The secret lies in its airtight glass lid that keeps steam and moisture in while cooking, releasing air while preserving flavor. Cook everything from chicken curry to brussels sprouts and creamy mashed potatoes in minutes with Anyday. The Pioneer Woman’s Fancy Flourish cookware setfeatures Ree Drummond’s signature floral print. Copper is not as standard nowadays, but it provides cooking with quick heat up. Since copper is an excellent conductor, novices might find it hard to maintain temperature.
Donna Currie is a cookbook author who reviews products and writes roundups for The Spruce Eats. Her passion for quality cookware started when she toured a cookware manufacturer and saw how pots and pans were made. She’s personally reviewed two of the featured cookware sets for The Spruce Eats and has used individual pieces from many of the other featured sets. Besides having nonstick interior coatings, some aluminum cookware has an anodized exterior, which hardens the metal, creates a colored surface, and protects the exterior from stains and corrosion. Anodized cookware usually has either a nonstick-coated interior or a thin layer of stainless steel on the interior, so none of the aluminum is exposed.
We also sprinkled the surface of each large skillet with a dusting of flour and placed the pan over a medium-high flame to see how evenly the flour browned. Then, to evaluate how uniformly the skin browned, we sautéed chicken pieces in the skillets. Using the large saucepan from each set, we prepared small batches of caramel to check for hot spots; then cuisinart knife we simmered a large batch of tomato sauce in each stockpot to test for scorching. The ideal weight and balance of cookware will be different for everyone. However, most of our testers preferred skillets that weighed between 2 and 3½ pounds; these were still light enough to toss ingredients in a pan without placing too much torque on their wrists.
We were impressed by the quality of the Goldilocks Cookware Set Plus, especially for its low price. Its fully clad tri-ply stainless steel heats evenly across the surface of the pans. This set also includes almost all of the pot and pan sizes we prefer, including a 12-inch skillet—a rarity in most sets. However, unlike the All-Clad and Tramontina sets, the Goldilocks set Cookware Sets doesn’t include a 3- or 4-quart sauté pan with a lid (though a cast-iron skillet would work in lieu of it). Some of the pieces in this set are slightly heavier than the All-Clad and Tramontina pieces, so keep that in mind if you’re partial to cookware with less heft. We also experienced some minor sticking while sautéing chicken in the skillets, but it was minimal.
Their line now boasts four nonstick pans, a 10-inch sauté pan, an 8-inch frying pan, a 3.5 quart saucepan, and an 8-quart stock pot. They’ve also added a chef’s knife, a cutting board, a baking Cookware Sets sheet, and an array of kitchen utensils to their lineup. When you’re shopping for a stainless steel cookware set, it’s important to note how many pieces there are and what’s included.