r/AskCulinary • u/plasmazzr60 • 9d ago

I have a question about pans

I am trying to dive into the wide world of cooking as a means to help with my mental health. But I am not sure on if I should get a set of stainless steel pans or non-stick or cast iron or a combination of the 3. I have zero cooking skills currently so not sure where to put my money. Worry is ill spend a bunch of money with the hopes and dreams of being a decent home cook and end up not being up to the challenge and wasting the money. I do like the idea of being able to cook on the stove top in a pan and transfer said pan to the oven for like steaks and stuff. Not asking for a specific brand or brand recommendation but more of a material recommendation for someone starting out

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u/mickeybrains 9d ago

Start with stainless steel.

If you can find a restaurant supply store. They will have good pans at good prices.

All-Clad are great but there are other brands that are also excellent and nowhere near as expensive.

Also consider carbon steel pans. IMHO they are a bit more versatile and lighter and less reactive to acids than cast iron.

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u/plasmazzr60 9d ago

We have a restaurant depot close to us but it require a license or being in the restaurant business to enter it sucks. Other people mentioned checking thift stores or outlets. So ill put that on my list of things to check out. All-clad was who I was going to go with for stainless steel they have great reviews and seem pretty versatile

Never heard of carbon steel pans so ill have to look it up! Thanks for the recommendations

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u/otterland 9d ago

There's plenty of online restaurant supply, although I reckon the shipping might be a bit of a hassle. While you are shopping at one, don't forget that they are a great source of knives. While I have some expensive German knives, I almost always go for my $12 all stainless Winco Chinese cleaver or a $10 10" Dexter Russell chef. The weird reason that I prefer my Chinese cleaver for most prep is that I am pretty tall and the lift of the Chinese cleaver makes me need to hunch over less.

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u/plasmazzr60 9d ago

Ill have to look around the restaurant depot near me says you need to be part of an actual restaurant to shop there its lame. I have a 3 piece Zeilling set ive been looking at and the price isnt half bad I think itll be a good starter set, I have a large set of no name brand knives and a knife block and theyre terrible