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Whilst being traditionally used to heat sauces, today’s sauce pans are designed to steam vegetables, cook rice and pasta, heat soups and much more. Because of the sheer number of cooking applications saucepans can be used for, it is strongly urged that you buy several differing sizes of high quality sauce pans. There are a number of key factors to look at when making the decision to buy a saucepan set. These include the exterior and interior construction, cooking surface, quality of handles and size of the sauce pans.

Different saucepans are preferred for different types of recipes, one’s budget, a preference in brand and the cooking surface being used. Copper, aluminium, cast iron, non stick and stainless steel saucepans are amongst the most popular types. For serious cooks, only the greatest will do, but for everyday purposes many mid-range sauce pans work exceptionally well. Sauce pans manufactured from copper are the most expensive. This is due to their excellent conductivity. Saucepans constructed from a good conductor such as copper heat quickly and more evenly, with no heat spots present on the cooking surface. In addition to their high cost, copper sauce pans are also harder to keep shiny and clean.

Despite steel being a poor conductor of heat, it makes an ideal cooking surface as it is nonporous, non reactive, non deadly and long lasting. It browns food excellently, a crucial component for developing flavour. These saucepans are ideal for everyday use as they are inexpensive and long lasting. Non stick sauce pans have a number of elements that are both advantageous and disadvantageous. On the plus side, they require little or no cooking oil and are easy to clean. On the downside, there have been several negative media reports about Teflon non stick finishes. If heated past 350C, the surface can release poisonous vapours into the food. Today’s non stick surfaces are a lot more durable and hence safer. Scanpan