Hard-Anodized Stock Pots - How Non-stick Are They?

[KitchenQueen]

I'm  a bit confused by some of the replies. I have numerous pieces of  Calphalon  anodized aluminum and they are a helluvalot more nonstick than SS.

 

Burned milk , several sauces (including cheese)   ,cleanup was pretty easy.  Most of it goes in the dishwasher.

 

Plastic scrubbie or sponge ,a squirt of Dawn, and bingo. Clean.   They are certainly not the size of the bathtub OP needs, but?....

[Shel_B]

I'm  a bit confused by some of the replies. I have numerous pieces of  Calphalon  anodized aluminum and they are a helluvalot more nonstick than SS.

 

 

My original Calphalon HAA pieces were far better built and had a different coating than current HAA pieces.  The older pots and pans (from the late 1980s to the early 1990s) were more nonstick, more durable, and easier to clean than the current crop of Calphalon HAA.

[slkinsey]

An anodized aluminum cooking surface is, in my experience, more sticky and more difficult to clean and maintain compared to a stainless steel cooking surface.  But the material used for the cooking surface is only one component of "stickyness."  A cheap thin stainless steel pan will always be more sticky and prone to scorching and burning compared to an anodized aluminum pan, because the latter has much better thermal properties.  A pan with an aluminum or copper thermal layer and a stainless steel interior, on the other hand, will usually be easier to maintain than the anodized aluminum equivalent.  If your SS stockpots don't have a thick aluminum bottom, you are most certainly going to get plenty of sticking.  There will still probably be some sticking no matter what given your friend's technique, but it would be a lot less with a good thermal layer on the bottom of the pan.

[Deryn]

I wonder if soaking the (current SS) pot for a few hours would help get rid of that gunky, burnt on mess faster (in terms of your actual on-task time) than spending an hour scrubbing.

[slkinsey]

One other thing in favor of stainless steel with a thick disk bottom: You can spray a thick layer of oven cleaner onto the cooked-on food, put a lid on the pot and let it stand for several hours (or, better yet, overnight). Try that with anodized aluminum and you'll end up with a raw aluminum pot.

[paulraphael]

Try that with anodized aluminum and you'll end up with a raw aluminum pot.

 

Most of the anodizing on my stockpot got removed by far less-harsh detergents (i was trying to clean a found moose skull, which the company probably doesn't recommend, but still ...)

At least the pot still works fine, and there's still enough anodic layer that acidic stuff doesn't discolor or taste bad.

 

I'd prefer stainless pot w/ disk bottom for sure, but not enough to replace the anodized one while it's still got some life.

[Porthos]

My S/S stock pots do have disc bottoms.

 

I found a 12 qt non-stick pot I won that had been MIA. It's a rather crappy pot, read thin bottom, and it didn't get used much. If it gets gunked up I can toss it and not have really lost anything.

 

I am intrigued about using oven cleaner.

[slkinsey]

. . . I was trying to clean a found moose skull . . .

 

Hey, who hasn't been there, amiright?

[Shel_B]

I am intrigued about using oven cleaner.

 

I wouldn't use that stuff on my pots, or anything that I eat from.  I don't even use it in my oven. There's no need to possibly ingest toxic chemicals.

[paulraphael]

I wouldn't use that stuff on my pots, or anything that I eat from.  I don't even use it in my oven. There's no need to possibly ingest toxic chemicals.

Dishwashing detergent is toxic chemicals also. Every chemical is toxic if the dose is high enough. Table salt has a higher oral toxicity than some roach killers, but this isn't an issue, because you'd never eat that much salt all at once.

 

The only issues to worry about are 1) if the chemical will leave residue on your pan that could be toxic, and 2) if it's dangerous to use.

 

With oven cleaner, the answer to 1) is no. The answer to 2) is yes, moderately. But less so than using it to clean an oven, which people have been doing without dying from for a long time.