Cooktop / Pots and Pans recommendations?

Hi,

I have a ton of All Clad stainless, a couple pieces of All Clad MC2 and a Bosch glass top electric ceramic built-in cootop NKT 72.

I inherited this cooktop and most of the pots from my parents and I'm having cooking challenges.

The All Clad just doesn't heat up on this cooktop. In order to saute, I have to have the burner on high for five minutes or so, then move it down to somewhere more reasonable.

I've given up on boiling water, I have an electric kettle - I just fill my pots from there.

I know I have to turn the knob extra far to turn on the larger burner. That's not the problem.

At Thanksgiving I was at someone's home with a very similar cooktop and asked how they liked it and we talked about it.

They said it works better with very flat on the bottom pans. They showed how their pans have that "disc" on the bottom of the pan. They have Revere Ware and they love those pots and their similar cooktop.

I have a couple of pans including an old saute pan with that kind of bottom and tried it on my stove and it was WAY better than the All Clad.

Now - what do I do? I have a lot of "very nice" All Clad pans. I was originally using mine on a coil style electric stove (I no longer have) and it worked great.

My parents used to have Induction - that's why they got so much stainless All Clad (which I now own). They loved the induction but the cooktop broke down after something like 10 years and that discouraged them from doing it again and that's when they got this Bosch "Electric Built-In Ceramic Cook-top". I know it's not induction but I don't really know what it is.

I know I should either get a new cook-top or get a new set of cookware.

But what? It's just a cook-top, not an oven, that is separate. Induction looks like it would set me back $1000-$1500 and I'd lose my skillet and my 3 quart saucier (neither which my Mom had in stainless), but I'd keep my pressure cooker and a whole mess of other nice pots.

Or I could go out and get some Revere Ware. Maybe sell the All Clad on Ebay? I have no idea how much that would set me back.

Or I guess I could get some other kind of cooktop, use all my pots. But what would be best with these "curved bottom" pots?

By the way, my Kuhn-Rikon pressure cooker and my Lodge cast iron seem ok on this Bosch cooktop. I'm just having problems sauteeing, and boiling water.

Anybody else have these kinds of problems? What did you do? Or does anybody have any suggestions?

Nancy

Nancy,

I have bought several pieces of "gently-used" All-Clad pieces on eBay, with great success. If you had the LTD style, I would make you an offer for your pots and pans! Anyway, my understanding is that to make the most of these cooktops,you really need the right kind of cookware, so I swear I'd sell what I had on eBay and buy the style the manufacturer recommends.

Good luck!

Sharon

I am looking for an 8-inch or so pan. I saw this one on the NW Cutlery website: http://www.nwcutlery.com/product.cgi?gr ... duct=22311

Does anyone have any comments about Mineral Element pans?

Pie Lady: This is a good, inexpensive fry pan. It's carbon steel. These are common in restaurants (they are inexpensive, come in a lot of sizes, durable, and restaurants don't care about shiny finishes!) The pan will be much lighter than a thick cast iron pan and will heat up much more quickly. You should plan to season it like a cast iron pan. It's made by de Buyer, a leading manufacture of this style of pan.

Nancy (I know this is old): If your All Clads have curved bottoms (i.e. they are not flat), you should call All Clad customer service and have them replaced. They should not warp like this.

More generally, my advise is to replace the range, not the pots. Decent gas stoves are not that expensive.

Hi,

Cooktops and stoves will eventually die, good pots will live your lifetime and beyond.

I had a Corning glass flat top for many years. I bought a lot of flat bottomed pots to accomodate it. I still use them today on my gas cooktop.

I was ok with the flat top until I took up canning. This was the deal breaker waiting for oversized pots to come to a boil.

My kitchen did not have a gas line, though we had gas service for water and household heating. Living in an old house, I was getting open ended estimates for installation. The lowest estimate was $250, when I called to accept it they raised it another $150. "Old houses sometimes have surprises when we begin opening things."

My Dad got really irked and decided to install it himself. I have the Rolls Royce of gas lines with more safefy cut offs than usually installed.

I did buy my cooktop at Plass Appliance outlet store on Army Trail Road for $350. It was a $700+ model with a scratch I never could find. It went into the trunk as-is with no box though with full instructions and warranty. Boxed it would be have been $700+.

I have never regretted leaving my electric glass flat top cooktop. Plus I can roast red peppers over the gas flame, how can you do that on an electric flat top?

Regards,

Darren72 wrote:Pie Lady: You should plan to season it like a cast iron pan.

Damn - does that mean it can't be washed with soap? Mr. Pie won't like that one bit!

Pie Lady wrote:

Darren72 wrote:Pie Lady: You should plan to season it like a cast iron pan.

Damn - does that mean it can't be washed with soap? Mr. Pie won't like that one bit!

You can wash it with soap. I wouldn't put it in the dishwasher or use scouring pads on it. Most of the time you won't need to use soap (esp once it is properly seasoned). But if you need to use soap, go ahead. In fact, you can re-season this pan fairly quickly (unlike a cast iron pan, which takes a few hours), should you remove the seasoning at any point.

Anyone who has been wanting a canning set up should check out the great sale
At Target right now
An 8 pc set including the big pot and rack for just $33
(in Gurnee) someone else told me they saw it in Niles for $43

Irisarbor--do you have a cite/URL on that? I'm absolutely in the market for a pot set and will be at Target tomorrow... but it would help to know what to look for. (My Target is in Plattsburgh NY!)

TIA!

Geo

Your problem is simply that your cooktop doesn't put out enough BTU's.
New cookware will NOT solve your problem, period.
Purchase a new gas preferably cooktop, if you don't have gas then its electric and you may or may not have the same problem.-Dick

Sounds right to me, Dick. I've got a GE Profile glasstop and it's a *screamer*--zero to boiling in nothing flat.

Geo

Pie Lady wrote:I am looking for an 8-inch or so pan. I saw this one on the NW Cutlery website: http://www.nwcutlery.com/product.cgi?gr ... duct=22311

Does anyone have any comments about Mineral Element pans?

I think I just screwed up my new pan. I tried to season it, but my stove is tilted so all the oil slid to the back half. Then I burned the oil, so the pan now looks like this:





Now what? Is this safe to cook on? I tried to season it by tilting the oil to the other side, but it didn't get dark like this.

I'm having a hard time seeing the details in those pictures. But my advice is to either reseason the pan or first remove the existing seasoning and then reseason. The pan is definitely not ruined.

You should be seasoning the pan in the oven, not on the stove. The oven is far, far easier.

Oh. Whoops. How do you remove a seasoning?

I would wash it in hot, soapy water and scrub with a stiff brush (there are more thorough ways to remove all of the seasoning, such as using oven cleaner, but I don't think you need to bother with this). Then re-season.

I don't suppose you have a friend with a sand blaster?
In the past I've rescued cookwear by gently sandblasting it to the bare metal. Worked quite well on a very expensive stainless steel casserole that had gotten badly abused.

Soak, scrub. soak, scrub. Repeat as needed. Steel wool will probably work best.

I've rescued some cookwear by using steel wool and a palm sander. I just clamped the pan down and pushed down hard on the steel wool with the palm sander.

This looks like a good place to ask -- So I was driving around during lunch hour just now and bought one of these things



...for $1.00 at a rummage sale. It's by E. Dehillerin, tinned copper with brass handles, 12cm/4.7 inch in diameter. The page I stole that image from shows a stainless-lined version in several sizes, calling it a "round pan, 'table' ". The rummage sale only had the one.

What's this thing good for?

Mini tarte tatin

Having two smaller handles, rather than one long handle, makes it easier to serve on the table (i.e. go straight from oven/stove directly to the table). So a mini tarte tatin is a good idea, as is a gratin and anything that you want to serve straight from the oven/stove.

Here is what my favorite reference on stovetop cookware says about tinned copper:

Copper with an Interior Lining of Tin
- Otherwise similar to Copper With an Interior Lining of Stainless Steel, but employing tin instead of stainless steel on the interior.
- Tin is less durable than stainless steel. After a while, the tin lining will wear out and the interior will have to be re-tinned. May not be used at high heat, as this will cause the tin lining to blister and melt.
- Tin has significantly better thermal conductivity ( 0.666 W/cm K) than stainless steel. As a result, some people feel that tin-lined copper offers the ultimate in temperature control for sauce making.
- Very expensive (less expensive than stainless-lined copper).
- Common uses: Almost every pan in the kitchen is manufactured in this design. From a practical standpoint, probably useful to most home cooks as a dedicated pan for sauces only. I do not recommend it for home cooks.
- Representative manufacturers: Mauviel

Dehillerin probably the top cook's shoppe in Paris. I've got some knives from there. Typically top-level stuff, designed for rugged use.

Enjoy!

Geo