A new bride’s matching set of cookware is no match for an housewife’s hodgepodge collection of proven winners.
My husband and I have been married for 18 years. All the lovely gifts we registered for in 2000 are broken, obsolete or worn out. Our wedding china is in good condition because we rarely use it, but everything else is kaput.
When I was a new bride, I was thrilled to receive a matching set of what I’ll call “Brand X” pots and pans. Back in 2000, Brand X was the expensive new technology that every home chef wanted. But within the first months of cooking with Brand X, I realized that my pricey cookware had a lot of problems. You couldn’t put the pots in the dishwasher and, although they claimed to be stick resistant, it took a hefty amount of oil to not burn things to the pan.
Still, a good thing about Brand X was that it wasn’t coated in a chemical non-stick surface. When I was pregnant, I read articles from the Environmental Working Group about the dangers of Perflorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in non-stick cookware. I realized that I’d spent my childhood eating off of slowly deteriorating electric skillets, waffle irons and frying pans. Who knows how many chemicals were lurking in my cells, ready to pass on to my babies?
Brand X wasn’t perfect, but at least it didn’t contain PFOA.
But after 12 years of heavy use, the handle broke off of the skillet and couldn’t be repaired. The next thing to break was the stockpot, which met an unfortunate canning accident. The large saute pan died after I carelessly put it in the dishwasher. It was never the same again.
Each time a Brand X pot perished, I pulled out a piece of hand-me-down Revere Ware from the back of the cabinet. The pots and pans that my husband’s grandma used to cook dinner in the 1970s still worked great. Stainless steel on the top, copper on the bottom — they don’t make ’em like they used to.
Then, the stars aligned, and Costco had an amazing deal on a Le Creuset enameled cast iron Dutch oven and skillet duo. I splurged on the impulse buy and felt guilty the whole way home. But everything I cooked in the Dutch oven seemed to taste better. My husband agreed, the two Le Creuset pieces were worthy purchases.
Five years of Le Creuset ownership later, and I’m still besotted. Between the Dutch oven, the skillet and the old Revere Ware, I happily cook 90 percent of our meals at home. The only thing missing in my arsenal of cookware is a non-stick pan.
I’m still paranoid about chemicals, but this January after much deliberation I ordered a Stratanium-coated Scanpan frying pan from Denmark. To make room for it in my cupboard, I’ve donated the last two pieces of Brand X to the Goodwill.
Bye-bye, wedding gifts, it was nice knowing you. At least I still have the china.
Jennifer Bardsley publishes books under her own name and the pseudonym Louise Cypress. Find her online on Instagram @the_ya_gal, on Twitter @jennbardsley or on Facebook as The YA Gal. Email her at teachingmybabytoread@gmail.com.
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