Cooking

[Polarbear]

Are there any chefs or at least serious cooks on here?

I really enjoy cooking. I'm not sure why but maybe it's the fact I can test out my creations on wifie and see if she gets the sh1ts or worse.

I'm kidding....ish

I have really cheap crappy Argos type pans with one decent Tefal big fry pan, all non stick ally or stainless steel.

So what's the best cooking utensils/pans to get? Non stick, cast iron, copper bottomed? I gather decent ones that are not non stick you have to treat and not put through the dish washer.

I can go on Amazon and spend a fortune of wifies money (Christmas presents for me) but I really don't know what's best for what. There are conflicting articles all over the net so I 'm after people experience rather than some article that the author has been paid to push one or the other.

I cook on gas BTW.
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Triumph Trophy Launch Edition

[Islander]

[chickenstrip]

[Islander]

[Polarbear]

[Nobby the Bastard]

Ceramic knives. They are sharp as fuck but a bit brittle so dont use them to open a tin of beans.
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha:"Remember this simple rule - scooters are for men who like to feel the breeze on their huge, flapping cunt lips."
Sprint ST 1050

[Polarbear]

[Polarbear]

[chickenstrip]

[The Artist]

Cast iron is nice but you need to look after it.

I have 2 Le Creuset frying pans which are non-stick and weigh a lot. It just makes cooking anything a lot easier with a decent amount of thermal mass so no hotspots and they hold heat. They are very similar to cast iron in that respect but you don't need to worry about "seasoning" them and they are very easy to clean.

Lifetime warranty but it won't cover the non-stick part if you use metal tools with it.

[Bhud]

Cast iron only

[ThunderGuts]

Stainless pans for general cooking are great; quality will get you triple ply base which will more evenly conduct heat. Cast iron is fantastic for some things but if it’s bare you need to treat it carefully. Cast iron griddle pan is great (Lakeland used to do a good value one that’s as good as Le Cr stuff). Plain steel wok well seasoned and used over a savage gas burner turns out Chinese food better than any normal pan and they’re cheap too, maybe a tenner from a Chinese supermarket. Same caveats apply to care though.

Back to normal cooking pans, Nisbets sell pro level stuff which isn’t cheap cheap but is pretty good value and very solid. I’ve got the three normal pans from this set and they’re great.

[url] https://www.nisbets.co.uk/vogue-tri-wall-pan-set-of-4-pans/s888?vatToggle=incvat&gclid=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA4o79BRBvEiwAjteoYPvfVR8oc_afvTXOTYNtzCdLqXlhWCFTk-INmOOGQZZiazZeG5rEYhoCCn8QAvD_BwE&cm_mmc=PLA-_-1665275005-_-63901012026-_-S888&cm_mmca1=go_1665275005_63901012026_321523756465_pla-852820568862_m_[/url]
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TG.

[Polarbear]

[Islander]

[hellkat]

I don't really use much fancy stuff. I inherited some nice bits from my exhusband. Couple of nice iron pots, a nice copper crepe pan. Fuck knows when i might use that but its terribly impressive.

And many woks.

I own two of most things at the moment. Its kind of nice but cluttered AF in my kitchen.
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Not nearly as interesting in real life.

[steve the grease]

Le Creuset is good, but I've got a cast iron frying pan I got off the waste transfer station ( the tip basically) in Levenshulme in 1980. Its effectively non stick, gets a wipe out quite often, but never cleaned too much. Fantastic.
Also Opinel knives are pretty much as cheap as chips. The carbon rather than stainless steel ones keep an edge really well and are easily sharpened, yeah ok they can go a bit rusty but it soon cleans off - proper knives.
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All the above is my personal opinion, you can see my lips move, but I'm talking out of my arse.
I've been riding, and fixing , bikes for 50 years, in that time the more I learn, the less I am absolutely sure of.....

[stinkwheel]

Something to consider is future-proofing. Induction hobs will be the way forwards so make sure your pans will work on one.

For what it's worth I have a load of pans. We got a set of stainless Thomas Rosenthal pans (couple of stock pots, a dutch oven kind of thing, couple of large and couple of small saucepans). They are stainless with metal handles, rivetted on. A nice touch is they have a built in pouring spout and a steainer built into the rim of the lid.

Those are really high quality pans, lifetime garauntee. They would have been VERY expensive but at the time I was getting married tesco were doing vouchers for 80% off them and that's what we asked people to collect for a wedding present.

I have one small, copper bottom sauce-pan for making fiddly sauces in like hollandaise.

I have my grannies old le-crueset cast iron frying pan which I fry most things in. I also have a giant cast iron frying pan for doing big fry-ups when mates are round.

I have a big cast iron pan/casserole thing which is the same size as the stainless one but does a way better job and is easier to clean. It can go from the stove top to the oven.

I have a big le-cruset ceramic-coated aluminium non-stick shallow casserole which is pretty awesome, great for a bolegnaise or similar or for pan frying poultry.

Large steel wok for stir fries.

Steel kahiri for curries.

Huge stainless maslin pan for jamming and bottling.

I have only one non-stick pan which is used exclusively for dry-frying nuts, seeds or spices and fried eggs.

I would say the cast iron is by far the nicest to cook with. Also the easiest to clean. You just need to make sure you dry and oil them after. They are also superb on an induction hob. very heavy though. The stainless is nice but stuff sticks a lot more easily. They can however be cleaned out with metal scouring pads.

The ceramic coated aluminium is surprisingly tough and a good compromise between the ease of use of non-stick and the toughness of stainless. it doesn't scratch easily but it can still scratch.

So the Rosenthals I have are very good, 10 years old now and still absolutely fine. My Mum has a set of stainless AMC pans she was given for her wedding 45 years ago and they are still going strong. A handle broke on one of them about 10 years ago and they replaced it for free under their lifetime garauntee, so also a good brand.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[stinkwheel]

Regarding knives, I'd go stainless. Carbon has marginal benefits but is a pain in the arse to keep nice.

Take the time to learn to put a proper edge on them with a stone. You'll only need to do this every couple of years, the rest of the time you just need a few strokes on a steel to turn the wire edge over.

I've got a motley assortment of chefs knives but if I was going to pick some to buy now from scratch, I'd go with Mora knives. Good price point and superbly well constructed.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[Bhud]

[stinkwheel]

[The Artist]

[wr6133]

I'm pretty handy at Chinese food (Wife being a native). The heavy tefal (others make similar) style woks are not really proper woks they are high sided frying pans.

Really proper ones are round bottomed but flat bottom is common these days as modern electric stoves can't do round bottomed pans. Main thing is thickness most of the stuff sold as "wok" here is way too thick, the (carbon) steel ones shouldn't be thicker than 14 gauge if hand made and thinner if machine made. Cast Iron can be a bit thicker but these weigh a ton and personally I prefer steel. Anyway the thick ones and the ones made of Ali or Stainless just won't cook many Chinese dishes correctly. A cheapo £5 flimsy feeling thing from TK maxx home section will make better Kung Pao Chicken than an expensive Tefal one.

[ThunderGuts]

[RhynoCZ]

[weasley]