Ensure You Choose the Right Kitchenware Cookware for Your Culinary Pleasure

Points to Consider When Choosing Your Kitchenware or Cookware

 How many people will you be cooking for? This will help you decide the size of the pot and pans you will need to purchase.

 What is your budget? You should buy the best quality cookware that you can afford. Your cookware should last a long time. The less expensive cookware will need to be replaced in a short time.

 What cuisine will you be preparing most of the time? There are specialty cookware vessels that are better for some cuisines such as pasta or stir fry if you prepare them often.

 What are your cooking habits? Do you cook from scratch? Do you eat out a lot? Do you cook mostly convenience food? Do you entertain often? This will tell you if you only need a basic set of cookware or whether you need to buy a lot of specialty pots, pans, and kitchen accessories.

The Basic Pieces of Kitchenware Cookware

The sauce pan is the most commonly used of all of your kitchenware cookware choices. It is a tall, round pot with straight sides and a flat bottom. Sauce pans are used for cooking vegetables, heating soup, and, of course, making sauces. The basic idea of a sauce pan is to cook without the juices evaporating. Sauce pans come in different sizes that hold from 1 quart to over 3 quarts. They should come with a lid.


Frying Pan or Skillet

A frying pan has a large flat bottom with short sloped sides. This allows easy tossing and stirring with a spatula. It is used to fry foods. A nonstick frying pan can also be used as an omelet pan because an omelet slides easily and can be flipped with a flip of the wrist.

Frying pans come in several sizes ranging from 6 ½ to 14 inches in diameter. They are usually 1 ½ to 3 inches tall. They generally come with a lid.

Sauté Pan

The sauté pan is a round pan with a large flat bottom much like a frying pan except it has short, straight up and down sides. This pan is designed for searing and sautéing meat, fish, or poultry. When you sauté, you cook food in a small amount of fat. You keep things in motion by tossing or stirring, so the ingredients don’t stick or dry out when browning the food. A frying pan can be used in place of a sauté pan if necessary.

This pan come is diameters of 6 inches to 16 inches. It can be 2 ½ to 31/2 inches high and usually comes with a long handle. A lid generally comes with a sauté pan and is used when making a pan sauce.

Add These Specialty Pieces of Kitchenware Cookware If Desired

A popular kitchenware cookware pot that is usually round or oval and heavyweight with a domed cover. A Dutch oven has steep sides that range in depth from 2 to 4 3/4 inches. It can range in size from 2 quarts to 6 quarts. You will find them made from stainless steel, anodized aluminum and nonstick aluminum. They are used for pot-roasting, stewing, braising, boiling pasta and making soup. They can be used on the stovetop and in the oven. A Dutch oven is often used as a smaller substitute for a stockpot.


Stock Pot

Stockpots are tall and narrow. This minimizes evaporation while cooking chicken, beef and vegetable stock in a liquid. It is used for simmering large amounts of liquid, such as stock, soup and stews, but also works well for thick soups, chili, for boiling pasta and corn on the cob. Some stockpots come with a colander insert for draining pasta.

Stockpots are available in sizes ranging from 6 quarts to 20 quarts and generally include a cover. You will find stockpots made of several different materials, such as stainless steel, aluminum, anodized aluminum, copper, and non-stick coated aluminum.

Some cooks would add the stock pot to the basic list of kitchenware cookware.


Roasting Pan

Roasting Pans are used to cook foods by surrounding them with hot air in an oven. The shape, rectangular with low sides, allows the heat from the oven to expose the entire surface of the meat for cooking. Look for a pan a rack to prevent the meat from sitting in its own juices and stewing instead of browning.

There are several sizes available. Select a size that allows approximately 2 inches between the side of the pan and the meat. There should be at least 2 inches of space between the outside of the pan and the sides of the oven for air circulation. Roasting pans are made from several different materials, such as stainless steel, stainless steel with an aluminum or copper core, and aluminum with non-stick surfaces.


Griddle

A griddle is a flat very short rimmed or rimless pan with a long handle. They are made of metals that are good heat conductors such as aluminum. They also are available with a nonstick coating. They are designed to cook foods with a minimal amount of oil. It is the perfect kitchenware cookware item for cooking items such as pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hamburger patties.


Wok

The wok, also called a stir fry pan, is a bowl shaped pan that is used to quickly cook food over high heat. It is available with a rounded or flat bottom. The wok is most often used for stir-frying but can also be used for sautéing, steaming, and deep-frying

Woks are made from highly conductive materials, such as, cast iron, stainless steel with aluminum inner layers, and aluminum with a non-stick coating applied. Some varieties of woks have one long handle, some have two short handles and others have a long handle on one side and a short one on the opposite side. The wok is approximately 4 inches deep and can be 12 to 16 inches, in diameter.