Absolutely you can. Stainless is the best. (Never saw a recipe that said "Don't use stainless")? Don't use aluminum or cast iron for acidic ingredients, like tomatoes.

Enamel coated cast iron (like Le Creuset or whatever that really expensive stuff is called) is fine.

Agree that stainless is the ideal. Like malna said I can't think of anything that you couldn't or shouldn't use SS for.

Aluminum however is far from ideal for many foods and many recipes will have a note to not use aluminum.

Dave

Dave, can you go into full detail as to why? Or post a link on past discussions about this?

You mean no aluminum? I won't get into the long heated debate over never use aluminum pans for anything because of all the dangers supposedly related to them. That debate isn't relevant to this forum.

But when it comes to canning, NCHFP explains it in part in the FAQs there saying something to the effect that acidic foods interact with aluminum and can lead to off-colors and flavors as the acids cause them to pit and that releases more of the metals into the foods.

Google will give you lots more info about it including lists of foods that shouldn't be used with reactive cookware: pickles, highly salted foods, tomatoes, acidic fruits, rhubarb, sauerkraut and other fermented foods.

OK?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Canning 101: Why You Can't Cook Acidic Foods in Reactive Pots

The business about aluminum and Alzheimer's dementia comes from a study that was flawed and has been retracted. Healthwise aluminum has been exonerated, but that doesn't mean it doesn't make acidic food taste bad. Aluminum for BWB or PC is fine. I don't cook in it, because it tastes like aluminum foil.

Cheap stainless (and there's a lot of it around) will not necessarily perform any better than aluminum.

A thin stainless pot without an encapsulated base is very prone to scorching. It's not a good conductor and if there's not enough chromium in the alloy, it will also corrode.

The use of a higher proportion of expensive alloys in the stainless explains the superior performance of some older stainless brands like original Farberware.

Carol

Thank you! I will use my stainless one from now on.