Cooking: High Quality Cookware

Heat conduction is one of the most important quality characteristics when it comes to cookware, asides from other factors such as reactivity with foods, durability and ease of maintenance. High quality cookware always has great heat conduction. There are different ways to achieve this, but the main objective is almost always to distribute the heat evenly to all sides.
There are exceptions where the exact opposite is desired – a extremely hot center whereas the surround shouldn’t be hot. This is specially true for woks, since in Asian cooking there are certain ways of frying dishes on very high heat for short periods of time so that certain gustatory characteristics develop and the nutrients are preserved and not “fried to deatch”.
However, unless you are into Asian cooking you probably want even heat distribution for your cookware. There are different methods of achieving this that different manufacturers of high-quality cookware adhere to. For stainless steel cookware from Williams Sonoma for example this is most often achieved through a copper or aluminum core that is sandwiched inside the base layers of the stainless steel pan or pot, because stainless steel itself has very poor heat conductivity.
Other manufacturers like Magnalite have a certain magnesium-aluminum alloy casting process where the bases are extremely thick and have different grades of thickness. Aluminum is the second best cookware material for heat conduction.
Copper is in and of itself the perfect heat conductor and professional chefs often use gourmet cookware made from copper.
Another great heat conductor is cast iron cookware.
Better heat conductivity has several advantages – cooking time can generally be reduced and in general lower cooking temperatures are possible. But most important of all you can precisely adjust the heat to the temperature that you want. Certain foods need to be cooked at a precise temperature point – gourmet chefs know this – and copper cookware is the only real choice for professional chefs who need temperature precision.
The downside of copper is definitely it’s price (it’s easy to spend more than $1000 on a good copper cookware set) and the fact the copper reacts with certain foods. That is why all high quality cookware made from copper usually has a protective coating that prevents it from reacting with foods. When I say reacting I mean that it will either change the taste of the food, or in some cases even be harmful to your health. (And the same is true for aluminum). However, with good coatings high-conductivity cookware is save to use!
There are many other issues when it comes to determining cookware quality, but in this one I wanted to focus on heat conductivity only. If you want to know more about other factors of high-quality cookware I recommend you read the other articles that are available for free on HighQualityCookware.com

 High Quality Cookware And Heat Conduction [3:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Glass 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.

 High Quality Glass Cookware [3:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I love backbackping and I love cooking – so it’s not a big stretch for me to write about high quality cookware for backpackers! Now most likely you won’t use the same kind of cookware that you use at home for your backpacking trips. A nice iron-cast or stainless steel pan is great for a homely kitchen – but if your out in the wilderness or on a canyon tour you don’t want to carry these extra pounds on your back. If you constantly feel pushed down from carrying a heavy load in your backpack and your back aches and your feet are tired then what’s really the point of going on a trip in a first place? It’s all about enjoying it, having fun and going for the experience. But to make the experience fun you will need to prepare and inform yourself first and find out what’s best for you. Depending on your budget there are several options available and I can understand that somebody who goes on a backpacking trip every second year probably won’t spend as much money on his travel cookware as somebody who’s on the road for 6 months every year.

Backpack cookware should also be easy to store – for example detachable or foldable handles. And then there’s the question for how many people you will cook – are you a happy family chap with 12 kids or a lonely ranger? It’s no fun having to cook for a dozend people in a one-person-meal pot, but if you are on your own then family size won’t do it either.

The most popular choice for backpackers is aluminum. It’s reasonable priced and lightweight – and it really has the typical “camping feeling” to it when you cook your meal in a aluminum pan.
Aluminum cookware also has a dark side to it. Food usually sticks to it quiet easily and when you are in the wilderness cleaning is never as easy as in a kitchen. But the biggest issue might be health concerns – aluminum can react with foods, contaminating it with toxic substances. So if you are going to eat several months out of the year out of your camping aluminum pan, I suggest you consider buying another model (see the options below). But if it’s just for maybe two or three weeks a year then aluminum is still a good choice in my opinion and save to use. Just maintain it properly – when you buy aluminum cookware the manufacturer will most likely also include maintenance instructions that you simply should adhere to.

For long-term backpackers I suggest lightweight stainless steel cookware. It has all the characteristics of stainless steel but is much lighter (and unfortunately but not surprisingly also more expensive). Heat distribution won’t be as good as aluminum, so that means you’ll have to stirr your food constantly so that it doesn’t get burned. But it’s very strong and will stay with you forever.

And if your budget allows so – go titanium! Titanium cookware is lightweight, durable and has very good heat conduction and is non-stick.

And another really basic thing is to look for are tight closing lids – they will reduce your cooking time substantially and thus save you lots of fuel (which means you don’t have to carry a lot of fuel around or pick up lots of firewood after a long days march).

I hope you found these tips on high quality cookware for backpackers useful – if you have any comments or questions please just leave a comment here and I will look into that.

 High Quality Cookware for Backpackers [5:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download