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Nerdy Science in the Kitchen

Best Utensils for Stainless Steel Cookware

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When cooking, there are several types of cookware you can use. Cast iron, carbon steel, non-stick, stainless steel and a few more.

You've got your stainless steel cookware. Now what utensils do you need?
You’ve got your stainless steel cookware. Now what utensils do you need?

One of my favorites of all the cooking material to choose from is easily the stainless steel cookware. Stainless steel is extremely durable and very versatile making it one of the most used, and most recommended surfaces to cook on.

When getting a new set of stainless steel cookware you will likely want to get some utensils as well. Stainless steel is one of the most versatile cooking surfaces. You can use almost any type of utensils on them without having to worry about damaging the surface. This post is going to be geared toward getting you the best utensils for your cooking set.

Best Utensils for Stainless Steel CookwarePictureWhy We Like Them
1. Oxo Wooden Cooking Utensil Set OXO 3 Piece Good Grips Wooden Turner Set, Woodthey’re sturdy and relatively inexpensive
2. Calphalon Nylon Tool Utensil Set Calphalon 7-Piece Gourmet Mixed Kitchen Utensil Setinexpensive and flexible
3. Stainless Steel Set Stainless Steel Kitchen Utensil Set - 10 piece premium Non-Stick & Heat Resistant Kitchen Gadgets, Turner, Spaghetti Server, Ladle, Serving Spoons, Whisk, Tungs, Potato Masher and Utensil Holderstainless steel utensils can handle high heat and are easy to clean
4. Amazon Silicone Utensils Set Kitchen Utensil Set Silicone Cooking Utensils 11Piece - Cooking Utensils Set with Bamboo Wood Handles for Nonstick Cookware,Non Toxic Turner Tongs Spatula Spoon Set.-Chef's Handsilicone is heat-resistant and is non-corrosive
4. OXO Good Grips 15-Piece Everyday Kitchen Utensil Set OXO Good Grips 15-Piece Everyday Kitchen Utensil Sethybrid set gives you the strength of stainless steel with easy cleaning

Wooden Tools

The first type of utensils I’ll talk about are wooden utensils. I like these most for making or mixing sauces and not really much else. Although wooden or bamboo spatulas are very good for cleaning off the food that gets stuck onto skillets while searing.

Certainly, there is no real issue in using wooden utensils. They are sturdy, they look nice and they are relatively inexpensive. My issue comes into play when I have to clean them. They cannot be put in the dishwasher. Hand-washing them doesn’t seem to get the tools clean enough for my liking.

Oxo Wooden Cooking Utensil Set

Nylon/Plastic Tools

Another type of popular material for utensils are your everyday nylon tools. These are pretty versatile and can be used on any surface you are cooking with.

Calphalon Nylon Tool Utensil Set

Pros:

  • Nylon utensils are inexpensive and are good for everyday use.
  • They are very flexible and that gives them a little bit of an advantage.

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Cons:

  • The issue I generally have with these is they can get pretty flimsy and begin to melt (especially if you cook with extremely high heat).
  • Another con of nylon tools is that they are difficult to clean. Often times I find myself using spoons and knives trying to scrape off the food that has gotten stuck on them.

Here’s the best sponge for stainless steel cookware.

Stainless Steel Tools

My personal favorite tool to use on stainless steel surfaces are stainless steel utensils. They are good looking tools and can be used in nearly all situations.

Stainless Steel Set

Pros:

  • Stainless steel has a lot of benefits when cooking, the greatest of which is how it is able to withstand so much heat. Being metal makes it safe to use when you are cooking at very high temperatures.
  • They are much easier to clean than nylon tools. Because they are metal, they can be made much thinner than other spatulas while remaining sturdy enough to handle heavy cuts of meat.

Cons:

  • Of course, nothing can be all good, and these tools have a downside as well. Stainless steel, while being beautiful and sturdy tools, are going to be much more expensive than any other type of kitchen utensils you will be able to purchase. The silver lining is that these will last a very long time.

Here’s my favorite stainless steel cookware without aluminum.

Silicone Tools

Silicone tools are excellent utensils to have handy as well.

Pros:

  • Silicone is resistant to degrees that are much higher than you will usually ever be cooking with while cooking indoors, so you can use it confidently in any situation.
  • It is non-corrosive so it will not react negatively to certain types of acids that some foods will contain. What that means to you is they will be able to use these on a daily basis and they will still be in good condition for a long time. Ones of the strong points of silicone utensils also happens to be one of its downsides.

Amazon Silicone Utensils Set

Cons:

  • The flexibility in these tools is great for some things, but there are moments where you will need to have something with some weight to it. Luckily, there is a good solution to this.

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OXO Good Grips 15-Piece Everyday Kitchen Utensil Set

The best utensils, in my estimation, are the ones that utilize stainless steel along with silicone technology. Some stainless steel utensils are made with a silicone coating that gives you the benefits of sturdiness of stainless steel and the easy cleaning ability of silicon.

Wrap-Up

There are several types of cooking utensils, all of which have their use in the right circumstances. Because of that, I cannot simply tell you what the single best material to use for stainless steel is.

I would recommend getting some stainless steel utensils for sure. You should also get some silicone utensils. The wooden ones are also very good to have laying around.

I will say though, I do not use nylon utensils at all when cooking with stainless steel. It’s too difficult to clean and entirely too sensitive to heat.

If I had to choose just one type of tool to use, I would go with stainless steel.

Additional Resources

Image credit via Flickr Creative Commons: Cooks & Kitchens and Ginny.

Kitchen Professor author
About the Author: Alexis DeAnda

Alexis DeAnda is a food fanatic, library card user, and cast iron hunter, in that order. She has been cooking for anyone that will taste it ever since her mom let her make doughnuts on Saturday mornings at the age of 7.

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