What is a Saute Pan?
With the wide variety of frypans, woks, skillets, saucepans, and other cookware available, ever wish you could combine them into one? The saute pan comes close to doing just that!
A saute pan is essentially a cross between a frypan and a saucepan. It has a wide cooking surface for searing like a frypan, and deeper rims for liquids like a saucepan. This makes it great for both dry heat cooking and liquid cooking, allowing you to cook a wide variety of foods in one pan.
What is Dry Heat Cooking and Liquid Cooking?
The saute pan is designed for both dry heat and liquid cooking:
- Dry Heat Cooking: Includes sauteing, searing, pan frying, roasting, grilling, broiling, and more. Heat is transferred directly to the food without excess liquid. This method is essential for caramelizing and browning foods.
- Liquid Cooking: Involves cooking with water, wine, broth, or steam. Methods include boiling, simmering, braising, stewing, poaching, and steaming.
The Saute Pan Can Do (Almost!) Anything
A saute pan is perfect for sauteing, simmering, searing, braising, frying, boiling stews, soups, and reducing liquids for sauces. Most oven-safe saute pans are great for recipes that start on the stove and finish in the oven. Make frittatas, pasta, steak, cornbread, braised lamb, and more in a saute pan. Its versatility means you won’t need as many different cookware pieces, saving storage space and cutting down on dishwashing.
How Do I Identify a Saute Pan?
A saute pan typically has deep, straight rims, a large cooking surface, long handles, a helper handle, and a lid. These features make it a practical and versatile piece of cookware:
- Deep, straight rims: Keep liquids and ingredients securely in the pan, preventing spills.
- Large cooking surface: Fits more food, saving time and effort.
- Long handles and helper handles: Make it easier to move from stove to oven.
- Lid: Locks in heat and prevents excessive liquid evaporation.
Is a Saute Pan the Same as a Chef’s Pan?
A saute pan and a chef’s pan may look similar, but they are suited for different purposes. The chef’s pan has a deeper, sloped rim and a narrower base, making it ideal for evaporating liquids and creating sauces. However, the saute pan’s larger cooking surface makes it better for searing larger cuts of meat.
Saute Pan vs. Sauteuse Pan
The sauteuse pan has deeper rims, a large base, and two loop handles, making it perfect for stews, soups, searing, braising, and deep-frying. The lack of a long handle indicates it’s not designed for flipping foods.
Which Saute Pan Size is Right for Me?
Saute pans are available in sizes ranging from 1.8L to 6.6L. Consider the recipes you make, the size of your household, and how comfortable you are with heavier pans. A 2.8L pan is great for cooking for 1-3 people, while a larger 4.7L pan is ideal for family gatherings or batch cooking.
Choosing a Large Saute Pan
Benefits of a large saute pan:
- Larger cooking surface for more food
- Ideal for family-sized dishes, stews, soups, and braised meats
- Great for bigger families or parties
Negatives of a large saute pan:
- Takes longer to heat up
- Heavier and harder to maneuver
- Takes up more storage space
Choosing a Small Saute Pan
Benefits of a small saute pan:
- Heats up quickly
- Sufficient for smaller households
- Lighter and easier to store
Negatives of a small saute pan:
- Limits the types of recipes you can make
- Not suitable for large batches or meal prep
Which Saute Pan Material is Right For Me?
Saute pans come in a variety of materials, including stainless steel, aluminum with non-stick coating, and enameled cast iron. The material you choose affects how you cook and maintain your pan.
Stainless Steel Saute Pans
Great for boiling, reducing liquids, searing, and sauteing. Look for pans with a copper or aluminum core for even heat conduction.
Pros:
- Highly durable
- Quick response to temperature changes
- Even heat conduction
- Dishwasher-safe and compatible with metal utensils
What's the difference between a saucepan and a sauté pan?
The deep vertical sides of sauté pans are reminiscent of saucepans, making them ideal for stews, soups, pastas, and other sauce-heavy dishes. While the taller rims of saucepans and smaller cooking surface allow them to hold liquids better, the larger cooking surface of the sauté pan lets it cook more than just liquid-based dishes – braise meats, make pasta, sear meat, and more.
What is considered a sauté pan?
A sauté pan has vertical, deep rims for cooking liquids, a wide and flat cooking area for searing large pieces of meat, a long handle to keep hands away from heat as you cook, a helper handle for easy food transfer, and a lid to seal in heat and moisture.
What is the difference between a wok and a sauté pan?
Woks have sloping rims that create a wide opening with a narrow base. The shape of the wok makes shaking food easier than the sauté pan. Made for high heat cooking, the wok is great for flash-cooking foods, particularly for Asian cuisine like stir-fried dishes, fried rice, and noodle dishes. However, a wok is larger than a sauté pan, making it harder to store.
Why Shop for Sauté Pans at Everten?
We proudly stock sauté pans and chef pans designed and manufactured with the highest standards. Find sauté pans from popular brands such as Chasseur, Le Creuset, Scanpan, Swiss Diamond, Woll, and De Buyer on Everten. Our search function allows you to filter by color, size, or material, making online shopping easy. We also offer express shipping and an easy returns policy if you change your mind.
At Everten, we take pride in our excellent customer service. Our dedicated team is always ready to assist you over the phone, through emails, or via LiveChat. We love kitchen and homeware products, and if there’s a question we can’t answer, we’ll find it for you. Most importantly, we love to help our customers!
