Back Roads and Detours

When I was in grad school, I couldn’t afford a place with a kitchen, but I had “privileges,” which meant using my landlady’s pots and pans, largely forgettable—so I’ve forgotten about them. But I used them then, as I had no choice. Around the same time, someone clued me into a new brand of pots called All-Clad. Touted as the kind of pots and pans used in commercial kitchens, they were particularly durable, long-lasting, with very even heat, heated (and cooled) efficiently, were generally reliable, and they were made in a factory in “local” Canonsburg, PA - almost local to my grad school, and still only 500 miles or so from my native Boston, where I ended up living after grad school. I made note of them, and when my new wife and I set up house for the first time on our own, I had my sights set on All-Clad. Some wedding gift funds came in handy to buy a starter set.

So, my first chosen utensils were All-Clad, and I’ve built quite an array in the meantime. In fact, I just placed an order for more, which I do about every other year: replacements in my kitchenware armada. That is, I bought some new pans to replace old ones.

Going back almost to the beginning, I have always known – especially starting out in life with my first household as what is laughingly called an “adult” – that really, for basics, you need maybe two range-top items of cookware. A pan (or skillet; something that can be used in a pinch as a saucepan) and a pot (large enough to boil a moderate amount of water – say for pasta – or other liquids, for a stew or soup, etc.; or could serve as a larger saucepan when needed).

I began buying All-Clad in 1971, and I never stopped. Along with those first pans, I still have many of the original utensils I bought, to which I have contributed a burnished patina after decades of repeated highly reliable use. It was a pair of All-Clad pans I bought this morning – both of them to replace the same sized pans that I am retiring because they are lined with non-stick materials and had fallen into disuse because of the continuing unhappy findings about Teflon. Nevertheless, and the vagaries of non-stick aside, nearly 50 years of use out of household utensils I think is not a bad record.

My attitude is, if it’s likely to serve throughout my life, why not buy something, assuming I can afford it (perhaps with a bit of a stretch in the earlier stages of what we all hope will be a long life), that stands a chance of lasting at least as long? I’ve never regretted sticking to this policy – it did become a policy in time, one that I could afford to uphold. Especially not with regard to my kitchen ware.

I propose, without elaboration, that a significant number of cooking failures occur because of the poor quality of the cookware. Great cooks, and certainly professional chefs, pick up the skills necessary to adjust on the fly when no other equipment is available. You’d be amazed at some of the junk I’ve been expected to cook with, especially visiting friends in their “vacation” homes.

So that’s where I started. Fortunately so, even at my tender, somewhat impoverished, just-out-of-grad-school age.

Problem though, with All-Clad, manufactured with skilled craftsmanship as they were, and premium materials, they were on the pricey side. They still are. And they are still made, and they are still in the considered set of brands for chefs and restaurateurs. I am constantly reassured when watching any of those fancy chef adventures on Netflix and PBS to see the odd All-Clad pot or pan bubbling or sizzling away on a cooktop – whether front and center or in the background.

If I were starting out today, at least for the pot-and-pan portion of my basic kit, I’d also consider cast iron. These days you can even buy it “pre-seasoned” for not much of a premium. And as the money rolled in, maybe I’d buy two more cast iron pans. Starting with a 10-inch or an 11-inch, I’d go for an 8-inch and a 13-inch. These three sizes would handle many contingencies. For the pot (for boiling, braising, stewing, and soup-making) and for less money than a first quality All-clad, there are some handsome, high-quality, long-lived brands of enameled cast-iron ware that would fill the bill – and I’d probably make my first one manageable in size (cast iron is, among other things, really heavy) and with a capacity suitable to a small household, while still allowing cooking for a small number of guests.

I’d choose these particular items of cookware because of their sterling qualities in helping to manage the phenomenon that does the actual cooking. I mean the heat of the burner.

All-Clad or cast iron, they retain the heat, dissipate it slowly, heat evenly throughout the container, are generally non-reactive (the cast-iron must be seasoned before cooking even the first meal with it), and easy to clean. Cast iron takes advantage of the native properties of its material – the casting process tempers the metal and iron is excellent for cooking at that thickness. All-Clad takes advantage of the superior heat conduction properties of aluminum, by putting a thick core of that metal in between a sandwich of stainless steel on the inside, and a non-reactive alloy, with a choice of materials, for easier cleaning of the outside.

Professional chefs and line cooks have a preference for another material. Most restaurant kitchens include an armamentarium of various sizes of skillets, in multiples, made of heavy gauge sheet steel. So much of restaurant cooking is à la minute, especially in the finishing stages of complex dishes, or for dishes that call for searing and finishing or pan roasting (where pans go from the stovetop to the very very hot oven and back again). If you’re cooking to order, with sometimes split second timing to ensure dining perfection, there’s nothing like steel for the instant transmission of heat from a very hot burner, or even using the latest cooking technology: induction burners. But unless you are expecting to enter that career, or are expecting to do a lot of entertaining of very demanding diners, I’d leave the steel to the pros.

One last note, cast iron, and many of the lines of All-Clad, also work quite well with all types of burners, including induction. Most of my 25+ pans and pots made by All-Clad are from their original Master Chef series. These incorporate a very sturdy aluminum alloy outer shell, unsuitable for induction cooking, because non-magnetic. But it doesn’t matter to me. I’m an ancient kitchen warrior and I’m still used to gas and prefer it.

However my two brand new pots, bought as “factory seconds” (at almost half the price) have not only a copper core (even better than aluminum) but a spiffy outer shell of 18/8 stainless, ready even for induction. Because you never know.