Anolon Nouvelle Copper cookware offers the best of both worlds: a copper core for excellent conductivity paired with hard, anodized cooking surfaces that won’t warp and require little upkeep.
LITTLE ROCK — Cookware can be anything from inexpensive aluminum vessels to pricey copper pots beloved by French chefs. The four most common metals used in cookware are aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron and copper. Each has its strengths and weaknesses.
ALUMINUM
Aluminum cookware is prevalent in U.S. markets. “Most of the pans you see out there are cheap aluminum,” says Northwest Arkansas Community College’s chef in residence Lou Rice. “Aluminum is great for heat distribution - it’s cheap. It’s lightweight. It’s fairly sturdy, but it also bends.”
Nonanodized aluminum also has the drawback of being somewhat interactive with sauces, says chef William Ginocchio of the Pulaski Technical College Arkansas Culinary School in Little Rock. “With aluminum, the only thing you have to worry about is if you’re trying to make a really light sauce,” he says. “Aluminum has a tendency to gray the sauce some.”
As an alternative, some companies offer hard anodized aluminum cookware. Anodizing is a process that increases the thickness of the natural oxide layer in aluminum, making it harder, less porous and darker. Heavy gauge, hard anodized cookware won’t interact with sauces, nor will it bend as easily as nonanodized pans.
Some aluminum cookware comes with a nonstick cooking surface, making it easy to clean, but typically it’s best not to put it in the dishwasher.
STAINLESS STEEL
Stainless-steel cookware is durable and resists scratching. It’s ideal for households that tend to be a bit rough on cookware, Rice says. “It’s sturdy - much sturdier than aluminum - and you can cook anything in it,” he says, alluding to the fact that stainless steel is nonreactive.
The downside to stainless steel, however, is it doesn’t conduct heat very well, Rice says. “It’s not good for even distribution of heat, and it doesn’t hold heat very well.”
That’s why most stainless steel pans come with a copper or aluminum core. Copper conducts heat better and more evenly than aluminum, but it comes at a price. “I have one pan that has a stainless bottom, a copper disc and a stainless liner,” says Dan Capello, executive chef at the Chenal Country Club in Little Rock. “It’s a French pan and it cooks amazing - but, it’s not cheap.”
CAST IRON
Cast iron may very well be the most disputed cookware surface on the market. Some chefs like Capello say cast iron is a specialty product best used for “pan-frying or making food that’s smothered in gravy,” while others like Rice prefer cast iron above all other cooking surfaces. One reason chefs like cast iron is its durability. It’s not uncommon to find cast iron skillets or Dutch ovens that have been passed down for generations.
“Nothing takes heat and holds heat like cast iron,” says Rice. “I can’t bend this pan. I can’t warp it. As long as I take care of it, it will be here for 200 years.”
Older cast iron skillets and Dutch ovens need to be seasoned, a process that basically involves oiling the pan and baking it for hours, or, Rice says, seasoning can be accomplished by cooking with them for years and years.
Some newer versions of cast iron cookware come with preseasoned coatings. “Typically, when you buy cast iron these days, they come nonstick and they come sealed,” Rice says. Lodge uses a patented seasoning process using vegetable oil and gas ovens to make their pans virtually nonstick, while other manufacturers actually spray the pans with a nonstick coating.
Cast iron also has its downsides. “Cast iron is not light,” Rice says. Also, the handles conduct heat, and cast iron will rust if soaked in water for long periods.
COPPER
Copper cookware is a chef’s dream. Copper is highly conductive. In fact, copper is the best conductor of heat on the cookware market today, according to Ginocchio. “That means it’s going to get hot faster, and it’s going to cool off faster, so it’s a little easier to control the heat,” he says.
For the average home cook, copper cookware does have its disadvantages. “Copper takes a lot of care,” Rice says. “You’ve got to clean it relentlessly.” It also reacts with acidic foods and is very soft, according to Rice. Copper cookware is also typically the most expensive in today’s market.
