Pots and pans recommendations please

[PaperBlinds]

Could you recommend saucepans and frying pans please? We are sick of the poor quality teflon ones we have, both for health reasons and the fact that nonstick is a bit rubbish.

Looking for stainless steel or poss ceramic coating. Don't have a huge budget, but might splash out and make them the a Christmas present!

We need small saucepan, medium saucepan and a large frying pan, plus large pan with handle and lid.

What i would really love is a pan that can go hob to oven but not sure what materials work for that?

I replaced all my non sticks with stainless steel, for the same reasons. (Still have a cast iron casserole, but it's so heavy). Dunelm mill do some reasonable ones. You could get a deep frying pan with side handles and a lid instead of one long handled one, that will go from hob to oven. I have one of those, use it a lot, and it will do 2 jobs for the price of one.

Thank you! Will check out Dunelm - is it their own brand you bought? And how are they standing the test of time?

I bought these tri-ply saucepans recently. I'm really impressed with them

https://shop.proware-kitchen.co.uk/collections/stainless-steel-tri-ply-cookware/products/stainless-steel-tri-ply-cookware-set-of-3-16cm-18cm-20cm-saucepans

Mine are Meyer Bella bought in a sale for my first house 20 years ago. I think they'll last another 20.

I also have a set of Circlion Infinite which were a wedding gift 15 years ago. They have a non-stick lining. Works great in the pots not so much in the frying pans.

Now google tells me Meyer own Circlion.

Oh these are great suggestions, thank you. The only decent saucepan we have was a wedding present so, ahem 20+ years old. I wished we had asked for a whole set back then!

Do any of you have special cleaning techniques for stainless steel?

Mine are Stellar. I've had one 5-pan set for over 20 years, used every day and they look like new.

I bought another 5-pan set for my daughter about 10 years ago, again used every day, and they also still look like new. Completely spotless.

They both also have a lifetime guarantee.

Procook often do good sales or can be found in outlet stores. Ours have done very well.

Otherwise we have a mix of Le Creseut or the John Lewis fake Le Creseut. All great.

We’ve got Procook, Le Creuset and the fake Aldi Le Creuset. All do brilliantly for hob to oven, especially the massive Aldi casserole dish. No obvious difference in quality or performance.

Just don’t buy the le creuset frying pan. It’s bloody awful.

The Tefal ones with the clip on handles. Means they stack nicely and can go hob to oven (sorry - just saw you don’t want nonstick. They may have i the materials now!)

Le Creuset look lovely and are probably fantastic but very heavy as well as £££.

I have a "Cooking for Blokes" cookbook. It recommends Le Creuset but picking them up second hand as so many women struggle with the weight of them, that they end up on the second hand market nearly new.

I bought two Stellar stockpots for MrMultivac for his birthday this year, and got a baking tray as a free gift. Not cheap, but they are fabulous!
We also got given two Prestige saucepans, second hand, well used - and still really great quality.
Would highly recommend both brands.

Meyer for me. Got them as a wedding gift in 2002. Pans lasted waaaaay longer than the marriage. Still going strong!

Thanks so much all! I want spend my afternoon googling pans rather than working!

My wide frying pan/casserole is Prestige (has a heavy bottom), my 3 tier steamer is Cookshop, my other frying pan is artame , and my small saucepan is from Dunelm. All are several years old and going strong. All go in the dishwasher. What I like about stainless tel frying pans is that even if something burns in the bottom a soak in hot soapy water cleans them perfectly, whereas Teflon ones seem to get a build up of gunk that you can't remove without a scourer, which defeats the object. I've been through no end of Teflon frying pans, and I wouldn't have one now as a gift. Never tried a ceramic pan though, so no idea how good they are. But a good quality ss pan will last forever. Happy hunting.

@FizzingAda - exactly this! I don't know why we haven't got round to it sooner, but we seem to go through non-stick cookware at such a rate. Word to the wise do not buy Sainsbury's non-stick anything- inside and outside of pans scratched on day one and have just get progressively worse.

Le Creuset do stainless steel and non stick as well as the cast iron pans. They have lifetime guarantees, so that justifies the expense a bit. If you want cheaper pans, i have found ikea to be quite good.

All Clad are fantastic if you want to splash out a bit

I agree OP! Non stick is absolutely rubbish

Circulon… made me fall in love with cooking again (couldn’t abide the clean up of pans!), a doddle to clean, don’t even need to be touched if you just run them under a hot tap as soon as you’re done. Life changing and worth every penny.

It’s a different kind of ridged design that gives it the non stick quality.

I use Circulon non scratch, heat resistant kitchen utensils with them. Other brands do it too, but I liked being matchy matchy.

And they come with a lifetime guarantee. Job done.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circulon-Premier-Anodised-Induction-Cookware/dp/B081S4YFH6/ref=sr1_2?qid=1699541869&refinements=p_4%3ACirculon&s=kitchen&sr=1-2

@PaperBlinds I agree with the comment about Sainsbury's non-stick.

I've had their expensive pizza trays and various baking trays and they just don't last.

Maybe I should splash the cash on circulon ones. I've been stuffing 14 inch pizzas into a 10 or 12 inch prestige and and pryex pizza trays. My kids are asking why they come out bowl shaped.

Ikea stainless steel cookware is very good if you don't want to spend too much money. I've just given ds my old ikea pans, some are 10-15 years old, and all still going strong.

I've bought myself Samuel Groves replacements. They're beautiful, and they look like they will last forever, but they're not cheap. Stainless steel Cookware - Samuel Groves Online

@Sugarfree23 - it's actually worse than non-stick, it sort of actively disintegrates and then resticks. I can never tell if I'm trying to get off burnt on food or peeling plastic 🤢.

I think i have a weekend of googling on this now. Good to know about Ikea.

And yes to Le Creuset - we have a dutch oven one - in grey (the most un- le creuset colour ever) but the cost is prohibitive. In my dreams everything would be in cooked in orange le creuset.

All mine are carbon steel or cast iron. The carbon steel are lightweight, cheap and ovenproof. Would never go back

I have a set of stainless steel Asda ones- had them a few years now and they are brilliant.
Another one is a pot and 2 steaming tops from M&S bought in the charity shop.

John Lewis, I got my stainless pans when I got divorced, they are still like new. I'm now swapping to either the Ninja or Scoville Neverstick ones as I prefer non stick so I can use less oil.