2 hours ago, Deephaven said:For this thread, I’d prefer to look into the Saucier choices as I am not buying a matching set and will pick each pan for it’s purpose. For these I have convinced myself copper most likely makes sense. Here are the choices.
Saucier
Thickness
Cu/Al
Price
deBuyer Prima Matera
2mm
1.8mm
$$$
Falk Copper Core
2.5mm
1.9mm
$$
Mauviel M'6S
2.7mm
1.5mm
$$
Demeyere Atlantis
3.3mm
2mm
$
So if you were choosing a copper saucier and were willing to bend the budget to make it work, what would you choose and why?
I have Demeyere Proline/Atlantis and Falk Copper Core in the test kitchen here (several dozen pieces total). I've looked at Prima Matera. Mauviel makes me nervous for various reasons which I'll get into, but it might be very nice cookware.
First of all, I believe that the Demeyre Atlantis sauciers are fully-clad aluminum pans (as are the frying pans...sometimes marketed separately as "Proline"). They have a very very thick aluminum layer that goes all the way up the side. When you start getting into the pot-style Demeyere Atlantis pans (with the copper disc bottoms) than the copper becomes a thing. I use the Demeyere gear for certain applications, and it's generally quite good (and one of two cookware sets I can generally recommend)--although the lack of consistent pan covers and pan cover sizes drives me nuts. When you get into the pot-style pans (with the copper disc bottoms) you'll probably see some fairly impressive temperature consistencies across the bottom of your pans, assuming that your burners are sized appropriately for the pan. I think that the Demeyere Atlantis gear looks a little space aged, and it's the easiest to clean out of all the cookware I have used. A few folks have had compatibility issues with certain advanced induction stoves and their Demeyere Atlantis pans, but it's been smooth sailing for me.
Most of the cookware in active use here is Falk Copper Core. It's all fully-clad, so I get a nice temperature gradient. It's copper, so I get very responsive heating and very quick preheating (which is doubly great on a temperature-controlled induction hob like the Control Freak). I think that the exposed copper is beautiful, and they're easy to keep clean. Be advised that they are hand-wash only. Because these are fully-clad, you'll get more of a gradient across the bottom of the bottom and up through the sides, although if you have sufficiently-sized (i.e. appropriately-sized) induction coils that issue goes away. Using these with a Thermador Freedom induction range for instance is probably the ultimate scenario for me.
The deBuyer Prima Matera have been on my list solely out of interest because of their exposed copper. Basically they're like the Falk Copper Core except the copper is a little thinner and there's no cladding along the outer edges (which probably drives up the cost a little bit). If I were buying copper pans for someone and they really wanted the outsides to be exposed copper, this is what I would buy. I presume that they probably perform reasonably similar to the Falk Copper Core, but I like my pans clean and my psyche is not yet compatible with cleaning copper pans...so I haven't brought myself to buying one of these yet.
As far as Mauviel goes, I believe they're "copper on the outside" which gives me several concerns in relation to induction compatibility. I believe they're counting on the induction hob energizing the stainless steel behind the copper, or at least that's how their marketing materials read to me. At 1.5mm of copper (per your chart), I wouldn't expect to get the performance out of those that I'd get with a Falk or deBuyer pan.
If I had a really nice induction cooktop, I would buy the Falk Copper Core due to the broad variety of pans, the easy matching lids, the fairly easy cleanup and the beauty (in the eyes of this beholder). If I had to have the full-on copper look and money was no object I'd buy a deBuyer to sample and then buy more if that one worked out (realizing that there is a limited set of pans available in that lineup). And if I wanted the easiest-to-clean pans and liked the space-age look of the Demeyere Atlantis pans I wouldn't hesitate to snag those. As for me, I bought more than a half dozen different pans and tested them--and then ended up buying more Falk pans after the testing was complete. Your results and goals may vary.
