Aluminum Cookware Buying Guide

In today's technology-driven, huge marketing budget society, buying cookware is not easy. With dozens of materials, brands, sizes, and buzzword dictionaries, walking into a kitchen store can be a dizzying thing. After more than 20 brands and more than 50 kinds of cookware tests, you will read a lot of research results and the knowledge of our chef team will bring you to read.

Having some carefully selected parts, instead of filling the cupboard with pots and pans of various shapes and sizes, allows you to cook whatever you want flexibly and improve the cooking effect. Our basic knowledge of cookware is a good place to start identifying your needs. Most importantly, we have conducted a question and answer to help you make a decision.

How much should you spend?

How much you spend on pots and pans is a personal choice determined by your budget, how often you cook, what you do the most, and how to take care of them. We are not fans of pre-installed kits-manufacturers often pair lower-selling products (often unnecessary) with more popular and essential products.

Therefore, even if you want to add up the price of a single product to price an attractive package, your savings are even more an illusion. In addition, the kit usually consists of only one material. Even if the kit is a high-quality three-layer stainless steel kit, we are still a big fan of certain cooking techniques. Finally, if you are a family of five, your needs will be different from a couple.

All in all, we encourage you to assemble your own set of high-quality cookware one piece at a time. Buying better cookware will last you a lifetime—not 2-5 years of bending, scratching, breaking handles, etc. like low-end cookware. Therefore, it is cheaper to spend more upfront costs in the end. In addition, with better tools, your day and night meals will be cooked better, and there will be less torment in the kitchen.

Which material is best?

There is no clear answer to this question, because different materials have different properties, which are beneficial to different cooking methods. No cookware is perfect in all aspects, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. This is a list of almost all materials used today and their related properties.

Aluminum and anodized aluminum

Aluminum is lightweight and easy to handle, but it reacts with acidic, sulfur-containing, and alkaline foods. Aluminum is often used as the core or bottom layer to achieve better heat conduction in stainless steel cookware. Anodized aluminum is electrochemically sealed aluminum with a non-reactive hard surface.

Essentially, anodic oxidation involves placing the aluminum plate in a chemical acid bath so that the aluminum plate becomes the positive electrode of the chemical battery and the acid bath becomes the negative electrode. Electric current passes through the acid, causing the aluminum surface to oxidize (basically rust). The oxidized aluminum forms a strong coating because it replaces the original aluminum on the surface. The result is an extremely hard substance called anodized aluminum.

Under the correct anodizing process, the hardness of anodized aluminum can be almost the same as that of diamond. Many modern buildings use anodized aluminum where the metal frame is exposed to the elements.

Nowadays, anodized aluminum is also a popular material for making high-end cookware, such as frying pans and pots. And aluminum cookware has become the first choice of consumers.

The heat is evenly distributed on the anodized aluminum, and the anodizing process provides a natural protective layer. Copper and copper pots and pans are not only gorgeous, but also an excellent heat conductor, which is the best choice for realizing response to heat.