When you are cooking, you want to use the best products available to you. Stainless steel is a great material to use in cookware as it is durable, shiny and versatile. It also provides not only what is necessary in cookware material, but it also provides quality. So what is the best stainless cookware? Apart from the price and quality, there other features that stands out when trying to select the best cookware. One noteworthy feature is the ratio of chromium and nickel. For the record, 18/10 is the ratio to look out for since a high nickel content (compared to 18/0 or 18/8) has added benefits including a more durable and rust resistant product. This does make the product a little more expensive, but you are definitely getting a quality product which guarantees value for your money.
The only downside to this type of cookware is that is isn’t a very good conductor of heat. However this is not too much cause for concern since most stainless steel products utilise what is called clad cookware. It is a three ply construction technique that utilises either aluminum or copper during production. This allows better heat conduction and as a result, better cookware. The following list highlights some of the best cookware available with supporting evidence of why they are regarded as the best.
To be accurate and support our claims with evidence, we had to interview many families about cooking products made by stainless steel. Different families gave various ideas about the best cookware. Of course, none of the cookware is 100% perfect. But based on our experience and feedback from so many families, here are the suggested top 3 products followed by a quick comparison of each:
List of 3 Best Stainless Steel Cookwares
1. Cuisinart MultiClad Pro MCP-12N
This twelve piece set has some of the best stainless steel cookware available. It has all the various items of cookware you can imagine from skillets to saucepans and stockpots. The cookware in the set is fortified by durable clad cookware aluminum core to enable even cooking through superior heat conduction. It is pretty reasonably priced relative to some of the other sets, so you are getting one of the best cookware products on the market at an affordable price.
Stats:
- Name: Cuisinart MultiClad Pro MCP-12N
- Chromium/Nickel Ratio: 18/10
- Pieces: 12
- Oven safe temperature: 500 degrees Fahrenheit
2. All-Clad 700393 MC2 Professional Master Chef 2
This set is a bit smaller than the MultiClad Pro, having only 7 pieces instead of twelve. However, it still has all the necessary cookware to meet your cooking needs. As the name suggests, it is an all-clad cookware- an important feature. The pans themselves are all American made, so you won’t get a ‘knock off’ or inferior product. It is not the cheapest compared to other products, however as reviews suggest, this is a high quality product. It is just up to you whether or not you wish to pay a bit extra for more quality. The oven safe temperature is also higher, in case one wants to cook at a higher temperature than other cookware allows. The lifetime warranty on this product also puts it ahead of its competitors, meaning that the high price you are paying holds weight even if the products break.
Stats:
- Name: All-Clad 700393
- Chromium/Nickel Ratio: 18/10
- Pieces: 7
- Oven safe temperature: 800 degrees Fahrenheit
3. T-Fal C836SC Ultimate Copper Bottom
This set is great if you are looking for a superior quality product but you are on a budget. It is still a high quality product, much like the other option in this list, however it is much cheaper at a much lower price of around $100 for a twelve piece set. These pans are also clad cookware, this time featuring a copper conductor instead of the aluminum one that the other cookware sets feature. This set has all the saucepans and fry pans you could want at a very affordable price. Being the lowest priced set of the three, this set does not come with a lifetime warranty, just a limited one. For such a low price however, this isn’t a great concern.
Stats:
- Name: T-Fal C836SC Ultimate Copper Bottom
- Chromium/Nickel Ratio: 18/10
- Pieces: 12
- Oven safe temperature: 550 degrees Fahrenheit
How to Choose Stainless Steel Cookware
- There are many types of cookware available in the market and stainless steel cookware is one of the most popular cookware. Here are some tips to help you in choosing the best ones.
- First check the nickel content. These cookware are available in18/0,18/8, and 18/10 in nickel content categories, with 18 representing the chromium proportion and the second number representing the nickel content. The higher the amount of nickel, the more durable the cookware will be.
- Next, you should check out the base of the cookware. Make sure that the base contains copper or aluminum. The manufacturers use copper or aluminum discs in the base of the cookware because stainless steel cannot conduct heat as well as aluminum or copper.
- Copper based cookware provide better heat control both in heating up and in cooling down the temperature during cooking. Aluminum takes more time to heat up as compared to copper but can retain the heat for a long time and is excellent for cooking soups or sauces. Select the cookware that suits your exact needs.
- Check out the minimal thickness which offers better heat distribution during cooking. Thickness ranging from 3.0 mm to 5.0 mm is good for aluminum pans. Whereas, in copper pans thickness ranging from 1.0 mm. to 2.0 m is good. Examine the pans’ thickness but always keep one thing in mind that high thickness is not a sign of good quality.
- Know about tri-ply base and its features. For tri-ply based cookware, stainless steel is added to the bottom of the copper or aluminum disc to make the pan shiny and more durable. Choosing a try-ply pan is a good decision.
- Familiarize yourself with clad metal pans that have an internal aluminum core on the inside, outside, and bottom of the pan. These pans provide better heat conduction throughout the entire pan and are best for medium and low heat.
- Determine your budget and then buy the best cookware that fits in your budget. Whatever your budget, please make sure to choose a cookware of good quality and design.
- Sometimes people buy stainless steel cookware just for the attractive design. They don’t check the quality and the cookware become damaged after a few uses. Quality is as important as design so don’t overlook quality when you are choosing your cookware.
- Whenever you buy, always check the cookware properly and don’t forget to check the shape and size of the cookware. Always choose good quality cookware which will fulfil your requirement and also prove to be a valuable investment.
Conclusion
There are plenty of sets that can lay claim to being the best stainless steel cookware. If price is not a concern for you, the All-Clad 700508 Gourmet is the one for you. It is the highest quality set and also features a lifetime warranty, something that not all sets have. The large ~$500 price tag though might be a discouragement to some people. If price is your biggest concern, the T-Fal C836SC Ultimate Copper Bottom is the best for you. At a bargain price of ~$100, there aren’t many high quality sets that can compete with that price. Of course at that price, the quality won’t be the highest. What many people often look for however is the perfect balance between both price and quality. If you are looking for that, then the Cuisinart MultiClad Pro MCP-12N is likely your best bet. It is cheaper than the All Clad product but is of a higher quality than the T-Fal. At around $250, it is relatively cheap but still of high quality. So what is the best stainless steel cookware? My money is on the Cuisinart MultiClad Pro MCP-12N.
