Hey it's Camille and like the day after I bought a new set of pots and pans I found out there were toxic! I finally returned everything to Ross Dress for Less two months later and bought some non-toxic pots for $1-2 each from my local thrift store instead. I already had some cast iron skillets and found my Dutch Oven in storage! It feels so good to actually know what is healthy to cook with now. Your pans are your tools and it feels empowering to have the right stuff.
A lot of people are making money selling you cheap and toxic pans and most of us were not raised to know any better. I'm so happy that at 30 I finally learned and changed my ways!
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DOs & DON'Ts of Cookware:
YES:
Just stick with these 6 materials for everything:
- Stainless Steel
- Cast Iron
- Enamel coated Cast Iron for non-stick
- Glass
- Porcelain
- Cordierite Stone
- Titanium (sometimes it's aluminum covered in titanium though)
NO:
- Teflon
- Aluminum - very bad!
- Copper
- Thermalon
- Non-Stick Green Pans or most anything labeled non-stick
- Ceramic which can have lead in it which is bad
- If you've never heard of what's coating a pan, just don't get it. It's a toxic scam that may one day be outlawed.. and most cheap Walmart pans fall apart anyways.
- Basically anything that isn't labeled: stainless steel, cast iron, porcelain, glass, or cordierite Stone
POTS & PANS YOU NEED :
- 10 & 1/2 inch Cast Iron Skillet
- 5.5 Quart Enamel Coated Dutch Oven that can be heated to 500º+ in the oven. Needed to make Sourdough & good for soups. FYI - The enamel is usually porcelain which is basically a glass. You can also get just straight cast iron. I also want one of those.
- 1 Quart Pots with handle and lid - x2
- 3 Quart Pot with handle and lid
- 6 Quart Big Stock Pot
- 5 Quart Saute Pan with glass lid
Different sizes of Cast Iron Pans:
Great for making eggs, frying tortillas, browning meat, or searing Ribeye steak and then putting the same pan it in the oven to finish cooking! Yum! My brother does that!
Porcelain Enamel Coated Dutch Oven:
Great for soups or Sourdough. Make sure your dutch oven can be baked in up to 500º or more. Mine only goes to like 482º F randomly.
Use a dutch oven with the lid to bake sourdough - after the first 20 minutes bake it without the lid for another 20 minutes! You heat the dutch oven for 20 minutes to heat it up before baking the bread. These are very classic kitchen pots!
Small 1 Quart:
Nice for making side likes black beans, corn.
Medium 3 Quart:
Nice for making smaller amounts of things like cous cous, heating up leftovers, pasta sauce..
6 Quart Stainless Steel Stock Pot:
Great for boiling noodles and making big pots of soup. You want one that can fit a whole chicken.
5 Quart Sauté Pans: I love these for making spaghetti!
BAKING DISHES:
- Cookie Sheet - Stainless Steel - x2
- 13 x 9 Glass Baking Dish
- 8 x 8 Square Glass Baking Dish
- Round Glass Pie Dish (or Stainless Steel)
- Pizza Pan - Stainless Steel or Cordierite Stone
- Bread Pan
MIXING BOWLS:
- Glass or Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls - small, medium & large
Stainless steel are nice for when you wisk things like egg white, but I suppose glass would work just as well. Nice when they have lids for storing food.
STORAGE CONTAINERS:
- Get glass or stainless steel food storage containers with silicone or wood lids
- Plastic containers are not great - they can leach into the food
UTENSILS:
- Hard Woods - Like Maple, cherry, olive, and beech hardwood
- Stainless Steel
- Silicone, heat resistant
Utensils Need:
- Egg Flipping Spatula - 2 - Stainless Steel & Silicone
- Silicone "Rubber" Spatula for baking
- Stainless Steel Tongs
- Wooden Square Spoon
- Wooden Spoon
- Stainless Steel Soup Ladle
- Slotted Spoon
- Stainless Steel Wisk
- Dutch Wisk for mixing sourdough dough
- butter spreader made of olive wood - my sister Brooke got me one for Christmas!
I love my butter spreader! I never knew I needed one until my sister gave me one! Great gift idea - you keep the wood good by oiling it to keep it from getting dried out if you wash it.
CUTTING BOARD:
- Wood
- Not plastic. The plastic can get into your food over time.
- I like a little moat around the edge to catch the juices.
Other Must Haves:
Stainless Steel Vegetable Steaming Basket:
I have been underachieving not using mine enough but I love having it when I need it! I didn't realize you could steam eggs with it & pot stickers!
Yellow Lemon Squeezer:
I don't know what this is made of but I love it as well and kept looking for it at Walmart until one day it was there! Mine doesn't have the metal ring the 2nd picture does.
2 Cup & 4 Cup - Cup Measures:
I use the 1 cup to steam my coffee cream in the morning and I love the Anchor Hocking brand!
The 4 Cup comes in handy in baking! I need to get one - I used to use my mom's when I lived at home. I had a plastic one but it broke and now I know plastic is bad and I haven't gotten a new glass one yet. : )
IN CONCLUSION:
Stainless Steel:
Stainless steel is non-toxic and oven safe it there aren't rubber handles. So good!
Cast Iron:
Classic, Sturdy and able to be used in the oven or over the fire. Porcelain enamel coated. Great for camping! You need to oil them so they don't rust, but you learn the drill.
Glass:
Also non-toxic but more breakable.. though I've never broken a glass baking dish. I haven't used glass cookware on top of the stove, only in the oven.
Okay, I did it - I shared what I know. God bless you and I hope this helps you purchase the right cookware! I still need to get my 5 quart sauté pan - looking forward to it!
xo, Camille
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