September Favorites - Cookware

​It goes without saying that I love my 12 inch cast iron skillet, and I bet you love yours, so I didn’t bother to post a picture.  One new thing I do with this skillet is preheat it in the oven for searing meat—at least I do this in the winter when I don’t mind heating up the kitchen.  Heat your empty skillet in a 4-500 degree oven for fifteen minutes and remove it (oven mitts) to the working cooktop to sear a steak.  Cast iron stays hot longer than other cookware, but it has “cool spots” because it does not conduct heat quickly.  You’ll notice this when cooking pancakes; one side gets done faster than the other.  Preheating it will make it cook more evenly.

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 Mauviel solid copper, steel-lined, 5-quart stockpot

Here is one of my prized possessions. Copper heats quickly (cools quickly) and doesn’t have cool spots like cast iron.  I have to warn you, this pot is very spendy.  I didn’t buy this retail; I bought it slightly used on ebay at a steep discount.  For months, I’d do searches on ebay and put bids on this brand/make many times.  Finally I won an auction, and here it is.

Have you ever made a big pot of chili or spaghetti sauce or soup, with the idea that you are going to freeze leftovers for future meals—only to have your hard work scorch on the bottom and impart a scorched taste to a lot of food?  I’m not going to say that this pot will never scorch, but it hasn’t yet for years of big-batch spaghetti sauce-making.   This pot also served a long obsession with cheesemaking.  You can bring milk to an 190-degrees quickly and accurately. 
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You have heard that solid copper is hard to take care of, but that depends on your expectations.  It’s hard not to want a fine copper pot to look new, beautiful, and unblemished.  This stockpot always goes into the dishwasher.  It gets discolored and after a few weeks the “Barkeeper’s Friend”  clean. it up.  This has made a lot of tiny, interlaced scratches which don’t bother me.   It did get a good polishing for the photo!

All-Clad cooper core 4.5 qt Essential Pan

Here is the workhorse of the kitchen; hardly a meal goes by without it being pressed into service.   It is the copper-core (yes, more copper) All-Clad 4.5 Quart “everything” or “essential” pan from Williams Sonoma.  I bought this pan a long time ago, when Rachel Ray’s Thirty-Minute Meal show was on the Food Network and she was always demonstrating one-pot meals.   The family calls this the “Mom’s Pot of Food” pot.  It is capacious without feeling tall like a stockpot, and the inside walls are rounded to allow for whisks and spoons to get at the ingredients.  Stainless steel sandwiches the copper, and the copper goes up the sides instead of just at the bottom. 

You need a pot like this to love.   You can stand at this pot and brown the meat, remove, make the sauce, add the vegetables/meat and maybe pasta and rice and be done.  I use metal implements, don’t baby it at all, and don’t mind it looking well-used.

Rice and Pasta Pots

The cast iron skillet, the Mauviel Stockpot, and the All-Clad Copper-core have one disadvantage.  They are heavy, which can be hard on the hands and arms of a weaker cook.  The plus side is that you can’t knock them over easily.   The Mauviel is not good for cooking plain pasta, because carrying this heavy pot to the sink with boiling-hot water is dangerous.  Have some cheaper, light pots for cooking rice and pasta.  Here is the pasta pot, from Rachel Ray’s line back in the day, with a quirky shape to accommodate long spaghetti, and a non-stick lining.  Use a pot like this with silicone tipped tools.

Sauces and Gravies

​Here is the favored  pan  for making sauces and gravies.   The brand is not available, but it is an anodized aluminum with a steel lining.  If you recognize this pan, let me know!  It is very light, so a weak-wristed cook can lift it off the heat quickly if the sauce is cooking too hot or too fast.   Its sides slope steeply like a wok’s, which enhances the evaporation; there is a small flat bottom, which gives good control of heating the sauce.   This is a good pan for a tricky egg-yolk sauce like Hollandaise.