Cooking Pots

Materials

Cooking pots are made out of many different materials. Understanding the material's positive and negative attributes can help determine which style of pot will work best for your cooking project.

Metal

• Aluminum pots are very lightweight and have great conductivity, meaning the heat is quickly transferred throughout the pot. Generally inexpensive compared to other cooking pots, aluminum can negatively react to some acidic foods causing unappealing changes in flavor.
• Copper pans are best for even heating and have superior conductivity so they work well for high heat cooking like sautéing. On the downside, they can be incredibly expensive, are heavy, and need to be polished regularly to look nice.
• Cast iron pans are also exceptionally heavy but are relatively inexpensive. They are slow to heat but do distribute heat evenly once up to the desired temperature. Because they are porous, they require regular seasoning with oil to maintain a non-stick surface. A downside to cast iron is the chemical reaction caused with acidic foods like wine, tomatoes, and citrus fruits and they may discolor during cooking.
• Stainless steel is the poorest conductor of heat among metal pans, but it is most widely used because it does not cause any chemical reactions to food and is virtually maintenance free.

Non-metallic

• Glass pots have the advantage of being transparent so cooks can see how their soup is coming along. Pots made of borosilicate glass (like Pyrex) have the distinct advantage of being oven and microwave safe. The downside is they are more fragile than regular metal cooking pots.
• Ceramic pots are made of earthen material. They can be glazed or unglazed. Unglazed pots have the advantage of holding a lot of moisture because they are porous. Of course, these types of pots are also breakable.

Combinations

• Non-stick pans are metal pans that have a surface material called Teflon. The Teflon coating creates a smooth surface that doesn't allow foods to stick. The ability to cook with less oil and ease of cleaning are the advantages of non-stick pans. They may not, however, be used at very high heat.
• Enamel pots are metal pots covered with porcelain. These take advantage of the metal's ability to conduct heat, but have a non-reactive, often non-stick surface. The only disadvantage is that caution must be taken to prevent enamelware from chipping.

Types of Cooking Pots

Just as the material impacts how a pot will perform, the shape, style, and size of a cooking pot also lends itself to a particular use. The following is a list of common cooking pots, their uses, and approximate size.

• Saucepans come in sizes anywhere from one to twelve liters and are used for anything from sauce, as the name implies, to cooking small batches of soup or boiling pasta. They are flat bottom pans with sides at least as tall as they are wide and have a long extended handle.
• Dutch ovens are big, deep pots that are also wide to hold a lot of volume. They are usually used with a lid for slow cooking large amounts of stew, soups, and meat. Traditionally they are made of cast iron. Dutch ovens hold five quarts or more.
• Stock pots are pans characterized by their tall sides, flat bottoms, and double handles. Sized anywhere from seven to twenty-four quarts, they are used to create large batches of soup stock, or mass quantities of pasta.
• A sauté pan is a shallow pan with a wide flat bottom and long handle.
• A double boiler is a sauce pan or stock pot fitted with a smaller pan used to slow cook things like pudding and rice. Sizes for double boilers range from two to twelve quarts.
• A wok is an Asian style pan typically used for stir fry cooking, though it can actually be used for many types of cooking including deep frying and steaming. A wok is bowl shaped and great for cooking at high heats.

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