The Cookware Blog

Winter time for us always includes homemade soup. While many vegetables are out of season, those we’ve frozen, dried or canned work well in soup. Fresh game may be the only remaining ingredient that we don’t have on hand, but the local butcher may have something in the freezer from hunting season.

Our soups are always created start to finish in stainless steel stock pots. Regardless of the type of soup or variation of the recipe we know it’ll always taste like we intend. Even hiding inside from the cold doesn’t diminish our love for a simmering pot of soup on the back burner. A loaf of homemade bread or rolls and we’re ready for a hot wintry meal.

When I consider how valuable a kitchen tool is to me, the first question I’ll ask  is how difficult would the job be without it. If the meal simply cannot be accomplished without a specific tool, then it is invaluable. Some cooks will tell you that the tool becomes invaluable when their creations aren’t exquisite.

To be honest, without the stainless steel cookware set, we’re eating pizza for thanksgiving. On top of the variety of vegetables, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and cranberry sauce, we always have mushroom gravy.

We take the mushroom sauce recipe, which is whisked in a large frying pan, and add the drippings from the turkey. I’m sure there are other reasons the stainless steel cookware can’t be replaced this holiday, and I’d write them down, but I’ll be watching football.

Fresh cranberry sauce is a favorite holiday tradition in many homes and anyone can have success even if they’ve never made it before. Most recipes simply call for sugar, water and cranberries.

Select a medium saucepan  and dissolve 1/2 cup sugar into 1/2 cup water over medium heat. Stir in 2 cups cranberries for 7 to 10 minutes until the sauce thickens. Always avoid overcooking to prevent the sauce from becoming bitter.

Magazines and recipe blogs are filling up with many exotic creations based on traditional cranberry sauce. Since the base sauce blends well with other fruits, almost any combination works well. If you want to taste the orange zest, or the apple and cinnamon, as well as the cranberry, be sure to use stainless steel cookware to protect the flavor.

The skills of the cook in a kitchen are not unlike those in any other profession. Even though most cooks aren’t paid for their services, the work is rewarding because the social experience of bonding around the breakfast, lunch or dinner table for any family begins in the kitchen. The cooks job yields satisfaction whether through monetary gain, or the thanks of those we love to serve.

Not unlike the attachment formed between a craftsman and their tools, cooks form an attachment to their cookware. They select the tools they’ll use carefully and take care of them, expecting to keep them indefinitely. When the dish turns out wrong, blame isn’t passed to the equipment used to create the meal. Likewise when the dish is a success it isn’t the cookware that receives the praise.

Homemade pizza is a favorite at our house and if it weren’t for the house rules, we’d be eating everything from soup to nuts on top of our pies nightly. In moderation, which seems to be a relative term where the kids are concerned, we enjoy homemade pizza.

If my favorite food is homemade pizza then it stands to reason that my favorite kitchen utensils are the pizza stone and wheel. Truth be told I’ve been know to use my favorite utensil on homemade chocolate chip cookie cakes as well.

The experts keep saying look for 18/10 overlay with a thick base to ensure even heat distribution. We’re finding that older stainless steel cookware tended to generate hot spots which can cause concerns for the cook who’s not watching the pot.

In addition to even heat distribution is knowing that the cookware will respond quickly to changes in temperature settings on the stove top or in the oven. I’m still looking for recipes that cook anything over 450 let alone 500 and almost all of the dutch ovens I’ve seen are rated this high.

I’ve been experimenting with several dieting theories over the last several years and reading a number of books and articles by various nutritionists. Our switch to organic eggs happened many years ago and we don’t intend to switch back as this has become a staple breakfast food. After rubbing some olive oil or rice bran oil into the fry pan I add some garlic and cayenne pepper. Several friends have tried to convince me to eat my organic eggs raw but I prefer over easy where they’ve stiffened up a bit.

The real challenge comes with that one piece of toast. I’ve eliminated wheat or any other flour base that contains gluten but finding a bread that has complex carbs isn’t easy. In the end I’ve settled on spelt flour which is naturally gluten free and chalked the calories up to something to lose in exercise.

I owe a lot of thanks to friends who have provided fresh game for my family over the years. There really is no substitute for the taste and quality of fresh, unprocessed, naturally lean meat. I’ve been told that out west they’ve even taken to raising deer on large ranges both to protect them from diseases like they would cattle and to keep them off the highways.

When it’s time to transform the venison into a stew I select stainless steel stock pots in order to protect the integrity of the taste. Regardless of the stew base I know whatever goes into the pot will taste like what went into the pot.

If I manage to overlook a handle that doesn’t conduct heat, or a thick base that distributes heat evenly, my cookware might not strike me as convenient. Unless I’m contemplating upgrading my kitchen tools it isn’t likely that an extensive comparison would be made to the newer products available. Without a true comparison side by side it isn’t likely that one set of cookware would emerge superior unless there was a marked difference in the outcome of the meal.

One stainless steel cookware set differs from another by any number of design specifications. Having a set to cook with is a convenience I wouldn’t want to do without. They don’t suffer from abnormal abuse in my kitchen so I expect they’ll last for a long time. Perhaps that is the greatest convenience.

There’s a sense of expectation standing in the kitchen with the the cookware hanging around almost like that of a woodworker standing in the wood shop before the creation begins. Woodworkers keep their tools neatly arranged on pegboards and cooks like to keep their cookware hanging overhead within reach.

Every craftsman loves to have handy access to their tools and equipment because when the creativity process is confronted with clutter we tend to lose focus. A place for everything and everything in its place isn’t just a phrase that mothers use to get the little ones to tidy up, it’s an exercise in proper planning and execution by design.