HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A GOOD NON-STICK FRYING PAN AND A BAD ONE AT A GLANCE.

Not all frying pans are the same thing. A frying pan is a frying pan, of course. And they are always used for the same purpose. True. But there are many differences between a good frying pan and a not so good frying pan. Price ranges can guide you a little bit, but sometimes we don’t discover we have chosen the wrong one until we use it at home. If you don’t want this to happen again, the best solution is learning about how to distinguish between the good and the bad ones before buying them. You don’t need a master, just follow these easy rules!

 

The quality of a frying pan is mainly determined by manufacturing materials and procedures. The most common materials are stainless steel, iron and aluminium. This post is only focused in aluminium cookware, but click here if you want to learn more about other materials.

 

You may think there can’t be quite a difference between each aluminium manufacturing procedure because at the end the result is the same: an aluminium pan. But there is a lot.

 

The three main manufacturing procedures

 

The three main manufacturing procedures are: stamping, forge and die casting. Knowing the names is cool and maybe you can use this information to win the Trivial Pursuit someday, but here the important thing is to know the differences between them, so let’s go for it!

 

Stamping is the process of placing flat sheet metal in either blank or coil form into a stamping press where a tool and die surface forms the metal into a net shape. The press produces the desired pan form on the sheet metal part. This is the easiest process and also the cheapest one. Consequently, stamping pans are the ones you will be able to buy at a lower price in stores. “Great, I’ll take this one!” Yes, you can buy this one, of course, but there’s an issue you must take in consideration: when aluminium gets hot, it tends to go back to the original shape which, in this case, is a plane surface. This means the cooking vessel will lose contact with the cooking surface shortly before buying it, thus food will not cook evenly. This, together with they usually come with low quality cheap non-stick coating, means stamped pans have a really short useful service.

 

Forged aluminium pans manufacturing process is very similar to stamping but the metal is heated. This allows using a thicker and more resistant metal sheet which reduces vessel deformation when cooking. Although these pans are more expensive than the first ones, it’s worth paying a little bit more as they practically don’t lose shape; they are longer lasting and cook better than stamped aluminium pans.

 

The last manufacturing process is die casting. It is characterized by forcing molten metal under high pressure into a mould cavity which has the desired pan shape. This is the most expensive one, but also the best as it avoids pan from losing shape because “pan” is the original shape. You may think it is not necessary to spend so much money in a pan. If forged aluminium pans are resistant, durable, reasonably priced and cook fine, why should I need more? Well, it depends on your needs. Die casting allows working with different aluminium thicknesses, which contributes to better heat distribution and even cooking results. Finishing and details are also better because die casting procedure offers more design possibilities. Cast aluminium pans are also the ones with better non-stick coatings to avoid food from sticking on the cooking surface.

 

How can I distinguish them in stores?

 

Stamped aluminium pans are really easy to distinguish. A really low priced pan is a stamped pan for sure. But to be sure, take the pan, touch it and balance it. Is it very light and thin? Then it’s stamping.

 

Forge and die casting processes are more difficult to distinguish for non-expert eyes because weight can be similar. Maybe the best is to look at the packaging because manufacturers always write in big font size you are looking at a cast aluminium pan. Yes, it’s a not very scientific detection method, but it’s very effective.

 

Now it’s your choice! Maybe you still prefer having a stamped aluminium pan because you don’t use it a lot. But as far as you like cooking, we recommend you to spend a little bit more to buy a cast aluminium pan or even a forged one.

 

Read More

 

3 IS NOT 30. ALL YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE BUYING A PAN
 
INSTRUCTION MANUALS ARE BORING. I NEVER READ THEM. ALUMINIUM COOKWARE CARE SECRETS.
 
THE FRYING PAN HISTORY

WHY DOES MY INDUCTION PAN NOT WORK?

Induction cooktops are really cool: you can precisely control the temperature; they are safer because only cookware gets hot, they are faster, save energy and you can clean them easily. But they not only offer cool advantages, they are also a little bit capricious and won’t work if you don’t use the right cookware.
 
This became such a problem to cookware manufacturers –but let’s call it challenge, it sounds better-, who have had to make their products suitable for induction. It has not been always easy, especially to aluminium cookware manufacturers. Luckily, induction pans can also be used in all other cooking surfaces, so if you think you will buy an in induction cooktop someday, maybe start buying induction cookware is not a bad idea to save yourself renewing all your cookware at the same time.
 
The material in contact with the hob must be magnetic to make cookware suitable for induction cooktops. But aluminium and stainless steel –the most common cookware manufacturing materials– doesn’t have this attribute. For this reason it is necessary to unify them with any material with inductive capacity such as ferritic steel. It looks easy, isn’t it? Let’s paste ferritic steel sheet in the base and done! Well, I’m afraid not. For example: to unify aluminium with ferritic steel cookware manufacturers must overcome two main difficulties –also known as challenges-:
 
First one is ferritic steel and aluminium have different thermal expansions, which means they change their dimensions in different proportions when temperature changes. And this is a problem –or challenge- because heat is something you will definitely need to cook. Second one is corrosion, which makes very difficult to “paste” both materials.
 
Both challenges make very difficult to unify these materials in a secure and effective way and create heat efficient pans at the same time. There are some different systems but not all them have the same good performance. Castey uses the Full Induction system, which not only works very well in all brands induction cooktops but also have a great energy efficiency.

MY PAN DOESN’T WORK. ISSUES WITH INDUCTION COOKTOPS.

Induction cooktops are so capricious that not only require specially designed cookware but also ask them to fulfill some other requirements to work correctly. Although they are quite easy to accomplish, you could regret having changed your old hob for that new one you found so beautiful in the store if you don’t take them into consideration. You wouldn’t be the first one. Luckily we have summarized below some basic indications so as you are not the next one:

 

1. It’s not going to work if it’s not an induction pan

 

The first you must check when your pan doesn’t work is that it’s really an induction ready pan. It is written in the pan for sure and manufacturers usually indicate it in the base, but in case they have not or if you are one of those who don’t trust anybody, the best to check it is to place a magnet in the base. If it works your pan is an induction one. We are so sorry but you would need to buy a new one if it doesn’t.

 

2. Size matters

 

Once this first basic step is done, second most important thing is size, which really matters in this case. Cooking vessel base diameter must be the same as induction hob. If it’s too big some zones will remain outside the hob and won’t heat properly, but if it’s too small the pan may not activate the hob, which brings us to the next and very important point:

 

3. Your pan is not always guilty

 

If you don’t have an induction cooktop yet, we recommend you to read our post about how to choose the perfect cooktop. it’s very important to take into consideration that not all induction cooktops work the same way and have the same good performance. Cooking zones of low range ones only include one pan detector in the outer edge of each hob. This can become a big issue because small and medium size pans, which are the most used ones, only work in one or two hobs at the most, as the biggest hobs don’t detect them. This brings us to use only half of our induction cooktop, getting angry because we are in a hurry and the only hob we can use is already occupied and misusing our induction cooktop. Our recommendation is to spend a little bit more to buy a cooktop with multiple detectors in each hob or even the high range cooktops without zones.

 

4. Keep contact

 

Induction cooktops doesn’t work if there is no contact with the pan. This is the reason why you have to use cookware with thick plain non-deformable bases. If the base is too thin it can lose its shape easily when cooking at high temperatures and even damage the cooktop in case of overheating. You must learn to distinguish good cookware in stores to choose the perfect pan. You will also need to cook carefully and never leave cookware unattended to be sure this never happens to you.

 

5. Yes, chefs do it. But you must not

 

All of us have seen a chef cooking in a restaurant or in TV. They happily shake pans to remove food instead of using a spoon. Yes, it’s really cool and fun, but don’t do this at home. You are going to splash all around and if you have an induction or vitroceramic cooktop you are going to damage it for sure.There are many other things you should never do at home. Instruction manuals that come inside cookware gift boxes always explain this tips, but as we know nobody reads them, we have written our own version, which is a little bit funnier than an instruction manual and even explains all you should know to take good care of your cookware.

 

6. Don’t clean your cooktop with the first think you find around

 

Your induction cooktop is not only capricious but also very delicate and can easily get scratched or damaged if you don’t treat it a little bit carefully. Even some salt could scratch its surface so you must clean any food rest meticulously and keep it always clean so as it lasts many years. Wait until it cools down before cleaning it gently with a wet sponge and always use induction or vitroceramic cleaning products. Dry it after cleaning. And remember: you must never use abrasive materials on it. Here you can learn more about how to clean and take care of your induction cooktop.

Castey products have unbeatable performance in induction cooktops. If you prefer cooking with cast aluminium products, we recommend our Classic Induction, Vulcano and Fundix Collections. But if you prefer other materials, our stainless steel and cast iron collections will fit your needs perfectly. Our products are not only suitable for induction and all cooking surfaces, but also feature many other practical advantages, such our removable handles system, which saves storage space, makes manual and dishwasher cleaning easier, provides easy oven cooking and makes your cookware more versatile.