by HexClad Cookware
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How we choose to cook can be a personal experience based on a foundation of personal taste, memory, and more. What we cook food in, however, seems to change with the weather.
There are somany cookware options on the market that promise to be the best choice for cooking. You see all these buzzwords about the different materials and why they&#;re the right option. It can make it tough to keep up and know the differences.
Today is all about copper and stainless steel cookware and what makes each both good and bad.
At the end of this read, you should have a lot more background knowledge on these two materials that will help you make the best choices for your kitchen.
Cooking food in pots and pans dates back to 400,000 years ago. Back then, early humans used turtle shells and hollowed-out tree bark to cook food.
In fact, archaeologists hypothesize that food ended up cooking on a fire virtually by accident. In the beginning, before civilization took off, fires were used by humans to ward off potential predators.
We&#;ve discovered animal bones in many unearthed ancient fireplaces, meaning that meat ended up on the fire at some point. Anything that burned would have been used as fuel for the fire, so the genesis of cooking on a fire may have been a happy accident.
However it happened, we now cook meat over the fire relatively infrequently, choosing alternative heat sources like the range and the oven, and saving the open flames for special events like BBQs and outdoor events. Either way, the flavor combinations that chefs have come up with throughout the years make our mouths water.
So now we find ourselves here &#; cooking our meats to a perfect medium-rare (warm red center) and arguing over which type of material is the best option for cookware.
While the options may seem limitless, today is only about two metals: copper and stainless steel.
We&#;ve got the pros and cons of each, and the information here should put you on the right path for your culinary endeavors.
Copper is one of, if not the oldest, metals used for cooking purposes. It was mainly used as a decorative element in homes, featuring in art and other decor.
Thankfully, someone finally added it to a fire and put some food in it.
The first pro to copper cookware we want to discuss is its ability to heat up. It heats up quickly and evenly, making for a quality cooking experience.
It also loses heat rapidly, which may seem like a con but is necessary when you&#;re cooking delicate items, like fish or a sauce like bearnaise.
When you add the final ingredients and pull the pan from the heat, copper will immediately cool down, which helps prevent these items from overcooking or breaking due to continual cooking after removing the heat source.
However, this can also be a con, depending on what you&#;re cooking. For example, many chefs turn their noses at copper cookware due to its inability to retain heat for long. Searing steaks and other meats can be an issue due to how fast copper cools down.
Copper is also well-known for its natural antimicrobial qualities. The National Library of Medicine conducted a study in third-world countries due to the recommendation of using copper pots to store drinking water. The results favored copper.
The study saw drinking water stored at room temperature for 16 hours. At the end of the study, scientists found no evidence of bacteria growing in the water stored in copper pots.
Copper is naturally resistant to microbes, so the same effect will benefit you at home. This gives a lot of chefs piece of mind when cooking food due to the diminished risk of bacteria surviving or thriving on their cookware.
There&#;s no doubt about it. Copper pans on display in the kitchen make the space feel glamorous and cool. This style of cookware is a showstopper that never fails to impress.
Many cooking shows utilize copper pans for decoration due to the luxurious look they have on camera. Even if you only have one or two pans in your kitchen, they&#;re likely to draw attention when guests walk into your home.
While the benefits of copper seem great, there are still downsides to copper that you have to mull over.
They&#;re not total dealbreakers, but you should give them some thought before making any serious purchases.
Copper might look amazing in your kitchen, but it will cost you. It is one of the more expensive options for your kitchen. That might be why it&#;s so impressive if you have it.
A few key things factor into the high cost of this material.
For one, you have to factor in the sheer cost of raw copper. It costs more than steel or aluminum, so copper cookware companies consider this when pricing their pieces.
Copper pans are also generally hand-made, driving up the labor cost for each pan, which drives up the selling price.
Lastly, copper pans are heavier than other cookware materials. This can be both good and bad for chefs and home cooks. The pan's weight will factor into the selling and shipping costs.
A big selling point is that copper pans are usually sold separately rather than as a set. The pro to this con is that you can buy one or two pans as a splurge and use them once in a blue moon.
If you need a reference, consider copper like a fancy sports car. It&#;s incredible, flashy, and draws attention, but it probably isn&#;t your everyday pan.
Copper reacts with highly acidic foods, like lemon juice or anything tomato-based.
This means that the pan will alter your food when you&#;re cooking items with those acidic ingredients for long periods of time.
Cooking with copper may impact the color and taste of your food. This means that food will darken when it is supposed to be light. You may also notice a subtle but distinct metallic aftertaste with every bite.
The pH of these foods is too high for the molecular bonds of copper, and your food and family will suffer the consequences.
Copper cookware is high maintenance.
It cannot be put into the dishwasher and must be hand washed. This hand washing process must be done with care &#; you must wash it delicately, by hand, and then polish it every time you use it.
This can be a pro for some people. Maybe the benefit of cooking with such a delicate and gorgeous piece of cookware comes with the labor of love that goes into caring for it afterward.
For most chefs, however, this process is too much for everyday use. Daily use isn&#;t recommended for copper, even if you are careful before and after use.
Even if you can afford an entire set of copper pots and pans, you need to weigh the care and maintenance of the cookware against the cost and determine if it&#;s worth it in the end.
Stainless steel has a lot of benefits, and we want to talk about all of them.
Consider a copper pan a novelty or specialty item to keep in your kitchen. Stainless steel, however, can be more of a workhorse.
It is pretty simple to take care of stainless steel pots and pans. They&#;re dishwasher safe and can be used daily with ease. This makes them an excellent option for those just starting in the kitchen and who cook all the time.
Novice cooks, even seasoned ones, make mistakes in the kitchen. It happens to all of us from time to time. But with a stainless steel pan, you don&#;t have to worry that the burnt dinner you served your family will be sticking around.
You can use sturdy brushes on these pans to get rid of food residues without worrying about distrupting the quality or integrity of the pan.
There are plenty of options on the market for stainless steel cookware. However, those like Hexclad pans, which feature a 3-ply design, are in a category all their own.
The design of a 3-ply pan is a layer of stainless steel, one of aluminum, and another layer of stainless steel.
This works exceptionally as the aluminum core will conduct heat evenly, making hot and cold spots on the pan a non-issue. The stainless steel exterior ensures that you have a strong pan, resistant to scratching and chipping.
The last big benefit to a bottom layer of stainless steel is its ability to react to various heat sources. You can even use these pots and pans on an induction stove, which requires a magnetic pan that can react with the cooking surface to begin the heating process.
Not all stainless steel is created equal, and this design reigns supreme.
Check out our technology page if you would like more information about the design and innovation process that sets our pots and pans apart.
It may seem tedious, but preheating a stainless steel pan makes for a better cooking experience.
Why?
A stainless steel pan looks smooth, but tiny pores are on the surface. When you preheat the pan, the pores of stainless steel react to the heat, shrink, and close up any gaps in the surface that you can&#;t see. This creates a smooth surface that&#;s great even heating.
Turn the stove on medium heat and allow the pan to warm up for about two minutes. Then add cooking oil, let it settle for a moment, and add food.
This will give you an even cooking surface that won&#;t burn the food or cause it to stick to the pan. It may sound like an extra step, but you will be happy with the results in the end.
Stainless steel is a durable option. This means it&#;s perfect for students away at school, new chefs just starting, and those that cook day in and day out.
Unlike copper cookware, you can use stainless steel for every meal, every day. And as we&#;ve said, you can use just about the strongest brush possible to clean it without issue.
Another great feature of the durability of stainless steel is its nonreactive quality. This means you can make those acidic tomato and lemon sauces without the risk of discoloration and metallic flavors in your food.
Compared to copper, stainless steel is the more affordable option.
The quality will vary with the price, so there may be something to the price difference from one company to another. But as a whole, stainless steel can be purchased in a full set of cookware pots and pans for a more reasonable price compared to other materials, especially copper.
We know: With so many pros, what could steer you away from stainless steel? There are a few potential cons you&#;ll want to consider.
The two biggest cons of stainless steel are also the easiest to avoid with a bit of information and care.
Stainless Steel Has a Risk of Leaching
Even though stainless steel is non-reactive, there are instances when the metal can leach certain flavors into your food.
Want more information on copper clad stainless steel sheets? Feel free to contact us.
Leaching is the term used to describe foods altered due to the metallic surface of your pots and pans. This alteration happens with prolonged use at one time, so be mindful of how long you let your sauces and foods simmer in your pans.
As expected, leaching becomes less of a concern as long as you buy high-quality products.
You can diminish the risk of leaching when using stainless steel, however, by only buying the right kind of stainless steel.
Stainless steel pots and pans come in different grades: 200, 300, and 400. These grades are associated with the amount of nickel contained within the material. In addition to the design of stainless steel pans, not all stainless steel is created equal.
200 grade stainless steel contains less nickel than 300 grade and is more durable than 400 grade.
Grade 300 for stainless steel is most common for surgical equipment as it is the least corrosive and can withstand saline (saltwater) solutions.
Grade 400 is the cheapest option. It has more carbonand is less resistant to corrosion. It is also the least expensive, so be mindful of this when you&#;re selecting cookware.
You can save money with stainless steel versus copper, but don&#;t be cheap with stainless steel.
Both of these cookware materials offer benefits as well as some setbacks. Cooking at home with your family is an opportunity to make great food and memories you take into the future, so what you cook with needs to fit with your lifestyle.
The information here, and our personal recommendations, should come in handy, helping you make the most informed decision possible.
Sources:
Storing Drinking-Water in Copper Pots Kills Contaminating Diarrhoeagenic Bacteria | PMC
What&#;s a &#;Nonreactive Saucepan&#; and Why Does It Matter? | Edmonton Journal
Cookware and Bakeware | New World Encyclopedia
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I speak from experience when I say that it can be hard to tell a nickel-lined copper pot from a steel-lined one.
I got into a heated argument on Chowhound over this. I insisted a particular pot of mine was lined with stainless steel but I was dead wrong: it was nickel. I was absolutely sure I was right because to my eye it looked just exactly, exactly like steel. I am embarrassed to have been so adamant when I was in the wrong, and I told myself I&#;d learn more about nickel and steel so that I could avoid this mistake in the future. (Reining in my ego is a separate challenge!)
One comforting realization is that at least I&#;m not alone: many people seem to make the same mistake. I&#;ve seen multiple eBay and Etsy item listings for copper pots described as tin- or steel-lined that I suspect are nickel-lined. I don&#;t think it&#;s necessarily malicious on the part of the seller, because they can be difficult to distinguish from each other, and ultimately the pots will perform similarly.
But it&#;s good to know which lining you have because nickel needs to be treated more like tin &#; no metal utensils, no hard scrubbing &#; while steel can withstand rougher handling. I&#;d like to share with you what I&#;ve learned in hopes that it will help you to be a more informed buyer.
Stainless steel is an alloy of iron, chrome, and nickel. Each of these component metals bonds differently to copper &#; nickel rather well, but iron and chrome not very easily. This makes it difficult to get steel to adhere to copper without some kind of intervention.
In the early s, US manufacturers such as All-Clad were bringing sophisticated multi-ply steel pans to market using advanced techniques to bond, shape, and finish clad cookware, and French manufacturers had to compete. In the s, the Belgian cookware firm Falk Culinair developed and patented a process to bond sheets of copper and steel into &#;copper bimetal&#;: 2.3mm of copper and .2mm of steel for a total thickness of 2.5mm. Falk found a German sheet metal supplier to mass-produce bimetal sheets and in released a line of steel-lined copper cookware.
Others quickly followed suit. In , Mauviel began manufacturing Cuprinox, their own line of steel-lined pans. (They used the Cuprinox name until circa when they switched to the M&#;150/ M&#;250 nomenclature.) Other French manufacturers including Atelier du Cuivre, Havard, and De Buyer began making stainless-steel lined pans in the s and continue to this day.
Stainless steel linings for pots come in brushed, mirror, or matte finishes depending on the copper bimetal stock and how the pan interior is polished at the factory. Steel withstands high cooking temperatures (Mauviel rates its steel-lined pans to 500°F/260°C) and its hardness means that even the .2mm in a typical pan lining will tolerate metal cooking utensils and hard scrubbing with no more than a few surface scratches.
Like tin (and unlike steel), a nickel lining is applied to the pot after it&#;s been formed from a pure copper sheet. Nickel can be arc sprayed or plated onto copper, and depending on how it was applied and polished, it can have a brushed, mirror, or matte finish just like a steel lining.
According to copper cookware dealer TJFRANCE, nickel-lined copper pots entered the French market in the early s, hailed as the great replacement for tin. My mother purchased a set of nickel-lined pans at Dehillerin in Paris in the early s, and I&#;ve read anecdotally of others also buying new nickel-lined pans in that timeframe.
I know of two lines of French nickel-lined copper: Mauviel&#;s &#;Cupronil&#; and L. Lecellier&#;s &#;Cunilec.&#; Both of these lines were sold at Dehillerin in Paris. Bourgeat made a line of nickel-lined pots and there are likely others as well, and I would welcome more information.
As a lining for a copper pan, nickel conveys some of the desirable qualities of both steel and tin. Like steel, nickel can withstand cooking temperatures above 450°F/232°C that threaten to soften or melt a tin lining. Pure nickel conducts heat slightly better than pure tin and much better than stainless steel, so it helps support the thermal performance of the copper pan. And like tin, nickel releases food well, much more easily than steel.
In terms of physical resilience, nickel is hard like steel, but the problem is that there&#;s just not that much of it on the pan. A sprayed or plated nickel lining is approximately 15 microns thick &#; that&#;s .015mm, much thinner than the 200 micron (.2mm) steel layer in an average copper bimetal pot, and even thinner than a hand-wiped tin lining. Stainless steel is tough but not impervious &#; look closely at a well-used stainless steel pan and you&#;ll see many surface scratches. A nickel lining handled as roughly could pick up scratches deep enough to penetrate through to the copper. For this reason, I suggest you think of nickel as &#;high-heat tin&#; and give it the same treatment: hand-washing, no harsh scrubbing, no metal utensils.
TJFRANCE has observed that unused nickel-lined pots seem to degrade over a period of years &#; that is, that the act of cooking and cleaning the nickel appears to help maintain it, and that without this attention, the lining may develop pits or other defects. I haven&#;t confirmed this with my own experience but I trust TJ&#;s advice here. If you come across a set of vintage nickel-lined pots, take a close look at the condition of the lining and be prepared to re-line the pots if needed.
It&#;s within the realm of possibility that you&#;ll spot a vintage copper pan with a silvery metal interior that&#;s described as stainless steel or tin but that actually could be nickel. You could examine the pan if you had it in front of you, but if it&#;s on eBay or Etsy you may need to work from photos and ask the seller some questions. Here are some suggestions that may help you during this process.
You&#;d think it would be easy to tell a hand-wiped tin lining from a machine-applied steel or nickel lining, but in practice &#; and especially in photos &#; it&#;s not always immediately obvious. An older nickel-lined pot of mine that you&#;ll see below has a mellowed matte texture similar to a used tin lining, and an inexperienced seller may not know the difference.
But there is one reliable telltale of a hand-applied lining: the rim. Look at the rim very closely, or ask the seller to take a photo or look on your behalf. Is there any silver metal on the flat surface?
A good general rule is that a pan thicker than 2.5mm or so can&#;t be lined with stainless steel. It&#;s hard to prove that a thicker steel-lined pot doesn&#;t exist, of course, but I&#;m not aware of a tested and nickel-negative example thicker than 2.5mm. (I thought I had one, hence my spirited argument on Chowhound, but I was wrong &#; if you have one, please test it and share the results!) If you have a pot that is thicker than 2.5mm with a non-tin lining, there are a few possibilities as to what it could be, in order of descending likelihood: nickel-lined (most likely); aluminum-lined (L. Lecellier&#;s Cuivralec, or an aluminum pan plated with a thin shell of copper); one of GAOR&#;s nested copper-steel pans; or silver-lined.
I have three pots that I believe can serve as useful examples to show the similarities and differences between steel and nickel.
The 26cm sauté pan on the left is a stainless steel lined Cuprinox extra-fort (high thickness) pot at 2.5mm thickness. The other two are nickel-lined Cupronil made sometime between and : the 28cm saucepan on the right is new old stock in factory-fresh condition, so I call it &#;new,&#; while the 28cm stewpot towards the back has been used and scrubbed to soften the lining&#;s factory finish, so I call it &#;old.&#; They are both 3.8mm thick and are absolute units.
Here are some detail photos of each pan. Note how similar the nickel and steel look; many nickel-lined pans are mistakenly listed as stainless steel on eBay and Etsy because even well-meaning sellers can&#;t tell the difference. I believe these three were all made by Mauviel but none of them is stamped &#;Cupronil&#; or &#;Cuprinox.&#;
The interior polishes look really similar to my eye. Many Cuprinox and Cupronil pans appear to have received a factory polish to the lining that produces a concentric ring pattern. This pattern persists in a stainless pan because of the hardness of the steel. By comparison, the nickel lining can be scrubbed away, which is why it&#;s useful to have the &#;new&#; and &#;old&#; examples to illustrate this.
The photos below show the sharp-edged &#;new&#; Cupronil lining, factory-fresh with a brushed finish, and the &#;old&#; Cupronil pot that has been used and thoroughly scrubbed over its lifetime. The remnants of the &#;old&#; Cupronil&#;s original brushed finish are faintly visible, most clearly at the top of the sidewall seems not to have been scrubbed like the basin.
While stainless steel and nickel are both silvery metals, there is a subtle difference in the tone of each: stainless steel has a cool bluish tone to it, while nickel looks warmer by comparison. It&#;s hard to see this on an individual pan, however, particularly in photographs. If you&#;re looking at a pan online, see if the seller will take a photo of it with a known steel-lined pan.
I&#;ve used two comparison pans in my photos below: my known Cuprinox steel-lined pan and a Demeyere Atlantis skillet with an outer layer of 18/10 stainless steel. To my eye, the two finishes have a different color cast. Nickel is sometimes described as &#;yellower&#; than steel, and it shows up in these side-by-side comparisons. It&#;s more subtle between the Cuprinox pan and the &#;old&#; Cupronil, whose finish has been dulled with scrubbing, but the yellowish cast is there, particularly right next to the bright Demeyere steel.
This photo below from an eBay listing illustrates the visible difference in tone. Look at all these pans &#; does one of them stand out a little?
The seller says that the sauté pan in the upper left corner is 2.5mm thick while the rest of the saucepan set is 3mm. Those thicknesses as well as the different tone of the color of the lining of the sauté leads me to believe that the sauté is steel-lined while the rest of the saucepans are nickeled.
The photos above also show a distinct quality I perceive in a nickel lining: once used and scrubbed, the nickel takes on a uniform soft matte texture I call &#;pearliness.&#; I suspect this is because nickel, despite its hardness, can be scrubbed away with cleaning; I see the same pearly look on aluminum (a very soft metal) and on stainless steel that has been thoroughly and chaotically scrubbed, like my own stainless steel sink.
Pearliness cam be an indicator of nickel but it&#;s not infallible, as bead-blasted stainless steel finish can look very similar. Compare the three photos below: a nickel surface; a bead-blasted steel surface on the underside of a copper lid; and for context, a Mauviel bead-blasted oval pan. The difference to my eye is that the bead-blasted steel has a sparkly metallic look while the nickel is has a flat gleam without as much sparkle.
There&#;s a lot of disagreement about whether you can use a magnet to tell if a lining is stainless steel or nickel. According to my testing with these pans, you can&#;t &#; they&#;re all similarly magnetic. I found that a small magnet stayed put on all interior pan surfaces, with the exception of the rivets; the rivets of the &#;new&#; Cupronil were strongly magnetic, while the rivets on the Cuprinox and &#;old&#; Cupronil were not magnetic at all. (The iron handles are of course highly magnetic and I was careful not to measure that by mistake.)
The best way to tell nickel from stainless is to use a chemical nickel detection solution. I ordered this test kit from Amazon for about US$35. An online seller may be unwilling to go through this expense and process for you, but it&#;s the only incontrovertible test for nickel.
To test the surface, wet the tip of the cotton swab and rub it against the metal for 15-30 seconds. The solution is colorless, but if there is nickel detected, the chemical will turn pink. In practice it wasn&#;t a dramatic change but there was discernible pink on the swabs from the two Cupronil pans while the Cuprinox swab stayed clear.
Should you buy and use a nickel-lined pan? As long as you don&#;t have anyone with a nickel allergy in your household, sure. I offer the following comparison of tin, nickel, and steel as the lining for copper pans in the hope that it helps you think it through.
Vintage nickel-lined copper pans can be tremendous values. They can be quite thick &#; up to 3.5mm or more &#; and the linings perform beautifully for cooking. If you are considering purchasing one, the most important consideration should be the integrity of the nickel lining, as it may be difficult to find a re-plating or spraying service. That said, if re-nickeling a worn-through vintage lining is not a possibility for you, you can have the pan re-lined with tin and enjoy the pan for several more decades.
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