And the Cook's Illustrated 2009 "Best Buy" cookware is .......

[Stinky The Clown]

This is the set they recommend, and it is only available at WallyWorld.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5716478

My new issue of CI arrived today. While they still recommend *not* buying a set of cookware in favor of buying different pots and pans for specific purposes, if one needs to buy a set, this is the one they suggest.





Now ..... this Tramontina tri-ply has been around for a while. It is really quite high quality. The CI comparison put All Clad as number one, but at nearly three times the price of the Tramontina set. I've seen the Tramontina stuff at Home Goods. In fact, I have even recommended it here in our every-year-or-two cookware threads. CI was very hard pressed not to rate this stuff ahead of All Clad overall, with just little nitpicky crap giving the nod to All-Clad.

The company is Brazilian, founded by an Italian immigrant in 1911. It remains privately held and is quite healthy.

Here's a cool footnote. They bought the former Mirro plant in Maitowoc, Wisconsin and started to make pots and pans there in 2005-ish. They plan to increase US production as their market share here grows.

Here's a story about Tramontina, written back in 2005. Read it. You'll feel good about the company.
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/3411/54/

[hippywife]

1. This bullshit about brands being exclusive

at a single store makes me mad! I love my Tramontina dutch oven, but I'll be damned if I'll darken the door at MalWart to buy these pans. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[Stinky The Clown]

3. That's a little misleading. The Walmart exclusive, I **think**, was that particular set

I think you can get Tramontina elsewhere, too.

[hippywife]

4. I still don't like exclusive deals with any store.

I think it really limits competition, and then makes some things, like those sold at MalWart, totally unattainable no matter how badly I want them.

I still need to check out that other link you posted awhile back and see if I can afford a saute pan. I really need to have one.

How is you and the Sparkly one? Don't see either of you around much these days. :hi:

[cbayer]

2. Great price! I am looking for something that is *nesting*.

I have very little space and would love to have a set of pans that truly fit into each other, but I haven't found what I am looking for.

:hi:

[hippywife]

5. Look at this Tramontina set at Sears...half the price.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00862590000P?keyword=tramontina

[Stinky The Clown]

6. That's not a tri ply set. It is the kind with the aluminum disk on the bottom

My Cuisnart set is like that. I also have some Sitram Cybernox like that. They all seem prone to scorching at the edge of the disk. The bottoms of the pans work well, but inside the pan, where the disk ends, tends to be a real hot spot. I bet it is a hundred degrees hotter for that quarter to half inch area all around the pans.

I'd guess the Tramonitna tri ply saute pan like the Sabatier you posted is about $50 to $75 all on its own. I would also say it is worth the price and will give you a lifetime of good service.

[hippywife]

10. It says it is.

If you click Read Full Item Description it says:

18/10 Stainless Steel Cookware with a Tri-Ply base

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Exactly ....... with tri ply **base**

Then go to the picture and look at it enlarged by rolling your cursor over the picture. Look at the base of the saucepan to the left. You can see the separate, applied base. That's what they mean.

Tri ply is the entire body being the three layers of metal. Like this:



There is also a five ply: outer stainless->aluminum->copper<-aluminum<-stainless outer but is not common and more spendy. Oddly, way, way back when, The K-Mart Martha Stewart Everyday line had some 5 ply for a very short while. Almost as it it was a mistake.

[hippywife]

14. Ah, I see.

I guess it helps talking to the expert. ;)

For the everyday amatuer cook, tho, probably still a good buy? No?

[Stinky The Clown]

15. I have a personal aversion to the applied disk design ........

.... as I said elsewhere, they tend to scorch at the edge of the disk. On my Sitram, for example, the disk stops a quarter inch or so short of the edge of the bottom. I get a **wicked** hot zone right where that seam occurs.

Same on my Cuisinart, except the disks sorta wrap a bit up the side, and this lessens - but does not eliminate - the hot spot.

Honest? For a saute pan? Find a tri ply. You will not regret it over the long haul. If you have now decided you need one, it is obviously a pan that will see a lot of use over the years. Don't scrimp twenny bux or so on the front end. It is, in my view, false economy.



On edit ..... the tri ply design is second only to copper for the ideal thermal characteristics for a good all-around pot or pan. In some ways, they're better. What the lack on thermal matters relative to copper they more than make up for in easy of care. Ya can't put copper in the dishwasher, for example.

[Warpy]

19. I have a Farberware with the disc

and it does extend over the whole bottom of the pot.

Disc pots aren't heirloom quality, that's the only caveat. The disc will eventually part company at the bottom, usually after decades of hard use.

[hippywife]

20. This came in my email today, oddly enough.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/results.asp?docid=10594

It seems that the one I could have afforded is no longer made, the company is out of business.

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Interesting .... scroll down and read their review of the Sitram

I agree ...... mine is pretty much the same except it has the Cybernox coating. It was a good idea with crappy execution.

http://www.dvorsons.com/Sitram/Cybernox/Cybernox.html

[wryter2000]

17. Wow

:wow:

I cannot believe that price.

[Warpy]

7. That's a pretty set

and certainly a much better deal than All Clad unless we're making a killing on taxpayer funded bonuses and outfitting our trophy kitchens.

My big pasta pot/stockpot is Tramontina. It's nice and sturdy. The rest of my cookware is mongrel but all high quality.

Some things are worth gritting our teeth and venturing into Wally's for. My $4.00 prescription that nobody else in town has cheap is one. Tramontina cookware sets might just be another.

[wryter2000]

18. I have a few pots with the thick base thingy

My favorite is a Wolfgang Puck omelet pan. It works like a charm. I preheat it over medium heat, add the butter and let that heat up until it's close to browning, and then nothing sticks to that pan. I fried an egg that way last week, and the egg slid around easily.

I've used it to sautee and make omelets and crepes, and I love it.

I know the all clad type is superior, but it's not in my budget. No way, no how.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. Let me tell you a secret ......

.... we have a good bit of tri-ply. And all of it is Martha Stewart Everyday from K-Mart that was lower than dirt cheap. And we still use it a lot. One of them in Sparkly's go-to pan that gets a whooooole lot of use.

While that line is long ago discontinued, the pint remains valid - there is **lots** of tri-ply out there that is less money than All Clad. Target (I think) carries a Calphalon "everyday" sort of line that is tri-ply. I see lots of it at the Home Goods, Marshalls and Ruby Tuesday type places.

[Lugnut]

8. My daughter has that set.

She bought it at Wally World and swears by it.

[Lucinda]

9. "Cookware should be used on lower heat to prevent burning or sticking"

Wouldn't work with Bill. He's a born stir-fry chef. He likes to cook hot and fasssst.
I have a great ancient Lo-Heat stainless skillet that he hates. I love it.

The set looks nice to me. Durable.

[ginnyinWI]

12. I love my Farberware set.

Farberware Millenium--looks a lot like the ones you pictured. I've been through enough sets of non-stick. These are heavy stainless steel with copper bottoms. (I only get around to polishing the copper if we are having company--because I hang them from a pot rack in plain sight.)

They'll be around for a long time.

[supernova]

13. I'll look for these when I'm in Home Goods next

Thanks Stinky.

[NashVegas]

16. I'll Keep An Eye Out For Them

I bought an Aubecq skillet set at Home Goods that I love love love. Lately I've seen their SS and have considered exploring those, too.