Different Cooking Utensils and their purpose

[Anonymous]

How are you supposed to use the different cooking utensils for optimal cooking experience?

For example, what do you use all-clad for?
What about Dutch ovens?
Non-stick pans?
Ceramic pans?

There are so many options and I’m a little overwhelmed!

[Anonymous]

And cookware!!

[Anonymous]

My pots and pans are all Calphalon. For the majority of my cooking, that's what I use, from pasta for the kids, scrambled eggs, chili, sautéing anything, shrimp scampi, chicken cutlets, etc.

For roasting vegetables, an enamal 9x12 pan

For lasagna, brownies, a Pyrex 9x12 pan

Dutch oven for soups and stews

Double cookie sheets (so they don't burn) with a silicone sheet on top for no mess for cookies

[Anonymous]

Some of those I think are just marketing. I don’t have a full set of pots and pans right now because I live in a small house with a small kitchen. I have a minimalist set of kitchen tools and pots/pans and get by fine for what I need. And I only add to my collection if I anticipate needing something regularly, not just for a one off recipe. My current collection includes 3 stainless steel frying pans of different sizes, 1 cast iron pan, 1 Dutch oven, a small stainless steel pot for boiling water for pasta, making hot cocoa, steaming veggies, etc. NYT Wirecutter has some good recs for kitting out your own set and what most people need/use.

[Anonymous]

This is marketing pp. I will add that most nonstick doesn’t hold up in my experience, and I was concerned about plastic/forever chemicals leeching into my food from the pan, so I switched to stainless steel. I also have an induction stove, so there are fewer options for what works on induction but stainless steel is pretty reliable for working.

[Anonymous]

I only use nonstick for eggs. I use All Clad stainless steel saute and saucepans , and a Le Creuset dutch oven for everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only use nonstick for eggs. I use All Clad stainless steel saute and saucepans , and a Le Creuset dutch oven for everything else.

Same here, except my saucepans are Le Creuset stainless. I have been trying to pare down pots and pans since you really don't need that many and they take up space.