• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
The Healthy Home Economist

The Healthy Home Economist

embrace your right to a lifetime of health

Get Plus
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Archives
  • Log in
  • Get Plus
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Get Plus
  • Log in
  • Home
  • About
  • Subscribe
  • Archives
  • My Books
  • Shopping List
  • Recipes
  • Healthy Living
  • Natural Remedies
  • Green Living
  • Videos
  • Natural Remedies
  • Health
  • Green Living
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Green Living / My Favorite Brands of Cookware. Safe, Nontoxic, and Beautiful!

My Favorite Brands of Cookware. Safe, Nontoxic, and Beautiful!

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Stainless Steel+−
    • Recommended Brands
  • Enameled Cast Iron+−
    • Recommend Brands
  • Cookware for Acidic Foods
  • Bakeware+−
    • Suggested Brands
  • Brands to Avoid
  • Considering a Different Cookware Brand?

My favorite brands of safe, nontoxic cookware that last for years and look beautiful to boot!

My husband and I recently took a trip up the East Coast. During this driving marathon, I was amazed by the number of cookware outlets we saw along the way!

With the many brands of cookware on the market today, which are the safest and best for the constant cooking required to raise a healthy family?

I outline my favorite types of cookware as well as brands I’ve vetted and which of these I personally use below.

Stainless Steel

I love stainless steel for cooking everything except acidic foods (more on what to use instead for these types of dishes below).

As you’ve probably already noticed, stainless steel comes in a wide range of grades and types.

The grade of stainless steel is usually identified by three numbers such as 302 or 304. These digits are used to describe the overall quality, durability, and temperature resistance of the steel. The second number associated with stainless steel comes paired, such as 18/10 or 10/0. This indicates its composition, giving the percentage of chromium and nickel used in the alloy.

304 stainless steel is the same as 18/8. It is often called surgical stainless steel. It is also the minimum type one should purchase for cookware!

Recommended Brands

There are a couple of brands of surgical stainless cookware that I have vetted and recommend that meet these specifications.

Cuisinart ($$) is a decent quality stainless steel cookware brand. If the budget is tight, I recommend buying a piece at a time at places like TJ Maxx, Ross/Marshalls, Homegoods, or At Home stores. You can frequently find pans for half the normal retail price this way.

Cuisinart pans have an aluminum core to improve heat conductivity. Since the aluminum does not touch the food, however, it is safe to use unlike some other brands such as All-Clad that blend the aluminum with stainless steel.

My second recommendation is what we use in our home: Queen Cookware ($$$$). I was fortunate to receive a complete set as a wedding shower gift thirty years ago!

Three decades later, these Made in the USA pieces are all still beautiful as well as functional. They’ve held up perfectly even with all the cooking I’ve done raising three kids! It is still the primary cookware I use on a daily basis.

I thought they no longer made Queen cookware, so I’ve told people over the years to find pieces at estate and garage sales. However, my husband recently told me that they do still make it under the new name iCook. You can check it out here via my husband’s distributor link.

Enameled Cast Iron

While enameled cast iron is a safe choice for cookware, please note that I do not personally use it myself for several reasons.

First, I find it too heavy for my liking.

Secondly, the heaviness of cast iron is such that it will also scratch glass cooktops or crack them if one slips from your hand. Since our stovetop is glass, this is another reason I avoid this heavy type of cookware.

If you choose cast iron, be sure to use enameled versions.

Unenameled cast iron tends to result in food that is excessively high in this mineral. Adult men and post-menopausal women are susceptible to negative health effects from too much iron in the diet.

More on hemochromatosis (iron overload) from cast iron cookware in the linked article.

Recommend Brands

LeCreuset and Staub are my favorite vetted brands for cast iron pans or dutch ovens.

LeCreuset is available online or via outlets around the United States.

Staub is also available online. In addition, like Cuisinart, pieces can be found at half the normal price at stores like TJ Maxx, Ross/Marshalls, Homegoods, and others.

Keep your eyes peeled especially during off-peak buying times.

Cookware for Acidic Foods

For acidic foods, stainless steel is not ideal as it can leach nickel (toxic in any amount) or excessive chromium into the food.

For these dishes, I use my clay or stoneware Vitaclay.

These beautiful appliances look amazing on the counter and can quickly simmer up a pot of bone broth or pasta sauce just as efficiently as the stovetop approach. I prefer the low setting used with the timer so things shut off properly if I am busy doing other things.

Not sure if the clay or stoneware model is right for you? See my review of the stoneware versus clay Vitaclay at the link.

Bakeware

I do not currently recommend any of the nonstick bakeware on the market.

In addition, any bakeware containing silicone is toxic and should be avoided.

While aluminum is not the best choice either, there is a way to use aluminum bakeware safely if better alternatives are not in the budget for the time being.

Unfortunately, the toxic bakeware choices tend to be the most widely available as you have likely noticed!

Despite the preponderance of nonstick, silicone and aluminum, there is still safe bakeware on the market that is also budget-friendly if you know what to look for!

Suggested Brands

My favorite brands of bakeware are Norpro and Pyrex.

I use Norpro cookie sheets, cake pans, and pizza pans. They are shiny and beautiful and clean up easily even after use with the oven broiler. I also purchased a set for my son’s off-campus house at college.

I use glass Pyrex loaf pans to bake bread and have for many years. They are very durable and I have yet to even crack one!

Brands to Avoid

I am not fond of any of the newfangled brands that tout safe nonstick surfaces.

For example, GreenPan is one brand that I have examined in detail. My review of Greenpan is available at the link.

When you call these companies to inquire about what the nonstick surface is made of, you are typically told that it is “proprietary”, but that all the materials are safe and tested to be non-leaching.

Sorry, but that answer doesn’t fly with me.

I want to know EXACTLY what is in these materials! Assurances by a customer service representative that all is on the up and up isn’t sufficient information for me to buy these products.

Due to the tendency toward deception and half-truths in the industry, I tend to stick with the tried and true: quality stainless steel, enameled cast iron, and (tested) clay or stoneware.

Considering a Different Cookware Brand?

Since there are so many cookware brands on the market today, I wanted to give you a few safe ones to consider that I use (or would use) myself.

If there is another brand that you have your eye on but are not completely sure if it is truly safe, I am happy to take a look for you via Healthy Home Plus!

After signing up, use the purple chatbox on any page of the blog to reach out to me with the brand in question, and I will dive in to examine it for you 🙂

FacebookPinEmailPrint
Category: Green Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

You May Also Like

Seeds of Change “Sowing Millions” Project

How Green is Your College?

Farmers Stricken with Cancer Sue Monsanto over Roundup

fast food meal of edible bugs on wooden table

Why Edible Insects in the Food Supply is Soy 2.0

woman holding toxic tampon and pad

Safe Alternatives to Toxic Feminine Hygiene Products

Vitaclay Slow Cooker Review

Vitaclay Slow Cooker Review

Is Your Home Making You Sick?

Get a free chapter of my book Living Green in an Artificial World + my newsletter and learn how to start creating a living environment that supports and enhances health!

We send no more than one email per week. You will never be spammed or your email sold, ever.
Loading

Reader Interactions

Comments (36)

  1. LW

    Nov 5, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    What would one use when cooking tomatoes and tomato products for canning, if we cannot use stainless steel?

    Reply
  2. Liam

    Sep 28, 2022 at 4:29 pm

    Hi Sarah,

    Where did you learn that All-clad blends aluminum in their stainless steel? I would love to learn more about this but am not seeing any documentation about this in my research. As far as I can tell, All-clad uses the same 18/10 stainless steel for their cooking surface as the Cuisinart. I’d really appreciate some clarification/ citations!

    Thanks!!
    Liam

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope

      Sep 28, 2022 at 5:07 pm

      From their website…. it says blended stainless and aluminum.

    • Liam

      Sep 29, 2022 at 9:39 pm

      Hi Sarah,

      Thanks for your reply! Really appreciate you following up! Looking at the descriptions for their products, I am not seeing any mention of “blending”. I am seeing reference to the 18/10 Stainless being bonded to the aluminum in the product description:

      “Classic tri-ply construction, made with a responsive aluminum core bonded together with 2 layers of durable, stainless steel all the way around for maximum durability and fast, even heat distribution”.

      https://www.all-clad.com/d3-stainless-3-ply-bonded-cookware-fry-pan-8-inch.html

      Is this what you are referring to? Just trying to understand how this is different from Cuisinart. Thanks!! – Liam

  3. sharon

    Apr 30, 2022 at 10:05 am

    Why do you recommend le creuset? They are rated high in lead.

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope

      Apr 30, 2022 at 10:08 am

      Who does the rating? If it is the blog that accuses literally everything of having lead, I don’t pay any attention. She accused the VitaClay (which I’ve used for years) of having lead, but it is in the element of the pot and never touches the food. The pot and lid are lead-free and independently tested. I recommend LeCreuset and have for years.

      What does she say about sea salt … literally every single type of natural sea salt has tiny amounts of lead in it naturally (not from contamination). People have consumed sea salt for millennia even when there was zero pollution. Sally Fallon Morell of the WAPF says that sea salt is safe despite none being lead-free.

  4. Dawn

    Dec 18, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    I need a pan to fry eggs , etc.. if I can’t use green pan , stainless steel ( not great ) or cast iron ( heavy etc) than what is there ?

    Reply
    • Ky

      Jan 11, 2022 at 7:57 pm

      I would LOVE an answer to this question as well!!!!

  5. Terresa Ulibarri

    Dec 16, 2021 at 11:16 am

    Hi Sarah,
    I was wondering about the old visions glass cookware…. I have a plus account and tried to click on the link above to ask this question but the link isn’t working… if you can tell me where the chat box is for plus that would be great.

    Thank you,

    Terresa Ulibarri

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Dec 17, 2021 at 3:53 pm

      Hi Terresa, I’ve replied via email 🙂

    • Danielle

      Dec 16, 2022 at 10:22 am

      I’m adding the glassware is safe for cooking?

  6. Heather

    Nov 11, 2021 at 6:42 pm

    Any thoughts on the Always Pan from Our Place? Thanks

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Nov 12, 2021 at 7:44 am

      If you need a specific brand vetted, please use the purple chatbox on any page of the blog. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/healthy-home-plus/

      Thank you, Nicole

  7. Catherine

    Oct 31, 2021 at 12:31 am

    I was checking out the All-Clad website and according to their FAQ Cookware section, they use alternating layers of stainless steel and aluminum. The whole exterior layer is magnetic stainless steel. This is a relief!

    Reply
    • Danielle

      May 4, 2022 at 4:36 pm

      What about the enameled dutch ovens by Made-In from France?

« Older Comments

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Sidebar

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

The Healthy Home Economist

Since 2002, Sarah has been a Health and Nutrition Educator dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. Read More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Check Out My Books

Mother Nature’s Medicine Cabinet

5 Secrets to a Strong Immune System

Loading

Contact the Healthy Home Economist. The information on this website has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any disease. By accessing or using this website, you agree to abide by the Terms of Service, Full Disclaimer, Privacy Policy, Affiliate Disclosure, and Comment Policy.

Copyright © 2009–2023 · The Healthy Home Economist · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!