Best Nonstick Cookware Sets For $100 Or Less

Interiors vary between the collections, but all are ceramic non-stick. Although it’s not made of copper, it has a copper-colored hue that’s slick and glossy. Of course, if the cookware was crafted with copper, it would be much more expensive. The Hammered Collection has a hammered finish that makes the cookware look more expensive. The Stainless Steel Collection boasts a polished stainless exterior and an induction plate.

The glass Cabinets are well-tempered, and you’ll be able to use them together with all items contained in the cookware collection. To begin with, you receive a lot of recipes that will bring out the chef in you and provide you a few finger-licking Cookware Sets meals. You’ll be left with nominal food residue sticking to the walls of the pan. This additional offers a simple cleaning procedure since you don’t need to wash it harshly, just straightforward scrubbing will probably be sufficient.

If you want to spend as little as possible on nonstick cookware, the Gotham Steel products have some features that make them appealing. But we think that for not a lot more, you can get a more durable ceramic nonstick pan with better heating properties. We can’t tell if this is the same titanium ceramic nonstick coating as the copper-colored found on other lines.

gotham steel cookware sets

With a higher price tag, you would expect this set to deliver both on style and function, and it certainly does. The 10-piece set includes two fry pans, two saucepans, one saute pan, and one covered stockpot. Alexandra found the flared edges especially useful when testing caramel, preventing a sticky mess from coating the top of her stove. She also appreciated the thoughtfully designed side handles, which helped to grip the pan when frying. Constructed of aluminum, this cookware set is durable for everyday use.

It cooks quickly, and the skin, which often sticks to other cooking surfaces, is easily removed from a nonstick surface. An empty pan will collect heat very quickly so if you must preheat a nonstick pan, use a coating of fat or oil, which will collect the heat instead of the pan itself. Heavier pans will generally take longer to heat up; therefore, choosing heavier cookware will allow you to safely cook a wider variety of foods. You should also turn on exhaust fans to improve ventilation in case dangerous toxins become airborne.

You won’t see it listed as the “best non-stick pan” from the likes of the New York Times, Food Network, Bon Appetit, or America’s Test Kitchen. Yet, it’s regarded as an affordable choice rather than a high-performance cookware option. For example, you will pay more for a frying pan from the Stainless Steel Collection than one from the Original Collection. It’s a popular choice of home chefs on a budget or people who are new to using cookware and aren’t ready to invest a lot of money. After about six months, the non-stick coating lost most of its slickness, making it difficult to fry an egg without the yolk breaking apart. I’m not surprised by these results because ceramic non-stick cookware is notorious for breaking down within the first year.

It’s flat, so easier to stabilize with your arm rather than just your hand. The pan body is a little on the thin side and the pans are very light (the 11-inch skillet weighs just 1.6 lbs, which is very light). This isn’t horrible for an all-aluminum pan, but it’s definitely on the thin side. Other than the Original line, cuisinart knife all the Gotham Steel pans have an encapsulated base to make them induction compatible. This base also adds to the pan’s durability, making it much less prone to warp than if they didn’t have the extra base. Heat retention is even more dependent on mass than thermal conductivity, so Gotham Steel pans rate poorly.