NIB First Quality

NIB First Quality

What causes the "pitting" in stainless steel cookware?

I have both mixing bowls and cookware made of stainless steel. Both of these show dark pitted areas. I don't cook with the mixing bowls and have never hit or damaged either one. Is it the type of food used in them, like acidic items? I am sure it is the quality of the product, but how do you tell when buying?

In stainless steel saucepans and pans, pitting can occur when salt is added to water at the start of the cooking process rather than when the water boils. In those cases, because the salt rests on the bottom of the pan, with moderate temperatures prevailing at first, the acid effect of the salt's sodium chloride has the opportunity to 'eat' away at the stain less steel surface and cause pitting, showing a pattern in line with where the grains of salt have come to rest on the surface. To prevent this from occurring, always add your salt to the water when it has reached boiling point completely and make sure it disperses throughout the water as quickly as possible, rather than being allowed to sink to the bottom and come to rest there, even for just a short time. Manufacturers, particularly of high-end stainless steelware, usually publish warnings in this regard in their product literature accompanying the item, but it is frequently overlooked or the importance is simply not sufficiently understood.

I realise I haven't addressed your mixing bowl issues, but without a direct knowledge of how you use those it's hard to make a suggestion.

Hope this helps some of the way at least.

(Because FoodieNY is so certain that stainless steel can't pit, here's a search result for the subject to illustrate the problem -- the issue is a real one:

http://www.google.com/search?client=opera&rls=en&q=%22stainless+steel%22+%2Bpitting&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

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