A tedious post ... In Which I Document My Purchases. (Ah - if only I had thought of that category thirteen years ago.)
The induction stove only works with ferrous metals, so one thing I had to give away was Mom's giant aluminum stockpot. The replacement was a $15 Walmart stockpot.
That stockpot lasted five years, until this past Friday when I burned some apple pie filling in it. I went at it with the Brillo pad until I remembered that Facebook had been set on me buying a gorgeous stockpot via one of their ads. A stunning, heavy stockpot that would match all my other cookware. I scrubbed a little more before I said goodbye, old stockpot, you served me well this five years on, and we had many soups together, but now you have burned the apple pie filling and I can't look at you any longer. There are younger, hotter stockpots to be had.
And then, it turned into one of those Missed Connections personals. I had seen this mouth-watering photo of a stockpot, and I didn't go for it, and missed my shot at long-term stockpot happiness, because Facebook would not show me that stockpot photo again. After a day of searching I put this on Facebook:
Facebook kept mum. So I gave up on the Facebook Tease Stockpot (probably some bogus Russian stockpot put there to foment discontent), and paid an old-school in-person visit to the Bed Bath and Beyond. I found a friendly knockoff of an outrageously priced All-Clad Bells and Whistles stockpot set. Honestly, this one was a third of the All-Clad price. It was also three times the price of my original Walmart stockpot, as if there’s some stockpot logarithmic scale in which each level of stockpot is three times the price of the previous level.
I don't make bulk corn, or even bulk pasta, but I can see throwing bones and aromatics in the insert and later lifting it out instead of trying to strain 12 quarts of stock.
And yes, I did take careful measurements, first thing.
I love being able to lift all my stock bits out instead of straining. I wish I had that little steamer basket, I probably have your Walmart model. I use a sieve and it doesn’t sit very well. I think you made a smart purchase!
Posted by: Jessica Fantastica | February 06, 2019 at 02:52 PM
*Yes* on just lifting the thing out to strain aromatics or whatever (but go slow and wear oven mitts if the stockpot is full-ish: the side holes gush water if you lift the insert quickly enough that it hasn't drained before you get above the top of the stockpot, and if your hands are on the handle without protection for long enough to lift things out without the geysers, then you tend to get a mild-sunburn-level steam singe). I also loved the insert for straining things I'm pouring into the stockpot to concentrate by simmering down. Or for heating things up simultaneously. Or pasta.
(I assume you also checked that it was induction-friendly? Because that would be maddening.)
Also: apple pie filling that you cook in a stockpot? I've read of people canning apple pie filling-like stuff for later use (such as pouring it over ice cream, using it on pancakes, etc.), but I've never cooked apples *before* putting them in the pie?
Posted by: KC | February 06, 2019 at 03:33 PM
Jessica Fantastica - i currently use one of those little expandable steamer baskets with feet. They rust after twenty years, and this one won’t. The steam will have to travel quite a ways to get up to the broccoli, though.
KC - oh, yes, I walked around with a magnet - plus it said induction on the box. Also, that is really good advice about lifting the strainer.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 06, 2019 at 09:52 PM
Oh, good. Bring-your-own-magnet is smart...
May you never belatedly remember the advice! :-) (Really, it's not *that* bad. On different occasions, I have ended up with water geysering out of the holes onto the floor and counter, and with sunburned-ish hands, however, and it is not all that hard to avoid both these fates.)
Posted by: KC | February 07, 2019 at 08:55 PM
KC - I am almost certain I will forget the advice until it is belated. Hopefully I’ll only make the mistake a few times.
Posted by: TheQueen | February 08, 2019 at 08:31 PM