Ceramic vs aluminum cookware: what you're actually buying

Ceramic cookware almost always means a ceramic nonstick coating on a metal pan, not a pan made of ceramic, and that metal is usually aluminum. GreenPan puts it plainly: the aluminum is the core that spreads the heat, and the ceramic is the cooking surface. Caraway builds its pans on a recycled aluminum core with a stainless steel base plate under the ceramic. So the real choice is bare aluminum or aluminum with a coating.

Aluminum heats quickly and evenly, and it's light and cheap. But it's soft, so thin pans dent and warp, and bare aluminum reacts with acidic food such as tomato, wine and citrus, which can taste metallic. That's why most aluminum pans are hard-anodized or coated, GreenPan and Made In both say. It isn't magnetic either, so it won't heat on induction without a steel plate in the base.

The coating gives a slick surface that doesn't react with food, so eggs slide and tomato sauce is fine. It also brings the rules of any coating: moderate heat and no metal utensils, GreenPan says, no cooking spray, and a slick surface that wears with use. Many ceramic pans add a steel base for induction: the Caraway, GreenPan Valencia Pro and All-Clad HA1 Ceramic sets we list all work on it.

For a frying pan for eggs, fish and pancakes, choose ceramic-coated aluminum. Choose bare aluminum for sheet pans, big pasta and stock pots and steamers, where light weight and a low price matter and a coating would only wear; the Vollrath steamer we list is bare aluminum. For an everyday skillet that sears and takes tomato sauce for hours, look at clad stainless instead: it has aluminum inside too.