened a LOT more often.

• Bob Kramer is the man who created the seven-belt method. I told you he knows a lot about knives!