Best Stainless Steel Cookware

We have a winner!

We found what we think is the best stainless steel cookware set on the market

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Best Non-Stick Cookware Set

For Lovers of non-stick cookware

This non-stick cookware set is excellent value for money and we rate it highly

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Best Dutch Oven Overall For Quality and Color

This will be no surprise

There is no doubt about it, we had to rate the as our number 1 choice for Dutch Ovens.

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Finding the Right Cookware

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 at 8:28 pm  
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One of the most essential factors when finding the right cookware is to understand the importance of quality.

Cheap cookware, more often than not, proves to be a false economy. The cooking results themselves can suffer and the pots and pans are often easily scratched and marked. Cheaper trays and dishes are prone to cracking, leading you to buy a replacement quite quickly. So quality is very important, however with so many quality ranges available it`s hard to choose between them.

Before you even start looking for your new cookware you need to think about what you really want from your kitchen equipment. How many people do you cook for, just yourself, you and a partner, a family, perhaps even professional catering on a large scale? The answer to this will affect the size and amount of dishes, pots and pans you need. The size of your kitchen and cupboards should also be a factor in the size of cookware you purchase.

If you cook on an industrial scale then you need hard-wearing cookware, where function overrides beauty. For those who regularly entertain at home you will be looking for cookware that not only functions well in the kitchen but can also look good when laid on the dining table. This is particularly important for lasagne dishes, casserole dishes and roasting trays which are often placed mid centre on a table to be served there.

There are also a myriad of materials found throughout the cookware market range. Most people tend to cook with good old time tested metals- stainless steel, copper, aluminium or cast iron. Different metals have differing benefits, cast iron, for example is extremely durable and conducts heat well but is prone to rust and can be very heavy. Aluminium offers excellent heat conduction but can be damaged easily. Copper can react with acidic foods compromising on taste but it also offers great heat conduction. Stainless steel on the other hand is easy to maintain and doesn’t react with foods, but it isn’t the best heat conductor.

Ceramic cookware is very popular and can look great on a table. Ceramics often come in a range of colours which is great for fun loving chefs. Cooking a casserole in the oven and transporting it straight to the dining table is an increasingly popular way to eat.

Finding cookware requires a little bit of research and a lot of thought, including setting a realistic budget. But once you have worked out what it is you need from your cookware in terms of size and material, you can start looking at the different sets which are available. Whether you are looking for a set for the home or a good set of catering equipment, there are many terrific options. A good cookware range should feel natural to cook with and last a generation; and you`ll just know when it`s `the one`.

How To Keep Eating Well If You’re On a Budget

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 at 7:03 pm  
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What to Keep Up

For families who have decided to buy healthy snacks, produce and whole grain costs may seem incredibly high. However, eating healthy snack instead of snack high in sugar is a natural way to boost energy and to curb and unhealthy appetite. Though healthier foods may be more expensive, they help to keep both adults and children fuller for longer, reducing the frequency with which such snacks are purchased and ultimately saving families money and supplementary energy boosters and appetite reducers. Eating healthy snacks also helps the body to feel more active. This results in increased activity and reduces the risk for heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases which cost a lot in bills and healthcare.

What to Add

Buying healthy food in bulk is a great idea for a large family. It’s a quick and easy way to make healthy choices, and lots of them, all at once. For those with smaller families, it is important not to over purchase quantities of food. Though it may seem smart cost wise, much of the food will be unusable before smaller families get around to preparing it. Also, families should try to add homemade recipes to menus. By involving the entire family in meal selections, children often feel more included and enthusiastic about healthy food options, thus eliminating food waste.

What to Cut Out

Though some fruits and veggies may be favorites, it’s a good idea to cut out those options that are more expensive in favor of cheaper options. For example, if a family member enjoys eating fresh cherries, but they are much more expensive than grapes, it may be a great idea to settle for the less appealing but still healthy and satisfying alternative. Also, simply by resisting the urge to buy by brand and by actually checking nutritional content and with prices, families can cut down on unnecessarily wasted money. Also, by eliminating unhealthy juices and beverages from diets, and by increasing the amount of water and fruits that are ingested, families can reduce sugar intake and save even more money.

What to Tweak

Many shudder at the thought, but leftovers are actually a great way to reduce food costs and to keep up a healthy, balanced diet. Often, families opt for fast food and other unhealthy options because of time limitations. By reducing homemade meal frequency to just a few times a week and making enough for leftovers, families can still eat healthy food without feeling rushed or pressed for time because of the need to prepare new ingredients. Reheating food also decreases the necessity for going out for lunch during work and school hours, thus leaving more room in the grocery budget for healthy options.

This article was written by Jane Sanders from DebtManagement.net. Visit her site for more advice on choosing the right debt management company.

 

 

Low Calorie Cooking with 360 Cookware Vapor Technology

Sunday, March 27th, 2011 at 5:59 pm  
Comments (3)
360 9pc Cookware Set

Low Calorie Cooking Technology!

360 Cookware is a line of high performance,
stainless steel cookware that promises to handle all of your traditional recipes beautifully while also providing the opportunity of cooking with fewer calories by eliminating the need for fats, oils or extra water.

Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, the secret behind 360 Cookware is a vapor seal that creates a low but intense heat that permeates food evenly from all sides. The specially-designed lid can be engaged to create a floating seal, surrounding food with even, controlled heat from 360 degrees, locking in flavor, texture and nutrients, all without excess fats or water.

After steam starts to escape from food, you spin the lid and the seal is engaged. The vapor technology cooks food faster and on a lower heat setting so it uses less energy than traditional stainless steel cookware. The heat is so well distributed that you can bake a cake on the stove top! Food even tastes better and is more nutritious because the low heat doesn’t destroy vital nutrients and texture.

And you can feel good about purchasing green cookware that is “Made in the USA.” Not only does 360 Cookware use less energy, it is also manufactured at the greenest cookware manufacturing plant in the country.

360 Cookware is made of multiple layers of high-grade metals including interior layers of bonded aluminum that are carried up the sides and throughout the lip of the pan. All 360 Cookware is encased in surgical grade, non-leaching 8/10 T-304 stainless steel, so food does not come into contact with soft metals, non-stick coatings or other potentially-hazardous elements. Each model is constructed with an ergonomic, stay-cool handle, and comes with a lifetime warranty.

An added benefit of the vapor technology is the ability to cook healthy, one pot dishes. They have plenty of healthy recipes featured on their website, so we tested out the Tilapia with Fresh Salsa, Corn and Baby Spinach. The entire meal took about 20 minutes to prepare and the fish came out to light and flaky perfection!

360 Cookware – Tilapia With Fresh Salsa

Tilapia with Fresh Salsa, Corn and Baby Spinach Recipe

16 ounces best quality fresh salsa
4 cups lightly packed baby spinach
10.5 ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
3 ears corn, shucked, kernels cut from cobs (about 1 ½ cups)
4 skinless tilapia fillets
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Smoked paprika
1 lime, cut into wedges

  • Pour the salsa into the stainless steel 3.5 Quart Sauté Pan.

  • Sprinkle the spinach over the salsa in an even layer, and lightly season it with a little salt. Sprinkle the black beans and corn evenly over the spinach.

  • Season the fish fillets with salt and pepper. Lightly sprinkle the fish with smoked paprika. Arrange the fillets in a single layer over the vegetable mixture.

  • Cover the skillet and cook over medium heat until steam just begins to escape from the lid, about 5 minutes.

  • Spin the lid to engage the vapor seal then reduce the heat to low. Cook the fish for 2 minutes then immediately remove the pan from the heat. Let stand off-heat for about 5 minutes until the fish is just cooked through. (It should flake easily with a fork.)

  • To Serve use a spatula to divide the fish, vegetables, and sauce among 4 plates. Serve with lime wedges.

It may seem odd to let partially cooked fish stand off heat to cook but trust us, the multi-layered construction and heat retention create convection oven-like heat, so the fish comes out flawlessly. Can’t wait to try baking a potato on the stovetop!

 

The Truth Behind Stemware

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011 at 5:20 pm  
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You might cast off specialty stemware as a mere wine snob pretension, but once you see the light, it’s extremely difficult to go back. The best way to understand how drastically a wine can change based on the glass it’s presented in, is to conduct a very basic experiment.

Pour yourself some red Burgundy (Pinot Noir) in a clunky, thick-walled wine glass from IKEA with a relatively short and narrow bowl. Then pour some into a broad Schott Zwiesel “Burgunder” or Burgundy glass.

The first thing you’ll notice is how much more aromatic the wine will appear when drunk from the glass with the deep, rounded bowl. This shape allows for more of the wine’s surface area to interact with oxygen, which will amp up the wine’s aromas and will allow you to experience the wine’s delicate flavor nuances. A large bowl also enables you to swirl the wine vigorously, which will help with aeration and will soften a wine’s tannins if they start out being quite assertive. Drinking wine from a stout and narrow glass makes aeration challenging and can hinder a wine from truly expressing itself in the glass. Do your wine (and yourself) a favor and give it a proper stage upon which to perform. The difference will be completely worth your while.

The second thing you’ll notice when comparing the two glasses is how elegant the wine will taste when drunk from a crystal glass that has thin, fragile walls. The reasoning behind this might be less than scientific, but pressing your lips to a thick wall of glass is simply not appealing. The last thing you want to taste when sipping a glass of wine is the actual glass itself.

Matching Glass Type to Wine Type

Unless you consider yourself an über wine geek, you should be good to go with three types of wine glasses: a narrow flute for Champagne and sparkling wines, a smaller glass for whites, and a larger, deeper glass for reds.

The key to sparkling wine is maintaining its effervescence for as long as possible. A long narrow flute only allows a small portion of the wine’s surface area to be exposed to oxygen, which keeps the bubbles in your bubbly from dissipating too quickly. Try drinking a glass of Prosecco from a standard red wine glass and your sparkling wine will turn still real fast.

There are many variations within the white wine glass category including a tulip shaped glass for highly aromatic grape varieties like Riesling, a narrower bowl for crisp varieties like Sauvignon Blanc and Grüner Veltliner, or a more bulbous glass for rich Chardonnays and Viogniers which see some oak, but generally speaking, most whites will show well in a smaller glass.

Like with the red Burgundy example, most red wines (specifically those that are high in tannins such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Malbec) will benefit from a glass with a large, deep bowl, which allows for ample oxygen contact. You’ll find a slew of red wine glasses on the market that are tailored for specific red wine styles or grape varieties, but any larger sized glass will do. Bordeaux glasses are typically taller and slimmer than Burgundy glasses, since Pinot Noir is a very delicate and aromatic grape variety that benefits from a good amount of air.

World Class Stemware Brands to Look For:

Riedel

Schott Zwiesel

Spiegelau

About the Author:

 

Etty Lewensztain is the founder and owner of Plonk Wine Merchants, which features organic, biodynamic and natural wines, as well as some of the best cheap wine under $20.

Why is Non-Stick Cookware so Popular?

Thursday, March 17th, 2011 at 4:46 pm  
Comments (6)

The use of non-stick cookware in the United States spread like wildfire following its introduction to the market by DuPont in 1945. And, the American chef, professional or otherwise, has really never looked back.

It should be noted that the term “non-stick” can be applied with different meanings. Some refer to the non-stick qualities of cookware materials like iron or stainless steel. Here, though, it is being used to describe Teflon or other PTFE coatings.

And, there have been advancements. The 1980s saw the introduction of ceramic-based non-stick surfaces that have been infused with everything from titanium to diamonds to increase its strength. But, they still fall within the non-stick class of cookware.

Non-stick cookware is everywhere. It would not be far-fetched to guess that there is at least one piece of non-stick cookware in every American kitchen today.  It is the go-to cookware for nearly every cooking demographic in the country, whether you’re an amateur or pro, young or old, on a budget or in the money.

What makes non-stick cookware so popular? It comes down to three things: it’s inexpensive, there’s a lot of it out there and it gets the job done.

Cost

You can get a complete non-stick cookware set for as little as $30. There’s just no other type of cookware that can offer that price point. It will not be the greatest set in the world, but for someone on a budget who needs a way to heat up soup it’s just the ticket.

On the other hand, you can find high-quality non-stick cookware sets for as much as $600 or more.

The advantage is that non-stick cookware is not beyond the reach of any budget. But, why does the price for non-stick cookware fluctuate so much?

Variety

It’s not so much what’s on the inside as what’s on the outside when it comes to non-stick cookware. The non-stick polymer coating can be sprayed on to a variety of metals, which can be incorporated into any number of designs with varying build quality. That way, you have your choice between an $8 non-stick aluminum pan and a $140 non-stick stainless steel pan with a copper core.

Cooking Ability/Quality

Why do people love non-stick cookware? Well, because food doesn’t stick to it! Good non-stick cookware can be used even without butter, oil or spray and food will still slide right off of it. This paves the way for healthier cooking, too, which only adds to the value.

Since a non-stick polymer can be applied to any metal you are not really limited in the quality of non-stick cookware that is available. A non-stick polymer is most commonly applied to hard anodized aluminum to create affordable cookware of good quality, but it can just as easily be applied to stainless steel cladding, titanium, bronze or even porcelain enamel.

So, whatever cooking benefits you’re seeking, whether it is light cookware, cookware with good heat conductivity and so on, you should be able to find it with a non-stick coating if that’s what you prefer.

Non-stick cookware is also easy to care for as long as you take care not to scratch or chip the coating. If you follow this simple rule your non-stick cookware will provide years of service at a price that fits your budget.

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