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A few well-chosen pieces—starting with a good stockpot and a heavy sauté pan—can make a
big difference
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As a Fine Cooking editor, I’ve had the chance to observe lots of great cooks at work.
From them, I’ve learned plenty—including the fact that good-quality pots and <a
href="https://www.dy-cookware.com/frying-pan/">Frying Pan</a>s made of the right materials
really can improve your cooking.
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Rather than having a rack filled with pots and pans of all shapes and sizes, owning a few
well-chosen pieces will give you the flexibility to cook whatever you want and the performance
you need to cook it better.
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I polled some of our authors to find out which <a href="https://www.dy-
cookware.com/frying-pan/cartoon-mini-egg-pan/">Cartoon Mini Egg Pan</a>s were the most
valuable to them and why. I then came up with six pieces, starting with two indispensables: an
anodized-aluminum stockpot to handle stocks, soups, stews, some sauces, blanching, boiling,
and steaming; and a high-sided stainless-steel/aluminum sauté pan with a lid for frying,
deglazing sauces, braising small items like vegetables, making sautés and fricassées, cooking
rice pilafs and risottos, and a whole lot more. The other four pieces I picked make for even
more cooking agility and add up to half a dozen ready-for-action pots and pans that you’ll
really use (see For every pot, there’s a purpose…).
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For every pot, there is a purpose…
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The letters identifying the pots key to the photo below.
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A. Calphalon 8-quart (or bigger) stockpot, with lid. Simmer soup or cook a big batch of
tomato sauce in this sturdy, nonreactive stockpot. It will do double-duty for boiling pasta
and steaming vegetables, too.
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B. All-Clad 3-quart sauté pan, with lid. Stainless coating with aluminum sandwiched all
the way through makes for a responsive, durable, attractive <a href="https://www.dy-
cookware.com/grill-pan/">Grill Pan</a>. Great for frying, deglazing, and, of course, sautés.
And it goes from stove to oven.
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C. Mauviel Cuprinox 3-quart stainless-lined copper saucepan, with lid. Top-performing
copper is heavy-duty and responsive, with a shiny stainless interior that’s easy to see into
and durable. Copper tarnishes easily, but when it’s cared for, it looks great.
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D. Lodge cast-iron skillet. Old faithful needs thorough drying and constant seasoning, but
nothing takes high heat better, holds it as long, or puts a better crust on cornbread. It’s
durable — and cheap, too.
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E. Le Creuset oval enameled cast-iron casserole, with lid. Great for stove-to-oven roasts
and stews and long, slow simmering. Its light-colored interior makes it easy to see into for
deglazing sauces.F. Circulon Commercial nonstick skillet. This heavy-weight nonstick stands up
to high heat and wear, goes from stove to oven, has an easy- gripping handle, and cooks
delicate omelets as well as Cajun pork chops.
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<strong>All good pans share common traits</strong>
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In a well-stocked kitchen store, you’ll see lots of first-rate pots and <a
href="https://www.dy-cookware.com/grill-pan/square-grill-pan/">Square Grill Pan</a>s. They may
look different, but they all share essential qualities you should look for.
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Look for heavy-gauge materials. Thinner-gauge materials spread and hold heat unevenly, and
their bottoms are more likely to dent and warp. This means that food can scorch. Absolutely
flat bottoms are particularly important if your stovetop element is electric. Heavy-gauge pans
deliver heat more evenly (see “Good pans are worth their price…,” below).
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To decide if a pan is heavy enough, lift it, look at the thickness of the walls and base,
and rap it with your knuckles—do you hear a light ping or a dull thud? A thud is good in this
case.
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<strong>Good pans are worth their price because they manage heat better</strong>
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“Good conductor” and “heavy gauge” are the key features of good cookware. Here’s how
these characteristics affect cooking.
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You get responsive heat. Good heat conductors, such as copper and aluminum, are responsive
to temperature changes. They’ll do what the heat source tells them to do—heat up, cool down
—almost instantly.
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You get fast heat flow. Heat flows more easily through a good heat conductor, assuring a
quick equalizing of temperature on the cooking surface.
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You get even heat diffusion. A thicker pan has more distance between the cooking surface
and the heat source. By the time the heat flows to the cooking surface, it will have spread
out evenly, because heat diffuses as it flows.
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You get more heat. Mass holds heat (heat is vibrating mass, so the more mass there is to
vibrate, the more heat there will be). The more pan there is to heat, the more heat the pan
can hold, so there’s more constant heat for better browning, faster reducing, and hotter
frying.
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You’ll want handles and a lid that are sturdy, heatproof, and secure. Handles come
welded, riveted, or screwed. Some cooks advise against welded handles because they can break
off. But Gayle Novacek, cookware buyer for Sur La Table, has seen few such cases. As long as
handles are welded in several spots, they can be preferable to riveted ones because residue is
apt to collect around a rivet.
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Many pans have metal handles that stay relatively cool when the pan is on the stove
because the handle is made of a metal that’s a poor heat conductor and retainer, such as
stainless steel. Plastic and wooden handles stay cool, too, but they’re not ovenproof. Heat-
or ovenproof handles mean that dishes started on the stovetop can be finished in the oven.
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All lids should fit tightly to keep in moisture. The lid, too, should have a heatproof
handle. Glass lids, which you’ll find on certain brands, are usually ovensafe only up to 350
°F.
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A pan should feel comfortable. “When you’re at the store, pantomime the way you’d use
<a href="https://www.dy-cookware.com/soup-stock-pots/">Soup & Stock Pots</a> or pan to
find out if it’s right for you,” advises Fine Cooking contributing editor and chef Molly
Stevens. If you find a pan you love but you aren’t completely comfortable with the handle,
you can buy a rubber gripper to slip over the handle. Just remember that grippers aren’t
ovenproof.
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<strong>Some pans need special talents</strong>
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Depending on what you’ll be cooking in the pan, you may also need to look for other
attributes.
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For sautéing and other cooking that calls for quick temperature changes, a pan should be
responsive. This means that the <a href="https://www.dy-cookware.com/baking-dishes-
pans/">Baking Dishes & Pans</a> are doing what the heat source tells it to, and pronto.
For example, if you sauté garlic just until fragrant and then turn down the flame, the pan
should cool down quickly so the garlic doesn’t burn. Responsiveness isn’t as crucial for
boiling, steaming, or the long, slow cooking that stocks and stews undergo.
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