Great Cheap Pots and Pans

After years of a lot of cooking for a large family with the old fashioned Farberware pots and pans with the aluminum clad bottom (designed in the late 1940s), we finally bought a set of the Bialetti non stick cookware. This was the cheapest set that we considered. Truly, I was willing to pay four times as much as we did pay.

The covers are glass with a stainless steel rim that is not sharp. They clean easily in the dishwasher, have a good weight, and being able to see what is in the pan is a plus. The handles are a combination of stainless steel and silicone, so they are not too hot to handle on the range top, and they still can withstand pretty hign temperatures in the oven.

The pans are made of cast aluminum with a nonstick interior which has proven to be quite durable (I don't always used nonstick implements, and I have even occasionally used a hand mixer to make mashed potatoes in the pot). The outside finish is a minor debit. We wash these pots and pans by hand. It saves room in the dishwasher, and the nonstick surface makes it a breeze. The exterior of the pan, however, has been degraded over the more than a year that we have used them. I suppose that grease was burned on them (we have a gas rangetop). With our old Farberware pans, when that happened, I'd remove the burned on grease with a steel wool pad or even oven cleaner (avoiding the aluminum). The exterior finish is mystery to me on these Bialetti pans. I am fearful that either of my two previous remedies would further harm the exteror finish. Fortunately, the exterior is a dark gray color, so it doesn't show too much.

Are you wondering if these pans conduct heat well, and therefore work well in the on top of the stove? The answer is a resounding YES. Have I missed the traditional stainless steel interior finish? Only rarely. What a bargain these pans are!