Pots and Pans

[defboater]

What pots and pans do you use most? We are preparing for our FT journey and I'm perplexed over which pots and pans to bring. Prepping to sell the house and deciding what to store and bring is tough! Seriously considering an induction and well, they require special pans.

 

Thanks again for your wisdom

[TXiceman]

WE cook in the RV just as we did in the sticks and bricks. We did buy a lighter weight set of pans for the RV once we went full time. We also cut out the duplicates and decided a lot of things can do double duty.

 

We have a small muffin pan and a pizza pan that will fit in the convection/microwave.

 

Dishes and glasses were cut back to a set for 4 places.

 

I don't know what size RV you will use, but you need to make sure everything fits. We moved the RV into the drive way and lived in it for several days. This resulted into a few things going back to the house and some other items moving to the RV.

 

As for storing you household goods, seriously consider how long you plan to be on the road and how long the stuff will be stored. We trimmed down to a 5' x 5' conditioned space to keep a few records, mementos and a couple of antique pieces we decided to keep. We looked at storing more stuff, but furniture belongs in a conditioned space and it was going to run over $500.00 per month...time 12 months times 5 years or over $6000.00 per year times 5 years or $30,000.00 plus for a total. If and when we go back to a house, it will be small and large furniture will not work. So for over $30,000.00 you can buy a lot of new furniture.

 

Good luck on the road.

 

Ken

[docj]

If you are considering having an induction burner you will need pots and pans that have a bottom that a magnet will stick to. That pretty much means most (but not all) stainless steel or cast iron. We happened to have AllClad pots and pans in our sticks & bricks and took them with us.

[NJTroy]

I have a mix of AllClad and cast iron. I'm almost certain we'll be going with an induction cooktop and so those will go with us. I bought a single burner induction unit to experiment with both here and in our current RV and like it a lot. It was worth the experiment so that I didn't end up with something I hate to cook on when we head out to full time in two years.

[defboater]

TXiceman - wonderful advice, thank you!

 

docj - does this mean that my almost 30 yr old Tramontihn 18/8 s/s HEAVY saute pan will work with the induction? So happy to hear this! Thank you!

 

I guess the next step will be to decide on an induction and maybe one or two pans to go with it, any advice?

[Selah]

Just my opinion based on what worked for us; your milage may differ.

Spend the money for a set of nestable cookware. The space required for storage is just the diameter of the largest skillet. Everything else nests inside that. Handles are removeable. If considering and induction, I would recommend that, you will need to get something like Rapid Chef or Magna Ware. Both are excellent.

Bake ware needs to be small enough to fit in the Microwave/Convection. As stated earlier, dish ware for four (Corel stacks nicely), six coffe cups, six turvis tumblers, silverware for 12 (be surprised how often you'll use paper plates and silverware doesn't take much space), basically you need to be space conscious about most everything. If your much like us you'll find that most of the stuff you have in the house isn't very well adapted for saving space.

BTW, most stainless steal will not work on induction, it's non magnetic unless it has an iron core like the cookware mentioned above.

[docj]

BTW, most stainless steal will not work on induction, it's non magnetic unless it has an iron core like the cookware mentioned above.

 

Actually, I don't think this is correct, but the easiest way tell is check to see if a magnet will stick to the bottom of the pot (not the sides). If the magnet sticks, the pot will work regardless of whether or not it's marked as "induction ready". Just like with most marketing, there's a bunch of money being made by people selling "induction ready" cookware who conveniently overlook telling people that they may already own stuff that will work just fine.

 

Note added later: What makes stainless steel "magnetic" has to do with the composition of the alloy. Having an iron core has nothing to do with it. In fact my AllClad pots have an aluminum core. What they can't have is an aluminum botton.

 

[docj]

 

docj - does this mean that my almost 30 yr old Tramontihn 18/8 s/s HEAVY saute pan will work with the induction? So happy to hear this! Thank you!

 

I guess the next step will be to decide on an induction and maybe one or two pans to go with it, any advice?

 

If a magnet sticks to it, it will work. As for advice on an induction burner, they sell for prices from ~$50 to $500. The one we have, a Circulon, is no longer sold. If I were to replace it I would probabl buy one of the more expensive models because many of the less expensive ones have difficulty with very low power control since they use "pulsed full power" to simulate a less than full power setting. Depending on the weight of the pot used this can result in scorching of the food. Ours can go as low as 100W of power and it works wonderfully for slow simmering. If ours breaks I haven't yet decided what to replace it with.

[LFDR3116]

I use what I used in the house. The only thing I had to adjust for was the size of the bakeware so it would fit in the micro/convection. Table service I cut from 12 placesettings to 4, several glasses, both glass and plastic for the grandkids. Service for 12 for silverware. Correlle, casserole dishes a couple different sizes, some tupperware for leftover storage, some wine glasses, coffee mugs, cutting board, hand mixer, measuring cups,spoons and a variety of cooking utensils. I use the cooktop, micro/convection, outdoor grill, and the crockpot to cook with. I had eliminated all large bowls, but now have a couple again. We have attended potlucks where I wanted to make a larger bowl of the food I was taking and had nothing to put it in.

[defboater]

Great suggestions, thank you. Sounds like I'm going to be investigating induction cookware - thanks Seleh - Rapid Chef or Magna Ware? any preferences and where did you buy from? Seems like I'm going back to Amazon many times!

[Coleen]

My most used cookware items are my two cast iron fry pans, one medium size and the other large. Other items I use frequently are my cast iron Dutch oven, my 3 quarrt saucepan with cover, and my large soup or stock pot. I have an old set of three nesting Pyrex casseroles with lids that I use frequently, both in the oven and the microwave. For bakeware, I use a regular cakepan and a pizza pan that also serves as a cookie sheet, Additionally, I consider my Vita-Mix, Crock-Pot, electric frying pan, and bread machine essential. Oh, and an oridnary coffee-pot.We also have a large pressure canner -- well, two -- because we can a lot of Alaskan salmon and other items.

[Aeronie]

If you go with an induction cook top you do not need new pans. You can buy a device like this which will allow you to use any pan you own on the convention top. It also helps with the low heat consistancy issue some of the older induction tops had.

[TXiceman]

If you go with an induction cook top you do not need new pans. You can buy a device like this which will allow you to use any pan you own on the convention top. It also helps with the low heat consistancy issue some of the older induction tops had.

$40 per burner and something else to haul around. It would be easier to get the corect pans.

 

Ken

[defboater]

So many choices! Great having lots to consider, thank you all!

[Selah]

KittyCat - both Rapid Chef and Magna Ware seem to have good ratings. We baught Rapid Chef because Amazon did not have Magna Ware in stock. So I really can't compare other than to,say we're pleased with ours. Only thing I would,change on our set is that only the smaller skillet is non-stick. The larger skillet is straight stainless. It's ok but but would have preferred non-stick.

You might Google the term "galley ware" as nesting cookware as is sometimes referred.

[docj]

If you go with an induction cook top you do not need new pans. You can buy a device like this which will allow you to use any pan you own on the convention top. It also helps with the low heat consistancy issue some of the older induction tops had.

 

If you use that approach, you've coupled the heat transfer aspects of this "disk" to those of your pot. So you've made the problem of getting uniform heat transfer much harder. If you enjoy using induction cooking I can't see why you wouldn't want to get some pots and pans that work with it.

[SpaceNorman]

We just finished outfitting the kitchen in our new (to us) coach. We ended up going with an 11 pc set of what I would consider "mid grade" cookware. It's not the same quality as the All Clad stuff we use at home ... but neither is it the cheapest stuff out there. It's got a nice heft to it, seems to conduct heat pretty evenly and so far has been OK to clean. It's marketed under the name "Belgigue". They're not the lightest cookware out there ... nor are they particularly compact/stackable. However, all 11 pieces fit neatly in the area under the sink in our coach - with enough space to store the coffee maker when we're moving. At the moment we're packing all 11 pieces that came with the set ... although we may consider "downsizing" the set once we get a better feel for which pieces we use most.

 

So far, it doesn't seem to feel or perform too much differently than the stuff we use at home. It hasn't stood the test of time yet - but so far, we've been pretty happy with the purchase.

[Smitty77_7]

We still have our home pots and pans in our old home - now our 'vacation home'. We had my wife's Mom move in with us, and that is working out great. Someone living in the house as we travel, and a great aid to her budget!!

 

Ten years ago, we just made a run to Target for everything in our then new to us Bounder. All middle of the road, and OK to bank up or lose along the way. This shifted over into our current coach, with somer recent changes to the flatware and we rotated in some more wine glasses from recent vineyard trips.

 

As we were planning to get a counter top induction burner, we also went ahead and bought the Circulon Premier Pro set of pots and pans, as well as a Lodge cast iron frying pan. We like these a lot, easy to clean, and solidly built. Some bad luck on the induction burner, the one we ordered (On sale at JC Penney, and MIL is retired and gets another good discount off of that, and also had some extra special 15% off special too... So quite a savings.) we never tried before we left the vacation home. First time we tried it on this trip, error code. Will not work of more then 20 seconds before shutting down. Thought maybe the Circulon may not have had enough metal in the (they're supposed to be induction usable), so tried again with the Lodge. Same error, same amount of time. Been over 3 months now since we bought it, and we'll see if JC Penney's will exchange it for MIL (She actually ordered it to get all of the discounts.), or if we'll eat this one.

 

So, we may be shopping again for another induction counter top unit...

 

Bst to all,

Smitty

[defboater]

going to be stopping in at TJ Maxx and Marshall's like stores in the near future, any rec's on models of All Clad to shop for to cook with my new induction cooktop I bought! I got a Max Burton 6200 for less than $100 - score - reviews looked great on Chow. Only need a couple of new pots and pans as I really pray that I will be cooking outside.

 

Love this forum, and you all, thank you!

[docj]

If you are interested in All-Clad you need the cheapest line, the plain stainless with aluminum core. I'm not sure the fancier models will work, but they probably would be labeled as for induction if they are. I doubt you'll find All-Clad in those kinds of stores, however. There is a website that sells high quality "seconds": http://www.cookwarenmore.com/

[harley-dave]

We picked up a set of coated stainless steel pans at IKEA for the induction and they work great. We carry 2 induction units and a full set of pans. Weigh less than regular pots and pans.

 

Dave

[Yarome]

My most used cookware items are my two cast iron fry pans, one medium size and the other large.

 

I'm with Coleen. 2 cast iron pans (small and medium), a 1qt sauce pan, and 2 small dutch ovens. From the oven, stovetop, grill or campfire it's pretty tough to beat out cast iron.

[sandsys]

Bring a magnet with you when you shop. If it sticks to the bottom of the pan you are in business. I did get some funny looks though walking the aisles at Bed Bath & Beyond trying to stick my magnet to various pans.

 

Linda Sand

[defboater]

Bring a magnet with you when you shop. If it sticks to the bottom of the pan you are in business. I did get some funny looks though walking the aisles at Bed Bath & Beyond trying to stick my magnet to various pans.

 

Linda Sand

 

 

You make me smile; especially because you sound like me! Thank you all!