by Ed Dugan

Created on: November 21, 2008   Last Updated: May 07, 2011

There is stainless and then there is stainless. I have cooked over 30,000 meals, as a chef and at home, and would never give up my stainless cookware. You can tell good stainless simply by lifting a pot or pan - the heavier the better. Any name brand, Emereril, Wolfgang Puck, and a host of others will serve you well. The top of the line in stainless cookware, is All-Clad and, if you buy the set made in America, be prepared for a major hit on your credit card. The All-Clad sets with celebrity chefs' names attached are made in China and, although not of the same quality, are still good sets and a lot less expensive.

The first stainless steel cookware of any quality was Revere Ware and it featured a copper bottom. Today, metals other than stainless are layered between sheets of stainless to help distribute the heat more evenly. You really don't have to make a choice between stainless and non-stick. Every kitchen should have some of both and I always have several non-stick frying pans. However, although you might invest a lot in a good stainless set I recommend you "cheap out" on the non-stick. My expereince has been that no matter how careful a person is when cooking with non-stick - always use plastic utensils, etc., within a year a pan begins to lose its non-stick qualities and scratches will appear no matter how careful you are. The answer is to buy lesser quality non-stick and expect to replace the pans within a year or so.

The most common complaint about stainless cookware is that food sticks to the pans. When professional chefs hear these complaints they just smile. There are times when you want food to stick a little to the pan, when frying meat for instance. You may recall reading a lot of recipes that ask you to remove the meat after it is done to your liking and then add liquid to the hot pan. The liquid can be wine, water, broth, they all work, so you can scrape up those delicious little bits that stick to the pan. This technique is indispenible for making gravy and sauces with great flavor.

And now for the reason the chefs are smiling. When you are using a stainless steel skillet or frying pan you must always heat it first before adding oil. I don't mean just warming it, get it good and hot. Then add the oil, turn down the heat a little and add the food. You will find that the food, including eggs, will slip slide away. As Paul Harvey says, now you know the rest of the story.

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