Many of you are wondering is it worth investing in the most expensive All-Clad cookware? Could the most expensive also mean best or will it disappoint you for the price? You will soon find out in our All-Clad Copper Core cookware set review.
As the name suggests, the main difference from standard All Clad’s stainless steel cookware is copper.
There is a visible copper line on the outer side near the bottom of the cookware. You can see an actual cross-section in the picture. You might notice that it’s pretty much the same stuff as All-Clad d5 pots, except for the middle layer, which is copper instead of steel. It is surrounded by 2 aluminum layers and the outer layers are made of stainless steel. The cooking surface is 18/10 stainless steel. But the bottom is made of magnetic stainless steel so you can use this cookware on induction cooktops too.
Why Copper?
So why would they replace steel with copper? As you might perhaps remember from your high school science class, copper is a great conductor of both electricity and heat. This makes Copper Core cookware very responsive to heat changes. It will warm up pretty quickly, but it will also cool down quicker than steel core cookware when you turn down the heat.
One important usage advantage of All-Clad Copper Core products is that they will save you energy. You will need to experiment a bit, but you will definitively be cooking on lower stove heat. All thanks to cookware’s high conductivity.
Copper Core Downsides
As with every product, it is not perfectly made, but downsides are also a bit subjective. One thing you will need to invest in is cleaning that copper band. While it is a nice touch, copper requires maintenance to stay shiny. You might skip a few polishes, but it will likely cause a patina to form on the copper band.
Another problem is this is not the most dishwasher-friendly cookware. True, they say it is, but again the problem will occur with the copper band as it will get darker the more you use your dishwasher to clean this set. I have pieces I never wash in the dishwasher, and can tell you you can see the difference after 2 years.
All in all, the downsides are all aesthetic and will not influence performance.
All-Clad Copper Core Appearance and Performance
This looks amazing when it’s new, and it also doesn’t lose much of its shine as time goes by. You don’t need to polish the copper line every time you use the cookware and it will still look amazing. Handles and lids are still in the same after 2 years I used them.
When it comes to performance, it is probably the best stainless steel cookware you can find on market today. Surfaces in all pots and pans are extremely durable even though I use them on daily basis and are not showing signs of wear. It has high performance and you will not find better cookware for the money any time soon.
All-Clad Copper Core Lids
When it first came out, this set had a copper lid. So to look nice, you had to invest time in those, which most people don’t have in their schedule. There were some bad reviews for this cookware only due to that fact. But a few years ago, they changed it to standard stainless steel lids (the one I got too), which are essentially the same lids as all other All Clad’s cookware sets have. This was a big improvement as you could interchange lids with pots from other cookware lines, you didn’t have to polish it and you could now use a dishwasher to clean them, which is a great time saver.