Best Saucepan

Hey All,
I am looking to buy a new Saucepan. So which type of saucepan should I buy for my own single use?

The best is cast iron, of course.  Non-toxic and non-stick once seasoned.  Stainless steel is also non toxic but harder to get seasoned in my experience.

I would not recommend raw cast iron for a sauce pan. In sauce pan you want to prepare sauces or soups and the cast iron will be getting eroded quickly - especially from acidic sauces. You will not be able to leave sauce overnight without tainting the food with awful iron flavor. Get an enamelled saucepan (Staub makes one) or stainless or ceramic from Spain or Portugal.

Mike,

I wasn’t aware that stainless could be seasoned. Does it last longer than a single meal? I thought that was the whole point of stainless, that it wouldn’t get stained from something like polymerized oil.

Oh, good point Cristobal, I didn't register that Mohit said "sauce" pan...  I agree on the enameled versions and I'm sure you're right about the ceramic as well.

Scott, at least for a frying pan, it sure seemed like our stainless one got less sticky after a lot of use.  If we had scrubbed it until it was shiny again it might have taken off the seasoning, not sure.

The best pan is one that you buy from a charity thrift shop. If it's stainless, it needs a metal "disk" bonded to the bottom to even out the heat.

Or even better, if such a pan was diverted from the metal recycling bin because someone couldn't be bothered to scrub out a little burned on stuff on Granny's beautiful Lagostina pans. (True story.)

Everything tastes just a little bit better cooked in quality pans that were free / nearly free and saved from thoughtless destruction by a passing permie. Crazy but true. My 2c.

Mike,

Definitely - the stainless pan is not a non stick device, but a lot depends on the thickness of the sandwitched bottom. For stainless, my favorite brand is French Matfer Bourgeat. I have their 12" brazier and when heated, it is reasonably non sticking, but stainless I like to keep for cooking rice, desserts, ice-cream, anything that is required to be perfect. For soups and sauces - enamelled cast iron, and for abusing on the open fire, in the coals, frying - I love the regular cast iron. I also have ceramic dishes, but I have to rebuild my oven first so they will fit and slowly cook stews overnight after the bread is baked.