My New Cookware

I get a lot of questions about cookware, so I thought I would give you a little show-and-tell of my own cookware and why I chose it.

First, I should tell you that I am a very excellent cook and good-tasting food is important to me. So I was looking at performance as well as health and safety.

I recently bought some new cookware, so I'm going to tell you about that first, and then move on to tell you about the old cookware and bakeware that I am keeping and continuing to use.

Copper Pots

I have been wanting copper pots for a long time. All the professional chefs use them and now I understand why. They simply are the best for heat distribution. They heat up very fast (so save on energy) and have a very efficient heat distribution.

All the common metals used in pots have different rates of heat transfer. The quickest heat transfer is through copper. Aluminum is the next fastest and the cast iron the slowest. The rate of transfer is also affected by the thickness of the material--the thinner the material, the faster heat will transfer through it. Pots made of thin metal will have "hot spots," which will cause food to burn in some areas and undercook in others.

I saved up for my copper pots and when I finally had enough money, I went down to Williams-Sonoma to purchase a set of Mauviel pots and changed my mind. They were too heavy! Now what? Some months later I decided to purchase one piece, a small pot for melting butter. The first time I used it I said, "Oh, this is why chefs love copper pots!" The butter just melted smoothly and almost instantly. Now I was really determined to have copper pots.

So I looked and looked and finally purchased a soup pot and skillet made by Ruffoni, which I saw in the window as I was walking by Williams-Sonoma. Now I have to admit that I purchased these because they are lightweight and beautiful--hammered copper with brass acorn-and-oak leaf decorations.

I have since learned that in France there are two kinds of copper pots--those for cooking, which are heavy, and those for serving. Apparently mine are basically serving pieces. Ah, well, c'est la vie, but they do work very well for cooking.

Another issue about copper pots is the lining. Copper will leach into food if you cook in it directly, so most copper pots are lined (sugar pots for candymaking are not). The Mauviel pots are lined with stainless steel, a manmade concoction of various metals which do not occur together in nature, and leach into food and water once the surface is scratched. The Ruffoni pots I purchased are lined with tin, which is a natural element of the earth and considered to be the most inert of metals. Copper itself is also a naturally-occuring metal.

I've also learned that prices for copper pots can be quite reasonable on the internet, if you order them from France. This, however, requires translating currencies and ordering in French, not something my meager French can handle. Besides, now that I know about weight, I really want to handle pots before I buy them.

Soapstone Pots

I also have recently purchased more pieces of soapstone cookware, which felt like a bargain after the price of the copper. Soapstone is the opposite of copper. It is very thick and slow to heat, but once it does, you can just turn off the heat and the pot will continue to stay warm for a very long time, so it is ideal to double as a serving piece that will keep food warm. I really had to learn to use my soapstone pots, but once I did, they really are my favorites. I now have four pieces: a shallow "saute" pot, a small saucepan, a large saucepan, and a griddle. And I can do most of my cooking with these.

Part of why I love the soapstone so much is that it imparts a different quality to the food. The heat is gentle and radient, so foods heat through without scorching. It's my favorite pot for scrambled eggs--they come out light and fluffy and delicious! And it's the perfect vessel for "slow foods" like soups and stews and sauces. I once was in a house that had a huge soapstone stove in the middle of the living room, which radiated heat throughout the house. This warmth was so gentle and soft that I remembered that experience because of how good that heat felt on my body. It just has a different quality that is comfortable and comforting, and that quality comes through in the food.

Soapstone is a quarried stone like granite and marble--it is not manufactured, but simply cut and shaped. So it has a very "earthy" quality. Its primary components are magnesite, dolomite, chlorite, and talc. The talc gives it the smooth feeling of rubbing a piece of dry soap--thus the name "soapstone." The talc is completely embodied in the stone and does not get into the food. Out of the box, the stone is a light gray, but once you oil and season it as per the instructions, it turns a rich dark charcoal color that is very attractive against the copper trim and handles.

Caring for soapstone is similar to cast iron. Before using, you need to season the pots by applying vegetable oil and baking them in the oven, so the stone absorbs the oil. By doing so, you create a natural non-stick finish. Bits of food will stick to the pot, but they are removed easily by a simple wash or soak with water. If you use soap, you'll wash off the season, so we just wipe them clean with a wet sponge.

Soapstone cookware is energy-saving and will last several lifetimes, so it can be handed down from generation to generation.

Because it can be easily cut to shape without special stone cutting tools, soapstone has been used for thousands of years throughout the world for tools, karafes, vases, goblets, sinks, and other useful household objects.

Soapstone has many desirable qualities for cookware. It:

• is long lasting
• has no odor nor taste
• holds heat for long periods
• is virtually non-stick
• is beautiful enought to be used for serving
• will keep food hot during serving
• is completely non-porous, so it won't stain or hold food odors
• is bacteria resistant.

Now, the down side. Soapstone is HEAVY. Heavier than those copper pots I didn't buy. But it somehow seems worth it. You just have to handle these pots differently. Of all the cookware choices, soapstone is the most natural.

I purchased all my soapstone cookware from greenfeet.com. They have the entire collection at the best prices I've found.

Glass/ceramic pots

I purchased all these new copper and soapstone pots to replace my everyday stainless steel cookware, but I am keeping my Corning Visions pots. Visions is made from a proprietary glass-ceramic material that doesn't leach into food. Because you can see right through it, you don't have to remove the lid to monitor cooking, thus saving energy. It's a manufactured material that doesn't exist in nature, but it is totally inert, nontoxic, and hygenic.

Visions wasn't available for a while, but it's back. New pieces are pretty expensive, however, there are quite a few pieces of used Visions cookware on eBay at very reasonable prices. I was buying pieces when I found them at thrift stores and flea markets, but now I have enough.

Though these pots are fine for health, I don't find that they cook as well as copper or soapstone. Food burns easily in them, so I just use them when I want to heat up something quickly, like reheating soup I've already cooked in the soapstone pot.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is a manufactured material that does not occur in nature. It is generally considered the best choice for cooking because it is sanitary, nonporous, and the metals are highly stable. Environmentally, however, the mining and manufacture of steel is a highly technological, energy-intensive and polluting process. Stainless steel--when scratched by utensils during use or scrubbed during cleaning--also leaches nickel and chromium into food, which may be harmful to health.

I am keeping a couple of stainless steel pieces, only because they are so useful and to replace them with another material would be very expensive.

One is my roasting pan, which I love. It is a Cameron Multi-Roaster. I had to look long and hard to find a roasting pan big enough for a turkey that did not have a non-stick finish. This one is not only not nonstick, but it has a wonderfully useful design. The pan has a large oval shape with high sides that hold heat in, and a rack with handles that makes it easy to pull out whatever you are roasting. The lid is flat, so it doubles as an oval skillet, baking dish, or serving dish. The handles are ingeniously placed on the side of the lid, making it easier to fit into my oven.

I originally purchased it a few Thanksgivings ago because I was tired of using flimsy throwaway aluminum pans to roast my Thanksgiving turkey. Once I purchased it, though, I find I use this roaster constantly. I roast a whole chicken in it every week and it is the best roasted chicken! I believe the pan really makes the difference. I also braise roasts that are too big for my soapstone pots.

I'm also keeping my large stainless steel stock pot (just in case I need a stock pot larger than my new copper stock pot), my stainless steel double boiler (which I only use for melting chocolate, with a wooden spoon so it doesn't scratch) and my stainless steel tea kettle (because it has a dragon on the spout that breathes steam when the water is boiling). Overall, though, I am moving away from stainless steel because the aesthetics are just too "hard" for me. I like the more earthy stone and ceramic...just feels "softer" and more gentle on the food.

Bakeware

Bakeware falls into two categories--baking pans and casseroles.

The pans I use most often in the oven are my aluminum-steel sheet pans--I have two 13x18-inch "half-sheet" pans and two 13X9-inch "quarter-sheet" pans. These are so-called because the sizes are fractions of the "full sheet" pan used in restaurants and bakeries (which are too large to fit in a home oven). These are much more durable than cookie sheets (of which I own none) and because they have sides I can use them to bake almost anything, from cakes and cookies to broiling meat or making cheese crisps.

Though they are made of aluminum, I'm not concerned about it leaching into the food because I always use them with either unbleached parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. I have four silicone baking mats--one for each pan. This is what the professionals use to make the pans non-stick and it is much safer and more effective than a non-stick finish.

I also have various specialty baking pans that I rarely use but have collected over the years, such as muffin tins, springform pans, cake pans, a terrine pan...but these just sit in a bottom drawer because I don't bake on a regular basis.

I have a number of casserole dishes of various shapes and sizes. I usually buy white porcelain, but one of my favorites is an amber ceramic French casserole dish that, like soapstone pots, gives food a comforting earthiness that just doesn't happen with the white porcelain. I also like to use small porcelain ramekins to make individual servings rather than use a larger pan. Since I am cooking only for my husband and I, it is easier to make two servings in ramekins or individual casseroles than making a whole pan and having a lot of leftovers.

And I have some clear Pyrex glass pieces--a small rectangular casserole, a loaf pan, and a pie plate.

Collecting Cookware and Bakeware

I know this may look like a lot of pieces, but I've been collecting them for years. I use these pieces a lot because I am cooking three meals almost every day. Because we eat whole organic food, we have to prepare it ourselves. If we eat out, the quality of our nourishment declines dramatically. So I make almost everything we eat from scratch.

My advice on cookware is to invest in the better pieces and buy them as you can afford to. Make do with fewer pieces and get the best. Good tools make all the difference in getting good results.

Check out other choices for healthy and eco-friendly cookware and bakeware at About: Cookware & Bakeware