What do you think of the stainless steel with copper and aluminum core cookware? And what's a good brand?
Aluminum and copper are good conductors of heat, but the copper bottoms are hard to keep nicely.
You can also get stuff with a sandwich of copper / aluminum on the bottom. they aren't nearly as good as true All-Clad, but they are way cheaper and still make nice pots and pans.
Stainless exterior with a conductive core is excellent. I have Lagostina and have been very happy with it. Look at the expensive brands and then look for a deal on one of those, or find a cheaper brand with most of the good features, principle one to look for is a good thick bottom.
I have a set of All-Clad. I'm very happy with it. The reason that stainless steel cookware is often made with a copper or an aluminum core is because stainless steel is very poor conductor of heat. An all stainless steel pan would burn the food, unless the pan is really thick. Copper and aluminum are excellent heat conductors. However, copper and aluminum can be toxic and the metal can leach into food. This is why stainless steel is considered the best cooking surface for cookware. All-Clad is terrible expensive, though. There are cheaper brands out there. I saw a brand of All-Clad copy cats at Walmart the other day. They were fairly expensive, too, but a lot cheaper than the All-Clad... and they had an aluminum core.
Plastic! High temperature plastic! The inside is coated with Teflon a high temp polymer and the outside is aluminum foil. Take the cookware, tip it upside down and spray it with Rustoleum copper tone and presto, you have the cooper bottom like Revere Wear. When you are done after being careful to cook only low temp foods, throw it away thus eliminating the chores of doing dishes and practicing going green with no water used. Oh, by the way, the name of this cookware is Flash-in-The Pan!
