Essentials: Pans, Frying Pans, Woks

The Essentials

Concluding the very basics to kitchen cookware that I started last week with pots, today we’re going to look at pans.

As I said in the post about pots, when we finally settled on what we wanted to buy, it took us a while to decide to spend the money and save up the required purchase price. But, we decided that we would never have to purchase cookware again since it has a lifetime warranty, and that made the price tag easier to bear.

What we decided on was Calphalon stainless steel cookware. I have since fallen in love with cooking with stainless steel and would never go back to any other kind of standard cookware again. What I long for now is to be able to use the stainless steel on a gas stove so that I fully leverage all of its potential .

The set of Calphalon that we bought came with three kinds of pans.

8″ omelette pan, 10″ omelette pan, and a 3-quart covered saute pan

I really love the depth of the saute pan, and I use the 8″ and 10″ pans for everything from scrambled eggs to frying hamburger – I don’t limit myself to just omelettes.

The Extras

Now, to add to my standard set, I also have the following:

I have this set of cast iron skillets.

I have 6″, 8″, two 10″, and a 10″ with a grill base.

I LOVE these pans. I will admit that I don’t use the 6″ pan often. I would consider this set complete without it. I use the 10″ pans ALL THE TIME. I use them for grilled cheese, casseroles, sauces, fried chicken, fried fish, doughnuts — you name it, I use these pans to cook it. I would be lost without these pans.

The one that has the grill bottom makes phenomenal steaks. I’ve also used it to grill eggplant and other vegetables. My biggest problem with it is that it’s harder to clean than a flat surface.

Finally, for my pans, I have this wok.

It’s huge – and I can make stir fry with enough left over for extras for my entire family. I used to have to use the 3-quart covered Calphalon skillet in order to make stir fry, and it was just harder to use becayse the pan didn’t create a deep well with high sides.

So, that rounds up the pans, skillets and woks. The next Essentials post will deal with bakeware.

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