If cooking were a video game, using nonstick pans would be like playing on easy mode. The best nonstick pans are some tramontina cookware set of the most forgiving kitchen tools you can use. Do you happen to struggle a little with sautéing and stir-frying?
The skillets in the Cuisinart French Classic Stainless 10-Piece Cookware Set have higher sides, so tossing vegetables is a bit more challenging than with our top picks. And for the price of this set, we wish it came with a second skillet. This Tramontina set comes with a lifetime warranty that covers manufacturer defects. If you encounter problems with this cookware under normal household use, contact Tramontina for a replacement. This well-constructed, affordable, fully clad tri-ply set distributes heat evenly, and it’s durable enough to take some abuse in a busy household.
A high-quality stainless steel 12-piece cookware set that’s durable and can withstand heat of 500 degrees F. The ideal set you want if you plan to frequently cook with a Dutch oven. The 12-piece Chinese set has two large skillets, but glass lids. The Brazilian sets all have two smaller skillets (8″/10″), but have stainless steel lids and are more expensive. Tramontina makes several nonstick skillets, and most of them get excellent customer ratings. We like this one because it has rivetless cooking surface, a nice shape, and a high grade, PFOA-free coating.
Any individual who feels that their cooking skills are, shall we say, under-seasoned, will benefit from having a nonstick pan in their arsenal. Nonstick coatings do not last forever; a pan’s lifespan can vary depend on the type of nonstick coating but you can expect pretty much all of them to lose their flawless glide after a couple of years. We didn’t test the Caraway Cookware Set for this guide, since it’s nonstick.
It’s also currently on “final sale,” which has been a precursor to long, and in some cases, seemingly permanent “out of stock” status. The Made In Nonstick Frying Pan performed in the middle of the pack. The weight was perfect and the handle felt very easy to work with, but it didn’t outperform the Zwilling and it cost more. In testing Tramontina online discount store it took a little longer than the others to come up to a high heat, but once it was up to temperature, the Scanpan provided an effective nonstick surface for both our pancake and egg tests. The ceramic Five Two Essential Nonstick Skillet has a heatproof welded-on handle—meaning no rivets where scrambled egg gunk can get stuck.
In our tests, the pans heated incredibly evenly and didn’t discolor over high heat. However, the pans took almost double the time to preheat as our picks and were heavier than we’d prefer. We think this set is worth the steep price only if you’re looking for rivetless cookware.
And we looked at how well each set nested for convenient storage. The 14 piece set really has no filler pieces, except maybe the 8-inch skillet. The biggest difference between this and the 12-piece set is the stock pot with pasta insert (also called a “3 piece multi-cooker”). If you’ve ever wondered why some tri-ply stainless steel cookware is so much less expensive than other brands, it’s in the quality and the amounts of steel and aluminum used. Chinese-made stainless steel cookware in particular can be made with inferior stainless steel. Our favorite and recommended sets are the 12- and 14-piece Chinese sets.
Many people are concerned about the bottom of a skillet being domed in the middle, but most skillets are designed this way because they expand when heated, creating a completely flat cooking surface. If you buy good quality cookware, this shouldn’t be an issue. Tramontina uses high grade, 18/10 stainless steel on their cooking surfaces and high grade 18/0 stainless steel on the exterior for induction compatibility. And as we already said, they use thick enough layers to ensure their products will last, perform well, and resist warping. As we said above, how well a tri-ply clad stainless pan spreads heat depends on the amount of aluminum in the heating core. Some manufacturers skimp by using thinner layers of aluminum.
Keep in mind we have many different pages to help with all your kitchen needs, like a great breakdown on the best dinnerware storage sets to store your fine China between uses. When you’re considering a cookware set, pay close attention to the sizes of the pieces in the set, especially the skillets, sauté pans, and sauce pans. When All-Clad’s patent on tri-ply clad stainless cookware expired in the early 2000s, two things happened. One was that hundreds of competitors began making tri-ply clad cookware (including Tramontina). The other is that All-Clad introduced new, multiple-clad products to the market in an effort to stay ahead of their competition. We’ve spent several years searching for the best nonstick pans, and have put many different models through our comprehensive testing process in the kitchen.