Calphalon Contemporary Stainless 13-Piece Cookware Set
I love cooking. The food is really great and I enjoy good, home cooked meals. But that’s not it. I find something relaxing about the act of cooking and entertaining. Part of the cooking experience is left to the cookware though. Poor quality cookware can lead to lousy food. And lousy food can lead to a horrible experience and unsatisfied guests. My grandparents have had the same cookware since I can remember. And then I remembered why. It was a stainless steel set.
I started looking at stainless cookware sets and stumbled across the Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Cookware Set. There are a lot of various stainless pots and pans out there, but the Calphalon Contemporary Set seems to be one of the best values-for-the-dollar sets out there.
Features and Benefits
13 Piece Set: The Calphalon Contemporary Stainless Cookware Set comes with an 8” skillet, 10 inch skillet, 12 inch skillet, 1 ½ quart sauce pan, 2 ½ quart sauce pan, 3 quart sauce pan, 3 quart sauté pan, an 8 quart stock pan, and a 3 quart casserole dish. Both saucepans, the casserole dish, sauté pan, and stock pot come with glass lids. This is a full featured set.
Stay cool handles
The Calphalon set features all “stay-cool” handles on each piece. This acts exactly as described. Each handle will stay comfortable to hold and grasp and will not heat up during use. This is essential for any high temperature cooking, like steaks, or any extended cooking, like cooking down a good rue. The “stay-cool” handles are a welcome feature. Thanksgiving Day often turns into a nightmare for me with an all day cooking affair that often leads to cooking glove fashion trends.
Dishwasher Safe
A lot of pots and pans are not dishwasher safe. The rapid cleaning cycles, hot water, and detergents can wreck havoc on non-stick pots and pans because of the coating. For some consumers, a dishwasher safe piece of cookware is a godsend. Personally, I prefer to hand wash all of my pots and pans. But I can certainly see the beauty in quick clean up after a simple meal like scrambled eggs.
Utensil Safe
Cooking with Teflon in the past has always left me being careful with purchasing utensils. Non-stick and copper surfaces often require plastic utensils to not scratch the surfaces and leave tiny flakes in the food. I’ve suffered flake shock myself. I’ve cooked something utterly delicious and swear I never put pepper in the recipe. But those black flakes are there.
When I cook fish or steak, there is no better substitute then a metal utensil. Plastic is to flimsy and thick to use all the time. Wood is perfect for certain things, but not everything. The Calphalon Cookware Set is hard and dense enough to use any utensil without worry. There will be no flaking or harm to the food later.
Tempered Glass Covers
Flat metal or ceramic covers have become more popular but any good cook would prefer to see the food as they are working on it. Constantly lifting a lid to check or prep various cuisines can cause quick cool downs, eyes full of steam, and just plain frustration. More importantly, flavor is absorbed better when the dish is covered and the more that lid has to be removed the more flavor is lost. The tempered glass won’t shatter with the constant heating up and cooling down of the glass and allow the consumer to check on the cooking food without removing the lid.
Oven Safe
Most cookware sets are not oven safe. I can’t rave about this feature enough. Want a quick and good steak recipe?
1. Season your steak and rub it down thoroughly
2. Bring to room temperature
3. Preheat pan frying pan on high
4. Seer both sides of the steak for one minute in the frying pan
5. Stick the steak in a preheated oven at 425 and cook on both sides for five minutes.
It comes out perfect each time. But it requires moving the steak from the pan to the oven. Having an oven safe pan will make these kinds of steps so much easier. Or what about a casserole that needs certain items cooked and prepared before mixing? Doing all the prep work in one pan eliminates time and mess.
Stainless Finish
Having a stainless finish is more of a presentation benefit than anything else. I personally don’t like to bring old and worn pans out to the table to entertain with. A stainless finish provides reassurance that the presentation will never be ruined. It adds a nice pizzazz to the table placement.
Full Package
The Calphalon Stainless Set comes with just about every pot and pan a person would need. A good wok or griddle pan would be nice, but those are more of a special situation piece. Having three frying pans, two pots, a full stock pot, and a casserole dish, all with lids, is more than enough to cook just about any full course meal.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Durable: This set will last any consumer for years upon years. Most non-stick sets have a shelf life of five years or so with use. Stainless sets can last more than 20 with proper care.
- Affordable: Compared to other stainless sets, this cookware set offers the best bang for the buck.
- Easy to clean: If this set is used properly, cleaning is a breeze.
- Convenient and quick: Being oven safe and utensil safe allows for much quicker and easier cleaning and cooking which saves time and energy.
Cons
- Sticker Shock: Coming from a non-stick set, the price can seem extremely expensive. But stainless sets last more than quadruple the time.
- Food can stick easy: If the cook isn’t careful or doesn’t know how to use a stainless set, food can stick to the pan easily.
- Learning curve: Cooking with a stainless set requires a bit of a learning curve. Cookware has to be properly seasoned with each use so the food doesn’t stick. The pans cook more evenly so less heat is required than typical usage.
Limitations
There are a few limitations to watch out for. Although these sets are dishwasher safe, stainless sets really require hand washing for proper polishing. A normal run through the dishwasher won’t hurt the performance of the cookware, but there may be some water spots like what may be seen on glassware.
If this is a first stainless set than there will be a bit of learning curve required with typical cooking procedures. Stainless sets require less heat to cook and prepare food with. Keep that in mind. Also cookware has to be properly seasoned so food doesn’t stick. Seasoning isn’t hard and requires barely a thought in preparation, but it is required. These procedures aren’t typically mentioned anywhere in warnings or instruction manuals.
Best Uses
Most cooking. I wouldn’t go and try baking in these, but cooking yes. Not having a wok or griddle will provide limitations for those perfect stir fries, burgers, or steaks. But stainless cooking sets offer superb cooking abilities. The cookware heats more evenly and quickly. Food will cook more thoroughly and less uneven which provides a much more robust taste. Anything you could use any of the standard pan sets to cook will be perfect for a new stainless set.
Conclusion
The price may seem a little salty for any consumer that is accustomed to the normal non-stick pan set. But in reality the Calphalon Stainless Cookware Set will last a life time with proper care and will save money. Don’t clean the pans with wool metal pads, like a Brillo pad, and let soak when needed. Season the pans properly before cooking. And hand wash once in a while for a nice polish and shine. Than these will last forever. Compare this set to others and you will find that it offers an excellent bang for the buck as far as durability and piece set go.
Where can I purchase this?
Amazon has been the best place I have found this set. A local Macy’s also has this set on sale, but I’ve normally found it to be $20-$50 dollars more. Other department stores sometimes have a special with a free gift card with purchase. But ultimately Amazon has been the best deal for the amount of money actually exiting my wallet. You find the product here.
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This is a great set. I looked at Calphalon, All-Clad & Emeril (and others) before deciding on these. I have an All-Clad pan and yes they are great. But for a Stainless steel set like this, the All-Clad, Calphalon & Cusinart Multiclad are all made the same way. They all have stainless interior and exterior with an aluminum core that runs from the bottom up the sides. Cheaper sets like Cuisinart’s Chefs Classic or Emeril’s, only have the aluminum core on the bottom of the pan with little or no core on the sides.
The Multiclad, tri-ply, etc. sets will all perform basically the same way. However the Cuisinart Multiclad Pro is in my view an outstanding set of pans and they work great. I cannot see any reason to pay $100-$350 more for a set of pans that are basically the same thing. And, if you look at them closely, the Cuisinart Multiclad pans have a nicer more polished interior finish than Calphalon. That means they stick a little less and are easier to clean. The other benefit of stainless is it’s dishwasher safe as well, but I usually hand wash. I’ve only had this set a few weeks but I’ve used most of the pans. And I’ve been so impressed by them that I have also purchased a few additional Cuisinart Multiclad pans to complete my set – the 4 Qt. sauce pan, the 5.5 Qt. saute’ pan and their double boiler. I like the 4 Qt. size when I want to boil water but don’t want to use a big pot. And just to let everyone know, I also have an old Cuisinart 12.5″ skillet and it still looks and works great. I’ve used it on gas and electric stoves and it just works great. One other thing about these pans, you don’t need to set the heat above medium for most cooking and to boil water, I only need med-high. I’m very happy with Cuisinart and I know these are the last pans like this I’ll ever need to buy. I do own a few non-stick pans as well but I really don’t use them that often now that I have these.