ProCook stainless steel frying pans – any good?

Looking to get some no nonsense half decent stainless steel frying pans.

Is the Pro Cook brand any good?

I’ve got a cafetière by them and seems well made and the stuff on their website is reasonably priced so thinking about getting a couple pans from them.

eg:

https://www.procook.co.uk/product/procook-professional-steel-frying-pan-uncoated-20cm

They look OK in stores and seem like they’d last OK.

But stainless steel frying pan? Had them in the past and for me they miss the spot and without lots of Barkeepers friend they turn ugly fairly quickly.

For messy stuff I favor Ninja non-stick. My go to after being very disappointed with a Tefal.

For sizzling, a non-brand cast iron pan. admittedly, these cheap ones have pitted rather than smooth frying surfaces but the thermal mass makes for good sizzling and searing and they work OK for long cooks too.

I’ve got some of Titanium slippy pans from procook from 20 years ago, and still in excellent nick.

Great product and good service.

Don’t know nowadays though.  I’m guessing they would be great.

But stainless steel frying pan? Had them in the past and for me they miss the spot and without lots of Barkeepers friend they turn ugly fairly quickly.

In what way. Our procook stainless frying pan gets no special treatment just hoyed in the dishwasher no barkeepers friend ever and it’s still shiny silver.

The worst culprit is the morning porridge pan – that has to be cleaned by hand … But id rather that than non stick.

Stainless or cast iron ….. (Cast needs to be hand washed)

We use our cast pans for high heat things and in the ooni  but the stainless for every day.

If stuffs sticking to your stainless pan …that’s not the pan

No idea about pro cook but we have some le creuset stainless pans including a frying pan. I was dubious but I am completely convinced now. The tri ply uncoated pan with a lid. Works on the aga and induction.

Year on and it looks brand new. After cooking it looks a total mess and you think it will never clean

Leave it to soak and it cleans unbelievably easily. Fab and should see us out.

Their non-stick pans were a waste of money, I bought 3 and  they didn’t survive my OHs cooking with an induction hob. But if it’s just stainless steel you might be ok

We’ve some Stellar pans and frying pan. They are 20+ years old.

A few months ago one of the lid rivets came loose. We emailed to try and buy a new lid. They posted us one for free.

So Stellar in my view.

I have two different types of pan for different uses:

[De Buyer] seasoned carbon steel in various sizes for all frying where there isn’t any sauce.

Stainless saute pan for anything where there’s going to be a sauce.  I’ve gone for De Buyer Affinity pans when they come up on eBay – which sadly is not often!

They have 5 layers of aluminium inside for excellent heat generation and distribution on the induction hob.

They’re seriously expensive when new (£250+ without a lid when new) but look and feel amazing. I never knew how really good pans makes the whole cooking experience so much nice!

I’ll certainly never have a non-stick pan again and will buy a saute pan for each of my girls when they get their first place as they’re such useful pans.

Stellar have great aftersales support. I know this from how many times mine went back for replacement. In the end my local cookshop stopped being a Stellar dealer so when the non-stick started to stick on the Nth pan it just went in the recycler. I use CA and stainless depending on what I’m doing. Straight frying – CA, anything involving deglazing, sauce etc the stainless.

 so when the non-stick started to stick on the Nth pan it just went in the recycler.

That was my experience of all non-stick and the main reason why I changed to plain carbon steel for frying.

I have a Stellar “Rocktanium” frying pan.

I bought after using one in a holiday let.

I think it’s as “excellent” as a frying pan could ever be.

I have procook stainless saucepans that I’m happy with. They’re nice to use and feel like they will last a very long time. I’d buy again (except I don’t think I will ever have to)

Then tend to make pretty solid stuff for a reasonable price, they’ve got quite a few shops so you might be able to go in and have a look. I’ve got one of their saucepans and it always goes in the dishwasher without issues

In contrast to binman I have some ProCook non-sticks that are good as new about two years into use (gas hob) – I was worried as I saw someone on here saying they were garbage just after I had bought them. The Le Creuset they replaced lost it’s non stickiness within a year.

Build quality seems good and they are really heavy.

I was replacing non-stick pans every 3-4 years which I don’t think is acceptable.  I expect to never replace a pan now.

Stainless steel frying pans take a bit of getting used to – you need to get them really hot (and I mean really hot) before adding oil. Otherwise they tend to stick pretty badly.

No-one else in my family seems to understand this, but the plus is they clean really easily if needed.

you need to get them really hot (and I mean really hot) before adding oil.

Bingo.

Do you not you have to season stainless steel pans, like with woks?

I think there are non-stick pans, and non-stick pans.  I’ve gone through several Tefal frying pans, all garbage.  I gave up buying woks completely, whatever knack there is to keeping them in shape I don’t have it.

What I have today is a Scoville and it’s properly good.  Sold exclusively at ASDA or you can buy them direct on their website.  Well constructed, heavy, feels like the non-stick element is structural rather than some easily-scratched coating.  They claim you don’t need to use oil but that’s clearly a lie. (-:

My old pans were a mixture of pans from the farmhouse where I lived when I was very young which will likely outlast the grandchild, and non-stick Tesco specials which have served me well but had seen better days.  I was going to buy a set of Scoville to replace the Tesco ones until my partner bought me a present of a new pan set which is a) too small and b) kinda rose gold coloured to match precisely nothing else we own.  So now I’m struck with shit pans until they die, which on the upside I expect won’t take long.

We got a new frying pan from Asda recently.  I wasn’t involved but understood it was something very cheap.  It’s sturdy and has one of those ceramic nonstick coatings which seems to be absolutely incredible.  Nothing sticks,  nothing.  How it will last I don’t know,  although come to think of it,  it must be over 6 months old already and it’s brilliant.

Our non-stick stopped being non-stick after 18 months. Back to Tefal next time!

Do you not you have to season stainless steel pans, like with woks?

No.

There are times when you want a bit of stiction between pan and food to get the bits to turn over when you shake it.

My wife wasn’t sure about a stainless frying pan. I reminded her that the stainless pans I have were bought when I moved out properly in 2000, they’re still In use, we have a stainless pan.

We had some neverstick pans that we have taken care of but 3  years in the costing has worn off (I wasn’t the guilty party when it came to the generous application of elbow grease) .

My experience of procook has been positive. I’m going to pick up another knife or two.

I gave up buying woks completely, whatever knack there is to keeping them in shape I don’t have it.

Heat, scrubbing and oil. LOADS of heat. I use a massive gas burner (like you see in a restaurant kitchen) think it’s rated at 9-10kW, depending on the gas mix. Which is more than all 5 burners on my hob going flat out.
Nothing ever sticks. Cooks stuff in seconds if i need it to.

Only downside is i can only use it outside as the flames are also restaurant kitchen sized. My extractor isn’t rated for that. Neither are the walls, ceiling or kitchen units…

We got a procook set of pans when we moved into the new house and needed something to work on the induction hob.

Went for the gourmet stainless range. Oddly the frying pan is non stick, but the rest are not. Overall I’m happy with them for the price we paid. My only observation is that the interface between pan and handle is a bit thin/no very robust on the frying pan. But the pan you linked to looks better.

Oh check for discount codes, there are normally some knocking around. We got our 6 pan set and 3 nihon Japanese style knives thrown in for three, cost us £150 including postage. This was about 14 months ago.

Yeah, procook stuff is good value when on offer, not so much when full price, so if you’re in no rush it might be worth registering for email alerts, as they have offers/deals very often.

With pans, I think they have a ‘professional’ range, and an ‘elite’ range, the latter being ‘better’ but you do need to keep an eye on the prices as they can flucuate a bit, so don’t pay full price assuming it’s good without comparing to other suppliers.

no special treatment just hoyed in the dishwasher

Ah. I rarely put pans in the dishwasher. Perhaps I should do that for stainless pans. Though they don’t seem as hard to clean since moving to induction from gas.

Porage pan? IDK, leave the porage in a container in the fridge overnight and warm gently in the morning? If you warm using a pan, the pan comes up clean when hand washed. I have found that children tend to boil porage making an unseemly mess of the bottom of a pan. NP, soak, wash, then barkeeper’s friend to bring the inside to a sparkle. These days I just leave the oats to soak in almond milk while I go for a walk – nice texture when I get back.

I’d likely go for whatever took my fancy at Nisbets if I wanted new stainless steel pans. My current ones show little sign of giving up.

Porage pan

Can’t afford Scott’s oats here. (Only people that call it porage literally a word invented by them) The rest of the country have porridge)

Porridge and oats are the same thing, are they not? it’s all the same thing…

Unless it’s readybrek which is still the same thing, just ground down into a fine powder?

I agree with @mert re. woks – “Heat, scrubbing and oil. LOADS of heat”

Works best if you start out with a cheap carbon steel wok from a Chinese supermarket. Similarly my carbon steel omelette pan is nicely seasoned and just needs a wipe out after use, No sticking.

However… fried eggs!! What to do those in? I recently binned my latest non stick frying pan and got a lovely Samuel Groves stainless one. It’s great for general frying, meat and stuff. But eggs stick like, well you know what. So do I go back to non-stick, try cast iron or get a small carbon steel one and season it like my omelette pan?

Yeah, procook stuff is good value when on offer, not so much when full price

I don’t think I’ve ever seen it on sale anywhere near their “full price”, if you’re thinking of parting with that kind of money you’re better off getting at least the brand recognition of Le Crueset or All-Clad!

Their Elite range has encapsulated aluminium bases, their lower ranges just have a slab of metal bonded on to the bottom of a relatively thin ss pan. It’s better at spreading heat more evenly than the bonded base models, to an extent that probably never matters to any home cook anywhere. It does look nicer though.

So do I go back to non-stick, try cast iron or get a small carbon steel one and season it like my omelette pan?

Why can’t you fry eggs in the omelette pan?

Why can’t you fry eggs in the omelette pan?

A pan is a pan at the end of the day….  my current frying pan is a tefal I bought from tescos, for about £25  it’s probably 3 years old now and the  non-stick coating looks brand new. the underside of the pan looks a bit burnished, if that’s the correct term, a bit manky, but whatever.

How are people ruining pans? are they just overheating them and using metal spatualas or whatever? It’s a bit of a mystery to me.

Why can’t you fry eggs in the omelette pan?

That would be heresy.

Works best if you start out with a cheap carbon steel wok from a Chinese supermarket.

Yes, I’ve got two cheap carbon steels, a 35 cm one that i bought when i lived in the UK, so ~20 years old and another i got when i bought the big burner, think it’s 50cm, you can see the hammer marks in that one from how it was manufactured. Probably cost me less than 40 quid for both, including the wok tossing tools (Spades? Shovels?).
I’ve also got an “expensive” one that i use indoors that cost me about 60 quid.

Still made of carbon steel though, it’s just a lot thicker. And the handle didn’t need reattaching after 2 weeks…

However… fried eggs!! What to do those in?

I’ve got the smallest/13cm ikea carbon steel pan for doing solitary eggs, gets one large egg cooked to perfection, no sticking once seasoned.
Get the 20 if you want to use it for anything else, or like to flip your eggs.
Use the 20cm one for omlettes too.

How are people ruining pans? are they just overheating them and using metal spatualas or whatever? It’s a bit of a mystery to me.

MiL has a habit of using forks to cook with, so that’s a few scratches whenever she’s over here. Then the pans get chucked in the drawer, nested inside each other – and that’s a few more scratches. It all adds up.

Egg goes in the stainless pan doesn’t seem to stick either

Another tip for seasoning woks is to use a small hand held gas burner directly on the inside whilst heating from below .

It all adds up.

Yep.  The fear of using something harsh to clean the pans means that over time minute amounts of food that don’t get washed off builds up and other stuff sticks to it.

Sauces are a bugger for this.

If you mess up a carbon steel pan you can just nuke it and start seasoning again.  Stainless you can obvs use pretty much anything for cleaning.

We got a new frying pan from Asda recently. I wasn’t involved but understood it was something very cheap. It’s sturdy and has one of those ceramic nonstick coatings which seems to be absolutely incredible. Nothing sticks, nothing. How it will last I don’t know, although come to think of it, it must be over 6 months old already and it’s brilliant.

I got the same one recently and yes it’s brilliant. I’m not sure what more you could want from a frying pan