Cookware That Every Kitchen Needs:

While advertising may try to convince you that you need dozens of kitchen gadgets, cookware and other accessories, most efficient kitchens can get by with only 4-5 absolutely essential pieces of cookware. What is far more important than the quantity of cookware is the quality of cookware, which we will get into later. For the time being, listed below are the basic cookware items that every home kitchen should have:

Sauce Pan with Lid. They can range in size from 1.5 qt to 4 qt, we recommend a 2 or 3 qt version as a good all-around pan for making sauces, soups, vegetables, rice and much more. As your skill improves, you can add more shapes and sizes to better suit your cooking needs.

Fry Pan. The star of every kitchen, the fry pan will get more use than probably any other cookware. It is perfect for fast cooking with olive oil over high heat. The gently curved sides lend themselves to flipping, turning and manipulating foods easily and quickly. Because of the variety of foods you will prepare in your fry pan, we recommend that you have a non-stick and a stainless steel or aluminum pan. If money is an issue and you can only add one to your kitchen right now, choose a good non-stick fry pan like All-Clad. Not only will you use it all the time, but it will last for years to come.

Saute Pan with Lid. The sauté pan is designed for frying, searing and is also suited for preparing sauces and other dishes. The high sides are ideal for holding in liquids during cooking and can make preparing foods much easier.

Casserole or Stockpot with Lid. Casseroles run to about 4qt size while a stockpot might get as large as 8 qt. Ideally, a kitchen would have a variety of these sizes, but in order to keep your costs down, selecting something in the middle of that range might suit all of your needs at this point. Once again, as your cooking skill progresses, you can add pieces to your collection.

Materials:

As I mentioned before, the quality of the cookware is much more important than the quantity. Equally important is the material. Every material can run the full range of price and quality. Don’t be fooled into thinking that every stainless steel or aluminum pan is the same as any other. Your cookware is an investment. Period.  Don’t be put off by a high-quality pot or pan because you will literally be using it for years to come. If it is too expensive to do all at once, take your time and add to your collection gradually. We use All-Clad products in our kitchen exclusively (and no, we’re not getting paid to say that, we really like the product), but there are many other quality manufacturers around so do some shopping and choose a brand that you are comfortable with using.

Copper Cookware – copper makes a very efficient heat conductor. It is usually lined with something else like stainless steel or nickel. It can be very beautiful, but is costly and difficult to maintain because it scratches and oxidizes easily.

Aluminum Cookware – The most popular type of aluminum is hard-anodized, a process that makes the pot a charcoal gray. There are also cast aluminum and pressed aluminum. The main advantages to this cookware is it is light and is dishwasher safe. 

Cast Iron – Cast iron cookware is usually coated with some type of enamel. Creuset is a brand of cast iron you may have heard of before. It conducts the heat slowly and it great for browning, stewing, and slow cooking. One thing to remember with cast iron though is that it is usually quite heavy and can be hard for some cooks to work with. 

Stainless Steel – Very durable and resistant to denting and scratching. Very often the bottom of stainless steel cookware is lined with copper or aluminum to improve the heat conductivity. It is easy to clean and durable.

Non-Stick – A must for a good fry pan, non-stick cookware is easy to clean and perfect for cooking with less oil and butter.