However, the non-stick cookware is easy to clean and doesn’t require much maintenance at all. The handles are hollow and made with thin metal, so most of the pan’s weight is in its base. That makes it feel unbalanced, especially when you’re transferring a full pan from the stove to the oven. First, I poured two cups of cold water into the Professional Series 12-inch fry pan. I placed the pan on a gas burner on high heat and set a stopwatch to measure how long it took for the water to boil. If you want the best heat conduction, go with a fully-clad stainless steel collection rather than impact-bonded.
Cuisinart is a respected brand offering decent cookware at a fair price. It won’t last forever and won’t perform nearly as well as other more expensive brands, but it gets the job done. The impact-bonded base cookware, such as the Professional Series, doesn’t distribute heat or retain it as efficiently as fully-clad cookware. Since then, the brand has expanded its offerings to include blenders, coffee makers, mixers (see my in-depth review), kitchen knives, and, of course, cookware.
Though a lot of stainless steel cookware claims to be dishwasher-safe, we still recommend washing it by hand whenever possible. A sponge does a much better job of getting into a pan’s nooks and crannies . For difficult-to-remove items like burnt-on oil or lime deposits, a sponge and some Bar Keepers Friend usually do the trick. In the Wirecutter test kitchen, to remove burnt-on oil or discoloration we often use a slurry of baking soda and warm water, along with a sponge and a little elbow grease.
The set is easy to clean and offered an even sear during cooking tests. After testing the Misen 3QT Saucier in our guide to the best small saucepan, we ruled out the cookware sets from Misen. Its five-ply construction made the pan slower to heat up, and its tubular handle was hard to hold onto. We’ve also watched Misen’s cookware go in and out of stock frequently. All-Clad no longer recommends washing its cookware in the dishwasher.
And we believe the Tramontina Gourmet 12-Piece Tri-Ply Clad Cookware Set is the best for most home cooks because it offers solid construction at an affordable price. These are made with a five-ply bonded construction that has alternating layers of stainless steel and conductive aluminum for warp-free strength and even heating. The cooking surface has a starburst finish for stick resistance, and the pots have flared rims that make it easy to pour liquid from them.
We prefer 10- and 12-inch skillets because they offer a larger surface area for cooking more food at once. But we’ve been disappointed to find more and more sets—including the All-Clad and Tramontina ones we recommend—moving toward offering only 8- and 10-inch skillets. This is partly what made us excited about our new budget pick, the Goldilocks set, which is cuisinart griddler elite one of the only sets we’ve seen lately that includes both 10- and 12-inch pans. The main incentive for buying piece by piece is that most sets come with smaller pan sizes. In early 2023, we’ll be testing more stainless steel cookware sets, both tried-and-true ones and newer models. Get inspired to whip up something tasty with these chef-approved cookware sets.
Below are the 10 best cookware sets from CR’s latest tests, both nonstick and stainless steel, listed alphabetically by type. CR members can jump to our cookware ratings for details and more options. Sometimes a single frying pan is all you need to achieve Top Chef glory. Other recipes require the full treatment—steaming, boiling, sautéing.
Fully-clad cookware, such as the Cuisinart Multiclad Pro collection, is produced with bonded layers, making the cookware thicker and more conductive. Cuisinart Professional Series I’ll also give you an overview of the other collections’ designs, so you’ll get a good idea of the Cuisinart cookware brand as a whole. Cuisinart is one of the most recognized kitchenware brands in the world, best known for food processors, blenders, coffee makers, and other small appliances. You get basically every pot and pan you’d ever need to cook any meal, which makes this well-rounded set such for a killer, quality value. What is included in the box-pots with lids, utensils, steamers, cookbook, etc.
Just make sure to use silicone kitchen utensils rather than metal ones to protect the coating. To preserve your non-stick cuisinart soup maker for years to come, hand-wash using a gentle sponge. Whether you’re cooking for large groups of people or just bigger quantities to stock in your freezer, this space-saving cookware set can take whatever you throw at it. The high-quality stainless steel is virtually indestructible and metal utensil- and induction cooktop-friendly.
Cleaning the pan after cooking the scallops took a bit of elbow grease as well and the handles got very hot during one of the cooking tests. In terms of design, testers noted that the pan handles had a nice feel and found that the squared-off lid handles fit comfortably in their hands. The bigger pans and pots have a cuisinart pots and pans set helper handle for ease of holding anything heavier or hot as well. Overall, they felt that the set had a substantial feel that helped justify the price point. After heating up one of the pans, testers cooked up several scallops and found they did not stick, had clean flipping, and were easy to remove from the pan.