Hi, my name is Tim Mussig.
I am the current Executive Director at J.B. Prince Company.
And today I'm gonna show you
how to pick the pan that's right for you.
When looking for a pan,
you should really ask yourself a few questions.
What do you like to cook?
How many people you're cooking for
and probably the capacity of your stove or your oven.
[upbeat music]
One of the more common or popular shapes
in cookware are fry pans.
A fry pan typically has an elongated handle,
a significant surface area for you to seer your food in
and generally flares out.
The flaring is what allows for some steam to escape
for browning of food.
It's also used when you wanna toss or manipulate product
maybe without using a utensil, with a kind of
simple flick of the wrist.
Now keep in mind that size is important
depending on what it is that you're cooking.
In most situations, you don't wanna overcrowd a pan
and you also don't wanna have too much negative space.
Volume is key.
In this pan that's here in front of me,
that's about an eight inch pan.
Typically used for maybe a single,
possibly two smaller appetizer portions of a protein
or something to that effect.
The one next to me would probably comfortably fit
maybe three portions of a protein.
You can cook identical foods in them, but again,
it's in relation to the volume
what it is that you need to cook.
In some situations, it might even be ideal to have
two smaller pans, rather than one large pan.
If you aren't able to meet the pan's actual capacity,
you could wind up for a situation
where that section of the pan becomes too hot,
and you could get some scorch or some discoloration.
There are also regional differences
in the shape of a fry pan.
The one here is kind of more typical of what you would see
I guess, in American households and American kitchens.
The one on this side here is Lyonnaise
or a shape that's inspired from Lyon.
Less surface area on the bottom,
the diameter of the actual cooking surface
is slightly smaller and it flares out quite a bit more.
The reason this is is so when you're browning product
you have a lot more of moisture releasing,
aiding the browning process.
If you were searing exclusively,
this might be a great benefit to have that additional flair.
Whereas this one, if you look at the outside diameter
and the base are pretty close,
you get a little bit more bang for your buck
in terms of surface area.
And this one, you get added benefit
of more moisture coming off of the pan.
[upbeat music]
In front of us, we have two saucepans.
They're great for heating up sauces or any kind of liquids.
In the restaurant world, there tend to be
a lot on the smaller side because we're heating up sauces
a la Minute.
But at home you may want something a little bit bigger.
Another thing to consider when you're electing cookware
is the output of the burners in your home.
You generally wanna match the diameter
of your pan as close as possibly to the size of the burner.
The cost of the material may come into play.
So if you want it to have something
or not necessarily spend as much money on it
don't feel too bad about it.
You may wanna shift those dollars into fry pans
where the material becomes a little bit more relevant
in terms of cooking or contact with food.
For me, a saute pan is an interesting combination
between a traditional sauce pan and a fry pan.
Unlike a fry pan, the sides on a saute pan
are much straighter, almost meet the base at 90 degrees
and when adding liquids are stirring
it'll contain the liquid and you'll have
less of a mess on your hands.
The saute pan here is gonna be beneficial
when you wanna concentrate liquids
or evaporate flavor and the sauce pan should be better
at preserving or keeping those liquids
and maintaining temperature.
In this particular case, we're gonna use a saute pan.
The increased surface area allows you to put liquid in there
and help you concentrate flavors
and evaporate liquid more rapidly.
A lot more steam coming
off of the saute pan, meaning that there's
the reduction has begun to happen a lot more quickly.
Things are boiling in there.
Oh, the other distinct difference
between a fry pan and a sauce pan is that
you have similar diameters in the base and the top.
It gives you maximum surface area and points of contact
when you're actually frying something.
When you're shopping for or looking for a pan,
these are things you consider.
Do you tend to do more dry cooking with less liquids?
Do you wanna have something
that's a little bit more of a hybrid?
These are all important factors in getting
the most effective product for your needs.
Another feature or add benefit when using a saute pan
is for you to be able to use a lid.
Remember you're being able to add moisture to this pan
in a greater volume than you normally would with a fry pan.
So using a lid is perfectly acceptable.
Another tip for when you're shopping or looking
for cookware is if you can find
a common diameter amongst pans.
What that will allow you to do is pick a lid
that somewhat universal.
The French refer to as a Saucier
or rounded bottom sauce pan.
It has a unique feature where it's kind of a rounded shape
between where the base and the size of the pan meet.
It allows you to get a tool, like a whisk,
insert it into that corner there to make sure
that you're getting maximum contact with the pan
and moving product around efficiently.
The benefit of this is in other situations
where you're working in a traditional sauce pan,
you may leave some product behind
and may not efficiently get scraped out of the corners
and you can get some things that burn
or scorch in that process.
Here, we have a Rondeau.
It's kind of like the big brother to the saute pan.
It's for situations where at need
a little bit more capacity than a saute pan,
or when you're not gonna be maybe be shaking or manipulating
or tossing the food as much.
Great for shallow frying,
great for searing and great for braising.
This pan would be used in situations
where you may start with a sear and need to add a liquid
and then a lid.
If you tend to be cooking a lot,
need to cook in a certain volume and like braises or stews,
this could be a good option that gets you in between
half stock pot and a larger fry pan.
You'll often hear the term skillet,
usually associated with cast iron.
In essence, it's a variation or another name for a fry pan
or they fall into the same category or family.
This particular one has some interesting features
cause cast iron skillets tend to be relatively heavy.
They have an added helper handle
on the opposite side for lifting.
Handles also tend to be a little bit on the shorter side
and cast pieces because they are integral to the actual pan.
And these ones have some unique pour spouts on each side
'cause they tend to be slightly deeper than fry pans
with a little bit less of an ability to toss
simply 'cause they're too heavy to do that with any way.
The next pan I have here is a Crepe pan.
Very, very, very specific.
Not something you necessarily need to add to your repertoire
unless you love to make crepes, a fancy pancake if you will.
I think some French guy's gonna beat me up
for saying that.
You could use it for other things as well.
Store-bought tortillas that you maybe wanna heat up,
this might be a good option for you.
Another very specific piece of kitchen cookware is a wok.
Wok cooking is prevalent in Chinese or Asian cooking.
The heat that you need to adequately heat a wok
is something that's typically not available to in your home.
You may wanna try and adapt some of those recipes
or techniques to your standard fry pans.
Wok burners have a tremendous amount of control
in the variants of heat.
I've seen them cranked up as high as
where they're actually almost hitting the edges,
but it's the ability to get it super, super hot
that makes it as effective as it is.
Wok cooking is also very active.
When people cook with woks or people who do it well
are moving food around constantly.
And the utensils they use inside this round shape
accommodate that movement.
In front of me is another variation of a wok
that looks like it's been manipulated
to work on a home stove.
The bottom seems to be a little bit flatter.
Wooden handles on each side to accommodate heat transfer
and it has this helper handle on the opposite side
for when you may need the added lifting power.
There's some discoloration along the side here.
That discoloration looks like it was formed
by kind of overheating and too much oil
that was built up here.
It's actually the signs of probably a bad break in process
on a carbon steel wok.
This wok that we have in front of us
has a nonstick coating inside,
something I would never recommend.
Wok cooking is meant to be done at a really high heat.
Non-stick coatings are really not friendly to high heat.
The marriage here just doesn't make sense.
Just 'cause it's made that way,
doesn't mean it's good, or you should necessarily buy it.
We've covered, but a few different shapes and sizes
in the cookware world.
There's many more.
This was just an introduction to what we thought
was necessary and practical to get you started.
Certain cookware is very task specific and costly.
So make sure you're picking pans or cookware
that's right for your needs.
If you're not going to be making things in a tagine,
you don't need to buy one.
Another thing to look at and consider
when you're looking at pans is how handles are attached.
This particular pan they're riveted.
A rivet is basically a mechanical fastener of sorts.
They work well because they allow you
to have a good sturdy, strong handle.
And additionally, they allow manufacturers to mix metals.
A lot of pans will transfer heat into the handle.
And sometimes the manufacturer will intentionally pick
a material that's less conductive to heat.
So it'll keep you a little bit safer.
With that being said, or I always recommend
that you use some kind of protective thing,
like a dry towel or an oven mitt.
This particular handle is a flat construction.
It's something that I actually prefer.
It gives you a firm grip and allows the pan
to stay firm in your hand,
without tweaking to the left of the right
when you pick it up.
Another little added, interesting feature,
they punch out a little bit of material here,
which again reduces the heat transfer into the handle.
This pitch like this is really kind of beneficial
for saving you a little space.
If you were to crank it down to here
just it would probably come out to here
which professional situations it makes a big difference.
Another way of fixing handles to pans is with welds.
Welds are actually traditionally stronger than rivets.
They generally have a smoother finished on the inside,
making it more sanitary.
There's no place for kind of bits to accumulate.
You should always look for a pan
that has a significant amount of welds
to make sure it's fixed on properly and stays there.
I've seen as few as one, which I don't recommend.
This particular handle, is a hollow stainless steel handle.
Not really my favorite shape because it's rounded.
It did do something that's interesting
that I haven't seen a lot of rounded handle pans
that they've put a small indentation on the front side
and the backside to give you a place
for your thumb to firmly rest.
So when you are tossing or manipulating food,
it feels a lot more secure on your hand.
Another technique used to fix handles
is with a mechanical fastener, like a screw or a bolt.
You tend to see this in cost-effective or budget cookware.
I simply don't recommend it.
If that screw loosens or fails,
there's a high likelihood you're gonna hurt yourself.
[upbeat music]
another thing that you will see from time to time
is one piece construction
where there's no fasteners for the handle.
This is actually a carbon steel construction
and you notice it's completely seamless and fixed
all the way through with one piece.
Also notice this one is done in a flat style as well.
Again, making it a little bit more comfortable or less prone
to tweaking in your hand.
There's probably a higher likelihood of a heat transfer
from the body into the handle
in these one piece constructions,
hence the cutout and the vent.
But again, keep in mind,
no matter what cookware you're using
you should always protect your hands
with some kind of dry side towel or oven mitt.
Some handles are not necessarily friendly to heat.
A lot of inexpensive pans have plastic handles
which you never wanna put into the oven.
Some handles like this one actually
have inserts or covers that fit over the handle,
which may be appropriate for the oven,
but in the case of open flames or if it comes exposed
to an actual gas stove, it could melt
and it could be kind of gross and toxic.
Because stainless steel by itself
tends to be a relatively poor conductor of heat,
it generally married to some other materials.
They can do it with a sandwich bottom construction
where they actually fuse or add a disk
to the bottom of the pan.
This is a sandwich of stainless steel, aluminum,
and then the stainless steel body itself.
That brings more heat to the base of the pan
and gives you better heat retention.
They are higher heat at the cooking surface.
The other is a clad construction
and what that basically means is that
there is this identical material from the base
all the way through the top.
Nothing's fused or added.
This is actually five layers of material
that alter between aluminum and stainless
and there's also some ferous or magnetic material in here
to make this induction friendly already.
The material used in this pan is the same thickness
and same density from top to bottom.
There's no variation.
In a sandwich bottom, the thickness is just here
at the base, but that density of aluminum
or that thickness allows for great heat retention
and also lowers the cost of a pan.
So it's kind of an economic or good value point
for a quality stainless piece.
The one thing that you have to be cautious of
in sandwich bottom construction is if you begin to send heat
beyond the disk, you may experience some scorch
between that disc and the actual pan itself.
So be careful to control your flame.
If you elect to buy the style of cookware.
When you're talking about clad cookware,
they'll generally offer millimeters and thicknesses.
A rule of thumb is that most quality clad
stainless steel cookware starts at around 2.5 millimeters.
Picking it up and feeling it are good indicators
of the quality, cause weight and density
are an important factor in that.
A pan that's heavier or has more mass
is a better retainer of heat,
one of the reasons why people love cast iron so much.
The more dense the pan is, or the heavier it is,
it generally takes longer to heat and on the opposite side,
longer to cool.
When it's time to clean up,
you have to let it come down in temperature.
[upbeat music]
In front of me I have an aluminum fry pan.
It's around eight inches.
Really, really common in the restaurant industry.
Aluminum is a good option for value.
It has great conductor of heat.
it's also lightweight.
Its cons are, it tends to be reactive.
It can spot and at high heat, it'll misshapen.
This pan is great for someone who is just starting out
and looking for a good value and performance.
Aluminum pans are made in a variety of shapes and sizes.
You'll see stock pots fry pans, rondeaus,
is a process called anodizing,
which is a basically a hardening of aluminum.
They'll add a black color to the aluminum.
It'll make it less reactive and also add a little bit
of a better heat exchange because of that dark coloration.
Anodizing is probably worth
the extra investment for the longevity.
In my experience, if you take care of your cookware,
it should treat you well for an extended period of time.
[upbeat music]
Stainless steel is fantastic
for mostly reasons related to maintenance.
It's extremely durable.
It resists rust and it's very easy to maintain.
Its downsides is that it's typically
not a great conductor of heat.
In most cases of better cookware, it's usually blended
with another material to enhance its thermal conductivity
and make it a better vessel for cooking in.
So what would happen in terms of poor heat conduction
is that it's very spotty and blotchy
so you won't have a good even heating surface.
So there could be a situation that you put a protein
into their pan, and there may be a side
that is actually cooking faster than the other side,
which is obviously something that you don't want.
You're always looking for even
and consistent heat when cooking.
Stainless steel is the universal cookware in the sense
that anything can go in it, it's not reactive.
Stainless steel is the most dishwasher friendly
of all the materials.
Keep in mind that stainless steel
doesn't mean that it will never rust.
[upbeat music]
One very important point that you always have to remember
in any cookware that you use,
before you clean it, let it cool.
And if you can, you should wash
all of your cookware by hand.
If you could towel dry or remove
as much moisture as humanly possible from your pan,
that's also a great idea.
Any water on any metallic surface
for an extended period of time,
you run the risk of rust.
The one on my left hand side
is one that has never been used before,
out of the box.
The blackened one has been broken in
over an extended period of time.
Makes the pan naturally non-stick.
Carbon steel pans are very well-suited for searing.
Carbon steel pans tend to come to heat faster
than cast iron pans, which are thicker material.
In addition, the break-in period for carbon steel pans
is generally quicker because the surface is smoother.
The simplest way to force a patina or to get the pan
to be blackened is by warming it and rubbing it
with very, very thin coats of oil.
I like to do the inside and the outside
to make sure the coloration is even and then
put it in a low oven at about 250 degrees
for extended period of time.
Remove it, let it cool and repeat.
The more you use it, that color will also come with it.
Carbon steel pans are generally very affordable.
For the durability and longevity, they fall somewhere
in between the price of aluminum and stainless steel.
There is a certain amount of maintenance that is involved.
If you tend to be the kind of person
that wants to get in and out of the kitchen fast,
this may not be the right cookware for you.
And I'm about to break one of my own cardinal rules
to demonstrate something.
We're gonna saute some onions and add some acid to it.
What probably will happen is that there will be actually
some of the pan patina we'll pull into the onions
and discolor them.
Squeezing some lemon in here.
This pan is pretty well broken in.
It has a pretty strong patina,
but I just squeezed literally, probably the equivalent
of about a teaspoon.
It's starting to actually strip out some of the patina
in this area here.
I'm 100% sure I'll have a pretty gross and metallic taste.
The acid is not friendly to the kind of polymerization
of the patina that you've built up on this pan
and it actually kind of breaks it down.
You're stripping it away with the acid in essence.
The lesson here is if you're going to be making pan sauces
and where you're gonna be using acids or kind of reductions,
carbon steel is probably not for you.
[upbeat music]
In front of me, we have a cast iron skillet or fry pan.
Probably one of the more iconic materials in cookware.
As a material, it's really not a great conductor of heat
but because it's generally made so dense and so thick,
allows you to develop and hold heat
for an extended period of time
which makes it great for searing.
It's also a great option if you wanna go
from stove to oven and this also reactive with acidic foods.
The maintenance of cast iron is similar carbon steel.
It is definitely not dishwasher friendly.
If it's not dried and handled appropriately,
it will tend to rust.
Because of its durability, it tends to last
an extremely long time.
If you were to buy a brand new cast iron pan
you can do it very, very inexpensively.
There are certain brands in cast iron
that have become highly collectible.
I think lodge pieces from a certain period.
There's another company called Erie and Griswold
that will go for hundreds of dollars at auction.
[upbeat music]
So in front of us, we have a cast iron enamel Dutch oven.
And in essence, what that is, is a cast piece
that's been coated with a ceramic or an enamel coating.
It allows you to cook with reactive foods.
It reduces the amount of rust that could occur in the pan.
And just a little bit more user-friendly.
The coating doesn't necessarily make it around
this entire lip here.
This is actually exposed cast iron.
So if you were to put it into a dishwasher,
you would wind up having rust.
They put these dimples on here.
So water returns back into what it is that you're cooking.
Cast iron enamel is super easy to maintain.
All you have to do is let it cool.
Use a mild detergent and wipe it out.
This particular cast iron enamel piece
happens to be a Dutch oven,
but it is available in different shapes and sizes.
[upbeat music]
Copper cookware is a classic material
for making pots and pans.
You see it often hanging
in very, very classic French restaurants.
It gets hot fast and it keeps heat even,
which is essential to cooking.
Its downsides are that it is highly reactive
and very, very difficult to maintain
and lastly, super expensive.
I think this is probably like 180 bucks.
Just to give you an idea of the degree of maintenance
associated with copper,
it doesn't stay shiny and beautiful for very long.
These are just fingerprints.
This was brand new out of the bag.
It will get a really strange tinge in color
if you don't polish it and take care of it.
You see that it's lined with stainless
and that material is necessary in order to make the pan
usable and not reactive, if you will.
And then there's the copper exterior.
Once you have copper that has a stainless steel lining
there's no limitations to really what you can cook in it.
If you were looking to outfit your kitchen with copper
and have a deep collection,
it could cost you thousands of dollars.
[upbeat music]
Non-stick is really a reference to a coating,
not necessarily the pan's overall material.
Non-stick surfaces are common in cookware.
In this country, they're often referred to as Teflon,
which it could be a brand name for that coating.
In recent times, there's been some bad press
related to Teflon.
To address this, manufacturers have started
to remove the harmful chemicals from non-stick,
making it safe again.
It's highly recommended if you've purchased
your pan before the year 2013,
that you should replace it with one of the newer versions
where the chemicals have been addressed and removed.
Nonstick cookware has also become popular
for people who have health concerns and need to use
a limited amount of fat in their cooking.
Most non-stick pans are generally priced reasonably.
They're usually adhere to aluminum pans.
You can see them on stainless as well.
I wouldn't recommend making a big investment
into a non-stick pan simply because
the coatings do tend to fail
after an extended period of time.
I personally use non-stick for one thing in my house
and that's to cook eggs.
In front of me, I have two pans.
One with a nonstick coating and one
that's a traditional straight stainless steel.
We're going to add an equal amount of fat to each
to try and demonstrate the benefits of a non-stick pan
when frying an egg.
You'll notice the stainless, if I just even
kind of do a light tilt, even with fat,
it's really not going anywhere.
Nonstick with like a simple little nudge
from a high spot here, will start
to move around pretty easily.
Even after I loosen it, it's kind of stuck in place.
I think I'm gonna do some little dangerous here
with the non-stick.
I'm already able to flip it, no utensils
and no extra manipulation.
This bad boy, it ain't going anywhere.
He's stuck on there.
That's really the benefit of the non-stick pan,
especially when you're cooking eggs.
It tends to be not so durable under high heat
and not last for particularly long period of time
and it is not recommended for the dishwasher
as it will deteriorate from the detergents in there too.
[upbeat music]
Ceramic is used for substitute for a nonstick coating.
It became extremely popular when people had health concerns
related to the chemicals in nonstick or Teflon.
Is rated at a higher temperature,
so you can bring it up to a higher temperature
but it's non-stick properties tend to be not as good.
So think they're on or about what nonstick costs,
maybe a little bit more.
I literally had one for a week.
It sucked and I never used it one again.
So literally that's my, my synopsis of ceramic.
[upbeat music]
Price of cookware is influenced
by a variety of different areas.
It could be where it's made.
It could be the construction.
It could be the material.
It's very very important to make sure
you have a good understanding of all of those things
before you make an investment.
Make sure you do your research
and you don't overpay or overbuy.
You wanna buy pans that are appropriate for your needs
in your home or in your kitchen.
It's not necessarily advantageous to always buy
the most expensive cookware.
Hopefully the information today
will help you pick your next piece of cookware.
[upbeat music ends]
