What You'll Get In Your Set of Pots and Pans
The thought of setting up a kitchen of your own can be intimidating, especially if you’re not particularly interested in cooking. How do you know if what you’ve assembled — cookware, flatware, glassware, tableware — covers the essentials? We’re here to help.
You need only to match the size of your household with the number of bowls, cups, glasses, plates, forks and spoons you get. Don’t forget to purchase extra ones for guests, though. Serving dishes may also be necessary for larger families that typically eat together.
When it comes to cookware, it’s a whole other story entirely. Many standard sets of pots and pans have an assortment of frying pans, saucepans, sauté pans, and a stockpot with a steamer insert. Lids may be provided for some or all of them.
You can certainly buy as large a set as you want, but the truth is that you only need seven items to cook up a storm in your kitchen. To pare that number down even further — if you’re on a tight budget — you may prioritize these three: a saucepan, a sauté pan, and a stockpot.
Below are seven items that need to be in your starter set of pots and pans.
Dutch Oven
Also known as an enameled stew pot, a Dutch oven is actually not part of many standard sets of pots and pans. However, its versatility justifies a one-off purchase to round out your crucial kitchen vessels.
With its heavy bottom, high sides, and snug lid, a Dutch oven can be used to make anything from a soup or stew and a fry or braise. It can also move what you’re cooking from a stovetop to an oven seamlessly. The only downside? Because of its enamel surface, it can be difficult to sear or brown meats quickly in a Dutch oven. You may want to do those steps in a separate cast-iron or stainless steel pan. Make sure that your Dutch oven’s knob and handles are made from oven-safe materials, too.
Frying Pan or Skillet
This is the workhorse of any set of pots and pans, especially if there’s no experienced cook in the house. A frying pan can be used for anything: making eggs, cooking burgers, making pasta sauces, searing steaks, even pan toasting bread. In a pinch, a skillet can replace a sauté pan, although caramelization won’t be as pronounced.
While many standard cookware sets will provide you with more than one frying pan of several sizes, the best you can use is the tried-and-tested cast-iron skillet — which you will probably need to purchase separately. This traditional skillet holds and distributes heat evenly, and can be nonstick, too. You can even move it from a stovetop to an oven without issue.
Grill Pan or Griddle
Did you know that the only real difference between a griddle and a grill pan is the design of their respective surfaces? Griddle pans are flat, while grill pans aren’t, giving you those cooked-in lines in food that are so attractive and Instagram-worthy. The latter also allows fat to drain from what you’re cooking more efficiently.
Grill pans are great for when you need a frying pan but require a larger surface. Anything you can grill outside, you can likely cook indoors with a grill pan or griddle. Again, cast-iron ones are ideal because of their superior heat conduction and distribution.
Roasting Pan
Are you preparing a very large piece of meat that you don’t plan on breaking up into smaller pieces before cooking? You need a roasting pan.
Ideal for recipes calling for whole poultry, pork loin, or brisking, a roasting pan has sides low enough for meat and vegetables to brown but high enough to retain and collect their juices. After removing what you’ve cooked from the vessel, you can even transfer it directly to a stovetop to finish your pan sauce. Because they’re almost always oven-safe, you can even use roasting pans to bake large casseroles and lasagnas.
Saucepan
Like skillets, saucepans are typical cookware set components. You can use this vessel to make and reheats sauces and soups, but there are many other uses, too: cooking rice, poaching eggs, blanching vegetables, and more. The main difference between a saucepan and a skillet is that the former has much higher sides and often a lid to go with it, which allows for more liquid containment.
Unlike many other pots and pans, this is one that you don’t want in cast-iron or non-anodized aluminum. Tomato and butter, common sauce ingredients, can react with these materials and be altered in terms of color or taste. A nonstick option may be right for you.
Sauté Pan or Deep Skillet
A deep skillet is a vessel that looks like it’s supposed to be a cross between a saucepan and a frying pan. A sauté pan is great for braising, making dryer stews, or cooking chutneys.
Rounded pan sides facilitate food turning, or tossing and flipping — think pancakes or fried rice — while the straight sides typical of deep skillets often come with lids and can better handle liquids like hot broth or oil. Apart from its intended use, you can use a sauté pan in a pinch for deep frying or making one-pan pasta or risotto.
Stockpot
The main use of this vessel is in its name: making stock. However, it is in actuality mostly used for making large batches of soup, boiling potatoes, or cooking a lot of pasta. Anytime a recipe requires a cooking container capable of handling a high volume of liquid or a massive amount of ingredients, a stockpot should be your go-to.
If your stockpot is part of a set of pots and pans you’ve purchased, it probably has a colander or steamer insert that fits it perfectly. While not essential, this item makes it so much easier to lift out vegetables or pasta away from a very hot liquid.
Resources— Dummies, Food & Wine, The Scramble, Real Simple
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