on top of good quality cookware taking care of your cookware and learning cooking tips to avoid stuck on foods or thermal shock is also important
i personally dont go for cast iron, its very heavy and enough an annoyance to clean that i dont want to deal with it unless i need cast iron for a specific result, instead i prefer stainless steel, preferably with a thick bottom and absolutely no non-stick coating
for pots and pans the thick bottom holds onto heat longer, and is slower to heat up and cool down. this means that your cooking temperature stays nice and consistent, which is esp important for pans that you sear and fry on but is nice for pots when making sauces and rice too, but doesnt matter as much when youre boiling things
stainless steel with no non-stick coatings means it can hold up to a scrubbing if something does get stuck on it, and is resistant- though not immune- to rusting. you dont want a non-stick coating. yes the ads will try to sell you on the convenience and your less savvy acquaintances will tell you how great non-stick is. dont buy into it. non-stick is not foolproof, things can still get stuck to it, and when it does youll likely try to scrub it off, which is where the danger lies
most if not all non-stick has forever chemicals that are bad for you if they get into your food, and its the slow kind of harm that builds and hurts you unnoticed over time instead of in a quick and easy to spot way (think slow decline in health over years rather than keeling over in sudden pain within a day). non-stick is safe enough at first, but the second you scratch it is when it starts getting all that forever chemical into your food. just dont buy it.
(the non-stick coating also wears out over time. youd be buying a convenience that is temporary at best)
for cooking utensils (spatulas, big spoons) if you hate the sound of metal-on-metal getting some good quality wooden ones works swell, just be mindful of the build quality and the coating. the biggest downside to wooden cooking utensils is they are best cleaned as soon as you can after all the cooking is done, and they dont like being wet for extended periods so you cant leave them in a wet or watery sink/pot/whatever for more than a few short hours (if the coating is good, if its bad or nonexistent dont leave it wet for even an hour).
good quality wooden cutting boards are also great, they stand up to knives nicely and are easy to add mineral oil or (food safe) wax coatings onto if their old coating wears out/didnt exist in the first place. you can also use a clean one as something to put hot things from the stove or oven onto so you dont damage your table/countertops
(fun fact me and another once woodworked a cutting board big enough for a pizza, so we did the coating ourselves!)
for measuring utensils glass is fine but metal wont shatter and recycles better, though good luck finding some. that said glass for a liquid measuring cup is nice for the transparency
for baking go for ceramic or a good quality glass (the article above explains what kind of glass to look for in glass cookware), or a good quality dutch oven because they are so nice even though theyre heavy and handwash only. alternatively, if you can find it, stainless steel again, but this time without the thick bottom because you want the heat to reach the food evenly all around when sticking it in an oven. if your pots and pans are completely metal there is technically nothing stopping you from using them in an oven, except maybe the size and material of the handles (ive baked cakes and easter bread in stainless steel pots and pans before)
now for knives metal is the old reliable, the smooth edged ones can be resharpened many times and any with teeth that get too dull can be sharpened into another smooth edged knife! but dont use those easy sharpening gadgets because they dont sharpen well. take the time to learn how to use a whetstone/grindstone or ask someone who knows how to sharpen well to do it for you. ceramic knives exist, but theyre brittle and can chip, and you cant sharpen them like you can a metal knife. for the handles you either want a wooden handle or a metal one, and the less pieces its made up of the less crevices for rust or filth to potentially build up. if its metal its best if its just one solid piece with the blade, but otherwise you want to see the tang (the part of the knife that goes in the handle) visible on the top (and not bottom) of your knife handle as a metal line in your metal/wooden handle. a tang visible in this way means the knife is unlikely to get wiggly in its handle, and it means the handle is one solid piece that can be replaced if need be (though requires finding someone who can do so or making the replacement yourself)
overall avoid plastic if you can, and as nice as silicone is maybe dont use it either if you can help it. both take forever to degrade when thrown out and dont recycle well, though if you have little choice go for silicone over plastic, its better with the heat that cooking entails
i also have opinions on kettles and specialized tools for baking/decorating sweets, but i know they are a bit more specialized so ill save those for another time
now that ive rambled on about tools, next is cooking tips
the easiest: avoiding thermal shock, esp in glass and ceramic. thermal shock happens when you put something very hot or very cold in contact with a material, changing the temperature so quickly that it cant keep up and breaks from the stress. if youre lucky it will only crack, if youre unlucky it will shatter, flinging sharp fragments everywhere including at your squishy self. if you must put something thats a very different temperature from your glass/ceramic into said glass/ceramic you can reduce the risk of thermal shock by heating/cooling the container, the containee, or both so that their temperatures are closer to each other, making the jump from one temperature to another smaller and less materially stress inducing
metal is a champ at handling the stress of a large temperature change without cracking, but putting a frozen thing on metal is just asking for the thing to stick. i cant say i know the science of why it does that very well, but if your thing was in a freezer defrost it before putting it in your metal cookware. from the fridge is usually fine
to keep things from sticking when frying or baking you use fats. i usually go for oil, butter, or a mix of both. butter tastes great, but burns and smokes easily, so i cant recommend frying with butter if youre not experienced and/or skilled at cooking, but its easy to use in the oven. oil has a higher smoke point so its more forgiving for frying, and its easy to use in the oven. using a mix of butter and oil gets you a higher burn/smoke point than just butter while also getting that yummy butter taste.
id look up the smoke point of both, as well as any other fat you might be using. this and how to put a fatty fire out (dont use water!!) are very good to know before you start cooking
for frying, put your pan on the stove and your fat of choice in while its unheated (whether before or after you turned your stove on doesnt matter, just as long as the pan has not heated up yet), this lets the pan and the fat heat up together so that the fat doesnt fuss at a sudden temperature change. you need to heat the pan+fat enough to fry your thing, but not so much that whatever you fry burns on the outside while still being raw on the inside. you can test if its hot enough by taking a piece of what youre frying and lightly (and carefully, dont burn yourself!) touching it to the pan, if it sizzles its at least at cooking temperature, if it doesnt take the thing out and wait some more. an old school way of checking the temperature of your fat is to hold your hand above (1-2 inches from the surface) the fat, but how hot it needs to be is unfortunately one of those things you have to learn in person, like watching your grandmother salt a dish without a measuring tool. i unfortunately have no non-grandmotherly tricks for checking if the pan is too hot, but err on the side of caution. not hot enough will still cook your thing through with time (if a bit less tastily and a slightly increased likelihood of getting stuck) and you can always increase the heat, but too hot gets you burnt and very stuck and still raw in the middle. once you put whatever youre frying in make sure you move it occasionally so that theres always a layer of fat between it and the pan. i find it helpful to lift the food almost immediately after i put it in the pan because the layer of fat under it thins out quick when you first put it on (or something, im not clear on the science), but slower later. move it to parts where theres more fat, or tilt your pan so the fat slides under the food before you put it back down
oh, also for safety try to avoid putting wet things into the hot fat youre frying in, the pan will spit hot fat at you for daring to introduce water to the fat. you dont have to dehydrate whatever youre putting in, but its better if its not dripping. be quick but dont drop/throw things in to not splash. if youre adding sauce marinade your food first so it has the flavour without dripping or add a enough of it at once that the oil doesnt have time to spit, and at a height thats low enough to not splash but high enough to keep your hands safe
frying eggs is tough, scrambled is your friend because its easy to keep moving. sunny side needs to cook longer and slower on a lower heat with attention paid to making sure there is always a layer of enough fat between the egg and the pan to keep from sticking. i unfortunately cant tell you how to make an omelette as ive never made one myself
for baking you can use a fat, a baking sheet, or both together. usually your recipe will call for some sort of fat in it, and that might be enough to prevent sticking. if there isnt a fat in the recipe coat the surface/walls of your baking cookware in your preferred fat (i use butter or oil), or use either an aluminum or a specialized paper baking sheet to keep the food from sticking to your cookware. you can also put fat on the surface of the sheet for extra not stickiness, but this is usually more for getting a nice crispness than for keeping the food from sticking to the sheet
baked goods are a bit different though, coating your cookware in fat or using a baking sheet is still great for stuff like cookies, but for things like cakes and brownies theres a different approach i use. for them i coat the cookwares surface and walls with butter and then add flour. the flour is important, but it cant be too thick, so you tilt and turn the cookware until the flour has stuck to all the butter coating the surfaces of the cookware, then turn it over above your sink and tap once or twice like a drum or tamborine to get the excess flour out. another method is to, again, coat your cookwares surface/walls in butter and then to use a specialized paper baking sheet, cut to your pans size and shape if need be (for a cylinder i use 2 pieces, a round one for the bottom and a long rectangle for the walls). in theory just the baking sheet can be enough, but in my experience if any batter finds a spot to touch the cookware surface (for instance at a seam or an edge) its going to get stuck
good luck! and remember to check if your cookware is handwash only or microwave safe before putting them into a dishwasher or microwave respectively :3
gummygunk
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