What’s your favorite brand of BIFL cookware for induction?
I'm looking to upgrade my kitchen with industrial-quality pots and pans. After about a month of searching, I came to the conclusion that the most important requirements are:
- 3-ply (or 5-ply). Fully clad (not just the bottom disc).
- 18/8 or 18/10 stainless steel on the inside
- 18/0 (or 200-grade or 400-grade) magnetic stainless steel on the outside.
- Thick layers of metal (ideally >= 3mm of aluminum)
- strong, serviceable rivets on handles (not welded)
- Handles on both sides of the pot (helper handle)
- Handles have a hole in them, for hanging
- Fits a 28 cm (or 11”) lid (easily replaceable standard size that’s interchangeable between metric and dumb units)
- Top rim should either have a pour spout or flared lip, for easier pouring
- NSF certified
From what I’ve read, stainless steel isn’t a very good conductor (NIST says that aluminum transfers heat 16x better than aluminum). But stainless steel is a better surface to cook-on, because it’s less reactive and won’t absorb flavours. So, 3-ply sandwiches a thick aluminum layer between two different types of stainless steel (nickle-free [eg 18/0 or 200- or 400-grade] on the outside, which – though less corrosion resistant -- is important for induction) and either 18/8 or 18/10 on the inside.
5-ply is also a thing, but my research suggests that it doesn’t really matter how many layers. What’s more important is the thickness of the material.
And that’s why I’m here. Because, confidingly, the manufacturers of these pots don’t seem to even know how thick the layers of their 3-ply cookware is!
Ideally I’d just find the technical specifications of their cookware on their website, make a spreadsheet, and then buy the one with the thickest material (or close to the thickest, depending on my trade-off between quality vs weight & cost).
But I’ve called maybe a dozen manufacturers, and none seem to know the specifications of their own cookware :(
So, fediverse, I ask you: does anyone know what the thickness of the layers in these manufacturer’s 3-ply cookware is? Otherwise, what’s been your experience? How do you feel about these brands? Is there some other one (not listed) that you prefer?
- Browne Thermalloy
- All-Clad
- Made-in
- Tramontina
- Cuisinart
- Other?
Edit: I should be clear that I’m specifically asking about 3-ply or 5-ply stainless steel cookware. This is for a community house, so I need something that can be (ab)used by housemates who don’t know or care for the seasonings on the pans. And I don’t want cast iron, because it’s more likely to break the glass-topped induction cooktop.
It's probably at the bottom end of this range, but we've had a Cuisinart set for about 14 years and I'm pretty happy with it (but this set probably isn't induction capable, and Cuisinart quality may have declined over the years).
We cook from scratch most days, and at least 2 meals a day (although I keep an inexpensive non stick set for a few things like eggs or fish). They are showing their age, but only in scratches from using stainless utensils on them or dents from being dropped, and things like that. We've never had a loose handle, and the bottoms are all still dead flat after using them on both an electric coil stove, and gas.
Prior to this we had a generic set from Sam's Club that looked like it was the real deal, but the bottoms bowed up over time and everything ran to the edges, and using them on a glass top stove became problematic.
Yikes. Yeah, warping on the bottom is a big no-go for induction. The heating loss is pretty exponential the further it is from the ceramic glass top above the coils.