Learn

Sauté pan or frying pan: which do you need?
A frying pan has low, sloped sides, so steam escapes fast and food slides and tosses easily. A sauté pan has taller, steeper sides, so it holds liquid, takes a lid snugly and gives you more flat space to cook on. If you're buying one, most home cooks get more use from a frying pan. Add a sauté pan when you braise, shallow-fry or cook dinner for four in one pan. Why does the shape matter to you? In short: the wrong pan means crowded food that steams instead of... Read more...
Will my stainless pan work on induction?
Hold a fridge magnet to the base. If it sticks firmly, the pan works on induction, and if it won't hold, an induction zone can't heat it and the water will never dance. That's the whole test. The rest of this explains why some stainless pans pass and others don't. Why do some stainless pans fail the magnet test? In short. Induction needs a magnetic base, and only some kinds of stainless steel are magnetic. Induction heats a pan through a magnetic field, so the base has to be a... Read more...
Is the rainbow on my pan a coating?
There's no coating to come off. A plain stainless pan is bare steel right up to the cooking surface, and the rainbow comes from the steel's own thin surface layer, thickened by heat. It usually shows up after the water test, when a new pan sits empty on high heat and the inside turns gold, copper or blue. The pan cooks the same either way. Why does stainless change color? In short. Heat thickens the thin oxide layer that's always on stainless steel, and the thicker film bends light into... Read more...
State of cookware labels, fall 2026
Most frying pan listings don't tell you what the cooking surface is made of. We read the 50 listings US shoppers saw first on October 30, 2026, and only 3 of the 30 nonstick pans named the material of their coating. Country was rare too. 11 of 50 said where the pan was made, and 11 of 50 called the pan non-toxic or toxin-free without naming the material that touches your food. Every row, with its link and the date we read it, is in the data below and in... Read more...
What "non-toxic cookware" means, and what it doesn't
"Non-toxic" on a pan is a claim, not a test. What research has measured for PTFE, ceramic, aluminum, stainless, iron, copper and enamel, and what it hasn't. Read more...
Guide cover: the resin code number in the triangle on a lid
What the number in the triangle on your lid means
The number in the triangle is a resin identification code. It names the family of plastic the part was molded from, and it was put there to help sorters at... Read more...
Guide cover: how to clean a stainless steel pan
Rainbow stains, white spots and burnt-on food: how to clean a stainless steel pan
What each mark on a stainless pan is, the pantry fix for each, and the two things never to use. Read more...
Guide cover: what size saucepan you need
What size saucepan do you need?
What a 1, 2 and 3 quart saucepan holds, how sizes are measured, when to step up to a stewpot, and which lids fit. Read more...
Diagram: fully clad (Castel'Pro) and disc base (1826) pans cut in half
Cristel 1826 or Castel'Pro: which line fits how you cook
Where each Cristel line is made, what touches food, disc base or 5-ply, and which to pick for how you cook. Read more...
Guide cover: buying a pan as a gift
Buying a pan as a gift for someone who cooks
How to pick a pan for someone who cooks: match the size they already use, check for induction, and know what to read on the listing. Read more...
Diagram of two pan surfaces: on a warm pan a water drop sits flat and sizzles; on a hot pan it beads up on a thin layer of steam
How to cook on stainless steel without sticking
Why food sticks to a stainless pan, the water drop test, when to turn the heat down, and which marks after cooking are normal. Read more...
Diagram of two stainless pans cut in half: fully clad on the left, disc bottom on the right
Fully clad or disc bottom: how to choose a stainless pan that lasts
Fully clad pans carry aluminum up the walls. Disc bottoms keep it in the base. Which build suits which job, with two Cristel lines side by side. Read more...
Uncoated stainless steel cookware guide pin from Clearly Made
Uncoated stainless steel cookware: what it means, and what it doesn't tell you
"Uncoated" means nobody put a nonstick layer over the steel, so your food cooks on bare stainless. That's all the word tells you, and it leaves out which grade of... Read more...
French press parts that touch your coffee, guide pin from Clearly Made
Which parts of a French press touch your coffee
A French press is simple enough that you can account for every surface the coffee touches. Few product pages bother.The parts Carafe or body. Glass (usually borosilicate, sometimes unspecified "heat-resistant... Read more...
18/8 vs 18/10 stainless steel grades guide pin from Clearly Made
What 18/8, 18/10, 304, 316, and 430 actually mean
You'll see 18/8, 18/10, 304, 316, and 430 on stainless kitchen gear, and they get treated like quality tiers. Mostly they just describe the alloy. What you want to know... Read more...
Borosilicate, soda-lime and tempered glass guide pin from Clearly Made
Borosilicate, soda-lime, tempered: which glass is in your kitchen gear
"Glass" on a product page can mean three different things. They behave differently when you pour boiling water into them, or move them from the fridge to the oven.The three... Read more...