I may need to replace my 14" sauteuse. I would be interested in a titanium interior if I could find it at the right price. The only brands I can find without the plastic knobs typically found on waterless/vaporware are Heritage Steel and Hestan. Heritage Steel does have a 5 qt sauteuse available on Amazon for $299 but Hestan's is only a 3.5 qt. It looks like Viking used to have a 10 piece 7-ply titanium line, but no large sauteuse. Is the Heritage Steel likely to go on sale, perhaps on Black Friday? Is there another brand I should be looking at? How concerned should I be about the thickness of the titanium?
Most of the cookware out there that mentions titanium has very little of it.
1) Titanium oxide bits are used in some non-stick coatings.
2) Hestan “Nanobond” is primarily standard stainless steel clad over aluminum with a molecular vapor applied top surface of extra chromium and titanium.
3) Heritage Steel used 316T which has a tiny amount of titanium in the steel. The 6 qt. rondeau that Amazon sales comes with a lid. They also sell an 8 qt sauté pan for $269. https://www.amazon.com/Hammer-Stahl-S...
4) There are some other cookware companies that use a better stainless steel for the inner stainless steel cooking surface. That grade of stainless steel is sometimes known as 316 or 316L or 316T .. It is a little better at avoiding salt corrosion. I think Hammerstahl ? Which is the same as Heritage Steel. (made in USA) . Maybe others as well.
5) There was some cookware that used titanium on the inner clad surface. - it took the place of stainless steel and was about as thick - maybe .4 of a mm. Used over an inner layer of aluminum. Not sure of the brands, it was all made in China.
6) There are some thin backpacking cookware that uses *thin* titanium. It’s relatively lightweight and strong, but lousy to cook on, as it’s very similar to cooking on very thin stainless steel.
Therefore, I would ignore searching for anything with titanium associated with cookware, and concentrate on looking for something with a nice thick bottom with stainless steel AND some thick aluminum that conducts the heat evenly.
Thanks so much for the detailed info. This pretty much tracks with what I already knew. I was on the hunt for the Heritage Steel 6 qt rondeau/sauteuse and found one for a really good price on Ebay but I got busy the day the listing ended and forgot to bid on it. It wound up not selling and I keep hoping it will be relisted.
I did wind up having the lid on my 14" no name stainless steel sauteuse repaired at the local VoTech high school. There was a minimum $10 service fee, and I added a $10 tip. The repair looks solid, if not aesthetically perfect, and I suspect the weld may actually be better than new so it should last another 15 or 20 years but if I see the Heritage 6 qt at the right price I will probably buy it. I won't regret repairing the one I already have for the price I paid.
Interesting topic. I do think that Alex summarized it pretty well. I think there is a clear difference between pure metal titanium being used in cookware vs some kinda coating where titanium content is relatively tiny.
Also, the reason those camping cookware is made out of titanium is because it's thin, light and very robust (also, pricey for that reason). And, mostly is for boiling things, on a camp fire so thickness or fry performance is not exactly needed
How's the cooking surface of plain titanium like? Sticks more than stainless or less?
Probably not a fair comparison but, as a long-time camper, thin Titanium cookware is terrible for anything approaching dry cooking. Aluminum isn't really any better.
The thermal properties of pure Titanium cookware don't spread heat out like most of us want, thermal capacity seems pretty low (i.e. no carry over heat), and 'stickiness' is really high.
It is lightweight and tough so, in a backpack being crushed and squeezed by any number of things, it works really well for soup, stew, some pastas, and similar things. On the other hand, something like frying a piece of bacon is a failure unless you constantly manipulate it; the ripples in contact with the pan will burn while the ripples in the air remain raw. You could "float" an egg in oil or fat to fry it but, that isn't realistic from a backpack.
Yeah, probably the closest comparison that can be done is with Revere Ware as that is the thinnest stainless steel cookware that I know of. And the amount of copper in the post-68 stuff is pretty thin.
I wonder how well titanium cookware either fully clad or bottom clad with aluminum would do in comparison to regular tri-ply.
Sort of related, sort of unrelated:
My Hestan Nanobond skillet performs like a regular stainless skillet with minor improvements. As long you don't fry your egg totally dry or on too high a heat setting, it works really well and is similar to something like an All-Clad skillet.
My Hestan Nanobon 3L "soup pot" works exceptionally well for things I use a saucepan for. I don't dry cook in it so, it works better than any other saucepan I regularly use. The "flat" rivets are a big reason most of my old saucepans have gotten "lost" in the cabinet.
My Lagostina Accademia Lagofusion is another really good option for people to consider. It cooks exceptionally well and if I had a ~3L saucepan, it would be interesting to see which of these two options I would use more.
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