Is cookware (not Cookware) in the Doldrums?

Cooking Discussions Cookware
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I am not ready for hearth cooking, but I do plan to try putting water in the top to keep the area above a low liquid braise from over heating. Yeah, it is in amazing shape. It also has nice new tin, but I’ll soon have it grey and mottled.

Back to the subject at hand, cookware doldrums, I feel as we have long been at that stretch on the hypotenuse where it is getting awfully close to the axis. While I do not mind acquiring the occasional highly used bargain so I can use tinned copper, carbon steel, and porcelain, the new clad pans are pretty amazing, and you do not need to spend an arm and a leg to obtain very high quality pans. I love cooking with my daughter’s Cuisinart pans. The success DeBuyer has enjoyed bringing carbon steel into the world of high heat cookware has been impressive. The dawning of wider consumer awareness of restaurant supply stores has been fun. Wok cookery has finally begun shifting the focus from the wok itself to the heat source. People are widening their palate of ingredients. So all in all, I think we are not so much in the doldrums as we are on a very high plateau. I hope the development of greater understanding of the issues in making and using nonstick surfaces will continue and accelerate and that the focus on cookware can move to other vessels like storage and packaging and help us slow the proliferation of microplastics.

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Magnificent piece. Nice restoration. The history has not been erased. How big is it ?
I also very much like the duck behind. Pillivuyt?

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Yes, the duck is pillivuyt. I love making pate in it. Another Etsy deal. The daubiere is 33 cm wall to wall and a bit longer on the lip. It is cool having a raised lip but still a normal daubiere lid that lays over the edge of the pan to seal well.

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That’s one way of looking at it. Another way is to believe we’ve been plateaued much longer than after covid, supply chain etc.

At least prior to those, we had marginal improvements in cookware (e.g., the SS-PTFE matrix pans) and small appliances. Not so much afterward…

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They’re oven proof at high temps.

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Be still my heart, that is a magnificent daubiere. That is on my personal “upgrade” list, one of the few remaining items.

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Breathtaking! Enjoy it in good health!

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Thanks, Gooster and Meekah. Hot weather be damned, I am planning daubes with wild mushrooms in the next few days. As little wine and broth as I will need I plan to use a bottle of wine I will enjoy drinking with it. I am thinking of a top quality Zinfandel.

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Sounds like …a plan😀

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Crank the AC for this one, and pretend Fall’s in the air. You’ve earned it.

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Hi, Kaleo, hope you are well.

I still get emails from Mauviel since my purchase of the 26 cm copper frying pan 2.5 mm with the real cast iron handles that was the last sale.

Anyway, they have come out with an induction friendly SS lined “copper” pan. It is 2.7 mm thick which I thought was pretty good. Until I read the fine print I must have skipped over before. It has three layers of aluminum between the SS lining and the “copper” exterior.

So, basically it’s a triply aluminum pan with a decorative copper outside finish. Why bother? I don’t know what the heck they are thinking except hoping non-thinking buyers would go for it. I don’t know if they even sell anything over 2 mm copper now.

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Yes, well thank you, as I hope you are.

And thanks for the Mauviel heads-up. My testing of a similar layup revealed OK performance.

I hope to see you more at HO.

Regards,
Kaleo

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I usually just cook as I please keep the A/C around 77F, dress comfortably, and drink a ton of cold water. We all need to become more ok with such things as our climate changes.

 :0(
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Hi VFish,

Reminds me of the Revere wear copper bottoms that used the copper for show. But Revere did try to market the real thing on a limited basis:

image

IMO, copper is more and more being marketed to include induction users–and Mauviel’s innovation is to do it without an unattractive DeBuyer style magnetic base.

Ray

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Even if this is our lot, it’s a poor rule to live by. You and I are old enough that global warming in the Anthropocene Era may not matter for us. But it matters greatly for the future.

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M6S isn’t really much of an innovation. It’s something I suggested several years ago (here, I believe): Put the induced layer beneath a thin copper exterior, but still at a distance close enough to the intended height of the coil. Chem called the idea “stupid” at the time, and it’s not the most efficient design, but it should sort’ve work.

And it’s nothing at all like Revereware. I don’t know what “Revere wear” is.

Have you been collaborating with Mauviel, Ray? Tell us your experience with copper cookware constructions.

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How is using less energy to heat and cool and being ok with temperatures that aren’t always kept at 72F a poor rule to live by?

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I recall those copper Revere Ware pans. The lining was an exceptionally sticky SS, the pans were about 1.5 mm of copper, and the brass handles were thin, tended to turn, and, of course, got really hot really fast.

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+1 I love rediscovering the old more than feeling disappointment with the new. I look at the evolution of the toaster over to convection toaster oven to an air fryer. Toaster oven with a fan. Brilliant. honestly, I love my convection toaster oven; but the bottom line is, the big advance was adding a fan.

My uncle was watching his diet, so he got an air fryer. No fat, ya know! He’s resigned to making tater tots in the thing, and that’s about it. I said, " you got gimmicked." That silly “fryer” with a little drawer. I’m not a fan of tater tots to begin with, but that’s what it was reduced to. He had delusions of grandeur ,making wiener schnitzel and pan fish in this air fryer. Now, he’s back to pan frying…with a side of tater tots, using the same pans he’s had for 30 years.

I think we all have friends who cave for gimmicky cooking devices on a frequent basis. Instapots I’ve heard are good for many things. I just couldn’t justify the sacrifice of space for what I’d make with it. I’ll just use a pressure cooker if I want “insta.”

The toaster oven with a fan is no gimmick. Calling it an “air fryer” and tacking on $50 to the price is, IMHO.

I’m not saying I’ve never taken the plunge. Years ago, I bought some lesser knives and such that were more salesmanship than cutlery. Since then, I’m frequently made aware of gimmicks through my mom. Love her, but I sure don’t need a quesadilla maker, not beer butt chicken holder/roaster. Now, they sit in my cupboard lookin’ neglected. Hate one-use items; but love mom.

One gimmicky thing I liked, just because I used it at work, was the George Forman Super George, that I got for $5 second hand. Looked unused. Bring a seasoned pork chop to work and it’s done quickly. Now they’ve made anything with a hot plate verboten at work, so I use the George in my camper, when it rains.

Not all gimmicks are bad. Buyer beware. Just noticed that my Hamilton Beach convection toaster oven, is now called an air fryer, and costs $30-$50 more than the convection oven I have. I bet you could find the non-air fryer kind on Craigslist for $25-$40. Bought one for my son for $25. Uses it every day.

I’m still hoping to find a larger ECI Staub, or some such, for cheap. Might find a better used deal on ECI, because, used , the discoloration might throw other prospective buyers off. So I hope. Staub ain’t no gimmick.

Anybody own any Made In products? Those look solid, and they have positive reviews. Made In Chicago, most of it.

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