6 Types of Cooking Pans and Their Uses

Frying Pans & Skillets

Frying pans and skillets are shallow pans with flared sides and long handles. Skillets usually tend to come with lids and are a little bit deeper than frying pans. Skillets and frying pans are ideal for frying, searing and browning, while skillets with lids are great for maintaining heat and retaining moisture into food. You can cook almost anything in a frying pan or skillet through panfrying, sautéing, browning and many more cooking methods.

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Roasting Pans

A roasting pan is a heavy-duty, sturdy pan which is designed to roast chicken, beef, or turkey. It often comes with a flat or V-shaped rack that raises the meat, allowing for the fat to leak down into the bottom of the pan for easy basting. A V-shaped rack is helpful when roasting a piece of meat, because it makes it easier to keep the meat upright and steady as you turn it to roast. Flat racks tend to be easier to clean than V-shaped racks, because food is difficult to clean from the corners of a V-shaped rack. A flat rack is the best option if you're roasting chicken breasts or small vegetables.


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Woks & Stir-Fry Pans

Woks and stir-fry pans are best for making stir-fry foods such as chicken or beef .They heat food faster than most pans and require less oil, and it’s very easy to move food around in their rounded basins. Woks and stir-fry pans both have high, sloping sides and are deeper than a frying pan, but a wok has a very small and rounded bottom surface area to spread heat evenly up he sides, while a stir-fry pan is flat at the bottom with a wider surface. A stir-fry pan is better for cooking on an induction stove top than a wok. A wok may be harder to keep stable on an induction stove top due to its base being rounded.

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Saucepans

Saucepans are efficient for stewing, simmering, boiling water and reducing sauces. The saucepan is round in shape with high, straight sides, a long handle and a rigid fitting lid. A sauce pan's tall sides allow you to heat the food evenly with plently of space because of it's wide surface area.

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Grill Pans & Griddles

Grill pans and griddles often come square or rectangular in shape. Griddles have flat bottoms, and grill pans have raised ridges. Grill pans raise the meat away from the cooking juices and create black grill lines on the food, which is similar to the lines from an outdoor grill. However, the griddle’s flat surface is much easier to clean and is less likely to break delicate ingredients that might fall apart on the ridges of a grill pan. These pans are great for making tender meat, fish and vegetables.

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Sauté Pans

A sauté pan is similar to a skillet but it has straight, medium to high sides and a wide bottom surface area. This pan is great for sautéing and browning foods. It's tall sides are perfect for cooking roast vegetables and casseroles.

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