Best Stainless Steel Pans To Buy
A fully clad skillet construction consists of a minimum of three layers of bonded metal: a layer of stainless steel, a layer of a more conductive metal, and another layer of stainless steel. Some manufacturers only clad the bottom of the pan, whereas full cladding refers to the bonding encompassing the entirety of the pan's body.
best stainless steel pans to buy
Our favorite stainless steel skillets are the 10- and 12-inch Stainless Clad Frying Pans from Made In, which perform well, are comfortable to hold, and are reasonably priced. For a more budget-friendly option, we also like the Tramontina 12-Inch Stainless Steel Skillet.
We recently tested four more notable stainless-steel skillets (from OXO, Goldilocks, Martha Stewart, and Cuisinart) at our Lab. Each of these pans had usability and/or performance issues and you can find our thoughts on them towards the bottom of this page.
If you've ever flipped through a food magazine or watched an episode of a cooking show, chances are you're already familiar with All-Clad frying pans. For decades, the company's range of bonded tri-ply cookware has been consistently rated best in class by publications like Bon Appétit and Cook's Illustrated. Indeed, All-Clad stainless steel has dominated the stainless steel cookware landscape for so long that we couldn't help but wonder if, after all these years, they still deserved the accolades.
Though neither quite measures up to the All-Clad, if your aspirations in the kitchen are considerably larger than your budget, both Tramontina and Calphalon's 12-inch stainless steel skillets offer serious performance at relatively affordable prices. We were especially taken by their strong searing and even-heating capabilities during our flour and onion tests. While the Calphalon was large enough to handle four chicken thighs at once (and, like the All-Clad, came with a lid), the Tramontina was less impressive; though the outer diameter is 12 inches, the steep slope of its sides creates a smaller cooking surface on the interior.
Before we did any actual testing, we researched how stainless steel skillets are constructed. Lightweight skillets don't retain or distribute heat as well as their weightier counterparts, which can lead to uneven cooking and troublesome hotspots; meanwhile, pans that are too heavy won't be comfortable to move around the stove or from the stove to the oven, making them impractical for everyday use. Beyond the pan's weight and material (in this case, we're focusing on stainless steel for its versatility, durability, and ease of care), the other important factor to consider is whether it's "fully-clad" or "disc-bottom."
If you don't care to spend that much on a pan, don't despair: There are excellent frying pans as inexpensive as $40. To find the best stainless steel skillets for any budget, I put 10 to the test by cooking, browning and temperature-taking to see which frying pans heat fast, cook evenly and feel comfortable in hand.
As much as we all love cast iron for searing steaks and nonstick cookware for bailing us out of sticky situations -- omelets, pancakes -- there isn't a more versatile piece of stovetop cookware than the stainless steel skillet. A good stainless steel frying pan can do just about any sizzle or sauté job you ask of it.
Poke your head into any top restaurant kitchen and you're bound to see the flash of stainless steel before anything else. The beauty of well-made stainless cookware is that it's relatively light and durable, and it's easy to control the heat, from a low simmering sauce to a seared steak or a piece of bone-in chicken. If you find one or two you really love and learn to use them, it'll mean more consistency and better overall results whenever you find yourself working through a recipe.
Most stainless steel frying pans are made by sandwiching a highly conductive metal such as aluminum or copper in between layers of stainless steel. The middle layer or layers helps the pan heat faster and retain that heat while the more durable stainless steel shell can take a beating from the heat below and cooking utensils above. Stainless steel is also a clean and non-corrosive metal so it'll last longer than those inner layers would and it won't leech unwanted flavors onto food. Stainless steel is easy to care for, although it's very much not nonstick, so there will occasionally be left-on food that requires some elbow grease to remove.
While just about any skillet you find online or in the store will have the above breakdown -- two layers of steel surrounding a conductive metal -- not all of them are fully clad. Fully clad frying pans have all three layers (sometimes more) of metal running to the top of the sides and not just around the bottom or base. This often results in faster and more even heat distribution throughout the entire pan. Fully clad has become a standard for professional chefs but an amateur or even novice home cook may not notice the difference.
Finding the right size and weight is critical, especially if you're springing for only one good stainless steel skillet. Choose one that's too small or too heavy and you'll find excuses not to use it.
I hauled in 10 stainless steel skillets. For consistency, I tried to test 10-inch skillets or pans as close to 10 inches as the producer offered. Sometimes that meant 9.5 inches, but with other cookware brands, it was as wide as 11 inches.
To test how conductive each pan was when cooling, I then turned off the heat and waited two minutes for the pans to cool. I took the temperature again in the same spots to see how fast they cooled. The faster a pan can get rid of its heat, the better. When you're finished cooking and you want the heat off, it's best for the pan to react as quickly as possible so as not to overcook a protein or break a delicate sauce.
Stick handles that provide an easy grip and a comfortable angle allow you to quickly move saucepans around the stovetop using only one hand. So we dismissed sets with small or medium saucepans that had two side handles. (However, if you prefer saucepans with two handles, some manufacturers, such as All-Clad, sell them open stock.) We also looked for sets that included a hole on each handle for hanging. Side handles are best for larger saucepans (those over 4 quarts) and stockpots, which have a bigger volume and require two hands to lift.
Because copper is such an excellent conductor of heat, we decided to test the All-Clad Copper Core 10-Piece Set to see how it would perform against regular tri-ply stainless steel cookware. In our tests, the Copper Core cookware heated up so fast we had to swirl the pan more when making caramel, to prevent it from burning. Unlike the tri-ply All-Clad set we recommend, the Copper Core skillets discolored badly over high heat.
Our top pick for a stainless-steel skillet is the Anolon Tri-Ply Clad 12.75-Inch Frying Pan With Lid. First, it aced all our cooking tests, browning evenly and keeping tomato sauce at an absolute constant temperature with no stirring required. Thanks to a high flared side, we found it particularly easy to flip mushrooms by pulling back on the handle the way the pros do and to get around the edge with a whisk to make pan gravy. It should also make it effortless to turn out a frittata.
We love the classic good looks of the Made In Stainless Clad Frying Pan, a 5-ply clad skillet with a brushed stainless steel handle. It will only set you back about half the price of more well-established brands, yet beats or matches them for performance. The only caveat is that you have to purchase it directly from the company's website.
The 12-inch All-Clad D5 Stainless Brushed 5-ply Bonded Fry Pan is similar in design to the popular All-Clad D3. However, it has an aluminum core sandwiched between the stainless-steel surfaces which make it heavier and about a inch less deep. Because of its increased weight, this model heats up more slowly.
The All-Clad D3 Stainless 3-ply Bonded Fry Pan is one of the best-looking pans out there and continues to perform well. But in our current round of testing, many pans that sell for a lot less bested its cooking performance and gave it a run for the money when it comes to style.
All good stainless-steel cookware, like the skillets featured here, have either an aluminum core or a disc of aluminum on the bottom to conduct heat. That's because stainless steel is a poor conductor of heat and aluminum is an excellent one.
Cookware with a core is called clad because it has inner layers of aluminum that are encased or clad in stainless steel. On clad pots and pans, the bottom and sides are more or less equally thick and heat is conducted from the bottom up the side. Disc-bottomed pots and pan have thin stainless-steel sides and sometimes, will scorch at the point where the disc meets the side.
Although stainless-steel skillets can be cleaned in the dishwasher, most manufacturers recommend hand washing as they claim harsh ingredients in dishwasher detergent can leave them with white spots, discoloration, and/or a duller finish. We put all our test skillets through a dishwasher cycle and they came out gleaming, although not all burnt-on stains were removed.
Stainless steel cookware lasts longer than nonstick, which will eventually lose its nonstick properties and need to be replaced. However, unlike stainless steel, nonstick releases food easily and is very easy to clean.
One possible downside of stainless steel is that it may leach heavy metals into food. This is more likely if you cook acidic foods in a stainless-steel pot for a long time. Stainless steel can contain iron, chromium, and nickel, the latter having no nutritional benefit in the body. Nickel has also been linked to adverse health effects, including sensitization to allergic (contact) dermatitis in some people (R).
Anyone who is nickel sensitive should consider an alternative to stainless steel. This is because, while stainless steel cookware is available that is either very low in nickel or nickel-free, such cookware is extremely prone to corrosion. Nickel is included in the stainless-steel alloy largely to help with rust resistance. It also helps increase the hardness of the stainless steel and gives it a polished look and feel. 041b061a72