Stainless steel is the ideal material for cookware. Unlike items with non-stick coatings, it is not afraid of scratches, scuffs, or time itself: in most cases, you never have to change such utensils, because their lifetime is virtually unlimited.
But all this will be true in the case of high-quality stainless steel tableware, and it must be admitted that unscrupulous manufacturers producing such tableware of poor quality, alas, do occur.
So what should we pay attention to in order to avoid buying a low-quality item?
Type of steel, from which the body of dishes is made
For this type of steelware, 18/10 steel is the best choice. It is characterized by high resistance to corrosion, as well as perfectly polished and keeps the shine of the surface.
Different countries use different designations for the same type of steel.
Steel 18/10 may be marked AISI 304 by American manufacturers.
If a manufacturer does not indicate the type of steel on the product or its packaging, it is a clear sign that the manufacturer used cheap steel that will not last long. Cookware made of inexpensive steel alloys easily get scratches and corrosion points that gradually increase over time, such utensils are not recommended for long-term storage of food.
The presence of a heat spreading bottom
Steel itself is a metal that conducts heat rather poorly. In order to steel cookware heated, and the heat in it was distributed evenly, in the design of its bottom mounted special discs made of other metals, in most cases for this purpose aluminum is used.
Such a disk is called a heat distribution disk. For it to work effectively, the thickness of aluminum must be at least 3 mm.
Unscrupulous manufacturers may not provide their dishes with a heat distribution disk at all or imitate its presence, thickening the bottom by an additional layer of steel, it will create the appearance of a thickened bottom, but give the ability to quality and even heating of the dishes will not.
If you doubt whether your cookware has a heat spreading disk, put a magnet on the bottom: it will not stick to aluminum.
Wall thickness
Steel cookware with very thin walls is not uncommon, such items you can easily find, for example, in the crockery departments of large hypermarkets.
Thin walls are bad for many reasons. The two main ones are their easy deformation and poor attachment of handles: after all, to steel of insufficient thickness, they simply cannot be attached reliably enough.
How thick should the walls of quality cookware be? Starting at 0.5 mm and thicker.
Quality and convenience of handles
Quality handles are your security in using the tableware. After all, it is scary to imagine what burns you can get if, at the moment when you take a pot of soup off the stove, the handle falls off or bends.
Carefully inspect the handles, the method of attaching them to the body is the most important step when buying cookware.
The most reliable type of attachment of handles is riveted.
The handles should not look thin. It is not uncommon to find thin handles in inexpensive pots. The lack of thickness is masked by the soft-touch coating on top.
Choose models where the thickness of the handle is visible and its attachment is not questionable.