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Finding The Best Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware

Finding The Best Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware

Over the years, the Calphalon brand has come to be associated with the best of the best in cookware. And in the minds of many chefs, it has garnered a completely deserved reputation as a well made, affordable, easy to use, and easy to care for cookware.

Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware

Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware

Calphalon’s triple ply (or Tri-Ply as they call it) pans consist of three layers of steel sandwiching heavy gauge conductive aluminum cores. This gives you the heat transfer benefits of aluminum combined with the durability of stainless steel. Stainless steel is not very conductive to heat. In fact, a pan made out of pure stainless steel would be a very poor piece of cookware. On the other hand, aluminum is an excellent heat conductor (the only common material that would be better is copper).

The best Calphalon stainless steel cookware carries a lifetime warranty and consists of 18/10 or better quality stainless steel.. The first number, 18, is the percentage of chromium in the metal. The higher this percentage, the more resistant it is to staining. The second number, 10, is the percentage of nickel in the metal. Any number 8 or higher is an indicator of quality cookware.

For those that can afford a bit more, Calphalon makes a variety of copper versions of their cookware (e.g. Calphalon Tri-Ply Copper 10-Piece Cookware Set). The role of the aluminum or copper in the cookware is to allow the heat to flow more evenly through the cookware than it would through a pan made of simply stainless steel. Because of this, Calphalon stainless steel cookware will consistently result in an even cooking surface.

On the other hand, if you don’t have the funds to purchase the high end or medium priced Calphalon cookware, you can set your sites lower at their Simply Calphalon cookware line – such as their waterless cookware. The pieces in this line are cheaper but they also don’t come with the copper or aluminum “sandwich” found in the higher end stuff. The pieces in this line also don’t come with a lifetime warranty.

Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware Set

Calphalon Stainless Steel Cookware Set

A Calphalon stainless steel cookware set, unlike cast iron cookware, is dishwasher safe. In addition, stainless steel has the feature of being non reactive with foods, especially acidic foods and liquids. Of course, what attracts most people to stainless steel over regular steel is that it is extremely corrosion and rust resistant. Another really nice feature of many of the Calphalon is the use of glass lids so you can see your foods as they cook.

In fact, the only real drawback to the cookware is that because of the quality of steel used, the cookware can be  heavier than other brands.

Stainless steel is very easy to clean. Even so, you can buy specialized stainless steel cleaning products that do a better than average job on the cookware pieces. One such product is the Cameo Aluminum & Stainless Steel Cleaner which is perfect for cleaning stainless steel pots, pans, and cookware as well as sinks. It’s only mildly abrasive and really puts a shine on the cook ware.

Thursday, October 15th, 2009 Cookware Trackback URL for this entry

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