Is BIFL now just a euphemism for "expensive"? Buy anything steel or iron without nonstick coatings and take care of it, and it won't wear out. Most of my cooking stuff came from thrift stores or flea markets.

Aluminum won't work on an induction cooker, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, on a normal electric or gas cooktop, you can melt it by accident. So I'd stay away.

I don't have induction so can't report from experience, but I'm not sure how much heat conductivity matters on an induction cooker. The heat is generated in the pot itself rather than conducted up from a hot cooktop.

I think it doesn't matter much for regular cooking either, unless you're doing some gourmet shenanigans that require precision. I use stainless steel for some things and it's fine for my low tech purposes. Cast iron is similar, I think.

Carbon steel or cast iron for induction. Both need to be seasoned, but that's not a big deal.

Part of why you are having problems getting specs on cookware is because most companies just buy from factories. Most brands (in all industries) don't actually design their own goods anymore. This is the reason you can go to Amazon and find the exact same item with 20 different brand names on it. Although I don't have any recommendations for you, because quality can change from model to model, I would say, stop looking for a brand to follow and look for an item that fits your needs. Here is an interesting article on the mess this has created with "quality" brands. https://www.worseonpurpose.com/...

Ikea 365+ stainless is good value, induction-compatible, and IME lasts for decades despite abuse from careless housemates.

How are rivets serviceable, and what is wrong with welded?

For what its worth Alton Brown and Chris Young, use All-Clad in their videos. Both are more "scientific" chefs. Alton is my preferred of the two, but both are more data driven than most chefs.

As for myself, I use cast iron when I need more thermal momentum, and stainless when it doesn't matter as much. I've got a mix of All-Clad and one brand that I haven't seen mentioned is Viking. They've both been excellent over the course of a few years, cooking 2-3 meals a day every day. The handles are still rock solid which I've found to be an issue with other cookware.

Bonus: both brands can be found in relative abundance at consignment stores for "cheap". My cast iron is from local thrift stores or estate sales, but the stainless stuff I tend to buy "new" at Sierra or Home Goods. Each pot and or pan is somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-40 and is BIFL quality.

Alton discusses induction and pan interactions in this video Chris' dedicated video on his preferred pans

In general, my advice would be to just buy what America's Test Kitchen and/or Alton Brown tell you to buy.

But since you mentioned "abuse by housemates," you should go for the cheaper Tramontina instead of the All-Clad.

Induction? Cast iron. That is all. The glass cooktops are very sturdy unless intentionally damaged. If they were fragile my wife would’ve busted ours long ago.

We have a few stainless pots that work (check with a magnet). Not sure if the stainless ones are true bifl (the cast iron certainly is) but they’ve been going strong for about 10 years long with regular cooking and cleaning in the dishwasher (no not the cast iron).

Lodge cast iron. I have 2 pans from grandma and 1 from my mom. I also bought a Dolly Parton 12" for myself so we have 3 generations of cast iron. Nothing beats the longevity and cost effectiveness of cast iron.

I was recently gifted a Hexclad saute pan and it is not worth the hype. Potstickers and a fried egg have permanently left their mark.

I have a Demeyere Industry pan.

It's fully 5 layers of steel and aluminum with a welded handle.

No rivets as they get loose all the time. Plus I hate the fats and oils that get in there with no way to clean them. Plus utensils get caught in it when you're making thicker sauces.

They are also found in the commercial kitchen industry.

I've baked with it, fried in it, abused it petty hard, and never gives me an issue.

You may or may not have luck with secondhand pots and pans. If it were me, for the right price, it wouldn't matter if they got abused.

My frying pans from Made In are great, but they have no helper handles. They heat very evenly and I have had great results. I was able to make eggs in my uncoated pans and I very often did not have problems with sticking. (This was not the case with my old frying pan that bit the dust. Uneven and lots of sticking.)

Cuisinart and Tramontina are both pretty great. I have a stock pot, a 8 quart pot, and sauce pans from these brands. Not super expensive and can handle some abuse. I got the recommendations from Serious Eats and am happy. I would recommend you look at these if you want to buy new. I got these to replace hand-me-downs and secondhand stuff I got that was thin and single ply. Couldn't afford All-Clad. When I got them, I thought I was going to be counting the days until I could replace them, but after using them, I'm in no hurry. I haven't measured, but they are thick and haven't shown any signs of warping.

Whatever you do, do not get anything with nonstick coating. You need to baby it and it still wears out too fast.

Made In makes a universal lid that may interest you. My partner doesn't have the patience to find the right lid so she uses it a lot.

I agree that helper handles are great for larger capacity cookware but it would seem more cumbersome for smaller items like an 8" frying pan or a smaller saucepan. You can get a 12" frying pan with a helper handle, but smaller will be difficult to find. You could look into saute pans, which are very versatile and usually have helper handles.

Depending on how much money you're willing to spend, I would go with a relatively inexpensive set/get a few individual pieces from Cuisinart or Tramontina. In my experience, their stuff is awesome for the price. I haven't regretted my purchases from them.

Calphalon

https://www.calphalon.com/...

Beware, a lot of "induction compatible" cookware just have a thin iron base attached to their non-magnetic pan.

The one's I've seen, that base isn't bonded that well to the pan, and generally warps a bit (making for a wobbly frypan) and finally, is often not the same diameter as the pan above meaning you've got a hot spot in the middle of the pan and cooler edges.

So yeah, as other's have mentioned, go for stuff that is magnetic, and test it all over not just in the middle of the base.

Not sure if they ship to you but I’ve had good experiences with Greenpan.us

Just upgraded our (old, non magnetic) Cuisinart for All Clad. They're both nice, zero complaints about the old set except for the not magnetic part. I wouldn't let my housemates (ab)use the All Clad. A new Cuisinart set would do just fine for far less money - $150 for a full set. Maybe add a carbon steel pan for eggs.

I have all clad, but i hear nitrogen hardened steel is better. Cast iron does uneven heating from what i hear.

Might I suggest a strata carbon steel clad pan? Their normal pan (don't get their work) is stainless steel bottomed, aluminium cored, and carbon steel topped. You can season your pan and truly become attached to it; if you fuck up, you can just restart. As a bonus, it's as light as a normal pan instead of carbon steel or the chonky cast iron. Only bad thing is that the edge is unsealed, but that's really only an issue if you dishwash it. You shouldn't be dishwashing carbon steel anyways.

I think if you want BIFL, it has to have seasoning in some way. Even stainless steel pits (pitts?).

Even when I moved on from my cast iron to the above pan, I still use my old one at my pops place

All-clad are great and they have factory sales from time to time. I don't know the specs on thickness, but my 10" All-Clad is heavier than a vintage 10" cast iron pan (but lighter than a new Lodge).

They're easy to keep clean. Anything baked on usually comes off with Barkeepers Friend, chain mail, or a combination of both.

I've had great luck with Calphalon.

First of all test your existing cookware with a small magnet, if it sticks it will work with induction. Cuisinart and Tramontina have both been great. I actually prefer using stainless steel because the handles don't get hot.

I bought a large MadeIn griddle for my induction stove and I have buyers remorse. Its just too thin, too little thermal conduction. It merely cooks in a circle directly over the two coils and no where else. Its bad even with a long pre-heat.

I've done cooking & baking classes at a community house and we used the Ikea "365" range of stainless steel pots and pans, with metal lids. They're fairly cheap but induction compatible and stand up to a fair amount of abuse.