Saving Money On Kitchenware: How To Buy Pre-owned Cookware

Saving Money On Kitchenware: How To Buy Pre-owned Cookware And Not Get Ripped Off In The Process

In the 21st century, the typical family finds itself living on a pretty tight and restricted budget. People simply do not have a great deal of money to spend — even when it comes to making the purchase of cookware, kitchenware, and appliances for the home kitchen. Perhaps you are the head of a family that works very hard to make ends meet. In that regard, you likely have found yourself searching for ways in which you can save money on the basic necessities that you need for your home — including such items as cookware and kitchenware.

One way in which you can end up saving some money on cookware and kitchenware is through the purchase of pre-owned products and merchandise. With this in mind, there are some tips and pointers that you need to keep in mind to make certain that you do not get ripped off or burned on your purchase of pre-owned cookware and kitchenware.

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In this day and age, a great resource for pre-owned merchandise is the Internet and World Wide Web. This holds true even if you are looking for cookware and kitchenware items that have been pre-owned. One type of website venue that you will want to visit in your online search for pre-owned cookware or kitchenware is a reputable auction site. Keep in mind that reference has been made to reputable Internet auction site.

Unfortunately, in the 21st century, there are some disreputable operators on the Net that have set up less than reliable auction sites. Therefore, if you are considering the purchase of pre-owned cookware and kitchenware from an auction site on the Net, make very certain that you access only an auction site that has established a reputation for fair dealing, reliability and honesty.

In addition to the Internet, garage sales can be a perfect source for pre-owned cookware and kitchenware. You do need to keep in mind that many women and men and pretty intense about their garage sale shopping. Therefore, if you are interested in making the purchase of pre-owned cookware or kitchenware from garage sales, you need to plan on hitting to road in search of garage sales early in the morning. In most instances, the best merchandise available at garages sales ends up being sold very early on during the course of the day.

FLAVOR AS THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE

FLAVOR AS THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE.

"Cookery is an art which almost more than any other has civilized mankind," as President E. B. Tylor[120] of the British Anthropological Association has truly said.

Before breakfast in the garden

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Nor is it only an art; it is also a science—or rather, it is becoming a science. From time immemorial cooks have, by instinct or accident, often done the right thing; but in the absence of a guiding principle, scientifically formulated, they have much more frequently made a mess of it.

There are four reasons for cooking food: to sterilize it; to make it more nutritious; to make it more easily digestible; and to improve or vary its Flavor.

Cooking destroys the germs of typhoid and other diseases which may lurk in food products, and it also retards the general decomposition which may result in ptomaine poisoning.

It has long been believed that raw or semi-raw meat is more nutritious than meat which has been moderately cooked; but this is not true. It is true, on the other hand, that in the ordinary methods of cooking there is often a considerable loss of nutriment. The United States Department of Agriculture has had a number of experiments made to place this question on a scientific basis.[5] Much remains to be done, but in the end it will doubtless be found that there is no appreciable loss if French methods are followed.

[121]

That cooking makes most foods more digestible it is needless to prove. Even fruits which taste better raw, digest more readily when cooked. A great many persons who cannot, for instance, eat apples, find them not only agreeable but easily assimilated and most beneficial to health when stewed or baked. Cereals (particularly oatmeal) and many vegetables and meats need cooking—sometimes hours of it to make them easy to masticate and digest.

The main object of cooking, however, is to preserve and develop the countless savors latent in good raw material, to combine them or to add others where the material is deficient in natural Flavor.

This is the guiding principle to the science of cookery. Strange to say, there are cook books in which the word Flavor is not to be found! The recipes given in such books may be correct, but to follow them mechanically is like playing the notes of a piano piece without knowing anything about expression marks. Flavor is the soul of food as expression is the soul of music.

Born cooks know this instinctively and act on it. But cooks can also be made. Tremendous improvement could be effected in our kitchens in a short time by attending to the elements of the Science of Savory Cooking, long since discovered, but usually ignored.

Much has been written about the wastefulness in our households. A French family, we have been told a[122] thousand times, could live on what is thrown away in an American kitchen. True; but as long as we enjoy our present national prosperity this waste is a far less deplorable matter than the criminal way in which ignorant or careless persons habitually denature our best food materials by allowing the healthful Flavors to escape during the process of cooking.

Circulon Every Day 7 Days a Week

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When I wrote my initial post about Circulon cookware, we only had a couple of Circulon pans, and we really liked them.  They feel really sturdy, they are super easy to clean even if food is burnt on, the handles are extremely comfortable, and most Circulon cookware is oven-safe up to a certain temperature.

With that being said, we now own a complete set of Circulon Contempo cookware, and we use some part of the cookware set every day.  As a matter of fact, I made "Winter Soup" on our big 6-quart pot tonight.  I got the recipe for this from one of my co-workers, so keep checking back, and I will see if I can find out where he got the recipe from.  When I do, I will post a link to it, because it is very excellent.

Anyway, my point is that my wife and I believe that Circulon cookware is the best cookware on the market. To be fair, that is based a lot on personal opinion, but trust me, if a set of cookware could be burned to the point of no return, one of us could probably do it. (My wife recently burned our copper-bottom tea kettle fast to our cooktop).  So, one of the main reasons we like this cookware so much is because of its durability.  Also, I have a very bad habit of turning the oven on to cook frozen pizza and forgetting that we store the cookware in the oven when in its not in use.  So far, the cookware has come through it all unscathed.

Calphalon vs. Circulon

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Lately there has been a lot of negative publicity about Teflon cookware.  I, personally think that most of the negative publicity is more hype than fact; however, my wife takes it quite seriously.  So, she made me toss out all of our Teflon cookware, and buy all new cookware.  I had to do some research to find out what new varieties of cookware were available that had different types of cooking surfaces.  So, to begin the search, most naturally, we I started with a Google Search.

So, I found a couple of brands that looked promising.  One was called "Calphalon" and the other was called "Circulon."  Then I did some looking around in our area department stores, so I could physically see and handle these two different non-Teflon non-stick cookware items. (I would much rather shop on the Internet, than actually have to physically go into a store!!!!)  There are just some things that are anti-manyly, if you know what I mean.

There's only so much that I can say myself about my reason for choosing Circulon over Calphalon.  It doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with Calphalon, as a matter of fact Calphalon is also exceptionally good, but I had my own personal reason for choosing Circulon, which I will detail later.

Calphalon and Circulon cookware are both great products.  My wife and I personally prefer the Circulon cookware; however, that does not diminish the quality of Calphalon.  Both products are oven-safe within certain limits.  (Check the statistics for the particular set that you are interested in).

Both of these products have "Anodized" cooking surfaces.  Wikipedia defines anodizing as "Anodizing, or anodising in British English, is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. The process is called "anodizing" because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electrical circuit. Anodizing increases corrosion resistance and wear resistance."  This makes the cooking surface both durable and easier to clean.  Unlike older Teflon type surfaces, anodized surfaces are much less prone to flaking or scratching, and therefore you are much less likely to find particles of your cookware wandering around in your food.  These surfaces are still very resistant to food sticking to them, and therefore they are very easily and quicly cleaned.

See this video for a brief overview of Hard-Anodizing...How it's done, and what some of the uses are for it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcA7oE8yMvc

I like Circulon because it feels "right" for me.  That doesn't mean that it will feel right for you.  You need to go out and look at them, touch them, get a feel for the weights.  Most of the items are available both in sets and individual pieces.  Many of the pieces are available with lids also.

Both sets are heavy-duty, easy to handle, and easy to clean.

Happy shopping, and we hope that the preceding information and videos have been informative enough to help you in the decision making process.

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