Stainless Steel Cookware Brand to Pick?

I have 5 Cuisinart SS pots with lids that I use for much of my cooking. I also have an assortment of cast iron pots and pans from your standard size frying pans to 12 qt. stew pots and a couple of griddles for cooking steaks on the stovetop if I choose to.

The SS stuff includes a 2, 3 and 4 qt. sauce pans with lids plus one 3 and one 4 gallon pot with lids for cooking in bigger quantities. All of them have heavy duty bottoms that distribute the heat evenly, clean up easily and do a great job cooking everything I cook. They are also good to go for induction type cooktops.

For the life of me I can't remember what they cost when I got them about 5 years ago, but I was tired of those Teflon clad pots that the coating eventually failed after a couple years use even when using non-metal utensils..

This set from Tramontina I have been very impressed with. The tip for successful cooking with stainless is to get some heat in them before you add your proteins. I get mine at least 300F and things don't stick. They are very easy to clean this way.



Home Depot has the same set online.

I have Ninja, Cuisinart and some Tramontia all clad knock offs and they all work fine. The Ninja set is the nicest, I got it on clearance at either sams or costco, I would have paid full price after using them for a year now. You can get some big Tramontia pots cheaper than aluminum if you watch the online sales. I don't know how they can make money shipping such a big pot for so cheap, but I am not complaining.

Demeyere Atlantis and Demeyere Proline frying pans outclass the field bigly in stainless cookware. Anyone who doubts it should compare the conductive core specs between it and any other brand.

I have a Made In saucier and several Tramontina stainless pans, including two skillets and three saucepans. I like the Made In saucier because of its shape and depth, but the Made In brand is not worth a premium over the Tramontina. Both are solid pans. Tramontina doesn’t make a saucier.

Tramontina is considered a down scale brand but my pans perform as well as any others. You can spend as much as you want, but the Tramontina are as good as any Ive ever owned.

True story about Tramontina. When I got my first apartment in ‘85 I rode my bike from LSU to the KMart that used to be on College Drive and bought a box of stainless pans. They were Tramontina, made in Brazil. I still have two of those pans and they look almost new.

Demeyere

Not sure why you'd need to replace stainless pans at all, but just get whatever kit from Sam's. You'll learn the pan (how fast it heats, etc.) within two or three uses, and you're good. You're going to go through the same learning process no matter the brand, just don't overspend, because you don't need to.

The Tramontina "Tri-Ply" are outstanding especially considering the price.
If you follow America's Test Kitchen / Cooks Illustrated for years the Tramontina "Tri-Ply" would come in a close second to AllClad in their annual stainless cookware reviews.
Be carefufl though they make a line thats looks the same but is not "Tri-Ply" in construction. My Tramontina has never warped, has very minimal hot spots and with a little BKF soft cleanser they look like new.
and I'm REALLY hard on my cookware.

A little late but…

Can’t go wrong with Made In.

A really good option not already mentioned is Goldilocks. Actually may be the best quality lower priced option. You have to order straight from their website. It’s just the basics without a lot of pieces, but they got what most need: 10 and 12 fry, 1.5 and 3 sauce, 8 stock, 3.5 sauté pan. Great price for really good pans. You can break the bank later if you want, but you probably won’t want or need to.