Buying guides
Which one, for the job you actually have
A hub compares everything in a family. A guide answers one question — a budget, a first pan for someone equipping a kitchen from nothing, three knives that cover everything a drawer of ten does — with a ranked shortlist and a reason for the order.
- Getting started
The first five pieces: what to buy, and in what order
The five pieces that cook almost everything, in the order they earn their place — and the reason each one comes when it does.
- Budget
A first kitchen: everything that cooks, for less than one good pan
The cheapest complete set-up that still specifies properly: pots, a pan, a knife set, a board and shears, chosen where the low price does not cost a specification.
- Budget
Under twenty-five euros: where cheap costs you nothing
Five products where the low price buys a complete specification — a whetstone, a grater, a board, shears and a steamer insert that all publish exactly what they should.
- Induction
Induction: the pans that work, and two that do not
Induction needs a ferromagnetic base, and two well-regarded pans on this site state plainly that they do not have one. Here is what to buy instead.
- Choosing
Coated or uncoated: two pans, two entirely different deals
A coated pan works on day one and dies in three years. An uncoated one is hard for a month and lasts a lifetime. The honest comparison, with five pans from both sides.
- Choosing
Eggs: the one job that decides which pan you own
Eggs are the hardest ordinary thing to cook, and the pan decides most of it. Five pans, from a flat omelette pan to a seasoned carbon steel one.
- Materials
Without PFAS: what the listings actually state
Five pieces that either state a PFAS-free surface or have no coating at all — with a plain account of what those statements do and do not mean.
- Small kitchens
One pan: if you can only own a single piece
For a studio, a caravan or a shared kitchen: five candidates for the only pan you own, judged on how many jobs each one actually covers.
- Small kitchens
Cooking for one or two: the small pans that actually get used
Five saucepans at 16 to 20 cm (6.3 to 7.9 in), judged on the details that matter at small volumes: pouring, straining and reading a level.
- Large batches
Cooking for six: the pots that scale, and the two that scale too far
From 7.6 to 20 liters: five large pots, and an honest note about where capacity stops being useful and starts being unwieldy.
- Technique
Steaming: five pounds of stainless beats an appliance
A folding insert turns a pan you already own into a steamer. Five of them, with the folded and open widths that decide whether one fits your pots.
- Choosing
Pressure cookers: the size, the settings and the seal
Five cookers from 18 cm (7.1 in) to 6 liters, and the three things worth checking before buying: capacity, whether the settings are published as temperatures, and how the seal is replaced.
- Choosing
Dutch ovens: iron, aluminum, or the one whose lid is a pan
Five Dutch ovens across cast iron, enamelled iron, cast aluminum and stainless — and the difference in weight, heat and fire-readiness between them.
- Choosing
Woks: what a domestic hob can and cannot do
A restaurant wok burner puts out heat a domestic hob cannot match. Five woks chosen for what actually works at home — including one that will not work on induction at all.
- Choosing
Cookware sets: what the piece count is hiding
A set is priced by its piece count and used on three of them. Five sets, judged by what they publish rather than how many boxes they tick.
- Getting started
Three knives: and why the fourth is a mistake
A chef’s knife, a paring knife and a bread knife cut everything a kitchen cuts. Five options across the three, and the reason the block full of knives is a trap.
- Budget
under thirty dollars: where a knife stops being a compromise
Five knives under thirty dollars that name their steel, state a hardness or publish an edge angle — the three things that separate a knife from a shape.
- Materials
Hard or tough: the choice behind every kitchen knife
A 62 HRC Japanese blade and a 56 HRC German one are two answers to the same problem. Five knives that show both, with what each hardness actually costs.
- Choosing
Left-handed: the four listings that actually say so
Most kitchen tools are ground for right hands and never mention it. Five products on this site that state left- and right-handed use explicitly.
- Storage
Knife storage: the drawer is the problem, not the solution
A loose knife in a drawer is a hazard and a blunt edge. Five ways to store knives properly, from a five-dollar guard to a rotating magnetic block.
- Choosing
Steak knives: serrated or straight, and what that costs
A serrated table knife never needs sharpening and never gets sharper. A straight-ground one does both. Five sets across the divide.
- Sharpening
Sharpening: one stone, one angle, one afternoon
What to buy first to sharpen a knife properly, why honing is not sharpening, and the five products that cover both.
- Sharpening
Above 60 HRC: why your stone stopped working
A hard Japanese blade resists an ordinary stone. Five diamond and high-grit options that cut it, and the angle rule that matters more than any of them.
- Budget
Sharp for under twenty dollars: and why it beats a new knife
A sharp cheap knife outcuts a blunt expensive one. Five ways to get there for less than the price of a decent blade.
- Small kitchens
Boards: wood or plastic, and how many
Five board options from a set of four color-coded plastic to a walnut end grain, judged on space, hygiene practice and what they do to an edge.
- Safety
Mandolines and graters: the tools that cause the cuts
A mandoline causes more kitchen cuts than a knife does, and it gives no warning. Five slicers and graters, and the two habits that prevent almost all of it.
- Barbecue
Cast iron over fire: grates, pans and one thing that does not belong
Five cast iron pieces for live fire, with the dimensions that decide whether a replacement grate fits — and a note on what enamel cannot take.
- Barbecue
Barbecue kit: four things, and the order to buy them
Not a twenty-piece set. The four accessories that change how a barbecue works, with the published figures that separate the good ones.
- Choosing
The coating has gone: replace it, or change approach
Every coated pan eventually stops releasing. The moment it does is the best opportunity to move to a surface that never will — or to buy the same thing again, knowingly.