/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>17821473

>>17821507

>>17821473
anon i'm sorry but its too late. your blood stream is filled with cancer causing micro plastics already.

>>17821473
Try goodwill, I've found brand new stainless pans/pots there from known brands on multiple occasions.

>>17821548
I'm not that poor but I will.

>>17821556
>I'm not that poor
No shame in being somewhat frugal

>>17821473
Stainless, you literally can't fuck it up.

>>17821600
Yeah that's what I was looking at. Any solid mid level brands?

I think I was looking at a Tramontina but there was drama whether it was a real pan or knockoff so I gave up.

>>17821473
Your options are stainless steel, carbon steel or cast iron. The other shit is too expensive. Since you named your image "too expensive" I assume stainless steel is of the table unless you buy offbrand.
The prices are probably: Cast iron < Carbon steel < stainless steel. All three of these will last you a lifetime if cared for properly.
For reference I got my cast iron (26cm) new for 19€, could have gone slighly lower if I had to.
A carbon steel will cost somewhere between 25€ and 60€ (for decent sized, decent quality. Obviously more expensive memes exist). So slightly more expensive than cast iron, but barely. Cast iron means you have more thermal mass, which is great for searing, but also more weight, which can be annoying if you want to toss ingredients. If tossing things is important to you, carbon steel is better.
Lastly Stainless steel. It's thinner and lighter than the others, but it also has less thermal mass. Since you don't season stainless cookware, stuff will stick a lot more unless you use more oil/fat. This can be great for deglazing and fond, but shit if you want to cook more delicate ingredients or want nonstick properties. Stainless is dishwasher safe though, so that may be a big plus.

Lastly, and this is a big one: Don't buy new when you are tight on cash. As I said before, all three of these materials will last a lifetime and all three are easy to "repair" if the previous owner fucked them up (with stainless being slightly more of a pain in the ass). So look at your local craigslist, second hand stores, thriftstores etc. - You will find these for slightly cheaper to substantially cheaper (if they have dirt on them), so you can balance how much you want to save with how much effort you are willing to put into cleaning them. I can get a stainless pan used for 5-20€ easily in my city, with the 20€ one looking like I can use it as is and the 5€ one needing a overnight soak and scrub.

>>17821611
>Lastly Stainless steel. It's thinner and lighter than the others, but it also has less thermal mass.
Stainless thinner than carbon steel? No way.

>>17821473
cast iron is dirt cheap and more or less indestructible, you really don't have to sperg out about the seasoning too much, you can use steel wool to clean and not even bother with soap, and if you just keep it dry it'll outlast your grandkids. And don't take it off the stove directly to sink to clean, let it cool down, other than that it's the best kind of pan and will improve your fore arms as well.