Do you have a matching set of saucepans?

[ChippyMinton]

Exciting question for a Saturday morning, I know!
Just bought an induction hob and need new pans. Trying to decide whether to buy a whole set, or individual pans. Which sizes and styles do you use most?

Yes I do. John Lewis stainless steel ones. Had them for years and they still look like new.

Yes we do. Buy pans to suit your family size. Plus one large one and one smaller one.

Annoyingly our current set still looks fine, so I’ve put them in the loft for the DC to use when they leave home.

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I do have a set of copper bottom one's that are about 25 years old and still going strong despite me cremating stuff in them on numerous occasions but I also have non matching pans too, particularly a very of 7 in frying pan that I would be lost without.

Yes we do. They are from Marks and were wedding presents 16 years ago. Those ones are stainless steel.

I then have 2 non stick ones from Sainsbury's.

Yes, stainless steel, 20+ years old, still look good. Stainless steel steamer set, absolute godsend, again very old and still looking good. Variety of non stick frying pans.

Yes, a set of Stellar stainless steel pans. Have used them daily for 20 years and they are still like new.

If you are boiling potatoes, there is little difference between pans (generally on induction cheap ones with a ferrous disc in the base aren't as good as ones which are ferrous all the way through, but it's marginal). If you are making a béchamel sauce or caramel or stewed apples, good pans are worth it. So unless you can afford a set of the good ones, you will inevitably end up with big cheap ones for potatoes and pasta and smaller good ones for trickier things.

Oh dear, i think i need to up my pan game! I've always got on or other of them starting to look worse for wear so i end up replacing it. I usually get supermarket ones though.

Yes, le creuset in blue. They're over twenty years old and look like new. They are hung on the wall on a wooden stand so don't take up precious drawer space and will last a lifetime.

Yes.

Merlin Eaziglide non stick which I got at a fabulous but short lived sale price in the Debenhams NY sale last year. Picked up a second set at the same time as we don't have a good track record with saucepans

Yes, I bought Judge pans for my induction hob many years ago. They have a copper encapsulated base, covered in steel so you have the benefits of copper but they work on an induction hob.

Keep the heat in really well and disperse it evenly throughout the pan, very efficient. Need to turn the hob down low early on so saves electricity.

As our family grew we needed bigger pans and I loved them so much I replaced them with a bigger version of the same pans and gave the others to a friend as I couldn't bear to throw them away.

I bought my set of 3 Judge stainless steel pans 20 years ago in Clapham Junction in the little department store there.
They are brilliant and used almost daily but no idea if they’d work on an induction hob.
I’ve got 2 le creuset pans but they are really heavy and mark easily inside, so they tend to stay in the cupboard.

Thanks everyone. I just popped into town and ended up buying some decent looking stainless steel pans in TK Maxx. They do actually match, but that was luck really. Bought 16cm and 18cm saucepans, 20cm casserole with 2 handles, and a 24cm skillet with lid.

Interesting about the tricky things needing decent pans - will see how these work out.

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