Any tips for taking care of hard anodized cookware?

@f00l shrug I figured it’s probably better than teflon. I’ve been looking, besides the obvious (don’t use metal utensils, don’t put it on high heat empty for a long time) I’m just seeing a lot of “I’ve used these for years, they are amazing” and “After (some short period) things have started sticking badly to the coating”. I figure there must be something the two groups are doing diffierently.

@f00l @Seeds Ha… that’s what I was thinking…anodized…blech… all-clad… wow. Combined… huh?

@craigthom It’s hard anodized inside and out- they use it instead of teflon.

@craigthom too late to edit, but maybe I’m wrong. Seeing mixed reports here too. Either way, I want to figure out what causes them to sometimes get sticky so I can avoid that.

Well, it can’t be teflon since it says it’s fine to heat to 500 degrees and under the broiler and that seems like bad advice if it was ptfe. Beyond that I have no idea.

@Seeds Not Teflon, but their Web site says their “B1” hard anodized cookware is anodized on the outside and “triple-coated with a The All-Clad cookware’s three layers of PFOA-free nonstick coating” on the inside.

So the cooking surface is whatever non-stick coating they are using.

@Seeds Anodized aluminum doesn’t have non-stick properties. It looks nice, and I think it’s non-reactive, but mostly I think they do it looks nice, since whether the outside reacts to acid isn’t very important unless you are doing it wrong. Aluminum cookware can look a little dull, especially compared to stainless.

@craigthom I got the HA1, but it’s apparently the same construction and materials. Thanks for grabbing that. I guess it’s some sort of proprietary coating. Blech. I understand they can probably make more money keeping it a secret so other brands don’t demonstrably have the same coating, but it’s a real pain not knowing what quirks it has.

@craigthom @Seeds

I have to think that anything All-Clad is going to be good stuff no matter what the composition and coating.

Hope so.

@craigthom @Seeds Frequently it’s too high heat.

@lseeber Easy enough, thanks.

@aetris ooh, avoid aerosol cooking sprays is a good thing to know. They’re another thing I don’t like, so having an excuse to avoid them is great.

edit: just got through the whole list. This was exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

@aetris I love my calphalon.

@aetris @Seeds Propellant-Free aerosol cooking sprays can now be found everywhere.
I’ll use a basic canola, though I also have a ‘hand spray’ thing with a good olive oil for my lower-temp items.

@Seeds It also says do not nest pans. Like seriously? Who has enough cabinet space not to nest them?

@Kidsandliz
/image pot rack

@RiotDemon But why? You’d just bang into them with your head and you’d have to expend effort to keep them all shiny and new looking which can be a lot of work. And it would look too cluttered. Each to their own I guess. I’d never be a good fit with open shelves instead of closed cabinets either. I like being able to shut the door on the mess.
/image dirty hanging pots and pans

@Kidsandliz decent pans don’t need a lot of work to look nice.

@RiotDemon Well then obviously I don’t have decent pans LOL

@Kidsandliz @RiotDemon Can’t nest them because the bottoms will scratch the coating. Makes sense- same reason you can’t use metal tools. I kinda like hanging pots/pans, but if you don’t and you use nonstick, just put a hand towel between each one.

@lseeber will do, thanks!

@djslack Thanks the baking soda thing seems weird to me, but maybe it works. Good to know that most problems are just residues- I’d imagine between that and using cooking sprays a lot of the complaints about them being sticky could be explained away.

@Seeds the baking soda thing works, I do it all the time with the stainless clad cookware we use now. It’s like a very mild version of scrubbing with Comet or the like. Sometimes I use it with a few drops of dish soap mixed in.

The biggest problem I sometimes get is if we use olive oil and the pan gets a little too hot and scorches the oil, it’s a PITA to get the browned oil off and sometimes requires a visit from Barkeeper’s Friend. I wouldn’t recommend going that far on your nonstick, so watch the temps if you’re using olive oil as it has one of the lowest smoke points of common cooking oils.

You’ll also find that the aluminum is great at heating evenly and will probably require lower settings on your stove than you are used to - it’s the middle layer used in tri-ply clad stainless to distribute the heat evenly throughout.

@djslack Good deal. Yeah- I have some “permanent” (at least in the sense that I’m not about to get them off) spots on my Calphalon triply from getting oil too hot. I’ve thought about just hitting them with a griddle brick, but I hate to scratch em up too badly.