What do you prefer and why?

tandraig

dont buy cheap pans! they are horrible to use and clean and dont last!
saying that i cannot afford le creuset or anthony worried whatsit.
buy a reasonably priced set in a sale! I did - I paid £45 in argos for a set which normally cost a £100 and they lasted me nearly 15 years - the most used pan was binned about a year ago and am still using the two others. but they are now so not non-stick.
so i bought a different set from a local warehouse - they cost the same - arent non-stick but seem ok.
decide your price then look for bargains hun, thats my advice! just dont buy cheapy range - they arent even worth what they are charging!

Tealady_2

I have been using my LeCruest pans for the last 15 years and they are still going strong. They are expensive but we bought ours in France as they were cheaper there. They are heavy to use as well but I would now not use anything else. They always come good no matter what you do to them and believe me OH has made them suffer on occasion. :eek:

meanmarie

I use stainless steel as IME it is the easiest to clean and lasts well. I have 3 old fashioned castiron frying pans and a griddle...they are the nearest thing to non-stick I have ever had and have had most of them for at least 20 years and wouldn't replace them with anything other than a similar thing....they were very cheap when I bought them and are still cheap to buy now.

Marie

Butterfly_Brain

I have a set of stainless steel pans that cost £50 for a set of 5 that I bought 24 years ago and they are still going strong - someone bought me some swan ones for a wedding present and they were tinny and only lasted 5 years even though they were expensive at the time. I also have a Tefal set of frying pans which are brill and a Tefal food processor that was MIL and is 35 years old and still going strong. I have a stainlesss steel wok that I bought in Asda 10 years ago and a stock pot from Asda that I bought at the same time.
I have Enamel Baking pans that have lasted me over 20 years

jcr16

i have some fab anodised saucepans cost i think between £20 and £30 each. but they are amazing. i use them every day so imo it is money well spent. As for other items, i like an anodised roasting tin. got a bargin there £50 in sale for £9. but i struggle with tins for yorkie puddings so have just bought silcone and the're excellent. only cost i think £2 on ebay. as for baking tins, i do buy cheap of these because i always line them wih baking parchement.
i bought some cheap frying pans in sainsbury back in oct they were £11.99 for the large and £9.99 for the small. after 6 months all the non sick coating hard started pealing off. they are awful gonna replace with anodised ones.

MrsE_2

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

I personally buy the cheap value sets and renew them every 12 - 18 months depending on how they are doing. Although I have ended up with several small milkpans and not many medium or large pans as I obviously use these more.

I dont see the point in spending a lot of money on fancy labels so long as it does the job!

I buy the best quality kitchen stuff I can & aim to get years & years out of it.

I have Circulon pots (would have gone for the Le Cruset steel but they didn't have glass lids)/

Le Cruset MASSIVE casserole pot.

Le Cruset bake-ware for pies & puddings & lasagna.

Still got a cheap wok (Tefal) keep changing my mind about its replacement, had decided on Le Cruset then realised how tiny they were:(

I buy the Oxo good grips hand tools as these are fantastic quality.

Items of this quality will last & last AND I will enjoy using them.

daska

I've had a mixture of pans of varying quality and price. If you can afford it then buy a decent set of stainless steel pans and they will last you a lifetime (or until you buy an induction hob). But IMHO expensive non-stick pans don't last long enough to justify the price and the level of care they require.

My personal faves are Cristel because the detachable handles mean they take minimal space to store, double up as casseroles and when there are kids around you don't have to remember to move the handles out of reach Mine are now 12 years old (I bought them when DS1's dad did the dirty and took the le Creuset set so can date it quite precisely) and I'd be surprised if they didn't last my lifetime. My mum is still using her Prestige pans that she bought 25 years ago and they're still in fab condition with years of use left in them.

I'm also very fond of those big circulon saute pans with the domed lids

Oh, and the Lidl glass and silicon cake tins are fabulous

Alison_Funnell

Electric steamer, slow cookers, silicon cake moulds etc and PYREX! The only things I realy have for the hob are tefal stirfry pans ( again not great but do the job for a while) and a SS stock pot for pasta, soups and rice. Oh and 3 heavy baking sheets from Lakeland.

Agapanthus

I got a really high quality set of stainless steel saucepans about 35 years ago. They're still going strong - even the plastic handles haven't given any trouble. I do have a couple of Le Creuset casseroles, which are superb, but I wouldn't have the saucepans as they're too heavy.

I gave up on all sorts of non-stick pans years ago. The coatings kept coming off and I realised that we must have eaten them! :eek: I don't have any non-stick pans at all now. I cook on an AGA and with good solid pans and an even heat source I find that things don't stick.

jackieb

I have Swan stainless steel pots. They were reduced to £7 for 3, 10 years ago. They've been the best pans i've had. I can't stand the non-stick stuff (I only have 1, which I use for scrambled eggs). They're easy to clean and they're still like new. The only thing I don't like about them is the lids. They have metal knobs which get hot. I have a silicon holder thing for that though - I can put up with that.

My big soup pot is a great big steamer pot without the bits in it. It was my grandparents. They had it when my dad was young and he's 79 now! When my mum got it in the 60s when they died she threw out all the steamer baskets as she didn't know what they were for! I also have one that my parents got in a wedding present, 52 years ago. I use that one if i'm making soup too.