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"  When it comes to kitchen essentials, there&amp;#039;s nothing more important than good cookware. We tested a whopping 71 lines, just in time for the busiest cooking season of the year. We checked skillets for even heating and good browning and saucepans for steady simmering. In nonstick-coated pans, without adding any fat, we fried and scrambled eggs and flipped pancakes, to see just how nonstick their surfaces really are. We looked for rivets and crevices that can make cookware tricky to clean and inspected every piece to see if it stained from use. If it did, we scrubbed it with an abrasive cleaner to see if the stains could be removed. We checked to see if lids and handles were oven safe, and even measured whether they became too hot to touch on top of the stove. Among our findings?   Great cookware can set you back big bucks, but it doesn&amp;#039;t have to. We found a $120 set that outperformed one costing $1200 (Find out which one)      Most so-called &amp;quot;green&amp;quot; nonstick pans (which have ceramic-based coatings and are made without PTFE and PFOA) don&amp;#039;t release foods as well as the best traditional nonstick cookware.    Rest assured, your favorite celebrity chefs have done their homework. Most celebrity cookware performs extremely well. Lines fromPaula Deen, Emeril, and Rachael Ray offered excellent performance at a good price.  Wondering what to look for? Consider these points when you shop for your next set:  Nonstick is great for more than just clean up. In addition to being easier to clean, we found that nonstick cookware browns better than traditional cookware, even if you don&amp;#039;t preheat your pan.   Consider construction. Handles attached with metal rivets are less likely to come loose, but also create extra crevices to clean. Glass lids are no more likely than metal lids to break if dropped, but they tend to fog up and rarely allow you to actually see your food while it&amp;#039;s cooking.   Sets aren&amp;#039;t always best. Buying a full set of cookware can be a great buy, but only if you need all the pieces that are included. Look for ones that boost the value by offering larger family-friendly pieces like 2- and 3-quart saucepans, 12-inch skillets, and 8-quart stock pots. Check to see if some of the &amp;quot;pieces&amp;quot; are actually silly extras like spatulas or spoons.   Check out our top choices for cookware.  Still nervous about cooking with nonstick? Read our tips on how to use the cookware safely and see the video below: "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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