When buying saucepan sets, people look for value for money and good quality. Many buyers look for comfort in a brand name. They must judge whether the additional cost of their favorite brand name is worth the additional comfort level.
Are you looking at a saucepan set that has all the pieces you want? Or perhaps there’s a pan you didn’t really want. Sometimes, you can buy a set with a pan you wouldn’t have chosen, but now you’ve got it, you cannot do without it!
Many people look for the pans to heat evenly. When simmering, the bubbles should be created evenly across the bottom of the pan. There should not be “hot spots” that can lead to food over-cooking – perhaps burning – in some places while not cooking properly in other places. Stoves usually heat evenly – though there’s no law about that!
Even with expensive saucepan sets, surfaces can be scratched easily – and permanently – by metal cooking spoons. When you are cooking, you may only use wooden or plastic spoons. But what happens when a metal spoon-wielding guest – your mother-in-law, say – offers to cook?
Washability is also a factor in choosing your saucepan sets. The last thing you want near your newly acquired pots and pans is steel wool. Check, too, that the pans – especially their handles – can be washed safely in a dish washer. Ensure your pots do NOT have rivets that create dirt traps inside the pots – or even outside, come to that.
Design is critical.
Handles should be heat proof, either because of their material or by virtue of the design not transmitting much heat from the pan to the handle.
Handles should not be so heavy that an empty pan becomes unstable, either on or off the stove.
The buyer needs to check whether the sides of the pan are vertical. Such pans are better for boiling and frying. Otherwise the pan sides may be sloping: wider at the top. The latter pans are called sauciers and are better for stirring, whisking, reducing or any of the other sauce making processes.
Stacking and storing your saucepans should always be part of the design specification. I like to know where my pans are and am able to get to them easily!
Bottoms Up!
Copper-bottomed cookware conducts heat better and more evenly than other cookware material. It tends to eliminate hot spots and uneven cooking. Copper-bottomed pans also cool faster. This gives you, the cook, more control over the cooking process. The thicker the copper-bottoming, the more expensive the pan.