Stainless Steel vs Aluminum Cookware: Which Is Better For You?

this is a stainless steel pan and this is an aluminum pan now to the Casual Observer these might look really similar but even if you're just a casual cook you'll soon notice big differences when using them in your kitchen today I'm going to share the pros and cons of both stainless steel and aluminum cookware so you know which is best for you and your kitchen hello and welcome to I want to cook my name is Jeff Matt and this channel is all about helping you be a better cook no matter your skill level and we have another cookwar comparison this time we are pitting stainless steel versus aluminum now before we get into each one's pros and cons let's discuss their similarities because they do have things in common and the first thing they have in common is that well they're you're not going to have to hunt for this type of cookware in fact you can probably walk into any big box retailer or perhaps even a grocery store and find examples of each on the shelves to buy and each is available in a variety of cookware it's not just pans like this you could find Skillets you could find pots each made out of either aluminum or stainless steel another thing these have in common is very useful when cooking and because of their color this light silver you can monitor Browning so let's say you are sautéing a chicken breast or a steak and you want to know when you've got that nice Browning that nice fond on the bottom that's easy to do in a pan like this versus something dark like cast iron these are both generally safe to use in the oven and you can also use metal utensils on them but as always check with the manufacturer of your individual pan for guidance on which utensils you should and should not use and finally both of these can be professional grade you'll find stainless steel and aluminum pans in restaurants and cooking schools when I was in culinary school we basically used stainless steel or aluminum exclusively okay so let's start with aluminum cookware like this pan here and let's start with the pros and the first positive thing about aluminum cookware is that in general it's inexpensive if you were to compare this type of Pan versus one of the same size and type being stainless steel well usually the aluminum one is going to be cheaper and the stainless steel one is going to be more expensive another great thing about aluminum is that it heats up fast this is a very reactive metal so when you turn up the heat or turn down the heat this follows suit really closely and that's really good for both quick high-intensity cooking and also when you just have to lower that heat quickly and know that this pan is going to cool down faster versus like retaining that heat another good thing about aluminum is that it's relatively light so this is a very easy pan to just kind of pick up and move around uh especially versus something like cast iron or enameled cast iron something heavier like that between Aluminum and Stainless steel the aluminum in general is going to be lighter now for all its pros aluminum does have its cons and the first is that in general it is a porous metal and what that means as far as cooking is that it can react with different foods in a bad way so if you are cooking something acidic or with high mineral content uh it can react with those Foods it can give kind of an off color an off smell uh one of the famous things is if you cook eggs in an aluminum pan like this they tend to turn well just kind of a not really good color they just look a little gross another disadvantage of aluminum is that it is hard to clean so this is actually a brand new aluminum pan that I just bought this is what it looks like shiny yummy right all that well in reality this is probably what's going to happen to it after you cook with it this is a pan that I've used a few times you know I've done some cooking with it especially high heat cooking and despite really giving it the best cleaning I can you know scrubbing it and whatnot it really can just turn out like this it's got all these black marks it's just kind of an unsightly pan and it just looks nasty with all this stuff these can be really hard to clean especially after high heat intense cooking now another potential disadvantage for aluminum cookware is that it doesn't work on induction ranges this doesn't have the properties needed to work on such a range and if you're curious if your cookware or the cookware you're thinking about buying will work on an induction range I made a whole video on that and I'll link to that in the description below and finally the last thing to know about aluminum is that its handles can get very hot now this pan was actually sold with this this rubber handle on it and that's smart because these things can get really hot and not just in the oven even if you're just using them on a stove and you reach for this bare handle it can get really really hot and burn you now if you are a fan of aluminum and you want to use that as your cookware I should note that a lot of these faults with just bare aluminum can be rided if you used anodized aluminum and I made a whole video on anodized aluminum versus just regular aluminum like this and I'll also put put a link to that video in the description below as well but just know that if you do want to use aluminum uh anodized type really kind of writes all the wrongs of just basic aluminum okay now let's move onto stainless steel and the first thing you notice is well what you notice I mean it's really goodlooking it's shiny both on the inside and it can be shiny on the outside this is just a really nice like premium looking material this stainless steel especially versus you know something like this and especially an aluminum pan once it's gotten dirty and you've cooked with it and to that end stainless steel is just so much easier to clean you can really bring a nasty well-used stainless steel pan back to life with some proper scrubbing you know something like barkeeper friend it can really make this look like new so a lot easier to clean and one reason for that is another one of its positives and that's because this has a nonporous surface so again where aluminum has porous and it can react with Foods no such thing happens with stainless steel so you can cook a wine sauce you can cook eggs in it and you don't have to fear them kind of having an off taste or an off color that's because stainless steel has a nonporous surface another major positive of stainless steel cookware is just the sheer variety of types of cookware you can get sure you can get pots and pans like you can with aluminum but you can also have different things like this little sauce pan with a lip this is stainless steel you can get a nice little like greton dish like this there is just so much more variety with stainless steel cooker versus just bare aluminum cookware in reality stainless steel is just a far more popular type of cookware and there's more manufacturers making it so that means wider Variety in fact stainless steel is often used on pots and pans that you may not think are stainless steel at first so this is my mavel copper pan I did a review on this after I bought it and I'll put a link to that video in the description below but while the outside is copper even the interior of this is stainless steel and check this out this vintage Farberware pan that I bought at the thrift store this actually has an aluminum bottom but it has a stainless steel interior so this is nothing new they've been using this stuff for a long time now in general stainless steel might be something of a misnomer because this pan is made with more than just stainless steel and most modern stainless steel cookware is that's because it has what's called a cladding process and what that means is it's clad with other metals so this uh all clad pan that that I bought a while back this is actually clad with stainless steel on the exterior on the back here on the front you can see it but in between is sandwiched a layer of aluminum and that's because it uses all those pros of aluminums and combines them with the pros of stainless steel so you kind of have the best of both worlds some stainless steel can have up to five layers of cladding and you might even have different materials like highly respons of materials like copper so like this pan here this actually has a layer of copper that you can see and that helps because copper is very very fast to react so again you get the best of many worlds with those different types of materials combining them together and finally as for the other pros of stainless steel cookware is that it can be induction ready not all stainless steel cookler is but some is so you'll definitely want to check on that but whereas aluminum won't be stainless steel can have the potential to be used on an induction range and it also retains its heat a little bit better than aluminum now it won't hold its heat like something like enameled cast iron or cast iron but it does retain its heat pretty well if you you know cook foods in this and then want to serve it at the table okay I've said it before and it Bears repeating that no cookware material is perfect so that means for all its positive traits stainless steel does have some negative ones so let's talk about those and the first is that it is usually more expensive and it can be very expensive so if you go with something premium like all clad or like one of the nicer Brands uh they can cost you know hundred or hundreds of dollars for the really nice stuff and another thing to know is as I mentioned it may not be induction ready so just because you buy a stainless steel pan doesn't mean that it will automatically work if you have an induction stove so you definitely want to check that now sometimes they'll actually say that on the bottom or you can always use my test for induction which you'll know if you watch my video on how to know if your cookware works on induction now another potential con is that stainless steel cookware can be a little bit heavier than aluminum uh again it's not like a major drastic difference but stainless steel cookware because it does have that extra cladding can be a little heavier in the hand especially if you're loading it up with food and something to note well actually with both of these but stainless steel too is that it's not nonstick so if you really like nonstick cookware and maybe you make a lot of eggs or something that's all you use well stainless still isn't nonstick if you really want nonstick you're going to have to go with non-stick cookware or a really really well seasoned cast iron pan so where does that leave us regarding these two types of cookware material well here's my general advice for most people and that is stainless steel that's what I recommend now I'm not trying to sell anything here I buy all my own cookware but just in general as far as material goes I think stainless steel is just the better easier to live with cookware versus bare aluminum now as I said if you really like aluminum cook where there is some good stuff out there but it's mostly going to be anodized aluminum and again anodized aluminum negates a lot of those problems that you have with just bare aluminum but in general if you're just kind of shopping for cookware you don't know what to buy you see all those sets in the stores and all those pans stainless steel is just going to be a lot easier to live with and if treated right and you buy a quality one it could last you the rest of your life okay trivia time last week I asked asked you to identify this weird looking fruit and well one person got it right correctly right off the bat and that is kissy cat identified this correctly as a rambutan a rambutan is this weird looking fruit you can sometimes find it in the produce aisle and it's so weird but yet also so good that I think I might just have to make an entire video on it so stay tuned for that okay for this week's trivia who's going to be the first to identify this this odd looking Contraption yeah I got another weird one for you here but I'll tell you this one really is useful when needed for the right thing so uh who's going to be the first to identify this thing if you know or have a guess put that in the comments below I'll let you know the right answer next week as always thank you so much for watching thank you for subscribing and until next time happy cooking [Music]

Channel: I Want To Cook

Views: 32,022

Keywords: stainless steel, aluminum, aluminium, stainless steel vs aluminum, aluminum cookware, stainless steel cookware, stainless steel vs aluminum cookware, stainless steel vs aluminum pan, best cookware, how to choose cookware, cookware buyers guide, induction cookware, does aluminum work on induction, does stainless steel work on induction

Id: L_Tm7td8pP4

Length: 14min 12sec (852 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023