a (kitchen) question

[bedlamsbard]

Y'all, I have an important question. Due to varying issues of paranoia (including, but not limited to, I think the non-stick coating on my roommate's pots is flaking off, one of the pots is rusting where the non-stick coating has scraped off, and I can't figure out if she moved the pot I usually use because she no longer wants me to use it or if she just moved it to move it), I am looking at getting pots. The one I specifically need is a saucepan with a lid that is large enough to make soup in. (I tend to make a week's worth of soup at a time, but I don't eat much. Er, clearly I'm not being the most specific person in the world here. I also make rice and risotto in the same pot.) The slight problem here is that I'm not sure how large that is. Would a 2-quart be large enough?

Since I have to pay for it, I don't want to shell out for anything outrageous, but does anybody have any recommendations for decent brands of stainless steel cookware? Right now I'm looking at this pot and this one (though that one's more expensive than I'd like). Also this one from Farberware. (Which I think is one of the (many) pans my mother has.)

Comments

[clanwilliam]

Bearing in mind that these are all US brands that I am not familiar with, I'd say the Cuisinart one, because it's the only brand I've heard of and it's a brand that I've heard of as "kick ten types of shite out of it and it's still brilliant" on various products.

Otherwise, if you can't be sure it'll survive, buy the cheapest one you can and wait until you're living alone before you buy the good stuff (I still remember what a Grown-Up I felt when I first bought my Le Creuset stuff. G, in comparison, knows that Le Creuset is bloddy good and offered to buy me more pans for Christmas, not having realised that I'd bought the Anolon pans to remedy the deficiencies of the Le Creusets!

Right now, unless you can protect any pan you buy, buy cheap. Unless buying good does wonders for your mental health. In which case, only spend as much as you can genuinely afford.

On the plus side, the pans are comparatively cheap. And I went to university with the most bizarre chunk of inherited kitchenware from my older sisters. Some of it is still in use (and I graduated in 1994), while other bits only got retired a couple of years ago.

[bedlamsbard]

I am, as usual, torn between "buy something cheap! you're only in university!" and "but something expensive! you'll use it for the rest of your life!" If I get a larger pot, I'll probably buy something cheaper than the Cuisinart, though, as it starts getting pricer than I'm comfortable with after the 2-quart.

Of course, my plan with the pan is to keep it under my bed and not in the kitchen. *coughs*

[aella_irene]

My parents bought me a Le Creuset pan last Christmas. Not only can I cook a one person casserole, I can stave someone's skull in in self defence!

[snacky]

I have Farberware and I use the 2 qt one to make a small amount of soup, rice pilaf, pasta, that kind of thing. I usually can make about 1/3 to one half a box of pasta with it, and when making rice, I use 1 cup of rice to three cups of water - if that helps giving you an idea of the size and amount of food. Oh! If I am making box macaroni and cheese, it's my go-to pot.

Honestly, it's my go-to pot for most things - when I am making custard for ice cream, or pudding, or peanut brittle I use that pot.

I also have this size which I use for making a bigger batch of soup, or for spaghetti sauce. The one quart size is good for a can of something like soup.

I hope that helped!

[bedlamsbard]

Thank you!

I am now worrying about size, since someone on LJ recommended a 3-quart over a 2-quart but without an actual pot in my hands to look at I don't know how big the difference is, agh! (Well, obviously the difference is a quart, duh, but I can't figure out how big that actually is -- and since I'll be ordering from Amazon, it's not like I can actually go feel one up in a store.) I'm not sure how big Maryland's pot is -- I use it to make rice (1 cup rice to 2 cups water), but that barely fills half the pot. Maybe a third of it. A 2-quart is what my mother recommended, but I don't know what pot in the kitchen she was looking at when she said so! (We have a lot of pots back home.) I'm now wondering if Maryland's pot is a 3-quart, since the largest soup I made in there had 8 cups of liquid + the other ingredients, and it was close to full (though it never boiled over) then.

[snacky]

Yeah, if you had 8 cups plus in it, it's probably a 3 quart. When I make rice pilaf (one cup rice, three cups water, 1/3 cup orzo) it fills half of the 2 quart.

I recommend Farberware, since it's not so expensive, and mine has lasted me over 20 years, but maybe it's not as well made any more, since I see someone below saying it was no good for them.

[bedlamsbard]

And now I'm trying to remember how much of the pot I usually fill when I'm making soup! Since I don't usually make that much. See Bedlam. See Bedlam try and picture soup pots in her mind's eye... I might go for the 3-quart, but then again, I do tend to think that one's too big...erp, clearly the answer would be for more companies to make 2 1/2-quart pans.

I've been reading reviews on Amazon all day, and most of the Farberware ones tend to be very good, and they're cheaper, especially if I get one from Warehouse Deals. *sighs* Agh, shopping. I wish I could just go to Wal-mart and look at pots to figure out how big they are, but, alas, not an option.

[snacky]

Okay, so I actually was just washing my pot, and I looked at the bottom and it's 2 1/2 quarts! All these years, I though I was using a 2 quart pot, lol!

So you are right! You need a 2 1/2 quart pot!

[bedlamsbard]

TOO BAD NO ONE MAKES ONE. (Except the CIA, for an outrageous price. Although aside from being $140, it looks great.) *frets* That's it. I'm going to have a nervous breakdown over cookware. (I could get a non-stick from the same company that made my frying pan, which has been very sturdy for many years now...hmmm. Although that's not really significantly cheaper.)

On the other hand, the instructions on my favorite box risotto say to cook it in a 2-quart.

[snacky]

I saw a used Farberware one on esty (I am on my phone, so can't link)! It was pretty cheap. Maybe check eBay too!

[bedlamsbard]

Etsy! I never thought of looking there! Man, if I had thought of looking there, I could have got really good mixing bowls. *dramatic sigh*

I don't know if I can move past this classics nerd enamel 3-quart pot, though. GREEK SOLDIERS. (Not Roman. I'm reasonably sure they're Greek.)

[sporky_rat]

I would go with the Cuisinart because I had that exact Farberware pot and it flaked within two weeks of using it.

[bedlamsbard]

The Farberware's significantly cheaper, though... *sighs* Am now worrying about size, as someone suggested a 3-quart might be better.

[sporky_rat]

It is cheaper but these days, you're not saving any money by going with it over something else because you'll be replacing it in two weeks to a month.

My mother bought me some Farberware because she's got some that's last her years, but these days the quality is crap.