Waterless Cookware Blog

Why Stainless Steel Cookware?  … a little history

Metal cooking utensils have been in common use for centuries.  Stainless Steel cookware is a more recent development.

The smelting of Stainless Steel (an iron-nickel-chromium alloy) didn’t occur until 1910 when Harry Brearley (under the employ of John Brown Laboratories and Thomas Firth & Sons, England) sought to smelt a metal resistant to rust, erosion and corrosion—a metal adaptable to military use, capable of withstanding nature and the intense heat fluctuations common to repeat firing arms.

Metallurgical studies dating back to the early 1820’s (Berthier, France), the 1870’s (Woods and Clark, Britain), and refined in 1909 (Giesen, England) pointed Brearley in the direction of an 18/10 chromium/nickel blended alloy to meet his performance criteria.  Brearly’s alloy, known today as t304 Stainless Steel (one of the 300 series of ‘austhenitic’ Stainless Steel) contains a host of additional benefits—durable, nonporous, mirror-like sheen impervious to stain, easily molded, cleaned, polished and chemically inert (nontoxic).

Given the unique character of surgical grade Stainless Steel, Brearly’s t304 alloy has proved over the years to be far more advantageous as surgical instrumentation and cookware than bullet casings.   The unmatched properties of t304 Stainless Steel produce the most hygienic, impervious (non-erosive, non-corrosive, non-porous, non-toxic, non-stick) cooking surface available in the cookware marketplace.

• non-erosive (will not leach, flake, peel or degrade into foods)
• non-corrosive (will not rust, tarnish or react to water, air, salt; no seasoning or tempering—wash in soapy water)
• non-porous (will not house bacteria in microscopic pores as will cast iron or other soft metals—copper, aluminum, etc.)
• non-toxic (t304 Stainless Steel is totally chemically inert)
• non-stick (real foods contain all the essential fats and fluids necessary to release themselves from a hot surface—excessive heat causes sticking, charring & burning, not the cookware).

But this is just the character of Brearly’s base alloy.  Advancements in the fabrication of Stainless Steel cookware over the past fifty years has evolved to a point where Stainless Steel cookery is the established, unchallenged epitome of safe, chemically inert, healthy cooking utensils.

Related Articles:

A Lifetime of Value: An Investment in Quality
The Healthy Cookware Choice:  Multi-ply t304 Stainless Steel
…for more on the Real Story of Stainless Steel Cookware

Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive…