by Tasheem Stenson

Created on: December 29, 2009

Sure, skills play a major part in creating great food but skill is not the only thing that matters. Great quality in cookware also plays a major part in making great food. There are many types of cookware. They come in sets that range anywhere from starter to professional and aluminum to stainless steel. If you cook professionally, cooking with any kind of cookware may be an easy feat but for those of us who aren't as skilled, we have to be careful when choosing what cookware we use as to overcome this challenge.

Aluminum cookware is inexpensive and may be the choice if you don't have a lot of money to spend. Aluminum pans are very light compared to others but they are not very durable and get damaged pretty easily, which can be expected with what they cost. Also, aluminum cookware is pretty hard to keep clean. So, aluminum cookware would be at the bottom of the list of cookware to get. However, they are great heat conductors and are pretty useful when frying and sauteeing foods.

Anodized aluminum cookware are basically the same as regular aluminum but have a special finish added to them. This special finish helps to keep food from sticking to the cookware while keeping the aluminum's great conduction qualities in tack. Expectedly, they cost a bit more. Note that they are not dishwasher safe like regular aluminum cookware is; anodized aluminum cookware needs to be washed by hand. Even though this has special coating that helps keep food from sticking, whatever you do, don't mistake this for non-stick cookware. For frying and sauteeing food, this is a step up from regular aluminum cookware.

Next in line is cast iron cookware. Cast iron cookware is exactly how it sounds: iron cookware. Cast iron cookware is pretty cheap like aluminum but is very durable, heavy and conducts heat evenly. Now, what I mean by conducting heat evenly is that the temperature throughout the whole pot or pan is the same. In most pots and pans, the temperature varies because of it conduction capabilities. With an aluminum pan, the exact spot that is over the flame will be a hotter temperature then the sides of the pan but with cast iron, it is the same temperature throughout the whole pan. alIt does take the pan a little while to get hot, though. The down-side to this type of cookware is that, like all iron, it eventually starts to rust. This happens because of the moisture from some types of food and water when cleaning it. When

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