What cookware has lasted you the longest without spending a fortune?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to upgrade my everyday cookware without spending a huge amount of money. I'm interested in pieces that will last for years and work well for everything from stovetop cooking to baking.

For those with experience, I'd love to know:

Do you prefer cast iron, stainless steel, or carbon steel?
Which brands have held up the best over time?
Are there any budget-friendly options you'd recommend?
What cookware do you use most often in an off-grid or homestead kitchen?

While researching, I found that factors like material, heat distribution, and durability matter much more than buying the most expensive set. This guide does a good job explaining what to look for when shopping on budget.


I'd love to hear what cookware has proven to be the best investment for your kitchen.

Thanks!

I still use the cast iron and stainless steel pots my grandmother used before my birth. Her pyrex baking pans work as well for me as they did during my daddy's childhood.

My cast iron is my baby. It used to be my childhoods friends robber deterrent for when we went to the citys. We kept it under the drivers seat of her SUV. We found the cast iron in another friends junkyard and figured it would work to hit some would be car burglar in the head with like in the movies. We were not the brightest at that time. The SUV got totaled by a train and I got the cast iron.(everyone is safe and sound) Its my favorite piece of cookware and I see no reason why it wont move on to a new home when Im done with it and it was free.

Otherwise my pressure canner is used weekly as a canner and all the time as a stockpot, Mason jars are great for canning as food storage. All metal or wooden utensils are my preference. Plastic dose weird things in the kitchen over time. Glass pyrex dishs are lifelong and easy to find in a thrift store for a good price. Most of these things can be got for the cheap used. Its being passed down because it really dosnt go bad!  

Sam Potter wrote:Glass pyrex dishs are lifelong and easy to find in a thrift store for a good price.  

As are cast iron pans, and even if they're looking a bit neglected in a thrift store they're easy enough to rehab.

Emma,

For rough off grid life cast iron is the best. I have various Lodge pieces, and my favorite is 13.25" skillet. I use it on gas and on direct fire.
For soups I like my Guisson 5 l and 10 l enameled cast iron.
I also have a lot of Staub enameled cast iron, but I find it too delicate for rustic life, but once I finish my house I will start using them again.
For stainless, for over 20 years I have been using Matfer Burgeaut Excellence series - no gimmics, no rivets, no nooks for grime, no glass, smooth handles that can be perfectly washed. Professional cookware from France - my favorite.
Guison, Matfer and especially Staub do not belong to "not spending fortune" category, so the winner is Lodge, but for soups I recommend at least one enameled cast iron pot.

I have a mixture of all the above. Sadly, I struggle with much of the cast iron now, as my hands & wrists become more and more painful - especially the pieces that have only one handle. More and more, I'm using my carbon steel, instead. Its lighter weight and thinner profile make it much more manageable, for me, while retaining most of the same properties and care needs as the cast iron. For bigger/deeper pots, it's either stainless steel or enamel-ware - again, they're lighter and more manageable than the cast iron, and I haven't found carbon steel in those shapes & sizes. I only use carbon steel, for a wok.

In baking, I prefer unglazed stoneware, though I will use good quality glass or glazed stoneware.

I typically look for mine in resale shops, garage/yard/porch/tag sales, auctions, flea market/swaps, etc. That said, there are some pieces I have & will pay full price for, though I try hard to find great sales, first.

I have Lodge cast iron and Revereware Stainless steel, all are at least 30 years old.

Neither are "without spending a huge amount of money."

I just bought some stainless steel pans from a big box store that were rather cheap and I expect them to last as long as my other pans.

Similar to Anne, I have a mix of cast iron and Farberware.  Unlike Anne, I got mine pretty cheap.  There are a couple of Lodge cast iron items, and those were pricey. Most of the cast iron were from junk shops.  The Farberware was from a going out of business sale.  I really miss the part time job I had that had me driving all over the country.

I have some modern Faberware and random thriftstore finds, but in oldies...

Cast iron -- no-name from some previous century, I've had it over 50 years.

Stainless steel -- the old heavy-duty Revere Ware, some of this is even older than the cast iron.

Glass -- Pyrex, both bowls and other cookware, some has over 50 years in daily use.

Some of the glass I got new, but the rest mostly arrived secondhand.

Weirdest piece: a stainless electric Toastmaster frypan that is so tall it's more like a Dutch oven. Quite old, but still works.

Side note: beware of Chinese stainless; a lot of it is not actually food-grade and can give you magnesium poisoning.

Allot of said cookware can be had at flea markets and yard sales but beware of thrift stores, they have been screwing people with the prices. Oh, when looking for Pyrex if it’s in capital letters it’s one of the better old ones.

I got a couple of chefmate stainless steel pans with copper bottom for $1 each at second hand store. Practically nonstick if used properly, lightweight, and oven friendly. I actually like them better than my cast iron for most uses, which I did not expect.

Only downside is that while the copper bottom is great for gas stove, it makes them unusable on induction cooktop.

We have cast iron pans, but I basically only use them when I'm cooking on my woodstove. I just don't like cleaning them.

The rest of my pots and pans are all random stainless steel (and maybe one carbon steel) things we picked up from thrift stores. I like stainless steal because I can throw it in the dishwasher if I need to. And, now that I know to heat up and butter the pan before putting food in it, I rarely have anything stick to it.

I look for steal pans and pots that have thick bottoms for heat retention. Though, my wrists appreciate the ones with thinner bottoms.

For baking, I use pyrex 9x9 and 9x18 inch dishes. I bake my paleo bread in it, as well as custards and brownies and corn bread. Sometimes I use pyrex pie pans. I look at thrift stores for these things!

Easy way to clean a cast iron pan:

While it's still hot, dump in a cup of plain water (no soap). This will steam-peel off most of what needs cleaning up.

During the years I used mine, I doubt I ever washed it. I just did the above, a little scrape with the spatula if something was stuck, and it was done.

I love our cast iron, but there are some really, really nice, not-too-expensive carbon steel pans that you can get now that are easy to maintain and heat really evenly. You do have to season them, and I strongly recommend metal handles so they can go from the stove to the oven (and for easier seasoning). But cleaning is just as easy as cast iron, easier since they are a bit lighter weight, and we use them nearly every day.

I confess I never seasoned my cast iron; if they had any seasoning, it was before I got them. Apparently cooking in it, which always involved a lot of butter, sufficed.