I’m a hoarder by nature. I get pleasure out of acquiring as vast an array of pots and pans as possible, always telling myself that I’m going to use them regularly, that they really aren’t a waste of money. But, in all honesty, the only real use I get out of ninety percent of my pans is a purely aesthetic one. They’re like a necktie for my pot rack—and I never wear a tie.
The majority of the time, I find myself reaching for the same eight pans. I can’t think of a single dish that can’t be made using one of these, or a combination, and they’re all you’ll need to cook the recipes in this book. Here they are, the cornerstones of any well-stocked kitchen.
1. A 12-Inch Tri-Ply (Laminated) Straight-Sided Lidded Sauté Pan
A large skillet is the true workhorse of the kitchen. It’s perfect for rapidly browning large quantities of vegetables or meat. Pan-roasting a whole chicken? This is the pan of choice. Need to brown a pork tenderloin or a 3-rib beef roast? No problem. It’s also excellent for braising and for reducing sauces. It has a tight-fitting lid and is oven-safe, which means you can brown your short ribs, add the liquid, cover, and braise in the oven, then reduce the sauce on the stovetop and serve all out the same pan.
Why is tri-ply construction important? Stainless steel is heavy and can retain a lot of heat, but it’s slow conductor.
Aluminum is lightweight (and retains less heat per unit volume), but transfers heat really fast. Combine the two in a single pan by sandwiching the aluminum in the center, and
you’ve got a skillet that can retain heat for maximum browning and will distribute that heat evenly over its entire surface, eliminating hot and cold spots.
All-Clad is the benchmark for great tri-ply cookware, but it can be prohibitively expensive. In side-by-side tests, I’ve found that Tramontina-brand All-Clad knockoffs perform almost as well for every task, at about a third of the price.
The choice is a no-brainer.
2. A 10-Inch Cast-Iron Skillet
Nothing beats cast iron for searing a steak or a nice skin-on, bone-in chicken breast. I actually keep a collection of cast-iron skillets in all sizes so that I can do everything from frying a single egg and serving it directly from its tiny skillet to baking pies, but the one I use most is my 10-inch pan. It’s just the right size to sear a couple of steaks for me and the wife (I’ll sear in batches or use two pans and two burners if I’ve got more people to cook for, to maximize heat transfer to the steaks), it’s just the right size for corn bread, it’s a beautiful serving vessel. The possibilities are really limitless.
If you don’t have a well-seasoned cast-iron pan passed down by thoughtful grandparents, Lodge brand is the easiest to find. If you’re hunting at antique stores and flea markets, Griswold and Wagner are the best.
3. A 10-Inch Anodized Aluminum or Tri-Ply Nonstick Skillet
People will tell you that a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet that’s properly seasoned will be as slick as a true nonstick skillet. Heck, I’ve probably said the same thing myself.
Maybe even right here in this book. Well, here’s the sad news: that ain’t really true. Even the very best cast-iron skillets will never be as slick as a nonstick skillet. Any materials-science engineer can tell you that. Not only that, but unlike a cast-iron skillet, a nonstick pan can be light enough to maneuver easily when, say, rolling an omelet or flipping a couple of sunny-side-ups.
And that’s why a medium nonstick skillet is a must in your arsenal. It’s the best vessel for all kinds of egg cookery, from perfect golden omelets to fluffy scrambles to crisp-edged fried eggs. Brunches would be a much messier, more hectic, and altogether less pleasurable affair in my apartment without one.
The only downside to nonstick? You can’t heat it past 500°F or so, as the coating will begin to vaporize, sending toxic fumes into the room. Newer materials are far safer, but even with them, you’re at a disadvantage: it’s tough to form a good, meaty crust on food cooked on a nonstick surface, and you’re limited by the types of utensils you can use.
Metal will scratch off the coating. Stick with wood, nylon, or silicone utensils made specifically for working with nonstick pans.
Here’s the thing with nonstick: unlike other pans, these aren’t going to last you your whole life, which means that spending a boatload of money on one is not a wise move.
You want a midrange pan: something with enough heft that it retains heat fairly well, but not one that you’ll be so scared of scratching that it ends up sitting in the corner of kitchen cabinet. I currently have a Cuisinart stainless steel nonstick skillet, but I’m not heavily committed to it. You should
never become committed to a nonstick pan.
4. A 2½- to 3-Quart Saucier
The difference between a saucepan and a saucier is subtle but important. Saucepans have straight sides; sauciers are designed to keep their contents easily whiskable and stirrable, so they have gently sloped sides. This is a major advantage when cooking. It means that you don’t have to try to shove a round spoon or whisk into a square corner.
I use a saucier for small batches of soup or stew, for cooking short pasta shapes (you don’t need a big pot for this
— s e e here), for reheating leftovers, for making cheese sauces or sausage gravy, for simmering tomato sauce or sweating a few vegetables, and even for one-chicken-sized batches of stock.
As with a nonstick skillet, any brand will do as long as it’s thick, heavy, oven-safe, and, preferably, tri-ply. I use the Farberware Millennium Clad Stainless Steel Saucier. It has a great lip for pouring and a nice deep shape. I’ve been in a deep relationship with it for about eight years, with not a single complaint from either party. That’s more than I can say about any other relationship I’ve been in.
5. A 12- to 14-Inch Carbon Steel Wok
You’re forgiven for not owning a wok if you grew up with a Western kitchen. But I’m here to try and convince you that everybody, not just those who like to stir-fry, can benefit from a good large wok. There’s no better vessel for deep-frying, steaming, or smoking. For more info on buying and caring for a wok, see here.
6. A 6- to 8-Quart Enameled Cast-Iron Dutch Oven
My enameled Dutch oven is the first pot I owned that made me think to myself, Wow, you’ve really got something special here. It’s a blue oval Le Creuset number, and it’s still alive and kicking today, working at least as well as it did the day my mom bought it for me fifteen years ago. A good enameled Dutch oven will stick around for life.
Because of its weight and heft, it’s the ideal vessel for slow braises, in or out of the oven. See, all that heavy material takes a long time to heat up or cool down. This means that even if your oven is cycling on and off with its temperature making sine waves that stretch a good 25 degrees hotter and cooler than the number on the dial, the interior of your pot will show barely any fluctuations at all. This is a good thing for dependability and predictability in recipes.
Le Creuset sets the standard for quality when it comes to enameled cast iron, but it’s also insanely pricey. If you buy one, you’ll cherish it forever, and only partly because you’ve spent so much money on it (they’re kinda like kids in that way). Lodge makes a perfectly serviceable version for about a third of the price, but buyer beware: I’ve seen a couple chip and crack in my day.
7. A 3- to 4-Gallon Stockpot
The big daddy of pots: this is the guy you pull out when you want to make pasta for twenty, when you’ve got a half dozen lobsters to boil, or when you’ve got several carcasses’ worth of chicken bones sitting in the freezer just waiting to be turned into awesome stock. Until you own a big stockpot, you will never realize how much you needed
one. The good news here is that when it comes to stockpots, the absolute cheapest will do. You’ll never be doing anything in here aside from boiling or simmering vast amounts of liquid, so all you need is something that will hold water and stay level. You shouldn’t have to spend more than $40 or so on one.
8. Something to Roast In
Decent roasting pans are expensive; there’s no two ways about it. Just like with skillets, the best roasting pans are made with layered metals—stainless steel sandwiched with an aluminum core. When choosing a roasting pan, I look for one that I can use directly on a burner on the stovetop as well as in the oven, something with comfortable handles, and something that is thick enough that it won’t warp under the heat of the oven or the weight of a turkey. My Calphalon pan is large and sturdy, and it has a nice U-shaped rack for holding large roasts. It’s about $140, and I use it about twice a year, when I cook big roasts on holidays.
Want to know the honest truth? I could easily live without it. What I couldn’t live without is a heavy-duty aluminum rimmed baking sheet with a wire cooling rack set on it. It’s lighter and cheaper, stores right in the oven, and has the added advantage that it’s shallow, making it much easier for hot air to circulate around the food that’s cooking. It’s what I use for roasting the other 363 days of the year. Mine has seen countless roast chickens, and it is warped and bent beyond belief, but it still does its job just as well as it ever did. I bought it for about $10 at a cooking supply store, along with a rack that cost another $5 or $6. (You can get
these pans online as well—they’re called half sheet pans.
Nordic Ware makes a fine one for about $15.)