AmazingRibs.com is supported by our Pitmaster Club. Also, when you buy with links on our site we may earn a finder’s fee.
Click to see how we test and review products.
Here Are The Pots and Pans You Actually Need
Published On: 6/26/2019 Last Modified: 6/22/2024
Skip the Big Cookware Sets and Pick Up a Few Good Pieces
Cookware manufacturers try to sell you sets of pots of pans in all different sizes. But you really only need a few basics, a frying pan or two, a saucepan or soup pot, and a bigger stock pot or pasta pot. Here’s a guide to the pots and pans you will actually use.
Click Here To Search Our Reviews And Ratings Of Tools, Toys, And Accessories
1) Look for thick heavy-gauge pans that will hold heat even if you throw in a couple of cold steaks.
2) Look for pans that heat evenly with minimal hotspots.
2) You want something that will last without warping, denting, or pitting when you cook with acids or salts.
3) You don’t want a handle that can melt if you stick the pan on the grill or in the oven.
4) Easy to clean.
5) Rust resistant.
Stainless steel is a good all-around choice because it’s durable, easy to maintain, and not too expensive. For better heat conduction, look for clad pans, which have a stainless steel exterior sandwiched around inner layers of either copper or aluminum, both of which conduct heat faster than steel.
Cast Iron Dutch Oven Expands Your Outdoor Cooking Arsenal
Forget the fancy high end pricey Le Creuset French Oven when selecting a cast iron Dutch Oven. This is the one you want for cowboy cooking and camping. It's perfect for whole chickens or slow braising in the oven or in the grill. Add coals to the lid and it's great for baking. It also comes in handy around the house..
Lodge 12 Inch Cast Iron Skillet Is An Everyday Essential
Cast iron provides intense even heat and can be used on a stovetop, in the oven, on the grill and is great for camping. Use a cast iron pan to press sandwiches, smash potatoes, and crush spices or nuts, too. The Lodge 12 inch cast-iron skillet is a great skillet for everyday use.
Helen Chen’s Asian Kitchen Carbon Steel Wok Set Review
A wok is best for stir fries because of the high sides. Go for a flat bottom wok so it works well on American stovetop burners. This carbon steel wok set has everything you need to turn out tasty Chinese food.
Three Saucepans Are All You Need
When it comes to saucepans, you really only need 3 basic sizes: small, medium and large. The large is essentially a stockpot that you can use to boil pasta and to make stocks and large quantities of stews and BBQ sauce. The small and medium pans are for smaller quantities of soup and everything else.
Invest In Good Frying Pans, Unless They Are Nonstick
An assortment of pans for frying and sauteing is essential for a functional kitchen. Stainless steel with a core of aluminum is best for most sauteing and frying. Buy the best you can. It's also helpful to have a couple nonstick pans on hand. For those, buy them cheap and replace them when they wear out.
Elegant Stainless Steel And Glass Universal Lid Review
The Nordic Ware 12-Inch Universal Pan Lid is a vented pot lid you should keep handy when cooking. It fits most frying pans and saucepans and is much less expensive than the lids from high end manufacturers like All Clad.
OXO Splatter Screen Comes In Handy
A simple metal splatter guard helps keep your stovetop and other cookware cleaner so you don't have to spend as much time washing up. Here's one of our favorites from Oxo.
A Silicone Steamer Basket Cleans Easier Than A Metal One
A steamer basket is much less expensive than a steamer pot and can be used in almost any 1 or 2 quart pot you already have. Silicone cleans easier than the old fashioned metal ones.Related articles
Up Your BBQ IQ By Joining The Pitmaster Club
Sign up for a free trial of the AmazingRibs.com Pitmaster Club and experience everything that the world’s largest membership-based BBQ and grilling community has to offer!
High quality websites are expensive to run. If you help us, we’ll pay you back bigtime with an ad-free experience and a lot of freebies!
Millions come to AmazingRibs.com every month for high quality tested recipes, tips on technique, science, mythbusting, product reviews, and inspiration. But it is expensive to run a website with more than 2,000 pages and we don’t have a big corporate partner to subsidize us.
Our most important source of sustenance is people who join our Pitmaster Club. But please don’t think of it as a donation. Members get MANY great benefits. We block all third-party ads, we give members free ebooks, magazines, interviews, webinars, more recipes, a monthly sweepstakes with prizes worth up to $2,000, discounts on products, and best of all a community of like-minded cooks free of flame wars. Click below to see all the benefits, take a free 30 day trial, and help keep this site alive.
Post comments and questions below
1) Please try the search box at the top of every page before you ask for help.
2) Try to post your question to the appropriate page.
3) Tell us everything we need to know to help such as the type of cooker and thermometer. Dial thermometers are often off by as much as 50°F so if you are not using a good digital thermometer we probably can’t help you with time and temp questions. Please read this article about thermometers.
4) If you are a member of the Pitmaster Club, your comments login is probably different.
5) Posts with links in them may not appear immediately.
Moderators