. They are also easy to find and can be passed down through generations, making them a timeless kitchen staple.
The difference between a sauté pan and a skillet is a subtle but important one, and it all comes down to shape. A sauté pan, from the French verb meaning to jump (sauter), has a wide, flat bottom and relatively tall, vertical sides. A skillet, on the other hand, has sides that flare outward at an angle. But the real question is, when should you use each one, and do you really need both?
Once you've decided which frying pan material you need, the next step is to figure out the pan size. Frying pans come in different sizes, with 8-, 10-, and 12-inch being the most popular sizes across the industry. The smaller the pan size is, the faster it heats up and evenly distributes the heat, but the faster it will lose its heat. While it may seem like a larger pan size is always better, some foods, such as eggs, benefit from cooking in a smaller, more contained space. We have listed the most common commercial frying pan sizes below and what they are best for:
Stainless steel frying pans are light but durable. By itself, stainless steel is not a particularly good conductor of heat, so some pans have a better heat conductor such as aluminum sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel. For example, the Carl Schmidt Pro-X 3 Pc Set Frying Pan Stainless Steel Cookware Non-Stick, which also has a non-stick coating. It's heavier than a single layer pan, but it cooks the food more evenly.