You can create a huge selection of cuisines and different types of recipes by filling your kitchen cabinets with these different types of pans. Some are more essential than others, but they are all extremely useful depending on how adventurous you want to be in the kitchen.
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Casserole Pan
A highly versatile pan that has shorter sides than a Dutch oven is a casserole pan. This can allow you to create larger portions of delicious food that is cooked over a low heat over time. Casserole pans are also often seen with their own lid.
This is an ideal addition to any kitchen because it allows you to keep food at a steady temperature.
Brazier
Also known as a rondo pot, braziers are wide pans with short sides that are perfect for braising all kinds of ingredients. They are normally made out of stainless steel, which makes them a little lighter than their ceramic counterparts.
Frying Pan
Widely seen as a kitchen essential, the frying pan needs very little introduction. They have a long handle and curved edges that makes it a highly versatile pan to cook with. Making sauces, pan-frying foods, and sauteing food can all be done in a high quality frying pan.
Dutch Oven
This is another ideal pan for preparing large quantities of soups, stews, sauces, and much more. A Dutch oven is normally made using cast-iron, and is excellent at retaining its heat. This is part of what makes this pan ideal for feeding a crowd.
Not only that, but Dutch ovens can be used to bake bread, boil large batches of pasta, and deep fry food.
Saute Pan
Otherwise known as a sautoir, a saute pan has a very similar shape to the frying pan. However, there are tall sides which are straight instead of curved, and saute pans will always come with a lid, whereas frying pans do not always have a lid.
Wok
This is perfect for stir fries, deep frying food, and even preparing steamed dumplings. Woks have small bottoms and wide sides which make it easy to keep track of vegetables, noodles, or whatever you choose to prepare in this pan.
Roasting Pan
A roasting pan will make thanksgiving and Christmas a whole lot easier. Prepare your turkey, lasagna, cuts of meat, and vegetables using these pans. They are similar to casserole pans with a rectangular shape, and often look like baking pans with sides.
Saucepan
With a slightly smaller pan size than most braziers, saucepans tend to have longer handles which makes them easier to warm up soups, prepare rice and quinoa, and prepare sauces like the name suggests.
Larger saucepans have a handle on either side, which makes it considerably easier to drain certain foods when needed.
Skillet
These are widely seen made out of cast iron, and have a reputation for being incredibly heavy duty. You can place a skillet in the oven, use it like a frying pan on the stovetop, or even take it camping to cook food on a campfire.
Griddle
A griddle is perfect for cooking larger quantities of food which need to be seared or fried. If the weather isn’t great, or if you don’t have a backyard area to set up a grill, you can achieve a similar experience using a griddle.
Baking Pans
Of course, there are many different shapes and sizes of baking pans which have their own range of uses. These include bread pans, sheet pans for cookies and savory foods, and pie pans.
Paella Pan
These are perfect for preparing and cooking paella thanks to the wide base which allows the rice to cook gradually while absorbing the liquid. Any kind of rice dish would be easy to prepare with a paella pan.
Stock Pot
Whether you want to boil water, cook homemade stock, steam vegetables, or even prepare large amounts of soup, a stock pot is an ideal choice. These pans have a large capacity and are perfect for feeding a crowd when necessary.
Egg Pan
These are normally compared to frying pans that are a smaller scale, but egg pans are normally the perfect size for frying one or two eggs at a time without having to get a whole frying pan dirty.
Crepe Pan
Ideal for pancakes of all shapes and sizes, you can use a crepe pan to prepare interesting flavored crepes with a variety of ingredients. They have very shallow sides and a wide base which makes these pans perfect for making crepes.
Summary
There are so many pans to choose from, that it can be difficult to decide what to start with. However, the great thing about this is that you can experiment with different dishes and cooking processes that you might not have known about before.
