All-Clad Cookware is professional grade cookware. You will find that most any 4-star chef in the world will use All-Clad exclusively in their kitchen. This is because this cookware has superior heat conduction due to the various layers of metal.
All-Clad Cookware can be aluminum, stainless steel or copper. It has exterior, interior and ‘core’ layers in different combinations. Some designs include as many as 5-layers of metal. All-Clad comes in non-stick or regular varieties. Most of the products provide signature ‘stay-cool’ handles, which is a very good option to have when choosing a cookware set.
Aluminum was, in the beginning, the main metal used for the core. Recently copper has begun to be more popular. Copper provides the best heat conduction. It allows for more even distribution of heat at a greater speed.
The best metal for the interior of the pan is stainless steel. It is the least reactive of the metals and imparts less metallic ‘taste’. This can be coated with non-stick. Even without non-stick coating, stainless steel is the easiest to clean. All-Clad Cookware uses 18/10 grade stainless steel. The ‘top-of-the-line also includes an exterior coating that is scratch and chip resistant.
The exterior metal can vary greatly, depending on your preference. You can buy the brand in a variety of finishes and colors, to complement your kitchen’s decorative scheme. You may also consider what you will use it for – whether you will mainly prepare dishes that require a low level of heat over a long period, such as stews, or other foods that require less time.
We are not talking cheap cookware when we are discussing All-Clad Cookware. However, there are different levels of quality that you could buy, and of course, this would determine how much you are willing to spend. I think you can safely say that it will last quite a while as it is so well-made. In fact, All-Clad offers a ‘limited lifetime warranty’.
Of all the basic designs of, the stainless collection is the most popular and economical for the everyday family kitchen. Another consideration if you prefer the prettier copper exterior is that this is not recommended for the dishwasher. So this is another thing to consider when making your decision on which design you prefer.
