I had the same experience. My very first copper purchase was an 8” sauce pan and a similar sized matching fait tout. Both were fine lined and marked Dean and Deluca, probably made by Mauviel. I purchased them in Baltimore circa 2008 used, maybe on Craigslist but I don’t remember for sure, probably $75 for the pair. I wasn’t confident they would cook differently but I think I had been subconsciously affected by the cartoon film Ratatouille which featured a lot of French copper.
I used the fait tout to fry some potato wedges in shallow oil. Then I removed them and cooked two small steaks in the same pan. Then I deglazed with some water and orange juice for a pan sauce.
This one pan meal blew my socks off and so dis the responsiveness of the copper. I was pretty immediately impressed and enamored, about 5 minutes into the cooking process just as you said. I wish I could remember when bought them from and how much I paid. I’ve since sold them and upgraded many times over but the love remains.
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Yes, it comes as quite a surprise to learn by feel how much faster a copper pan spreads heat than do pans made of other metals.
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High-end Japanese knives. I didn’t get the fuss and figured they wouldn’t be that different to my other knives. Since falling down that rabbit hole I must admit I was really missing out
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When I picked up early pieces of Corning French white, I had no idea of how much use they’d get. From stovetop to microwave to oven to broiler. Roast, remove meat and make gravy in same vessel. Go from freezer to oven. Get a deep brown on your mac and cheese and still have container wash like a teacup. My many shapes are “reach-fors”.
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The kitchen in Ratatouille was like crack for a traditional cookware junkie. I have been in a number of snazzy kitchens…high end restaurants and Le Cordon Bleu. They all fell short of that one. The kitchen in To Catch a Thief came close.
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Same here. I kind of started with German knives and thought how good can Japanese knives be? So if anything my earlier preconception was that German kitchen knives should better than the modern Japanese knives.
Now, to be fair, I never thought the Japanese knives would be bad.
I think the most 180 impression I have is probably my first Chan Chi Kee (CCK) knife. With all the praising on Chowhound, I finally got my first CCK. I had good expectation of it, but after using it, I actually did not think it was as good as people said. I even wrote about my initial impression on Chowhound that the CCK is not quite as good as my Dexter-Russell. Hear me out. I thought it was too thin, not steady, it cut too deep into my cutting board, and I wasn’t able to cut my foods fast.
Yes. That was my first impression. It wasn’t after I used the CCK knife for 1-2 weeks, then I realize that these problems are due to my prior bad practice. Because I was used to duller knives, I was applying a lot of force in food cutting, so the shaper CCK knife was cutting deep into my cutting board. Once after I have adjusted to apply a lighter force, then all the problem went away.
In short, my Chan Chi Kee slicer overall impression was: Probably Good → Mediocre → Great.
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I thought about this as a thread on its own, but this is a question for a more narrow audience.
Considered that stoves will become more electric (induction and electric radiant) in the next 20-50 years, this will greatly affect the bare aluminum and copper cookware in professional kitchen. I think many professional kitchen cookware will move toward cladding. How do you all feel? Am I correct? Or do you think it is more complicated?
I think I have two pans that would not work on induction, and only one is used (an aluminum ceramic mostly for single portion eggs). My SS, CI, and Aluminum all work fine on gas, radiant, and induction… so it really isn’t an issue for me going forward.
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Now that I think about it… I also have many cookware will have problem. Although my wok is carbon steel… the shape of the wok will make it not suitable for most induction stovetops. I have many ceramic based cookware (~6-8 pieces). I guess I can always use a steel disc for the induction stovetop to heat up the steel disc and then heat up the ceramic cookware.
I suppose, but not recommended. My current aluminum pans have a fused disc to the bottom and are responsive and heat very evenly. My experience with the “disc adaptors” was poor by comparison.
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I think the transition away from copper is already way in the rearview mirror. Bare aluminum has its fans but has not caught hold like disc, clad, and CS all have in restaurant kitchens.
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I know. The heat transfer efficiency is low with a separate metal disc. However, it is uncommon to have steel infused clay/ceramic cookware.
Actually, metal disc infused ceramic is probably a very bad idea… as they will have different heat expansion coefficient and will crack.
restaurant kitchens have different needs/priorities than ‘elsewhere’
aside from ueber high end ‘open show kitchens’ with wall to wall gleaming copper . . .
cheap is the operative phrase. you may have seen kitchen videos using ‘bare aluminum’ pans that quite resemble potato chips . . .
moved from inherited RevereWare to Bourgeat s/s lined copper. ah yes, takes another 3-4 minutes to preheat, but wow! the performance . . . .
tripped over a century old Griswold fry pan. it’s one of my favs - one of my daily fryers . . .
on a fling, bought a 3mm (or was it 4mm…?) ‘error order’ Darto black iron aka steel pan - it is a fantastic bit of kit. seriously more value-for-the-money that other ‘brands’
upgrading my ‘boiling pans’ , , ,went with Zwilling Aurora - multi-ply. really good performance. jumped on a (much later) fry pan combo - it too has super performance - altho the smaller 8" pan is not well/properly balanced. empty it falls over to the handle side… likely the source of the 'sell ‘em off cheap’ campaign…
for home cooks with the experience on how to pre-heat/use stainless interior pans, methinks the solid copper will never go away. it seems to be the “standard” to which all the ply pans are measured . . .
bottom line - perceived “wonderfulness” is a very hugely affected by the user’s needs and personal “expertise”
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I agree! I referred to what is going on in better restaurant kitchens in response to @Chemicalkinetics reference to professional kitchen cookware. Since I do not get paid to feed picky and impatient but occasionally appreciative strangers in my home kitchen, I view home kitchens as a different situation, even if the marketing folk touted their home cookware as “professional.” In a home kitchen I cannot imagine better pans for all but high heat cooking than tin lined extra forte copper on good gas burners.
What? It’s just as efficient as electric coil, radiant glasstop, solid top or French placque. All you can say is it’s less efficient than inducing the heat inside the pan, and that’s by a small margin.
But it has to, right? I don’t mean absolutely none, but go away like we don’t see glass cookware much now.
However, to Tim’s point, he is correct that my original question was more for professional kitchens. However, you are right, this isn’t only true for professional kitchens.
Ah, VISIONS™ cookware. I had a set for a while, and just absolutely HATED them. Glass is, generally, an insulator. It takes ages to heat up. But when it does, it takes similarly ages to COOL DOWN.
So, you start some pasta. The water boils. You throw in the pasta, give it a stir. In 2 minutes, you notice the foam starting to build up, so you turn down the heat. But the pot itself is still retaining all that heat. Even moving it off the burner might not prevent a boilover.
Yes, you can learn the characteristics of them well enough that it will cease to be much of a problem, but I shouldn’t have to relearn basic skills to accommodate quirky equipment.
I still have the large dutch oven. It’s good for boiling bagels, using baked baking soda for pretzels, or anything long cooking and very basic or acidic without worrying about metal leeching into my meal.
I’d never deliberately buy them again. Not even at a thrift shop.
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You realize you’re comparing the worst cookware on the planet with the best, yes?
Yes, but so are clay and ceramic cookware, and yet ceramic/clay cookware are still used quite a bit. Maybe ceramic cookware is cheaper (Vision is not cheap), or maybe ceramic cookware has a certain historical charm.
