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!