Tag Archives: all clad

Made in the USA

made in usaEveryone wants to support local business as much as possible, and we all know how hard it is nowadays to find something actually made in our country, not just assembled here. A lot of brands will make a few items here and the rest in other countries, so it’s hard to keep track. While this list should be complete, please do let me know if you know any dirty little trickery that one of these brands might be trying to pull over on us consumers! Of course the best course of action is looking at the box, but even then it might not tell the whole story.

MADE IN THE USA!

all clad setAll-Clad** – Canonsburg, PA – The majority of All-Clad pots and pans are made in the USA. However, the lids and accessory pieces are manufactured in China. Accessory pieces include utensils, certain specialty pieces, and any of the stockpots over 16 quarts in size (because you can’t clad anything larger than a 16 quart!!). Generally these pieces come in black boxes, but not always. (Normally the boxes are white.)

*Appliances from All-Clad are made in China!!

Anchor Hocking – Lancaster, OH – Very sturdy glassware, glass bakeware, candle holders, serveware, canisters, etc. Since 1905; second-largest glass supplier in the US.

Anchor Hocking bakeware
Anchor Hocking bakeware

*Prior to 2008 some of the plastic lids were not manufactured in the USA, but now they all are.

Calphalon** – Toledo, OH – The bulk of Calphalon’s products are still made in the USA, but it’s very hard to decipher on their website. A request sent in to Calphalon let me know that their aluminum products are still made in the USA. This includes their Williams Sonoma, Target & Walmart hard-anodized products; Unison, Elite, Simply Calphalon, Kitchen Essentials, and Cooking with Calphalon.

Calphalon Unison nonstick
Calphalon Unison nonstick

Enclume – Port Hadlock, WA – French metal-forming equipment yields beautiful metal pot racks, kitchen furniture/accessories, and fireplace/hearth accessories.

Enclume pot rack
Enclume pot rack

Epicurean – Duluth, MN – Eco-friendly compressed wood cutting boards eliminate the care associated with wood surfaces. Dishwasher-safe and no oil required!

Epicurean cutting boards
Epicurean cutting boards

Fat Daddio’s – Spokane, WA – “Safe-Seal” anodized aluminum bakeware, which also happens to be one of the most highly rated brands, particularly among professionals.

Fat Daddio's bakeware
Fat Daddio’s bakeware

Fiesta Dinnerware – Newell, WV – High-fired, sturdy dinnerware and bakeware since 1936. Lead-free since 1986.

Fiesta dinnerware
Fiesta dinnerware

J.K. Adams – Dorset, VT – Quality wooden cutting boards, spice racks, wine racks, rolling pins and other entertaining products.

J.K. Adams wine rack
J.K. Adams wine rack
John Boos work table
John Boos work table

John Boos – Effingham, IL – Beautiful, thick wood cutting boards that are preferred by most professionals and found in many commercial kitchens, as well as wood and metal work carts, countertops/surfaces, shelves/racks and other kitchen furniture. High standards of sustainability in their foresting practices, as well.

Lodge – South Pittsburg, TN – Cast iron cookware since 1896.

*Enameled cast iron from Lodge uses enamel made in China. (Le Creuset & Staub, two French lines of enameled cast iron, use French-made enamel.)

Lodge fryer
Lodge fryer

Nordic Ware – Minneapolis, MN – Creator of the Bundt pan, and along with now offering many new Bundt shapes, they produce other bakeware, cookware, microwave cookware, and grill products. Highly sustainable; BPA-free, melamine-free, and nonstick coatings are water-based.

Nordic Ware bundt pan
Nordic Ware bundt pan

Pyrex – Charleroi, PA – The original strong glass bakeware and kitchen accessories.

Pyrex bakeware & storage
Pyrex bakeware & storage

Rogar – Petersburg, VA – Quality metal pot racks, wine racks, spice racks, and wine openers.

Rogar pot rack
Rogar pot rack

USA Pans – KS – High-quality metal bakeware and cookware. Cookware is 5-ply clad stainless (just like All-Clad), and the bakeware has AMERICOAT Plus silicone coating that is a clear nonstick free of PTFE’s and PFOA’s. Bakeware also has a corrugated/fluted design to prevent sticking and is used widely commercially.

USA Pans bakeware
USA Pans bakeware

Vitamix – Cleveland, OH – Uniquely patented blending products, considered to be the most powerful on the market and used commercially by many restaurants and professionals.

Vitamix
Vitamix

William Bounds – Torrance, CA – Pepper, salt and spice grinders/mills that have a special patented mechanism that actually crushes the pepper, which is the proper way to do it. Thus their slogan, “We’ve got a crush on pepper”!

William Bounds mills
William Bounds mills

NOT QUITE MADE IN THE USA…

I know I put a few exceptions in the top portion already, but I feel these are a little more obviously not made in the United States, yet worth mentioning.

Microplane zester
Microplane zester

Microplane – All Microplane blades are made in the USA, however the materials for the various handles are outsourced. Everything needing piecing together is assembled in Mexico. Therefore, if you were to buy the basic handle-less Classic Zester, you would be buying a product fully from the US.

Assembled in the USA: Kitchen Aid stand mixers. Parts come from various countries. The all-metal pasta attachments are still made in Italy, which is notable. They slap a flag sticker on the boxes that say “assembled in the USA” but people don’t read it and assume they are made here.

Stainless Steel Cookware

The key with buying stainless cookware is that you want to make sure it is clad.  Let me back up a little.

All Clad 2qt. saucier
All Clad 2qt. saucier

All stainless cookware isn’t actually just stainless steel.  That would take forever to heat up.  So there is generally at least one layer of a different metal between the layers of stainless that is a better conductor of heat, typically aluminum.  Aluminum detractors, never fear—the aluminum cannot get out unless you sawed these things in half, no matter what style of pan it is.  (Unless it’s an all-aluminum pan [not cast aluminum, not anodized, straight up aluminum!] with no stainless, which you’d maybe find in a camping store.  Even then only really acidic foods like tomatoes should scare you.)

CIA stock pot - you can't clad a pot larger than 16 quarts
CIA stock pot – you can’t clad a pot larger than 16 quarts

What you will see in less expensive cookware, or very large pots (anything over 16 quarts, to be exact), is a disc that has been attached to the bottom of the pan.  Some people think that the thicker this disc, the better the pan will distribute heat, but that isn’t exactly true.  To get a more even distribution of heat, you want something called clad cookware.

What clad means is that the metals are actually laid together like a sandwich, then bent into the shape of a pan, meaning the conductive interior is all over the inside of your pan.  See the awesome drawing I made below:

Clad cookware DNA
Clad cookware DNA

Some brands will have multiple interior layers with various metals inside.  The best conductor is copper, which is pretty expensive.  [Note to folks with glass stovetops—the majority of glass stovetops take a really long time to heat up, so getting copper cookware won’t help alleviate this issue much, unfortunately.]

The most well known clad cookware is All-Clad, a lot of which is still made in the USA.  They have several lines and are the original clad cookware manufacturer.  It’s hard to clad anything larger than a 16 qt. but I think the even heat distribution issue is far more important for frying pans and saucepans, anyway.  If buying something made in the USA is your priority, please note that not all All-Clad items are made at home anymore, including all lids and accessories.  (Note that accessories come in black boxes, making it easier to tell it’s made in China.) 

Cuisinart Multi-Clad cookware
Cuisinart Multi-Clad cookware

Viking saucepan
Viking saucepan

Cuisinart’s Multi-Clad line is consistently top-rated as a great alternative to All-Clad, and I have heard this repeatedly from its users.  All-Clad is five-layers of steel (they have other lines now, but nothing is less than five) around an aluminum core, and Cuisinart’s Multi-Clad is three layers.  Both clean very nicely. Moving in the opposite direction price-wise, Viking cookware is seven layers of steel around an aluminum core.  (Viking no longer produces cookware or appliances.)

All Clad copper core saute pan
All Clad copper core saute pan
All Clad copper (aluminum core) cookware
All Clad copper (aluminum core) cookware

If you’re looking for something with a copper core, All-Clad’s copper core line has a stainless exterior.  This is a tad on the expensive side, but beautiful cookware.  (Do not confuse the copper-core with the copper-exterior line! The copper cookware has an aluminum core, just like the stainless lines do. Apparently they don’t manufacture the copper line anymore, as it’s not listed on their website.)  CIA cookware is relatively new to the game, lowering their price point in order to compete, and it has seven-layers of steel around a copper core for about half the price of All-Clad.  CIA stands for Culinary Institute of America, which is the only school that can designate someone a Master Chef.  Everything in their product line came from ideas vetted by master chefs to make sense in the kitchen.

CIA 2qt. saucier
CIA 2qt. saucier

One thing I have discovered I dislike about stainless cookware is the rivets.  Most cookware have rivets so when I do make a mess in the stainless pieces I own, the rivets drive me nuts.  On the pro-side, you can use metal utensils, which I think are just great.  I’d never been able to use them my whole life until now.

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