Stainless Steel

Stainless steel by itself is a poor heat conductor, moving heat about a twenty-fifth as fast as copper. A pan made of nothing else scorches in a ring over the burner. Good cookware fixes that by bonding aluminum or copper inside the walls. Tri-ply means three bonded layers: stainless inside, aluminum in the middle, stainless outside. Five-ply adds more, and full clad means the sandwich runs up the sides rather than stopping at a disc in the base.

Cooking on it rewards heat and patience. Preheat two to three minutes over medium until a drop of water skates across the surface instead of sizzling away, then add fat, then food. Protein sticks at first and releases itself once a crust forms, so leave it alone. Those browned bits stuck to the pan are called fond, and a splash of wine, stock or water lifts them into a sauce in under a minute.

Rules here are the simplest of any material on this page. Metal tools scratch nothing that matters, the dishwasher is allowed. The pan is oven safe to roughly 500 F, with the handle usually the limiting part. Almost all clad stainless works on induction because the outer layer is 18/0 steel, which means steel with chromium and no nickel, which a magnet grips. Test yours anyway.

Nothing releases from a bare steel surface, and that is the compromise. Eggs, pancakes and skin-on fish fight you, and burnt-on sugar or dairy needs a soak and a paste of baking soda. Rainbow heat tint and chalky white spots from hard water both wipe away with vinegar. Normal cooking never wears the pan out, which is why one good clad skillet outlives every other pan in the drawer.

Stainless steel starts as iron melted with chromium, and the chromium is what makes it stainless. At about 10.5 percent and up it reacts with air to form a thin oxide skin. That skin reseals itself whenever the surface is scratched. Cookware grades add nickel for shine and corrosion resistance, which is what 18/10 means, 18 percent chromium and 10 percent nickel.

Layers are bonded before the pan has a shape. Sheets of stainless and aluminum are stacked and roll bonded, meaning squeezed under enormous pressure until they behave as one sheet. Discs cut from that sheet are pressed or spun into pan form. A cheaper method bonds an aluminum disc to the bottom only. That heats the base well and leaves the walls slow, so food at the edge of a saute pan cooks behind the middle.

Handles are welded or riveted on. Riveted ones last longer, and the rivet heads inside the pan are the one spot where food catches.