The experts

Howard Margulies, the owner of United Restaurant Equipment Co. in Raleigh, and Willard Doxey, the House & Home buyer for A Southern Season, the gourmet food and housewares store in Chapel Hill, agree that every home cook should own at least a frying pan, a saucepan, a stockpot and a sauté pan with a lid. Margulies' company sells mainly to professional and institutional kitchens but has a small retail space at its Raleigh store. For the home cook, he champions Lincoln Wear-Ever, which is designed for commercial kitchens and will last a long time. His Lincoln Wear-Ever stock pot is 31 years old.

Doxey acknowledges that the products sold at A Southern Season are investment pieces. But many of the cookware lines the store sells, including Viking, All-Clad, Le Creuset and Scanpan, offer lifetime guarantees.

The basics

When it comes to cookware, the metal used to make the pan divides cooks. Some are cast-iron aficionados. Others cling to the copper pots that Julia Child championed. Some opt for the technological advancements: the hard-anodized aluminum created by Calphalon in the 1970s or fully clad cookware, aka stainless steel with an inner aluminum core.

What helps when buying cookware is understanding the pluses and minuses of each metal:

Aluminum

It's lightweight and conducts heat evenly. But it is soft and can be easily damaged. It also reacts with acidic foods, resulting in off flavors. Anodized aluminum solves those problems: It is harder and less reactive.

Cast iron

It heats evenly and stays hot. It requires some care: seasoning it initially with oil and cleaning it only with hot water. It also is reactive, which is resolved by enamel-coated cast iron, like Le Creuset.

Copper

It's one of the best conductors of heat. But it also is reactive and therefore is typically lined with other metals.

Stainless steel

It's durable, easy to clean and nonreactive. But it doesn't conduct heat evenly and can develop hot spots. That issue is solved by an aluminum core, which offers the benefits of both metals. High-end stainless-steel cookware will feature an increasing number of bonded layers of aluminum, and sometimes copper, which are indicated by the 5-ply and 7-ply monikers. It also will be fully clad, or have an aluminum core throughout the pan as opposed to just on the bottom.

Cookware recommendations

Frying Pans

Margulies recommends Lincoln Wear-Ever 8-inch frying pan, right, with a nonstick coating called CeramiGuard for $32.

Doxey recommends the Scanpan 8-inch skillet for $39.99, which is nonstick, or Lodge 8-inch skillet for $16.50.

Saucepans

Margulies recommends a 1-quart Lincoln Wear-Ever, right, with CeramiGuard for $36 or without the coating for $17.

Doxey recommends the Scanpan 3-quart saucepan, on special now for $129.99.

Sauté Pan

Cassie Harris, a marketing assistant at Bed, Bath & Beyond recommends Emerilware 5-quart covered sauté pan with a nonstick coating for $89.99 or a Emeril stainless-steel 3-quart sauté pan for $79.99.

Doxey recommends the All-Clad 3-quart sauté pan, left, for $195.

Stockpots

Margulies recommends the Lincoln Wear-Ever 12-quart stockpot, above, for $48 or 20-quart for $55.

Doxey recommends All-Clad 12-quart stainless multi-cooker with a steamer basket and a pasta insert for $99.99.