Your utensils?

[Bogie]

I'll admit it. I'm a gear whore.
 
Back in the day, I'd get attaboys at work, and they would usually come with a gift card for the mall across the highway.
 
Well, there was a Williams-Sonoma store in that mall, and I bought a LOT of pans and other gear. Mostly Calphalon (both anodized and coated), but also All-Clad, etc...
 
Jen destroyed a bunch of them because she'd get trashed and then decide that she wanted munchies, and she couldn't be trained to not use steel sharp things in them...
 
I rescued a few from that.
 
But for the past few years I've been rebuilding my kitchen gear. Not from Williams-Sonoma tho (the local mall where that is located now (a) doesn't want the business of people like me; and (b) seems to welcome the business of people walking around with large messenger bags on their chests and 3' of Indonesian hair, trailing an aroma de skonk...), but from...
 
Aldi.
 
I haven't bought a pan or other cooking stuff there that I have not liked.

[T.O.M.]

If your looking for cast iron, try thrift store or estate sales.  A lot of these youngsters have no appreciation for cast iron, so sell off or give away the stuff they inherited at low prices. 

[Bogie]

I just toss stuff in the dishwasher, so I'm not really the target market for cast iron... I like to cook, and I like kitchening, but when you're doing a 70 hour work week, low maint stuff is good.

[French G.]

Yeah, I can get bad, I have a huge All Clad stir fry pan that has been in heavy use for twenty years. Outside is black. Found a Revere solid copper pot for $5 at goodwill, getting close to making cookware and re-tinning copper for fun and profit since there is a market for it. Local town has a shop that beats Williams Sonoma hands down which is good since they seem to judge the color of your money unlike W-S who won't bother to help the working class dressed folks.

[Bogie]

I've considered firing up the milling machine sometime and making a Very Heavy Griddle for stuff like pancakes...

[French G.]

I've considered firing up the milling machine sometime and making a Very Heavy Griddle for stuff like pancakes...

I wonder how machined would or wouldn't warp when heated. You really just need to ambush a norwegian, my go to pancake weapon is a lefse grill. https://bethanyhousewares.com/lefse-grills/

[Brad Johnson]

We pared back on gadgetry and extra cookware during the Great Household Combining of 2019 (our wedding). We realized most of what we had sat unused 99% of the time so we made an effort to select the best options from each other's sets and sell or donate the remainder.

One thing we use constantly is skillets so we have a pretty good selection, including vintage cast iron courtesy of my grandmother. I prefer my heavy stainless All Clad but SWMBO prefers a non-stick surface so that's what gets used most often. Problem is most of the stuff you see in stores doesn't seem very durable. While the several "Miracle Brand!" non-stick skillets we've owned have all performed well in terms of food release, they all warped quickly. Some started deforming within just a few weeks.

On a lark I bought a Member's Mark non-stick skillet from Sam's to try. It's much thicker material than the FancyPants retail brands and the modest $23 price is certainly attractive. Used heavily for several months and so far we're really pleased. It's plain, like something you'd get from a restaurant supply, but very solid. Heavy gauge aluminum, big chunky rivets, thick grip. Heats evenly and the non-stick coating seems plenty durable, though we are admittedly super careful with any non-stick surface. The 12" worked so well that I bought the 8" and am considering the 14" high-wall for use with big meals.

Brad

[Kingcreek]

I would never give up my vintage seasoned cast iron. I have some I use on the grill, some in my camp kit, and some in the modern kitchen.
I also have a big rolled steel wok I bought in a chinese market 45 years ago as another never-give-it-up.

[French G.]

Combining households we have crates in the basement of stuff that is too good to give away but that we don't need. 6-7 stockpots, whole box of not regular use cast iron, etc. Then I see two antique cast iron griddles on marketplace for $10 each, more stuff!

[Brad Johnson]

Combining households we have crates in the basement of stuff that is too good to give away but that we don't need. 6-7 stockpots, whole box of not regular use cast iron, etc. Then I see two antique cast iron griddles on marketplace for $10 each, more stuff!

The nicer stuff we donated to the local Lighthouse for the Blind store. They always need help and do good work. Mediocre stuff went in the garage sale for the flea market crowd to fight over.

Brad

[Bogie]

I'm figuring that cast aluminum or cast steel would fare much better, heat warp wise, than extruded... The cast costs extra, but behaves so much better...

[K Frame]

Some years ago I got a set of Farberware (I think) stainless steel. Very nice set -- 3 saucepans and lids, 2 skillets and lids, and a very nice stock pot and lid.

The bonus is that they work very nicely with my induction unit.

When my Mom died I snagged a 4 quart sauce pan and lid from the Wolfgang Puck set of stainless that I bought her years ago. It's a perfect pasta pot for me, but it does not work on my induction unit.

As for non-stick, I buy cheap, induction ready pans from Amazon.

$20 for this pan - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073WF2JMD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's a darned good pan, too. Pretty heavy, and has withstood regular use excellently since I bought it last year. But, I never use metal utensils or the scrubber side of the scrubber sponge.

[bedlamite]

Big pans are cast iron, small pans are carbon steel, pots are Calphalon.

Cast iron and carbon steel aren't as high maintenance as you think.

[Bogie]

I paid $25 for this dishwasher back in 2012 at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and I'm gonna bet my money's worth.
 

[bedlamite]

I paid $25 for this dishwasher back in 2012 at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, and I'm gonna bet my money's worth.

Don't bet it all, the casino doesn't really need a $25 dishwasher.

[Ben]

Big pans are cast iron, small pans are carbon steel, pots are Calphalon.

Cast iron and carbon steel aren't as high maintenance as you think.

I got a carbon steel pan six or so years ago, it fast became THE pan for 90% of stovetop stuff. My cast iron pans are mostly used for "in the stove" stuff, like steaks, cornbread, bread, etc.

[K Frame]

I like my carbon steel pan, but I've not been using it much lately because for what I've been cooking for dinners most days the teflon pan works a bit better.

[Brad Johnson]

Quick revisit to update on the Member's Mark skillets I mentioned above. We've had them for a year and been very pleased. The nonstick surface is showing minor wear, mostly light swirling and a minor scratch or two, but nothing I wouldn't have expected after a year of moderate use. Some staining on the bottom, but that's part and parcel with having a gas cooktop. No rust on the rivets. No cracks or other degradation of the handle cover. No warping at all, a minor miracle given SWMBO's penchant for cooking everything on high heat.

Brad

[Bogie]

Picked up a Calphalon fry/omelet pan at Wally World, and even with plastic stuff, it already has the coating dying... Had a nice lid tho, so prob keeping that part of it.
 
I've tried some of the gold color pans, and they seem to work pretty well.

[RocketMan]

The quality of the Calphalon stuff really seems to have fallen off over the years.  It used to be the only stuff my wife would buy.  She swore by it.  Not so much anymore.

[K Frame]

I've been VERY happy with these Utopia pans that I get from Amazon.

Coating is long lasting and pretty durable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073WF2JMD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My first one lasted a little over 2 years. I wasn't particularly careful with it, but I think the thing that really made the coating go was using non-stick spray pretty constantly with it.

There's a lot of stuff on the web saying that using non-stick sprays like Pam will cause the non-stick to become very much stick coating over time, which is what I experienced.

https://www.southernliving.com/food/kitchen-assistant/can-you-use-cooking-spray-on-nonstick-pan

[charby]

I don't own a coated pan, I use lots of fat to cook and have choreboy scratch pads.

I'm slowly transitioning from my old Revereware to Cuisinart and All-Clad. Plus I have oddles of older cast iron.

[Bogie]

My local thrift store had a cuisinart food processor for  $15, but I got the Kitchenaid one a coupla months back. Picked up a k-cup coffeemaker for a friend who wants one.
 
Seems like those are great if you're the only person in the house who is intelligent enough to drink coffee...

[tokugawa]

I've considered firing up the milling machine sometime and making a Very Heavy Griddle for stuff like pancakes...

That's what we talkin! Think industrial!  Tablesaw top- ditch the guts, put charcoal in the stand.

 A guy down in the sticks I used to visit had a 55 gallon drum , a propane weed burner stuck in the side of it, and some expanded metal grate for a grid. Worked great!

[K Frame]

"I've considered firing up the milling machine sometime and making a Very Heavy Griddle for stuff like pancakes..."

The hunting camp I went to as a kid had two large steel plates that would be put on top of the stoves when they wanted to make pancakes for the crew. They came from the local specialty products steel mill, where some of the members worked.

I don't think they were armor plate, but the damned things weighed a metric butt load and took forever to warm up on the 6-burner stove tops.