The Criteria: What to Look for in Stainless Steel Cookware
Stainless steel is a workhorse in the kitchen. Be it a skillet, saucier, or stockpot: the cookware’s worth your investment.
While we’re not going to go into the differences between tri-ply and five-ply (we have plenty of that in our reviews), we will tell you what the best stainless steel cookware is to buy and why. We’ve rounded up all of our stainless steel winners in one place, for your shopping convenience.
The Winners, at a Glance
The Criteria: What to Look for in Stainless Steel Cookware
Some of the factors here depend on the cookware in question (i.e. a skillet vs. a saucier), but there are also some universal things to look for. A good piece of stainless steel cookware should heat evenly, be responsive, retain heat well, and excel at a variety of cooking tasks. It should also be nice to use, with a comfortable main handle and helper handle (if applicable). Plus, it should be priced reasonably. Because while super-expensive cookware sure looks beautiful, we found it often performs just the same as far less costly pieces.
The Best Stainless Steel Cookware
The Best Stainless Steel Skillet
Made In 12-Inch Stainless Steel Skillet
Amazon
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After testing 29 of them, our favorite stainless steel skillet is from Made In. It’s heat responsive and cooks beautifully. And it has a rounded, comfortable handle that's just very nice to hold onto. We really liked pans from All-Clad and Le Creuset, but the Made In’s price point (it’s $10 to $70 less) edged them out of the top spot.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
While this skillet had a smaller cooking surface and a lower oven-safe temperature than the Made In, it still heated evenly and was responsive, which earned it our budget-friendly stainless steel skillet recommendation. It had a comfortable, rounded handle that was nice to hold onto as well.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Russell Kilgore
The Best Saucier
Made In Stainless Clad Saucier
Made In
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We generally prefer sauciers over saucepans (their low sides and lack of corners makes whisking and stirring seamless). When we tested sauciers, the Made In blew other pans out of the water. “Stirring in this saucier was a dream,” our tester said. It had a wide surface area, comfortable handle, and heated evenly. It’s a true workhorse. It’s also induction compatible and comes with a 45-day trial period. We recommend going with the 3-quart size for its versatility.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Tim Chin
All the saucier pros being said, we still think it’s worth having a larger, 4-quart saucepan on hand (for boiling pasta, cooking rice, reheating leftovers, etc.). And this one from Zwilling aced our tests. Its handle stayed cool throughout testing (even when we boiled water in it) and it conducted heat well, showing no hot spots. For those that like to take a mid-cooking peek, the saucepan has a glass lid.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Irvin Lin
The Best Saute Pan
Made In Stainless Clad Saute Pan 3.5 QT
Made In
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With a wide, flat cooking surface and vertical sides, we like a saute pan for searing, shallow-frying, and braising. After reviewing saute pans, we named the Made In and All-Clad pans our top picks. They both had great heat responsiveness and comfortable handles on both their pans and lids. While the Made In's handle was rounded and comfortably fit into our palm, the All-Clad's was extra-long and provided nice leverage. At $150 and $180, respectively, they're both investments. However, we think their versatility makes either worthwhile.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt
The Best 12-Quart Stockpot
Cuisinart 12-Quart MultiClad Pro Stainless Stock Pot With Cover
Amazon
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For stocks, sous vide, and even lobster boils, you’ll want a stockpot. And with wide handles and a snug-fitting lid, this is our 12-quart recommendation. It heated and browned food the best out of all the stock pots in our testing, too (many burned mirepoix!).
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
While we think a 12-quart stockpot is plenty big for most kitchen tasks, a 16-quart stockpot is as big as a home burner can handle. Our favorite mega-sized stockpot is the one from Tramontina: it exhibited minimal scratching during our cooking tests and is induction compatible. It’s also pretty reasonably priced, at less than $100.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik
The Best Small Saucepan
Made In Stainless Clad Saucepan
Made In
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For small-batch kitchen tasks like browning butter, warming sauces, making hot chocolate, or cooking oatmeal, a small saucepan (one to two quarts) is just the ticket. Our favorite comes from Made In and has a concave handle that prevents it from rolling in your palm as you pour, a rolled rim for drip-free pouring, and rounded corners for easy stirring.
Key Specs
Serious Eats / Ashlee Redger
FAQs
How do you clean stainless steel cookware?
While most stainless steel cookware is reportedly dishwasher-safe, we recommend hand-washing it, as rusting is still possible. We have a guide to cleaning stainless steel cookware here—including daily cleaning and restoring a pan to tip-top shape.
What’s the best stainless steel skillet?
After testing 29 pans, our top stainless steel skillets are from Made In and Tramontina (we also liked ones from All-Clad and Le Creuset). You can read our full review here.
Is stainless steel cookware induction compatible?
Much stainless steel cookware is compatible with induction cooktops. (This includes all of our top picks above.) If you’re wondering if a piece of stainless steel cookware is induction-friendly, grab a magnet. If it sticks to the bottom of the pan, it’ll work with induction.
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