The handles are wide and comfortable to hold, which makes flipping ingredients a cinch. The assortment of fry pans and pot sizes especially stands out in this set – they’re perfect when you’re cooking for one or an entire family. This easy-to-clean set from GreenPan is a personal favorite among our kitchen pros. It has a hard-anodized exterior and a ceramic nonstick interior, which the company claims is free of PFOA, PFAS, lead and cadmium. It includes a great assortment of cookware, including different-sized pots and pants for all your needs. Each is lightweight, strong and durable and can withstand high heat (up to 600˚F).
In the stockpot, I made a large batch of marinara sauce with a base of onion, garlic and two 28-ounce cans of peeled tomatoes to test both capacity and flavor. And finally, in the smaller saucepan, I made four 12-minute hard-boiled eggs to cuisinart knife test that the pan would heat and cool correctly to cook eggs with solid, bright yellow yolks. I also made long grain rice in a two-to-one water-to-rice ratio to ensure it didn’t stick to the pan and yielded fluffy, separated rice grains.
Unfortunately, this set sacrifices a small skillet for eggs and other small tasks in favor of conserving space. Even without the small skillet, this set is an excellent price Cookware Sets for six pots and pans — plus lids. Speaking of lids, our testers loved how snugly they fit and the steam release openings that keep too much condensation from building up.
For anyone looking for additional colors, Crate & Barrel carries four exclusive colors with gold hardware. It’s difficult to distinguish Caraway from Equal Parts in terms of mission and offerings. They boast of their chemical-free ceramic nonstick formula, and sell a small range of pans in on-trend colors with names like “perracotta” and sage. Caraway’s design is a little more modern in shape, with drawer-pull style handles and flat lids.
If you’d rather start with a few basics, you’ll be able to cook a lot with just a 3-quart saucepan, a 12-inch skillet, and an 8-quart stockpot. Time and time again, testing shows that All-Clad browns perfectly evenly and keeps stews and sauces at a perfect simmer. What that means to you is that you won’t have to vigilantly rearrange, stir and adjust the heat during cooking. All gleaming stainless steel inside and out, it has a core of aluminum that’s responsible for its great results. We love the sloped shape of the skillets which make it easy to roll out an omelet. In addition to considering how well pots and pans cooked and how easy they were to use and clean, we considered the assortment of pieces included in each set.
We’ll continue to monitor customer reviews to see if there’s an increase of complaints regarding the rims on either cookware line. For now, if you prefer skillets with rounded handles, we’d recommend getting the Tramontina set. In addition to making tri-ply cookware, most high-end manufacturers produce sets that are made from five or more layers of stainless steel, aluminum, and sometimes copper. In most of our tests, five-ply cookware didn’t heat as uniformly as regular tri-ply cookware, or the differences were negligible.
Some materials are more finicky than others, so while you might be able to toss some pieces in the dishwasher, others will need to be hand-washed. When it comes to cookware performance, different metals react differently when heated. From copper, which is super responsive, to cast iron that retains heat extremely well, each metal has its own special heating property. The skillets in the Williams-Sonoma Signature Thermo-Clad Stainless-Steel 10-Piece Cookware Set have a very small cooking surface.