High Quality Glass Cookware
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Glass cookware is a good choice specially for baking, but some kinds can also be used on the stovetop. One advantage of glass cookware is that it has good heat conductivity characteristics at a pretty good pricepoint – which also means that a lot of cooking time can be saved that would be necessary for other materials to just heat up. Many people also like the fact that they can use their glass cooking equipment not only to cook and bake, but also to store foods and even serve foods on the dinner table that is still inside the glass cookware and it looks nice. This is specially true for foods like lasagne, tiramisu, potato bake and the like.
People who often use the microwave will love the fact that they can place their glasscookware in the microwave – which isn’t true for aluminum. I’m not a big fan of microwave and some studies suggest that microwaving food isn’t a good way to heat up your meals because it might damage nutrients, others claim that it’s radiation is harmful. For me it’s just the taste – microwaved food tastes different from cooked food and I prefer the old school way.
Although glass cookware is much heavier than aluminum or even stainless steel it is easy to clean and will look like new for many years if handled properly.
Another downside of glass cookware is that it is sometimes not easy to handle because of it’s design and weight. Most of the time you’ll need to put on heat-protective gloves.
There is both non-stick glass cookware n and pure glass cookware available. Non-stick glass cookware is simply coated with a protective layer. As with all non-stick cookware this needs special care in maintenance – for example no scrubbing with steel wool, no harsh detergents, no wire scouring pads but instead handwashing with hot water and soap.
If you are looking for non-stick glass cookware you should definitely be ready to invest some money as when it comes to non-stick you either want high quality (which is expensive!) or none at all. Cheap nonstick-coatings will cause you so much nuisance along the way that the high-quality choices will actually end up being cheaper in the long-run. However, keep in mind that nonstick cookware still isn’t as durable as other kinds of cookware. Manufacturers might tell you that you can put it in the dishwasher and it will be with you for twenty years or more, but reality still is different from my experience and the experience of my chef-friends.
