As promised in my post covering the pros and cons of pot and pans, I want to talk about the Saute’ pan and it’s function in the kitchen.
This pan has a flat bottom and straight sides. The flat bottom promotes even cooking while the straight sides help to circulate the air in the pan and keeps liquids from spilling over the side. It’s one of my top vital pans for the kitchen. It comes in several sizes, from 2 qt to 6 qt. I started with a 3 qt saute pan and later bought a 6 qt because the size of my family grew (literally grew as in got bigger with size of appetites, not number). Saute pans are heavy so I can’t just pick it up one-handed but in my book, quality trumps weight any day.
These pans come from many different manufactures however, I can’t speak about any of their quality except for All-Clad. They are my #1 choice and rank very high among home users and professionals alike. They are expensive and getting more so as technology gets better. So my advice would be to by the best you can afford and upgrade as you need.
I use the saute pan for almost every meal whether I am searing/browning meat, saute’ing vegetables, making sauces from the bits in the bottom of the pan or cooking my whole meal. I use this pan more than any pan in my repertoire. (Although the dutch oven, which we will talk about later, is moving up quickly).
